Building on a Solid Baseline: Anticipatory Biases in Attention.

A brain-imaging paper by Kastner and colleagues in 1999 was the first to demonstrate that merely focusing attention at a spatial location changed the baseline activity level in various regions of human visual cortex even before any stimuli appeared. The study provided a touchstone for investigating cognitive-sensory interactions and understanding the proactive endogenous signals that shape perception

Unravelling wild carrot differentiation in Europe: preliminary data on a candidate gene approach

Carrot is an outcrossing species and levels of gene flow between populations, and even between wild and domesticated relatives, are expected to be high. Cases of natural hybridization and introgression of crops and wild relatives have been reported. Have these events diluted any putative habitat-adapted genotypes? In other words, can we still find a correlation between wild carrot genotypes and regional/local environment? We have chosen to start addressing this question using a member of the alternative oxidase (AOX) gene family. AOX genes seem to be linked to all kinds of abiotic and biotic stress reactions. Wild carrots were sampled in an environmental gradient across Western Europe. This gradient included sampling points with more deviating conditions, such as Sierra de Guadarrama or the central Pyrenees and the French Massif Central. Phylogenetic reconstruction on this molecular marker is to be combined with geographic, climatic, and ecological evidence. So far, the preliminary results suggest the existence of a biogeographical barrier at the Pyrenees, and higher gene diversity than initially expected. From an applied point of view, diversity of functional traits is much more relevant than species diversity. Gene transfer from wild to cultivated plants has contributed to the evolution of crop species. Providing that deterioration of genetic resources and biodiversity loss have not been drastic, gene transfer from wild plants has the potential to further contribute to a (targeted) improvement of cultivars.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A relation between CP violation of low energy and leptogenesis

We discuss how CP violation generating lepton number asymmetry can be related to CP violation in low energy.Comment: A poster Talk presented at KEKTC5, submitted to the proceeding

Radiatively induced leptogenesis in a minimal seesaw model

We study the possibility that the baryon asymmetry of the universe is generated in a minimal seesaw scenario where two right-handed Majorana neutrinos with degenerate masses are added to the standard model particle content. In the usual framework of thermal leptogenesis, a nonzero $CP$ asymmetry can be obtained through the mass splitting induced by the running of the heavy Majorana neutrino masses from their degeneracy scale down to the seesaw scale. Although, in the light of the present neutrino oscillation data, the produced baryon asymmetry turns out to be smaller than the experimental value, the present mechanism could be viable in simple extensions of the standard model.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, uses RevTeX4, calculations improved, comments adde

Behavioural Dissociation between Exogenous and Endogenous Temporal Orienting of Attention

BACKGROUND: In the current study we compared the effects of temporal orienting of attention based on predictions carried by the intrinsic temporal structure of events (rhythm) and by instructive symbolic cues; and tested the degree of cognitive, strategic control that could be exerted over each type of temporal expectation. The experiments tested whether the distinction between exogenous and endogenous orienting made in spatial attention may extend to the temporal domain. TASK DESIGN AND MAIN RESULTS: In this task, a ball moved across the screen in discrete steps and disappeared temporarily under an occluding band. Participants were required to make a perceptual discrimination on the target upon its reappearance. The regularity of the speed (rhythmic cue) or colour (symbolic cue) of the moving stimulus could predict the exact time at which a target would reappear after a brief occlusion (valid trials) or provide no temporal information (neutral trials). The predictive nature of rhythmic and symbolic cues was manipulated factorially in a symmetrical and orthogonal fashion. To test for the effects of strategic control over temporal orienting based on rhythmic or symbolic cues, participants were instructed either to "attend-to-speed" (rhythm) or "attend-to-colour". Our results indicated that both rhythmic and symbolic (colour) cues speeded reaction times in an independent fashion. However, whilst the rhythmic cueing effects were impervious to instruction, the effects of symbolic cues were contingent on the instruction to attend to colour. FINAL CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our results provide evidence for the existence of qualitatively separable types of temporal orienting of attention, akin to exogenous and endogenous mechanisms

Hidden Genetic Variability, Can the Olive Moth Prays oleae (Lepidoptera: Yponomeutidae or Praydidae?) be a Species’ Complex?

Prays oleae is the second most important pest in Mediterranean olive groves, causing substantial damage on olive production. We used mitochondrial [cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI), and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 5 (nad5)] and nuclear [ribosomal protein S5 (RpS5)] amplicons to assess the population variability in five main olive producing regions from Tunisia, to support or dismiss the existence of two non-monophyletic groups within the species, as found within Portugal. Our phylogenetic analysis with cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) indeed displayed two distinct and well-supported clades of P. oleae, which were corroborated by the haplotype network reconstructed with both mitochondrial and nuclear amplicons. We were also able to dismiss the hypothesis that one of the clades would not develop on olive fruits. No correlation was observed between clades differentiation and geographic distribution. The existence of cryptic species can impact on the management of agroecosystems and on the perception of how these moths responds to environmental changes

Microalgae biomass harvesting by electrocoagulation

The use microalgae biomass for the production of biofuels has received great attention in the last decades. Microalgae biofuels could be important alternative to conventional biofuels since microalgae could be produced at high rates without the need of neither arable land, potable water or competition with food. However, the high energy intensive harvesting processes are limiting the commercial production of microalgae biofuels. In this study, Electro-Coagulation (EC) was used for harvesting the freshwater microalga Chlorella vulgaris and the marine microalga Nannochloropsis sp. The results show that EC could be an alternative to the conventional harvesting processes since it is efficient and produces good quality biomass with low energy requirements