Concordant cues in faces and voices: testing the backup signal hypothesis

Information from faces and voices combines to provide multimodal signals about a person. Faces and voices may offer redundant, overlapping (backup signals), or complementary information (multiple messages). This article reports two experiments which investigated the extent to which faces and voices deliver concordant information about dimensions of fitness and quality. In Experiment 1, participants rated faces and voices on scales for masculinity/femininity, age, health, height, and weight. The results showed that people make similar judgments from faces and voices, with particularly strong correlations for masculinity/femininity, health, and height. If, as these results suggest, faces and voices constitute backup signals for various dimensions, it is hypothetically possible that people would be able to accurately match novel faces and voices for identity. However, previous investigations into novel face–voice matching offer contradictory results. In Experiment 2, participants saw a face and heard a voice and were required to decide whether the face and voice belonged to the same person. Matching accuracy was significantly above chance level, suggesting that judgments made independently from faces and voices are sufficiently similar that people can match the two. Both sets of results were analyzed using multilevel modeling and are interpreted as being consistent with the backup signal hypothesis

Establishing kidney transplantation in a low-income country: a case in Tanzania

Background Sub-Saharan African countries, including Tanzania, have a high burden of chronic kidney diseases (CKDs) and limited capacity for the provision of services. Tanzania and other countries in the region have made signifcant improvements in the provision of services for patients with CKD, including hemodialysis. Few countries are ofering kidney transplantation services, which is the defnitive treatment for patients with CKD and kidney failure. This study was conducted to review the steps taken by Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) to establish a kidney transplantation service in Tanzania. Methods This study was based on the review of the activities that were undertaken to establish kidney transplantation services at Muhimbili National Hospital in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It was conducted by reviewing key documents developed for kidney transplantation and interviewing key personnel who were involved in the process. Results Kidney transplantation services at MNH were established in November 2017; several steps were taken in the preparatory phase including training of personnel, infrastructural modifcations, and procurement of equipment and supplies. Capacity building was achieved through international collaboration with several international and local institutions, including three Hospitals in India. The transplant team, which included nephrologists, urologists, anesthesiologists, radiologists, nurses, laboratory technicians, a transplant coordinator, and a lawyer, underwent shortterm training at BLK Hospital in India. Initial transplant procedures were carried out with support from visiting personnel from BLK, Sakra, and Seifee hospitals. In total, 72 transplant surgeries were conducted, of which 39 (54.2%) were performed with visiting teams and 31 (45.8%) by the local team independently. Of the initial 39 recipients, 56.4% were males and 43.5% were aged above 46 years. About half of the donors were brothers/sisters, and 43.5% had human leukocytic antigen haplomatch. Induction immunosuppression included basiliximab in the majority (64.1%) of recipients, and all recipients received prednisolone, tacrolimus, and mycophenolate mofetil/myfortic. Conclusions Establishing kidney transplantation in lower-income countries, such as Tanzania, is feasible; however, it requires dedicated eforts. Collaboration with local and international institutions provided an enabling environment for the transfer of skills and access to necessary supportive services

Field Micrometeorological Measurements, Process-Level Studies and Modeling of Methane and Carbon Dioxide Fluxes in a Boreal Wetland Ecosystem

The main instrumentation platform consisted of eddy correlation sensors mounted on a scaffold tower at a height of 4.2 m above the peat surface. The sensors were attached to a boom assembly which could be rotated into the prevailing winds. The boom assembly was mounted on a movable sled which, when extended, allowed sensors to be up to 2 m away from the scaffolding structure to minimize flow distortion. When retracted, the sensors could easily be installed, serviced or rotated. An electronic level with linear actuators allowed the sensors to be remotely levelled once the sled was extended. Two instrument arrays were installed. A primary (fast-response) array consisted of a three-dimensional sonic anemometer, a methane sensor (tunable diode laser spectrometer), a carbon dioxide/water vapor sensor, a fine wire thermocouple and a backup one-dimensional sonic anemometer. The secondary array consisted of a one-dimensional sonic anemometer, a fine wire thermocouple and a Krypton hygrometer. Descriptions of these sensors may be found in other reports (e.g., Verma; Suyker and Verma). Slow-response sensors provided supporting measurements including mean air temperature and humidity, mean horizontal windspeed and direction, incoming and reflected solar radiation, net radiation, incoming and reflected photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), soil heat flux, peat temperature, water-table elevation and precipitation. A data acquisition system (consisting of an IBM compatible microcomputer, amplifiers and a 16 bit analog-to-digital converter), housed in a small trailer, was used to record the fast response signals. These signals were low-pass filtered (using 8-pole Butterworth active filters with a 12.5 Hz cutoff frequency) and sampled at 25 Hz. Slow-response signals were sampled every 5 s using a network of CR21X (Campbell Scientific, Inc., Logan Utah) data loggers installed in the fen. All signals were averaged over 30-minute periods (runs)

Molecular and morphometric variation in European populations of the articulate brachiopod <i>Terebeatulina retusa</i>

Molecular and morphometric variation within and between population samples of the articulate brachiopod &lt;i&gt;Terebratulina&lt;/i&gt; spp., collected in 1985-1987 from a Norwegian fjord, sea lochs and costal sites in western Scotland, the southern English Channel (Brittany) and the western Mediterranean, were measured by the analysis of variation in the lengths of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) fragments produced by digestion with nine restriction endonucleases and by multivariate statistical analysis of six selected morphometric parameters. Nucleotide difference within each population sample was high. Nucleotide difference between population samples from the Scottish sites, both those that are tidally contiguous and those that appear to be geographically isolated, were not significantly different from zero. Nucleotide differences between the populations samples from Norway, Brittany, Scotland and the western Mediterranean were also very low. Morphometric analysis confirmed the absence of substantial differentiation

Measurements of NaI:Tl Electron Response using SLYNCI: Comparison of Different Samples

This paper measures the sample to sample variation in the light yield non-proportionality of NaI:Tl, and so explores whether this is an invariant characteristic of the material or whether it is dependent on the chemical and physical properties of tested sample. In this work we report on the electron response of nine crystals of NaI(Tl), differing in shape, volume, age, manufacturer and quality. The non-proportionality has been measured at the SLYNCI facility in the energy range between 3.5 to 460 keV. The Scintillation Light Yield Non-proportionality Characterization Instrument (SLYNCI) is a next generation Compton Coincidence device, explicitly designed to study the 'non-proportionality' of the electron response in scintillators and the contribution of this effect to the intrinsic energy resolution. We also discuss the gamma response, x-ray excited emission spectra and decay times for the nine crystals, in order to provide a complete characterization of their physical properties and determine whether the mechanism of scintillation varies between samples

Who I Am: The Meaning of Early Adolescents’ Most Valued Activities and Relationships, and Implications for Self-Concept Research

Self-concept research in early adolescence typically measures young people’s self-perceptions of competence in specific, adult-defined domains. However, studies have rarely explored young people’s own views of valued self-concept factors and their meanings. For two major self domains, the active and the social self, this mixed-methods study identified factors valued most by 526 young people from socioeconomically diverse backgrounds in Ireland (10-12 years), and explored the meanings associated with these in a stratified subsample (n = 99). Findings indicate that self-concept scales for early adolescence omit active and social self factors and meanings valued by young people, raising questions about content validity of scales in these domains. Findings also suggest scales may under-represent girls’ active and social selves; focus too much on some school-based competencies; and, in omitting intrinsically salient self domains and meanings, may focus more on contingent (extrinsic) rather than true (intrinsic) self-esteem

Face processing: human perception and principal components analysis

Principal component analysis (PCA) of face images is here related to subjects' performance on the same images. In two experiments subjects were shown a set of faces and asked to rate them for distinctiveness. They were subsequently shown a superset of faces and asked to identify those which appeared originally. Replicating previous work, we found that hits and false positives (FPs) did not correlate: those faces easy to identify as being "seen" were unrelated to those faces easy to reject as being "unseen". PCA was performed on three data sets: (i) face images with eye-position standardised; (ii) face images morphed to a standard template to remove shape information; (iii) the shape information from faces only. Analyses based upon PCA of shape-free faces gave high predictions of FPs, while shape information itself contributed only to hits. Furthermore, while FPs were generally predictable from components early in the PCA, hits appear to be accounted for by later components. We conclude that shape and "texture" (the image-based information remaining after morphing) may be used separately by the human face processing system, and that PCA of images offers a useful tool for understanding this system