Negation affects processing of correct and incorrect information: A visual world paradigm for misinformation

The current study investigated how language changes the meaning of facts. Much is known about the acquiring of misconceptions, but little is known about how subtle changes in language affect the retrieval of accurate facts and misconceptions. Participants read vignettes and were exposed to four different kinds of texts that varied by affirmative or negated and whether the fact was true or false. After participants read several of these facts, their eye movements were tracked in a visual world paradigm with 4 written plausible answers on the screen in each corner to choose from. Fixations to each kind of response were recorded and presence of misinformation was found to temper the processing of misconceptions and led to an observed suppression of inaccurate information. Mechanisms of processing true and false concepts and the interplay between language and conceptual formation are discussed

Brain State-dependent Functional Hemispheric Specialization in Men but not in Women

Hemispheric specialization is reliably demonstrated in patients with unilateral lesions or disconnected hemispheres, but is inconsistent in healthy populations. The reason for this paradox is unclear. We propose that functional hemispheric specialization in healthy participants depends upon functional brain states at stimulus arrival (FBS). Brain activity was recorded from 123 surface electrodes while 22 participants (11 women) performed lateralized lexical decisions (left hemisphere processing) on neutral and emotional (right hemisphere processing) words. We determined two classes of stable FBS, one with right anterior-left posterior orientations (RA-LP maps) and one with left anterior-right posterior orientations (LA-RP maps). Results show that functional hemispheric specialization is dependent upon the class of FBS and gender. Of those with LA-RP maps, only men showed a strong emotional word advantage (EWA) after left visual field (right hemisphere) presentation, but no EWA after right visual field (left hemisphere) presentation. Subsequent to all other brain states, there was an almost equal EWA after presentation to either visual field. Only about half of the FBS in men led to the pattern of functional hemispheric specialization. We suggest that ‘split-brain' research may be marginally describable by a model, but only in exceptional situations, while in connected brains this functional hemispheric specialization is only one of many dynamic state

Automatic CX Tool for Electrical Building

Commissioning (Cx) consists in specifying building system performance requirements set by the owner, auditing different judgments and actions performed by the Cx related parties in order to achieve the performance, writing necessary and sufficient documentation, and verifying that the system enables proper operation and maintenance through functional performance testing. The process of Cx is the whole set of tasks ensuring that the performance of buildings meet the awaited performance. This process comes within the scope of Kyoto's protocol by reducing energy consumption and also emission of green house gases (GHG). This study is carried out for an exemplary electrical building of educational facilities. The objectives of the project are to develop and test a Cx tool in order to increase the energy efficiency of the building while ensuring indoor comfort. This study shows that an appropriate design of a building is not sufficient to ensure an effective management of energy. The Cx of installations is an essential step to meet the required energy performances

Natural nanoparticules against cancer: mature dendritic cell-derived exosomes

Deep insight on Natural nanoparticules against cancer: mature dendritic cell-derived exosomes

The IEA/ECBCS/Annex 40 Glossary on Commissioning

International Energy Agency's (IEA) Energy Conservation in Building and Community Systems' (ECBCS) Annex 40 has developed a glossary of commissioning terms as one of the first commissioning tools produced within the annex. The glossary consists of four major sections: 1) definition of basic terms, 2) explanation of basic terms, 3) commissioning types, and 4) commissioning process. These sections, which were originally developed to facilitate Annex 40 discussions, are now incorporated into an on-line database system. This on-line tool is publicly available on the Annex 40 website and enables users to search for specific definitions and provides links for more detailed explanations, related terms, and existing reference definitions. Using this database system many documents developed in Annex 40 have been actively linked to the glossary for direct access to the definitions. In addition, during the development and review process for the glossary, users are able to submit suggestions for new terms, translations, and other modifications. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the glossary and database system developed in Annex 40 and to invite users to participate in the public review of the glossary before publication of the final report

Crab Waist Scheme Luminosity and Background Diagnostic at DAFNE

TUPTPF029International audienceTest of the crab waist scheme, undergoing at the Frascati DAFNE accelerator complex, needs a fast and accurate measurement of the luminosity, as well as a full characterization of the background conditions. Three different monitors, a Bhabha calorimeter, a Bhabha GEM tracker and a gamma bremsstrahlung proportional counter have been designed, tested and installed on the accelerator at the end of January 2008. Results from beam-test measurements, comparison with the Monte Carlo simulation and preliminary data collected during the SIDDHARTA run are presented

Vestibular Perception following Acute Unilateral Vestibular Lesions.

Little is known about the vestibulo-perceptual (VP) system, particularly after a unilateral vestibular lesion. We investigated vestibulo-ocular (VO) and VP function in 25 patients with vestibular neuritis (VN) acutely (2 days after onset) and after compensation (recovery phase, 10 weeks). Since the effect of VN on reflex and perceptual function may differ at threshold and supra-threshold acceleration levels, we used two stimulus intensities, acceleration steps of 0.5°/s(2) and velocity steps of 90°/s (acceleration 180°/s(2)). We hypothesised that the vestibular lesion or the compensatory processes could dissociate VO and VP function, particularly if the acute vertiginous sensation interferes with the perceptual tasks. Both in acute and recovery phases, VO and VP thresholds increased, particularly during ipsilesional rotations. In signal detection theory this indicates that signals from the healthy and affected side are still fused, but result in asymmetric thresholds due to a lesion-induced bias. The normal pattern whereby VP thresholds are higher than VO thresholds was preserved, indicating that any 'perceptual noise' added by the vertigo does not disrupt the cognitive decision-making processes inherent to the perceptual task. Overall, the parallel findings in VO and VP thresholds imply little or no additional cortical processing and suggest that vestibular thresholds essentially reflect the sensitivity of the fused peripheral receptors. In contrast, a significant VO-VP dissociation for supra-threshold stimuli was found. Acutely, time constants and duration of the VO and VP responses were reduced - asymmetrically for VO, as expected, but surprisingly symmetrical for perception. At recovery, VP responses normalised but VO responses remained shortened and asymmetric. Thus, unlike threshold data, supra-threshold responses show considerable VO-VP dissociation indicative of additional, higher-order processing of vestibular signals. We provide evidence of perceptual processes (ultimately cortical) participating in vestibular compensation, suppressing asymmetry acutely in unilateral vestibular lesions

Fine tuning Exo2, a small molecule inhibitor of secretion and retrograde trafficking pathways in mammalian cells

The small molecule 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde (5,6,7,8-tetrahydro[1]benzothieno[2,3- d]pyrimidin-4-yl)hydrazone (Exo2) stimulates morphological changes at the mammalian Golgi and trans-Golgi network that are virtually indistinguishable from those induced by brefeldin A. Both brefeldin A and Exo2 protect cells from intoxication by Shiga(-like) toxins by acting on other targets that operate at the early endosome, but do so at the cost of high toxicity to target cells. The advantage of Exo2 is that it is much more amenable to chemical modification and here we report a range of Exo2 analogues produced by modifying the tetrahydrobenzothienopyrimidine core, the vanillin moiety and the hydrazone bond that links these two. These compounds were examined for the morphological changes they stimulated at the Golgi stack, the trans Golgi network and the transferrin receptor-positive early endosomes and this activity correlated with their inherent toxicity towards the protein manufacturing ability of the cell and their protective effect against toxin challenge. We have developed derivatives that can separate organelle morphology, target specificity, innate toxicity and toxin protection. Our results provide unique compounds with low toxicity and enhanced specificity to unpick the complexity of membrane trafficking networks