The role of the right temporoparietal junction in perceptual conflict: detection or resolution?

The right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) is a polysensory cortical area that plays a key role in perception and awareness. Neuroimaging evidence shows activation of rTPJ in intersensory and sensorimotor conflict situations, but it remains unclear whether this activity reflects detection or resolution of such conflicts. To address this question, we manipulated the relationship between touch and vision using the so-called mirror-box illusion. Participants' hands lay on either side of a mirror, which occluded their left hand and reflected their right hand, but created the illusion that they were looking directly at their left hand. The experimenter simultaneously touched either the middle (D3) or the ring finger (D4) of each hand. Participants judged, which finger was touched on their occluded left hand. The visual stimulus corresponding to the touch on the right hand was therefore either congruent (same finger as touch) or incongruent (different finger from touch) with the task-relevant touch on the left hand. Single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was delivered to the rTPJ immediately after touch. Accuracy in localizing the left touch was worse for D4 than for D3, particularly when visual stimulation was incongruent. However, following TMS, accuracy improved selectively for D4 in incongruent trials, suggesting that the effects of the conflicting visual information were reduced. These findings suggest a role of rTPJ in detecting, rather than resolving, intersensory conflict

Comparison of the Airtraq® and Truview® laryngoscopes to the Macintosh laryngoscope for use by Advanced Paramedics in easy and simulated difficult intubation in manikins

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Paramedics are frequently required to perform tracheal intubation, a potentially life-saving manoeuvre in severely ill patients, in the prehospital setting. However, direct laryngoscopy is often more difficult in this environment, and failed tracheal intubation constitutes an important cause of morbidity. Novel indirect laryngoscopes, such as the Airtraq^®and Truview^®laryngoscopes may reduce this risk.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We compared the efficacy of these devices to the Macintosh laryngoscope when used by 21 Paramedics proficient in direct laryngoscopy, in a randomized, controlled, manikin study. Following brief didactic instruction with the Airtraq^®and Truview^®laryngoscopes, each participant took turns performing laryngoscopy and intubation with each device, in an easy intubation scenario and following placement of a hard cervical collar, in a SimMan^®manikin.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The Airtraq^®reduced the number of optimization manoeuvres and reduced the potential for dental trauma when compared to the Macintosh, in both the normal and simulated difficult intubation scenarios. In contrast, the Truview^®increased the duration of intubation attempts, and required a greater number of optimization manoeuvres, compared to both the Macintosh and Airtraq^®devices.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The Airtraq^®laryngoscope performed more favourably than the Macintosh and Truview^®devices when used by Paramedics in this manikin study. Further studies are required to extend these findings to the clinical setting.</p

Comparison of the Airtraq® and Truview® laryngoscopes to the Macintosh laryngoscope for use by Advanced Paramedics in easy and simulated difficult intubation in manikins

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Paramedics are frequently required to perform tracheal intubation, a potentially life-saving manoeuvre in severely ill patients, in the prehospital setting. However, direct laryngoscopy is often more difficult in this environment, and failed tracheal intubation constitutes an important cause of morbidity. Novel indirect laryngoscopes, such as the Airtraq^®and Truview^®laryngoscopes may reduce this risk.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We compared the efficacy of these devices to the Macintosh laryngoscope when used by 21 Paramedics proficient in direct laryngoscopy, in a randomized, controlled, manikin study. Following brief didactic instruction with the Airtraq^®and Truview^®laryngoscopes, each participant took turns performing laryngoscopy and intubation with each device, in an easy intubation scenario and following placement of a hard cervical collar, in a SimMan^®manikin.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The Airtraq^®reduced the number of optimization manoeuvres and reduced the potential for dental trauma when compared to the Macintosh, in both the normal and simulated difficult intubation scenarios. In contrast, the Truview^®increased the duration of intubation attempts, and required a greater number of optimization manoeuvres, compared to both the Macintosh and Airtraq^®devices.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The Airtraq^®laryngoscope performed more favourably than the Macintosh and Truview^®devices when used by Paramedics in this manikin study. Further studies are required to extend these findings to the clinical setting.</p

Sustainability, epistemology, ecocentric business and marketing strategy:ideology, reality and vision

This conceptual article examines the relationship between marketing and sustainability through the dual lenses of anthropocentric and ecocentric epistemology. Using the current anthropocentric epistemology and its associated dominant social paradigm, corporate ecological sustainability in commercial practice and business school research and teaching is difficult to achieve. However, adopting an ecocentric epistemology enables the development of an alternative business and marketing approach that places equal importance on nature, the planet, and ecological sustainability as the source of human and other species' well-being, as well as the source of all products and services. This article examines ecocentric, transformational business, and marketing strategies epistemologically, conceptually and practically and thereby proposes six ecocentric, transformational, strategic marketing universal premises as part of a vision of and solution to current global un-sustainability. Finally, this article outlines several opportunities for management practice and further research

Predicting disease-associated substitution of a single amino acid by analyzing residue interactions

