Socioeconomic status and neural processing of a go/no-go task in preschoolers: an assessment of the P3b

While it is well established that lower socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with poorer executive functioning (EF), how SES relates to the neural processing of EF in childhood remains largely unexplored. We examined how household income and parent education related to amplitudes of the P3b, an event-related potential component, during one EF task. We assessed the P3b, indexing inhibition and attention allocation processes, given the importance of these skills for academic success. Children aged 4.5-5.5 years completed a go/no-task, which assesses inhibitory control and attention, while recording EEG. The P3b was assessed for both go trials (indexing sustained attention) and no-go trials (indexing inhibition processes). Higher household income was related to larger P3b amplitudes on both go and no-go trials. This was a highly educated sample, thus results indicate that P3b amplitudes are sensitive to household income even within the context of high parental education. Findings build on the behavioral literature and demonstrate that SES also has implications for the neural mechanisms underlying inhibition and attention processing in early childhood.Published versio

Algorithms for the Numerical Solution of a Finite-Part Integral Equation

The authors investigate a hypersingular integral equation which arises in the study of acoustic wave scattering by moving objects. A Galerkin method and two collocation methods are presented for solving the problem numerically. These numerical techniques are compared and contrasted in three test problems

Oceanographic processes influencing seasonal and interannual variability in cod spawning habitat in the eastern Baltic Sea

The volume of water with suitable oxygen and salinity conditions for survival and development of cod/eggs in the eastern Baltie Sea varies significantly within and among years. It has recently been shown that this volume of water (nreproduetive volumen), in addition to spawning stock biomass, is a major factor determining recruitment success in this eod population. However, it is unclear which oceanographie mechanisms are responsible for variability in reproductive volume, and how these processes interaet on a seasonal and interannual basis. In this study, we use time series observations to identify inter-relationships between hydrographie and biological processes (e. g., inflows of North Sea water, winter mixing processes, production and decomposition of organic matter) influencing reproductive volumes from 1952-1992. A frequent pattern of seasonal variability in 4 eastern Baltic spawning areas includes a spring maximum which decreases during the summer, followed by an inerease during the fall-winter months. However, this general pattern is violated in many years, and the magnitude of the seasonality is more pronounced, in some spawning areas than others. \Ve have begun to analyse these patterns and interpret them in the context of other fluctuating components of the eastern Baltic pelagic ecosystem. Preliminary results show that reproductive volumes deerease by an average of 9 - 39% between May and August, and that the decrease in the spawning area most important to long-term recruitment (Bornholm Basin) is temperature-dependen1. The seasonal decline in the Bomholm Basin also tends to be larger and more variable after 1964 than in the previous 12-year periode These patterns of reproductive volume variability may be important to eod reproduetive success beeause of a long and variable spawning period

Cooperative Evaluation of Inner Mongolia, PRC, Grassland Germplasm in the Western USA

Replicated dryland studies were established at three USDA, NRCS, Plant Materials Centers in the USA northern intermountain west by Chinese and American scientists. Forty-six Asian and 16 USA grasses, legumes, and shrubs were included. These plantings were evaluated for vigor, percent stand, and foliage height in 1994 and 1995, and for biomass production in 1995. Generally, USA grasses outperformed Asian grasses, while Inner Mongolian legumes show the highest potential for use in the intermountain west

Construction and Assembly of the Wire Planes for the MicroBooNE Time Projection Chamber

In this paper we describe how the readout planes for the MicroBooNE Time Projection Chamber were constructed, assembled and installed. We present the individual wire preparation using semi-automatic winding machines and the assembly of wire carrier boards. The details of the wire installation on the detector frame and the tensioning of the wires are given. A strict quality assurance plan ensured the integrity of the readout planes. The different tests performed at all stages of construction and installation provided crucial information to achieve the successful realisation of the MicroBooNE wire planes.Comment: 24 pages, 22 figures, accepted for publication as Technical Report in JINS

Phytoplankton dynamics in contrasting early stage North Atlantic spring blooms: composition, succession, and potential drivers

