The structure of the equal time anticommutator of the baryon current in neutral pseudoscalar meson theory

Equal time anticommutator structure of baryon currents in neutral pseudoscalar meson interaction

The Air-temperature Response to Green/blue-infrastructure Evaluation Tool (TARGET v1.0) : an efficient and user-friendly model of city cooling

The adverse impacts of urban heat and global climate change are leading policymakers to consider green and blue infrastructure (GBI) for heat mitigation benefits. Though many models exist to evaluate the cooling impacts of GBI, their complexity and computational demand leaves most of them largely inaccessible to those without specialist expertise and computing facilities. Here a new model called The Air-temperature Response to Green/blue-infrastructure Evaluation Tool (TARGET) is presented. TARGET is designed to be efficient and easy to use, with fewer user-defined parameters and less model input data required than other urban climate models. TARGET can be used to model average street-level air temperature at canyon-to-block scales (e.g. 100 m resolution), meaning it can be used to assess temperature impacts of suburb-to-city-scale GBI proposals. The model aims to balance realistic representation of physical processes and computation efficiency. An evaluation against two different datasets shows that TARGET can reproduce the magnitude and patterns of both air temperature and surface temperature within suburban environments. To demonstrate the utility of the model for planners and policymakers, the results from two precinct-scale heat mitigation scenarios are presented. TARGET is available to the public, and ongoing development, including a graphical user interface, is planned for future work

Estimating everyday portion size using a 'method of constant stimuli': in a student sample, portion size is predicted by gender, dietary behaviour, and hunger, but not BMI

This paper (i) explores the proposition that body weight is associated with large portion sizes and (ii) introduces a new technique for measuring everyday portion size. In our paradigm, the participant is shown a picture of a food portion and is asked to indicate whether it is larger or smaller than their usual portion. After responding to a range of different portions an estimate of everyday portion size is calculated using probit analysis. Importantly, this estimate is likely to be robust because it is based on many responses. First-year undergraduate students (N=151) completed our procedure for 12 commonly consumed foods. As expected, portion sizes were predicted by gender and by a measure of dieting and dietary restraint. Furthermore, consistent with reports of hungry supermarket shoppers, portion-size estimates tended to be higher in hungry individuals. However, we found no evidence for a relationship between BMI and portion size in any of the test foods. We consider reasons why this finding should be anticipated. In particular, we suggest that the difference in total energy expenditure of individuals with a higher and lower BMI is too small to be detected as a concomitant difference in portion size (at least in our sample)

Cognitive biases to healthy and unhealthy food words predict change in BMI

The current study explored the predictive value of cognitive biases to food cues (assessed by emotional Stroop and dot probe tasks) on weight change over a 1-year period. This was a longitudinal study with undergraduate students (N = 102) living in shared student accommodation. After controlling for the effects of variables associated with weight (e.g., physical activity, stress, restrained eating, external eating, and emotional eating), no effects of cognitive bias were found with the dot probe. However, for the emotional Stroop, cognitive bias to unhealthy foods predicted an increase in BMI whereas cognitive bias to healthy foods was associated with a decrease in BMI. Results parallel findings in substance abuse research; cognitive biases appear to predict behavior change. Accordingly, future research should consider strategies for attentional retraining, encouraging individuals to reorient attention away from unhealthy eating cues

Increased affective influence: situational complexity or deliberation time?

The affect infusion model (AIM) is a prominent theory of when current emotional state is expected to influence the interpretation of a social stimulus (situation). We discuss the assumptions in AIM and conclude that its current specification predicts that both deliberation time and situational complexity should lead to affect infusion. The aim of this research was to clarify the relative importance of these factors in determining affect infusion and hence promote the development of AIM. We present an experimental design in which situational complexity and deliberation time can be manipulated orthogonally as independent factors. Our results show that the latter factor, but not the former, can influence the degree of affect infusion

Dopamine D_2-receptor activation elicits akinesia, rigidity, catalepsy, and tremor in mice expressing hypersensitive 4 nicotinic receptors via a cholinergic-dependent mechanism

Recent studies suggest that high-affinity neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) containing α4 and β2 subunits (α4β2*) functionally interact with G-protein-coupled dopamine (DA) D_2 receptors in basal ganglia. We hypothesized that if a functional interaction between these receptors exists, then mice expressing an M2 point mutation (Leu9'Ala) rendering 4 nAChRs hypersensitive to ACh may exhibit altered sensitivity to a D_2-receptor agonist. When challenged with the D_(2)R agonist, quinpirole (0.5–10 mg/kg), Leu9'Ala mice, but not wild-type (WT) littermates, developed severe, reversible motor impairment characterized by rigidity, catalepsy, akinesia, and tremor. While striatal DA tissue content, baseline release, and quinpirole-induced DA depletion did not differ between Leu9'Ala and WT mice, quinpirole dramatically increased activity of cholinergic striatal interneurons only in mutant animals, as measured by increased c-Fos expression in choline acetyltransferase (ChAT)-positive interneurons. Highlighting the importance of the cholinergic system in this mouse model, inhibiting the effects of ACh by blocking muscarinic receptors, or by selectively activating hypersensitive nAChRs with nicotine, rescued motor symptoms. This novel mouse model mimics the imbalance between striatal DA/ACh function associated with severe motor impairment in disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, and the data suggest that a D_(2)R–α4*-nAChR functional interaction regulates cholinergic interneuron activity.—Zhao-Shea, R., Cohen, B. N., Just, H., McClure-Begley, T., Whiteaker, P., Grady, S. R., Salminen, O., Gardner, P. D., Lester, H. A., Tapper, A. R. Dopamine D2-receptor activation elicits akinesia, rigidity, catalepsy, and tremor in mice expressing hypersensitive α4 nicotinic receptors via a cholinergic-dependent mechanism

Restraint, disinhibition and food-related processing bias

This study examined associations between restraint, disinhibition and food-related processing bias (FPB, assessed by the emotional Stroop task) in males and females in the UK, Greece and Iran. Results showed high restraint was associated with higher FPB. However, high restrained current dieters showed lower FPB that high restrained non-dieters. There was no significant difference in FPB for those showing high versus low disinhibition. Results are discussed in relation to theories of incentive salience and current concerns

VISTA Milky Way public survey

We propose a public IR variability survey, named \Vista Variables in the Vía Láctea" (V V V ), of the Milky Way bulge and an adjacent section of the mid-plane where star formation activity is high. This would take 1920 hours, covering ~ 109 point sources within an area of 520 sq deg, including 33 known globular clusters and ~ 350 open clusters. The final products will be a deep IR atlas in 5 passbands and a catalogue of ~ 106 variable point sources. These will produce a 3-D map of the surveyed region (unlike single-epoch surveys that only give 2-D maps) using well-understood primary distance indicators such as RR Lyrae stars. It will yield important information on the ages of the populations. The observations will be combined with data from MACHO, OGLE, EROS, VST, SPITZER, HST, CHANDRA, INTEGRAL, and ALMA for a complete understanding of the variable sources in the inner Milky Way. Several important implications for the history of the Milky Way, for globular cluster evolution, for the population census of the bulge and center, and for pulsation theory would follow from this survey