Route repetition and route retracing: effects of cognitive aging

Retracing a recently traveled route is a frequent navigation task when learning novel routes or exploring unfamiliar environments. In the present study we utilized virtual environments technology to investigate age-related differences in repeating and retracing a learned route. In the training phase of the experiment participants were guided along a route consisting of multiple intersections each featuring one unique landmark. In the subsequent test phase, they were guided along short sections of the route and asked to indicate overall travel direction (repetition or retracing), the direction required to continue along the route, and the next landmark they would encounter. Results demonstrate age-related deficits in all three tasks. More specifically, in contrast to younger participants, the older participants had greater problems during route retracing than during route repetition. While route repetition can be solved with egocentric response or route strategies, successfully retracing a route requires allocentric processing. The age-related deficits in route retracing are discussed in the context of impaired allocentric processing and shift from allocentric to egocentric navigation strategies as a consequence of age-related hippocampal degeneration. - See more at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnagi.2012.00007/abstract#sthash.xK4Htsfy.dpu

Maladaptive bias for extrahippocampal navigation strategies in aging humans.

Efficient spatial navigation requires not only accurate spatial knowledge but also the selection of appropriate strategies. Using a novel paradigm that allowed us to distinguish between beacon, associative cue, and place strategies, we investigated the effects of cognitive aging on the selection and adoption of navigation strategies in humans. Participants were required to rejoin a previously learned route encountered from an unfamiliar direction. Successful performance required the use of an allocentric place strategy, which was increasingly observed in young participants over six experimental sessions. In contrast, older participants, who were able to recall the route when approaching intersections from the same direction as during encoding, failed to use the correct place strategy when approaching intersections from novel directions. Instead, they continuously used a beacon strategy and showed no evidence of changing their behavior across the six sessions. Given that this bias was already apparent in the first experimental session, the inability to adopt the correct place strategy is not related to an inability to switch from a firmly established response strategy to an allocentric place strategy. Rather, and in line with previous research, age-related deficits in allocentric processing result in shifts in preferred navigation strategies and an overall bias for response strategies. The specific preference for a beacon strategy is discussed in the context of a possible dissociation between beacon-based and associative-cue-based response learning in the striatum, with the latter being more sensitive to age-related changes

Social control in online communities of consumption: a framework for community management

Online communities of consumption (OCCs) represent highly diverse groups of consumers whose interests are not always aligned. Social control in OCCs aims to effectively manage problems arising from this heterogeneity. Extant literature on social control in OCCs is fragmented as some studies focus on the principles of social control, while others focus on the implementation. Moreover, the domain is undertheorized. This article integrates the disparate literature on social control in OCCs providing a first unified conceptualization of the topic. The authors conceptualize social control as a system, or configuration, of moderation practices. Moderation practices are executed during interactions operating under different governance structures (market, hierarchy, and clan) and serving different purposes (interaction initiation, maintenance, and termination). From this conceptualization, important areas of future research emerge and research questions are developed. The framework also serves as a community management tool for OCC managers, enabling the diagnosis of social control problems and the elaboration of strategies and tactics to address them

Are Deicing Salts Necessary to Promote Scaling in Concrete?

International audienceThe main purpose of the present study is to investigate the role of the material parameters such as permeability, thermal diffusivity, and pore size distribution on the mechanical behavior of cementitious structures submitted to frost action, such as surface scaling. An experimental device, in which a cement paste specimen is exposed to freezing-thawing cycles under a thermal gradient, has been developed. The experimental results show that under high thermal gradient (up to 1.5°C/mm), skin damage can occur without a saline layer in contact with the frozen surface. This can be explained and quantified in the framework of poromechanics. The model is based on the coupling between liquid-ice crystal thermodynamic equilibrium, liquid water transport, thermal conduction, and elastic properties of the different phases that form the saturated porous material. It eventually predicts that a less permeable sample is more susceptible to damage by surface defacement, which explains the observed experimental result

The Quest for Stability: the macro view

On September 3-4, 2009 SUERF and Utrecht University School of Economicsorganized the Colloquium "The Quest for Stability" in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The papers included in this SUERF Study are based on contributions to the Colloquium.asset prices, bubbles, financial institutions, global recession, interest rates, liquidity, monetary policy, regulation, stability, supervision.

Field-Driven Transitions in the Dipolar Pyrochlore Antiferromagnet Gd2_2Ti2_2O7_7

We present a mean-field theory for magnetic field driven transitions in dipolar coupled gadolinium titanate Gd$_2$Ti$_2$O$_7$ pyrochlore system. Low temperature neutron scattering yields a phase that can be regarded as a 8 sublattice antiferromagnet, in which long-ranged ordered moments and fluctuating moments coexist. Our theory gives parameter regions where such a phase is realized, and predicts several other phases, with transitions amongst them driven by magnetic field as well as temperature. We find several instances of {\em local} disorder parameters describing the transitions.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. v2: longer version with 2 add.fig., to appear in PR

Velocity field computation in vibrated granular media using an optical flow based multiscale image analysis method

International audienceAn image analysis method has been developed in order to compute the velocity field of a granular medium (sand grains, mean diameter 600 µm) submitted to different kinds of mechanical stresses. The differential method based on optical flow conservation consists in describing a dense motion field with vectors associated to each pixel. A multiscale, coarse-to-fine, analytical approach through tailor sized windows yields the best compromise between accuracy and robustness of the results, while enabling an acceptable computation time. The corresponding algorithmis presented and its validation discussed through different tests. The results of the validation tests of the proposed approach show that the method is satisfactory when attributing specific values to parameters in association with the size of the image analysis window. An application in the case of vibrated sand has been studied. An instrumented laboratory device provides sinusoidal vibrations and enables external optical observations of sand motion in 3D transparent boxes. At 50 Hz, by increasing the relative acceleration , the onset and development of two convective rolls can be observed. An ultra fast camera records the grain avalanches, and several pairs of images are analysed by the proposed method. The vertical velocity profiles are deduced and allow to precisely quantify the dimensions of the fluidized region as a function of

Variabilité à long terme des peuplements de poissons : résultats provenant de rivières françaises et ouest africaines

La variabilité à long terme de 18 peuplements de poissons a été étudiée dans des rivières françaises et ouest africaines. Les principaux résultats sont les suivants : 1) le coefficient de variation (CV) de la richesse spécifique, le CV de l'abondance totale et le CV moyen des espèces constitutives du peuplement augmentent avec la durée de l'étude; 2) selon la classification proposée par GROSSMAN et al. (1990) basée sur le CV moyen de l'abondance des espèces, tous les peuplements étudiés rentrent dans la catégorie des peuplements à fortes fluctuations interannuelles. Cependant certaines populations (les salmonidés en Bretagne par exemple) présentent une faible variabilité de leur densité; 3) dans le Rhône, les peuplements dont les populations manifestent une grande variabilité interannuelle sont ceux présentant le plus grand taux de renouvellement en espèces. Ce résultat est en accord avec l'hypothèse de HORWITZ (1978, "extermination hypothesis"). (Résumé d'auteur