The spring bloom is a key annual event in the phenology of pelagic ecosystems, making a major contribution to the oceanic biological carbon pump through the production and export of organic carbon. However, there is little consensus as to the main drivers of spring bloom formation, exacerbated by a lack of in situ observations of the phytoplankton community composition and its evolution during this critical period. We investigated the dynamics of the phytoplankton community structure at two contrasting sites in the Iceland and Norwegian basins during the early stage (25 March–25 April) of the 2012 North Atlantic spring bloom. The plankton composition and characteristics of the initial stages of the bloom were markedly different between the two basins. The Iceland Basin (ICB) appeared well mixed down to >400 m, yet surface chlorophyll a (0.27–2.2 mg m−3) and primary production (0.06–0.66 mmol C m−3 d−1) were elevated in the upper 100 m. Although the Norwegian Basin (NWB) had a persistently shallower mixed layer (<100 m), chlorophyll a (0.58–0.93 mg m−3) and primary production (0.08–0.15 mmol C m−3 d−1) remained lower than in the ICB, with picoplankton (<2 μm) dominating chlorophyll a biomass. The ICB phytoplankton composition appeared primarily driven by the physicochemical environment, with periodic events of increased mixing restricting further increases in biomass. In contrast, the NWB phytoplankton community was potentially limited by physicochemical and/or biological factors such as grazing. Diatoms dominated the ICB, with the genus Chaetoceros (1–166 cells mL−1) being succeeded by Pseudo-nitzschia (0.2–210 cells mL−1). However, large diatoms (>10 μm) were virtually absent (<0.5 cells mL−1) from the NWB, with only small nano-sized (<5 μm) diatoms (i.e. Minidiscus spp.) present (101–600 cells mL−1). We suggest microzooplankton grazing, potentially coupled with the lack of a seed population of bloom-forming diatoms, was restricting diatom growth in the NWB, and that large diatoms may be absent in NWB spring blooms. Despite both phytoplankton communities being in the early stages of bloom formation, different physicochemical and biological factors controlled bloom formation at the two sites. If these differences in phytoplankton composition persist, the subsequent spring blooms are likely to be significantly different in terms of biogeochemistry and trophic interactions throughout the growth season, with important implications for carbon cycling and organic matter export

Sharyne Ryals Interview 2016

In a short interview, Sharyne Ryals discusses her experiences working as the Administrative Program Assistant as a part of the Social Science Division. At Western Oregon, she describes her responsibilities and interactions with students. She also explains how she arrived at Western Oregon University as well as her previous work at a chip manufacturing plant

Evaluating salt-fingering theories

Author Posting. © Sears Foundation for Marine Research, 2008. This article is posted here by permission of Sears Foundation for Marine Research for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Marine Research 66 (2008): 413-440, doi:10.1357/002224008787157467.The NATRE fine- and microstructure data set is revisited to test salt-finger amplitude theories. Dependences of the mixing efficiency Γ, microscale buoyancy Reynolds number Re and thermal Cox number CxT on 5-m density ratio Rρ and gradient Richardson number Ri are examined. The observed mixing efficiency is too high to be explained by linear fastest-growing fingers but can be reproduced by wavenumbers 0.5-0.9 times lower than the fastest-growing wavenumber. Constraining these fingers with a hybrid wave/finger Froude number or a finger Reynolds number cannot reproduce the observed trends with Rρ or Ri, respectively. This suggests that background shear has no influence on finger amplitudes. Constraining average amplitudes of these lower-wavenumber fingers with finger Richardson number Rif ~ 0.2 reproduces the observed dependence of Re and CxT on density ratio Rρ and Ri at all but the lowest observed density ratio (Rρ = 1.3). Separately relaxing the assumptions of viscous control, dominance of a single mode and tall narrow fingers does not explain the difference between theory and data at low Rρ for a critical Rif ~ 0.2.We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Office of Naval Research (grant N00014-04-1-0212) and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

Effects of acute and chronic hypohydration on tolerance to plus Gz acceleration in man. I - Physiological results

Effects of acute and chronic hypohydration on human physiological tolerance to gravity acceleratio