Towards an understanding of neuroscience for science educators

Advances in neuroscience have brought new insights to the development of cognitive functions. These data are of considerable interest to educators concerned with how students learn. This review documents some of the recent findings in neuroscience, which is richer in describing cognitive functions than affective aspects of learning. A brief overview is presented here of the techniques used to generate data from imaging and how these findings have the possibility to inform educators. There are implications for considering the impact of neuroscience at all levels of education – from the classroom teacher and practitioner to policy. This relatively new cross-disciplinary area of research implies a need for educators and scientists to engage with each other. What questions are emerging through such dialogues between educators and scientists are likely to shed light on, for example, reward, motivation, working memory, learning difficulties, bilingualism and child development. The sciences of learning are entering a new paradigm

DeGraF-Flow: Extending DeGraF Features for Accurate and Efficient Sparse-to-Dense Optical Flow Estimation

Modern optical flow methods make use of salient scene feature points detected and matched within the scene as a basis for sparse-to-dense optical flow estimation. Current feature detectors however either give sparse, non uniform point clouds (resulting in flow inaccuracies) or lack the efficiency for frame-rate real-time applications. In this work we use the novel Dense Gradient Based Features (DeGraF) as the input to a sparse-to-dense optical flow scheme. This consists of three stages: 1) efficient detection of uniformly distributed Dense Gradient Based Features (DeGraF) [1]; 2) feature tracking via robust local optical flow [2]; and 3) edge preserving flow interpolation [3] to recover overall dense optical flow. The tunable density and uniformity of DeGraF features yield superior dense optical flow estimation compared to other popular feature detectors within this three stage pipeline. Furthermore, the comparable speed of feature detection also lends itself well to the aim of real-time optical flow recovery. Evaluation on established real-world benchmark datasets show test performance in an autonomous vehicle setting where DeGraF-Flow shows promising results in terms of accuracy with competitive computational efficiency among non-GPU based methods, including a marked increase in speed over the conceptually similar EpicFlow approac

Crustal and upper mantle structure beneath the Donets Basin and Donbas Foldbelt from 3-D gravity modelling.

The Dniepr-Donets Basin (DDB) is a linear, NW-SE trending, late Palaeozoic and younger sedimentary basin on the East European Platform separating the Ukrainian Shield from the Voronezh Massif. Its northwestern (Dniepr) segment has the characteristics of a typical rift basin. To the southeast, through a transition zone of approximately 200 km length, the DDB is progressively uplifted and compressionally deformed into the correlatable Donbas Foldbelt (DF). Along the axis of the Dniepr segment a series of gravity highs has been previously explained by high-density crystalline crust beneath the axis of the basin caused by intrusion of mafic and ultramafic rocks. In this paper, the results of a 3-D gravity analysis, using a gravity backstripping technique, is described that investigates the crustal and upper mantle structure in the region of the DDB-DF transition zone and DF. A residual gravity field I, obtained by subtracting the gravity influence of the sedimentary succession of the DDB from the observed field, reveals a distinct positive anomaly along the axis of the rift basin increasing in amplitude to the southeast in concert with increasing sedimentary thickness. A residual gravity field II, derived by removing the gravity effects of a modelled homogeneous crystalline crust from residual field I, reaches 200 and 100 mGal amplitude in the DF for two respective Moho models based on different interpretations of the published crust and upper mantle seismic velocity models. The first of these (model A) assumes crustal thickening beneath the transition zone and DF (to a Moho depth up to 50 km) whereas the second (model B) assumes a Moho shallowing (to depths in the range 35-37 km) along the whole basin axis. For each residual anomaly II, the best-fitting 3-D distribution of average density in the crystalline crust has been computed. Both models indicate the existence of a high-density body in the crystalline crust along the DDB axis, increasing in density from the Dniepr segment to the DF, with higher average crustal density required in the case of Moho model A (3.17 x 1

Structure of the lithosphere below the southern margin of the East European Craton (Ukraine and Russia) from gravity and seismic data.

The present study was undertaken with the objective of deriving constraints from available geological and geophysical data for understanding the tectonic setting and processes controlling the evolution of the southern margin of the East European Craton (EEC). The study area includes the inverted southernmost part of the intracratonic Dnieper-Donets Basin (DDB)-Donbas Foldbelt (DF), its southeastern prolongation along the margin of the EEC-the sedimentary succession of the Karpinsky Swell (KS), the southwestern part of the Peri-Caspian Basin (PCB), and the Scythian Plate (SP). These structures are adjacent to a zone, along which the crust was reworked and/or accreted to the EEC since the late Palaeozoic. In the Bouguer gravity field, the southern margin of the EEC is marked by an arc of gravity highs, correlating with uplifted Palaeozoic rocks covered by thin Mesozoic and younger sediments. A three-dimensional (3D) gravity analysis has been carried out to investigate further the crustal structure of this area. The sedimentary succession has been modelled as two heterogeneous layers-Mesozoic-Cenozoic and Palaeozoic-in the analysis. The base of the sedimentary succession (top of the crystalline Precambrian basement) lies at a depth up to 22 km in the PCB and DF-KS areas. The residual gravity field, obtained by subtracting the gravitational effect of the sedimentary succession from the observed gravity field, reveals a distinct elongate zone of positive anomalies along the axis of the DF-KS with amplitudes of 100-140 mGal and an anomaly of 180 mGal in the PCB. These anomalies are interpreted to reflect a heterogeneous lithosphere structure below the supracrustal, sedimentary layers: i.e., Moho topography and/or the existence of high-density material in the crystalline crust and uppermost mantle. Previously published data support the existence of a high-density body in the crystalline crust along the DDB axis, including the DF, caused by an intrusion of mafic and ultramafic rocks during Late Palaeozoic rifting. A reinterpretation of existing Deep Seismic Sounding (DSS) data on a profile crossing the central KS suggests that the nature of a high-velocity/density layer in the lower crust (crust-mantle transition zone) is not the same as that of below the DF. Rather than being a prolongation of the DDB-DF intracratonic rift zone, the present analysis suggests that the KS comprises, at least in part, an accretionary zone between the EEC and the SP formed after the Palaeozoic. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved