Development of multisensory spatial integration and perception in humans

Previous studies have shown that adults respond faster and more reliably to bimodal compared to unimodal localization cues. The current study investigated for the first time the development of audiovisual (A‐V) integration in spatial localization behavior in infants between 1 and 10 months of age. We observed infants’ head and eye movements in response to auditory, visual, or both kinds of stimuli presented either 25° or 45° to the right or left of midline. Infants under 8 months of age intermittently showed response latencies significantly faster toward audiovisual targets than toward either auditory or visual targets alone They did so, however, without exhibiting a reliable violation of the Race Model, suggesting that probability summation alone could explain the faster bimodal response. In contrast, infants between 8 and 10 months of age exhibited bimodal response latencies significantly faster than unimodal latencies for both eccentricity conditions and their latencies violated the Race Model at 25° eccentricity. In addition to this main finding, we found age‐dependent eccentricity and modality effects on response latencies. Together, these findings suggest that audiovisual integration emerges late in the first year of life and are consistent with neurophysiological findings from multisensory sites in the superior colliculus of infant monkeys showing that multisensory enhancement of responsiveness is not present at birth but emerges later in life

Development of multisensory spatial integration and perception in humans

Previous studies have shown that adults respond faster and more reliably to bimodal compared to unimodal localization cues. The current study investigated for the first time the development of audiovisual (A‐V) integration in spatial localization behavior in infants between 1 and 10 months of age. We observed infants’ head and eye movements in response to auditory, visual, or both kinds of stimuli presented either 25° or 45° to the right or left of midline. Infants under 8 months of age intermittently showed response latencies significantly faster toward audiovisual targets than toward either auditory or visual targets alone They did so, however, without exhibiting a reliable violation of the Race Model, suggesting that probability summation alone could explain the faster bimodal response. In contrast, infants between 8 and 10 months of age exhibited bimodal response latencies significantly faster than unimodal latencies for both eccentricity conditions and their latencies violated the Race Model at 25° eccentricity. In addition to this main finding, we found age‐dependent eccentricity and modality effects on response latencies. Together, these findings suggest that audiovisual integration emerges late in the first year of life and are consistent with neurophysiological findings from multisensory sites in the superior colliculus of infant monkeys showing that multisensory enhancement of responsiveness is not present at birth but emerges later in life

807-2 Effect of Age on Left Ventricular Diastolic Filling Patterns During Orthostatic Stress

Although numerous studies have demonstrated reduced early diastolic left ventricular (LV) peak filling velocity IE) and accentuated late filling velocity (A) with advancing age in the supine position, the effect of orthostatic stress on age-associated diastolic filling patterns is unknown. Accordingly, 30 healthy normotensive volunteers ages 19 to 90 years from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging underwent sequential Doppler echocardiography after 3 minutes each in the supine, seated, and standing positions. In the overall sample, standing was accompanied by an increase in heart rate (HR) of 8.8±1.7 beats/min, and decreases in E(20.6±2.7cm/sl. A 150±2.7cm/s)and LV diastolic dimension (LVDD) (7.8±0.8mm), x±SEM, each p<0.001 versus supine values. Systolic blood pressure (SBP) and atrial filling fraction (AFF) were unaffected by posture. Correlation coefficients versus age for relevant Doppler and hemodynamic variables are shown.EAE/AAFFHRSBPLVDDSupine-0.58†0.80†-0.78†0.84†0.010.56†-0.14Sit-0.360.77†-0.83†0.78†-0.040.37*-0.07Stand-0.240.60†-0.69†0.71†-0.320.47†0.09ΔSupine → Stand0.53†-0.46†0.56†-0.17-0.61†0.220.40**p<005†p<001Thus, orthostatic stress abolishes the reduction of E and attenuates the exaggerated A observed with advancing age in the supine position. probably because of the blunted standing-induced HR increase in older subjects. However, the supine age-associated increase in AFF is unaffected by orthostasis