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The rapid accumulation of data on non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (nsSNPs, also called SAPs) should allow us to further our understanding of the underlying disease-associated mechanisms. Here, we use complex networks to study the role of an amino acid in both local and global structures and determine the extent to which disease-associated and polymorphic SAPs differ in terms of their interactions to other residues.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found that SAPs can be well characterized by network topological features. Mutations are probably disease-associated when they occur at a site with a high centrality value and/or high degree value in a protein structure network. We also discovered that study of the neighboring residues around a mutation site can help to determine whether the mutation is disease-related or not. We compiled a dataset from the Swiss-Prot variant pages and constructed a model to predict disease-associated SAPs based on the random forest algorithm. The values of total accuracy and MCC were 83.0% and 0.64, respectively, as determined by 5-fold cross-validation. With an independent dataset, our model achieved a total accuracy of 80.8% and MCC of 0.59, respectively.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The satisfactory performance suggests that network topological features can be used as quantification measures to determine the importance of a site on a protein, and this approach can complement existing methods for prediction of disease-associated SAPs. Moreover, the use of this method in SAP studies would help to determine the underlying linkage between SAPs and diseases through extensive investigation of mutual interactions between residues.</p

Multiple Multilocus DNA Barcodes from the Plastid Genome Discriminate Plant Species Equally Well

A universal barcode system for land plants would be a valuable resource, with potential utility in fields as diverse as ecology, floristics, law enforcement and industry. However, the application of plant barcoding has been constrained by a lack of consensus regarding the most variable and technically practical DNA region(s). We compared eight candidate plant barcoding regions from the plastome and one from the mitochondrial genome for how well they discriminated the monophyly of 92 species in 32 diverse genera of land plants (N = 251 samples). The plastid markers comprise portions of five coding (rpoB, rpoC1, rbcL, matK and 23S rDNA) and three non-coding (trnH-psbA, atpF–atpH, and psbK–psbI) loci. Our survey included several taxonomically complex groups, and in all cases we examined multiple populations and species. The regions differed in their ability to discriminate species, and in ease of retrieval, in terms of amplification and sequencing success. Single locus resolution ranged from 7% (23S rDNA) to 59% (trnH-psbA) of species with well-supported monophyly. Sequence recovery rates were related primarily to amplification success (85–100% for plastid loci), with matK requiring the greatest effort to achieve reasonable recovery (88% using 10 primer pairs). Several loci (matK, psbK–psbI, trnH-psbA) were problematic for generating fully bidirectional sequences. Setting aside technical issues related to amplification and sequencing, combining the more variable plastid markers provided clear benefits for resolving species, although with diminishing returns, as all combinations assessed using four to seven regions had only marginally different success rates (69–71%; values that were approached by several two- and three-region combinations). This performance plateau may indicate fundamental upper limits on the precision of species discrimination that is possible with DNA barcoding systems that include moderate numbers of plastid markers. Resolution to the contentious debate on plant barcoding should therefore involve increased attention to practical issues related to the ease of sequence recovery, global alignability, and marker redundancy in multilocus plant DNA barcoding systems

Cortical and cerebellar activation induced by reflexive and voluntary saccades

Reflexive saccades are driven by visual stimulation whereas voluntary saccades require volitional control. Behavioral and lesional studies suggest that there are two separate mechanisms involved in the generation of these two types of saccades. This study investigated differences in cerebral and cerebellar activation between reflexive and self-paced voluntary saccadic eye movements using functional magnetic resonance imaging. In two experiments (whole brain and cerebellum) using the same paradigm, differences in brain activations induced by reflexive and self-paced voluntary saccades were assessed. Direct comparison of the activation patterns showed that the frontal eye fields, parietal eye field, the motion-sensitive area (MT/V5), the precuneus (V6), and the angular and the cingulate gyri were more activated in reflexive saccades than in voluntary saccades. No significant difference in activation was found in the cerebellum. Our results suggest that the alleged separate mechanisms for saccadic control of reflexive and self-paced voluntary are mainly observed in cerebral rather than cerebellar areas

New approaches to the study of human brain networks underlying spatial attention and related processes

Cognitive processes, such as spatial attention, are thought to rely on extended networks in the human brain. Both clinical data from lesioned patients and fMRI data acquired when healthy subjects perform particular cognitive tasks typically implicate a wide expanse of potentially contributing areas, rather than just a single brain area. Conversely, evidence from more targeted interventions, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) or invasive microstimulation of the brain, or selective study of patients with highly focal brain damage, can sometimes indicate that a single brain area may make a key contribution to a particular cognitive process. But this in turn raises questions about how such a brain area may interface with other interconnected areas within a more extended network to support cognitive processes. Here, we provide a brief overview of new approaches that seek to characterise the causal role of particular brain areas within networks of several interacting areas, by measuring the effects of manipulations for a targeted area on function in remote interconnected areas. In human participants, these approaches include concurrent TMS-fMRI and TMS-EEG, as well as combination of the focal lesion method in selected patients with fMRI and/or EEG measures of the functional impact from the lesion on interconnected intact brain areas. Such approaches shed new light on how frontal cortex and parietal cortex modulate sensory areas in the service of attention and cognition, for the normal and damaged human brain