Right Temporoparietal Junction Involvement in Autonomic Responses to the Suffering of Others: A Preliminary Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Study.

Functional neuroimaging studies have emphasized distinct networks for social cognition and affective aspects of empathy. However, studies have not considered whether substrates of social cognition, such as the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ), play a role in affective responses to complex empathy-related stimuli. Here, we used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to test whether the right TPJ contributes to psychophysiological responses to another person's emotional suffering. We used a theory of mind functional localizer and image-guided TMS to target the sub-region of the right TPJ implicated in social cognition, and measured autonomic and subjective responses to an empathy induction video. We found evidence that TMS applied at 1 Hz over the right TPJ increased withdrawal of parasympathetic nervous system activity during the empathy induction (n = 32), but did not affect sympathetic nervous system activity (n = 27). Participants who received TMS over the right TPJ also reported feeling more irritation and annoyance, and were less likely to report feeling compassion over and above empathic sadness, than participants who received TMS over the vertex (N = 34). This study provides preliminary evidence for the role of right TPJ functioning in empathy-related psychophysiological and affective responding, potentially blurring the distinction between neural regions specific to social cognition vs. affective aspects of empathy

Stronger wireless signals appear more Poisson

Keeler, Ross and Xia (2016) recently derived approximation and convergence results, which imply that the point process formed from the signal strengths received by an observer in a wireless network under a general statistical propagation model can be modelled by an inhomogeneous Poisson point process on the positive real line. The basic requirement for the results to apply is that there must be a large number of transmitters with different locations and random propagation effects.The aim of this note is to apply some of the main results of Keeler, Ross and Xia (2016) in a less general but more easily applicable form to illustrate how the results can be applied in practice. New results are derived that show that it is the strongest signals, after being weakened by random propagation effects, that behave like a Poisson process, which supports recent experimental work.Comment: 7 pages with 1.5 line spacin

Probabilistic model for contamination of egg dishes with Salmonella spp. made from shell eggs produced on the island of Ireland

A quantitative model was constructed to estimate the probability that a serving of food containing eggs produced on the island of Ireland is contaminated with Salmonella spp. The model is based on the prevalence of contaminated eggs at the time of lay and a set of parameters which describe the pooling of eggs in the home and in catering situations. Both external and internal contamination of the eggs by Salmonella spp. was considered. The model estimates that there is a 90% chance that the probability of a serving of food being contaminated is between 0.0043% and 0.038%. Sensitivity analysis demonstrated that egg prevalence drives this low probability and that, at the current level of egg prevalence at the time of lay, pooling of eggs has a minor effect. These results indicate the importance of maintaining the low prevalence of contaminated eggs at the time of lay to minimise the risk of human cases of salmonellosis from consumption of eggs

Qualitative exposure assessment for Salmonella spp. in shell eggs produced on the island of Ireland

A qualitative exposure assessment for Salmonella in eggs produced on the island of Ireland was developed. The assessment was divided into three main modules (production and packing, distribution and storage, and preparation and consumption), and each of these stages into defined steps in the exposure pathway. In the production and packing stage the initial prevalences of Salmonella in the contents and on the shell of eggs were estimated to be negligible and low respectively. Numbers of Salmonella both in and on eggs were estimated to be low. At each subsequent step in the pathway, qualitative assessments were made of the impact of events on the probability and level of Salmonella contamination on the shells and in the contents of eggs. At the end of each module assessments were combined to give an overall probability and level of Salmonella contamination. In the first two modules the assessment focused on the effect of the duration and temperature of storage on yolk membrane integrity and the likelihood of shell penetration. During the final stage the influence of factors such as safe handling procedures, pooling practices, consumption patterns and the effectiveness of cooking, on the prevalence and level of Salmonella contamination in a food item at time of consumption was assessed. The outcome of this assessment was an estimate of a low probability and level of Salmonella contamination of egg containing foods, prepared with eggs produced on the island of Ireland

Time-Resolved X-Ray Diffraction Investigation of Superheating-Melting of Crystals under Ultrafast Heating

The maximum superheating of a solid prior to melting depends on the effective dimensionless nucleation energy barrier, heterogeneities such as free surfaces and defects, and heating rates. Superheating is rarely achieved with conventional slow heating due to the dominant effect of heterogeneous nucleation. In present work, we investigate the superheating-melting behavior of crystals utilizing ultrafast heating techniques such as exploding wire and laser irradiation, and diagnostics such as time-resolved X-ray diffraction combined with simultaneous measurements on voltage and current (for exploding wire) and particle velocity (for laser irradiation). Experimental designs and preliminary results are presented