Rapid growth of HFC-227ea (1,1,1,2,3,3,3-Heptafluoropropane) in the atmosphere

We report the first measurements of 1,1,1,2,3,3,3-heptafluoropropane (HFC-227ea), a substitute for ozone depleting compounds, in remote regions of the atmosphere and present evidence for its rapid growth. Observed mixing ratios ranged from below 0.01 ppt in deep firn air to 0.59 ppt in the northern mid-latitudinal upper troposphere. Firn air samples collected in Greenland were used to reconstruct a history of atmospheric abundance. Year-on-year increases were deduced, with acceleration in the growth rate from 0.026 ppt per year in 2000 to 0.057 ppt per year in 2007. Upper tropospheric air samples provide evidence for a continuing growth until late 2009. Fur- thermore we calculated a stratospheric lifetime of 370 years from measurements of air samples collected on board high altitude aircraft and balloons. Emission estimates were determined from the reconstructed atmospheric trend and suggest that current "bottom-up" estimates of global emissions for 2005 are too high by more than a factor of three

Transduction by Phi Bb-1, a Bacteriophage of Borrelia Burgdorferi

We previously described a bacteriophage of the Lyme disease agent Borrelia burgdorferi designated phi BB-1. This phage packages the host complement of the 32-kb circular plasmids (cp32s), a group of homologous molecules found throughout the genus Borrelia. To demonstrate the ability of phi BB-1 to package and transduce DNA, a kanamycin resistance cassette was inserted into a cloned fragment of phage DNA, and the resulting construct was transformed into B. burgdorferi CA-11.2A cells. The kan cassette recombined into a resident cp32 and was stably maintained. The cp32 containing the kan cassette was packaged by phi BB-1 released from this B. burgdorferi strain. phi BB-1 has been used to transduce this antibiotic resistance marker into naive CA-11.2A cells, as well as two other strains of B. burgdorferi. This is the first direct evidence of a mechanism for lateral gene transfer in B. burgdorferi

GRB 091127: The cooling break race on magnetic fuel

Using high-quality, broad-band afterglow data for GRB 091127, we investigate the validity of the synchrotron fireball model for gamma-ray bursts, and infer physical parameters of the ultra-relativistic outflow. We used multi-wavelength follow-up observations obtained with GROND and the XRT onboard the Swift satellite. The resulting afterglow light curve is of excellent accuracy, and the spectral energy distribution is well-sampled over 5 decades in energy. These data present one of the most comprehensive observing campaigns for a single GRB afterglow and allow us to test several proposed emission models and outflow characteristics in unprecedented detail. Both the multi-color light curve and the broad-band SED of the afterglow of GRB 091127 show evidence of a cooling break moving from high to lower energies. The early light curve is well described by a broken power-law, where the initial decay in the optical/NIR wavelength range is considerably flatter than at X-rays. Detailed fitting of the time-resolved SED shows that the break is very smooth with a sharpness index of 2.2 +- 0.2, and evolves towards lower frequencies as a power-law with index -1.23 +- 0.06. These are the first accurate and contemporaneous measurements of both the sharpness of the spectral break and its time evolution. The measured evolution of the cooling break (nu_c propto t^-1.2) is not consistent with the predictions of the standard model, wherein nu_c propto t^-0.5 is expected. A possible explanation for the observed behavior is a time dependence of the microphysical parameters, in particular the fraction of the total energy in the magnetic field epsilon_B. This conclusion provides further evidence that the standard fireball model is too simplistic, and time-dependent micro-physical parameters may be required to model the growing number of well-sampled afterglow light curves.Comment: accepted to A&A, 13 pages, 5 figure

Psychological States Underlying Excellent Performance in Sport: Toward an Integrated Model of Flow and Clutch States

This study investigated the psychological states underlying excellent performance in 26 athletes (Mage = 29 years, SD = 7.7) across a range of sports (team, net/wall, sprint, endurance, adventure) and standards (world class to recreational). Participants were primarily interviewed on average 4 days after excellent performances. The data were analyzed thematically. Distinct states of flow and clutch were reported, each of which occurred through separate contexts and processes, while athletes also transitioned between states during performance. These findings extend current knowledge of the psychology of excellent performance and are discussed in terms of implications for future research and applied practice

Predictors of Improved Pain, Quality of Life, and Physical Function after Surgical Treatment of Lumbar Spinal Stenosis

Introduction: Degenerative lumbar stenosis is common in adults and is frequently managed by surgical intervention after non-operative measures fail to relieve pain. Limited evidence-based information regarding optimal selection of patients for surgery exists. Current reform in healthcare policy has sparked significant interest in comparative effectiveness research with the goal of optimizing treatment strategies for common conditions such as degenerative lumbar stenosis. The purpose of this study is to quantify the effectiveness of surgical treatment of lumbar stenosis and to identify patient predictors of greatest improvement using patient reported measures of pain, physical function and quality of life. Methods: A retrospective study evaluated 229 adult patients who underwent decompression with or without posterior lumbar fusion for treatment of lumbar stenosis over a two year time period. Patient reported outcomes were measured using the SF36 health survey. 146 patients had 6 month follow-up and 106 patients had one year follow-up. Variations in scores of the SF36 pain, mental component summary (MCS), and physical component summary (PCS) subscales were analyzed by multivariate linear regression analysis. Results: At 6-12 months post-surgery, patients reported an improvement of 8 points in average pain (32.3 to 40.4), physical function (28.6 to 36.9), and PCS (29.0 to 36.9) subscales of the SF36. There was a 6 point average improvement in MCS scores (41.8 to 48.10). Greater post-operative pain was significantly associated with smoking (p In regards to improvements in quality of life, older age (p Conclusion: In general, surgical treatment for lumbar stenosis improves patient pain, quality of life, and physical function as indicated by substantial improvement in all subscales of the SF36 health survey. Predictive factors associated with poor pain relief after surgery include smoking, diabetes, the presence of instrumentation, and re-operation within a 12 month time period. Higher MCS scores are seen in older patients and those with an increase in physical function post-operatively. Predictive factors for poor MCS scores include revision surgery and mental health diagnosis. No specific predictors of PCS score were identified, most likely due to the complicated nature of the patient population with lumbar spinal stenosis. Further work is necessary to determine the ideal surgical candidate

Regioselective generation and reactivity control of subnanometric platinum clusters in zeolites for high-temperature catalysis

[EN] Subnanometric metal species (single atoms and clusters) have been demonstrated to be unique compared with their nanoparticulate counterparts. However, the poor stabilization of subnanometric metal species towards sintering at high temperature (>500 degrees C) under oxidative or reductive reaction conditions limits their catalytic application. Zeolites can serve as an ideal support to stabilize subnanometric metal catalysts, but it is challenging to localize subnanometric metal species on specific sites and modulate their reactivity. We have achieved a very high preference for localization of highly stable subnanometric Pt and PtSn clusters in the sinusoidal channels of purely siliceous MFI zeolite, as revealed by atomically resolved electron microscopy combining high-angle annular dark-field and integrated differential phase contrast imaging techniques. These catalysts show very high stability, selectivity and activity for the industrially important dehydrogenation of propane to form propylene. This stabilization strategy could be extended to other crystalline porous materials.This work has been supported by the European Union through the European Research Council (grant ERC-AdG-2014-671093, SynCatMatch) and the Spanish government through the Severo Ochoa Programme (SEV-2016-0683). L.L. thanks ITQ for providing a contract. The authors also thank the Microscopy Service of UPV for the TEM and STEM measurements. The XAS measurements were carried out in CLAESS beamline at the ALBA synchrotron. HR STEM measurements were performed at DME-UCA in Cadiz University with financial support from FEDER/MINECO (MAT2017-87579-R and MAT2016-81118-P). A relevant patent application (European patent application No. 19382024.8) has been presented. C.W.L. thanks CAPES (Science without Frontiers-Process no. 13191/13-6) for a predoctoral fellowship.Liu, L.; Lopez-Haro, M.; Lopes, CW.; Li, C.; Concepción Heydorn, P.; Simonelli, L.; Calvino, JJ.... (2019). Regioselective generation and reactivity control of subnanometric platinum clusters in zeolites for high-temperature catalysis. Nature Materials. 18(8):866-875. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-019-0412-6S86687518

Blunted ventral striatal responses to anticipated rewards foreshadow problematic drug use in novelty-seeking adolescents

Novelty-seeking tendencies in adolescents may promote innovation as well as problematic impulsive behaviour, including drug abuse. Previous research has not clarified whether neural hyper- or hypo-responsiveness to anticipated rewards promotes vulnerability in these individuals. Here we use a longitudinal design to track 144 novelty-seeking adolescents at age 14 and 16 to determine whether neural activity in response to anticipated rewards predicts problematic drug use. We find that diminished BOLD activity in mesolimbic (ventral striatal and midbrain) and prefrontal cortical (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) regions during reward anticipation at age 14 predicts problematic drug use at age 16. Lower psychometric conscientiousness and steeper discounting of future rewards at age 14 also predicts problematic drug use at age 16, but the neural responses independently predict more variance than psychometric measures. Together, these findings suggest that diminished neural responses to anticipated rewards in novelty-seeking adolescents may increase vulnerability to future problematic drug use