89 research outputs found
Environmental guidelines for new and existing piggeries
These guidelines apply to the management of Western Australia piggeries in Western Australia, including intensive Growing pigs under intensive conditions where the and extensive operations, straw-based housing and animals spend their entire life cycle indoors, is an combinations of these (otherwise referred to as semi- important part of the Western Australian and intensive housing).https://researchlibrary.agric.wa.gov.au/bulletins/1037/thumbnail.jp
On the perceptual aesthetics of interactive objects
In this paper we measured the aesthetics of interactive objects (IOs), which are three-dimensional physical artefacts that exhibit autonomous behaviour when handled.
The aim of the research was threefold: firstly, to investigate whether aesthetic preference for distinctive objects' structures emerges in compound stimulation; secondly, to explore whether there exists aesthetic preference for distinctive objects’ behaviours; and lastly, to test whether there exists aesthetic preference for specific combinations of objects' structures and behaviours. The following variables were systematically manipulated: 1) IOs’ contour (rounded vs. angular); 2) IOs’ size (small vs. large); 3) IOs’ surface texture (rough vs. smooth); and 4) IOs’ behaviour (Lighting, Sounding, Vibrating, and Quiescent). Results show that behaviour was the dominant factor: it influenced aesthetics more than any other characteristic; Vibrating IOs were preferred over Lighting and Sounding IOs, supporting the importance of haptic processing in aesthetics. Results did not confirm the size and smoothness effects previously reported in vision and touch respectively, which suggests that for the aesthetics preference that emerges in isolated conditions may be different in compound stimulation. Finally, results corroborate the smooth curvature effect
Manipulation of Pre-Target Activity on the Right Frontal Eye Field Enhances Conscious Visual Perception in Humans
The right Frontal Eye Field (FEF) is a region of the human brain, which has been consistently involved in visuo-spatial attention and access to consciousness. Nonetheless, the extent of this cortical site’s ability to influence specific aspects of visual performance remains debated. We hereby manipulated pre-target activity on the right FEF and explored its influence on the detection and categorization of low-contrast near-threshold visual stimuli. Our data show that pre-target frontal neurostimulation has the potential when used alone to induce enhancements of conscious visual detection. More interestingly, when FEF stimulation was combined with visuo-spatial cues, improvements remained present only for trials in which the cue correctly predicted the location of the subsequent target. Our data provide evidence for the causal role of the right FEF pre-target activity in the modulation of human conscious vision and reveal the dependence of such neurostimulatory effects on the state of activity set up by cue validity in the dorsal attentional orienting network
Saccade Generation by the Frontal Eye Fields in Rhesus Monkeys Is Separable from Visual Detection and Bottom-Up Attention Shift
The frontal eye fields (FEF), originally identified as an oculomotor cortex, have also been implicated in perceptual functions, such as constructing a visual saliency map and shifting visual attention. Further dissecting the area’s role in the transformation from visual input to oculomotor command has been difficult because of spatial confounding between stimuli and responses and consequently between intermediate cognitive processes, such as attention shift and saccade preparation. Here we developed two tasks in which the visual stimulus and the saccade response were dissociated in space (the extended memory-guided saccade task), and bottom-up attention shift and saccade target selection were independent (the four-alternative delayed saccade task). Reversible inactivation of the FEF in rhesus monkeys disrupted, as expected, contralateral memory-guided saccades, but visual detection was demonstrated to be intact at the same field. Moreover, saccade behavior was impaired when a bottom-up shift of attention was not a prerequisite for saccade target selection, indicating that the inactivation effect was independent of the previously reported dysfunctions in bottom-up attention control. These findings underscore the motor aspect of the area’s functions, especially in situations where saccades are generated by internal cognitive processes, including visual short-term memory and long-term associative memory
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
The Ocean Carbon States Database: a proof-of-concept application of cluster analysis in the ocean carbon cycle
In this paper, we present a database of the basic regimes of the carbon cycle
in the ocean, the ocean carbon states, as obtained using a data
mining/pattern recognition technique in observation-based as well as model
data. The goal of this study is to establish a new data analysis methodology,
test it and assess its utility in providing more insights into the regional
and temporal variability of the marine carbon cycle. This is important as
advanced data mining techniques are becoming widely used in climate and Earth
sciences and in particular in studies of the global carbon cycle, where the
interaction of physical and biogeochemical drivers confounds our ability to
accurately describe, understand, and predict CO2 concentrations and
their changes in the major planetary carbon reservoirs. In this
proof-of-concept study, we focus on using well-understood data that are based
on observations, as well as model results from the NASA Goddard Institute for
Space Studies (GISS) climate model. Our analysis shows that ocean carbon
states are associated with the subtropical–subpolar gyre during the colder
months of the year and the tropics during the warmer season in the North
Atlantic basin. Conversely, in the Southern Ocean, the ocean carbon states
can be associated with the subtropical and Antarctic convergence zones in the
warmer season and the coastal Antarctic divergence zone in the colder season.
With respect to model evaluation, we find that the GISS model reproduces the
cold and warm season regimes more skillfully in the North Atlantic than in
the Southern Ocean and matches the observed seasonality better than the
spatial distribution of the regimes. Finally, the ocean carbon states provide
useful information in the model error attribution. Model air–sea CO2
flux biases in the North Atlantic stem from wind speed and salinity biases in
the subpolar region and nutrient and wind speed biases in the subtropics and
tropics. Nutrient biases are shown to be most important in the Southern Ocean
flux bias. All data and analysis scripts are available at
https://data.giss.nasa.gov/oceans/carbonstates/ (DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.996891)
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