The Bangor Gambling Task: Characterising the performance of survivors of traumatic brain injury

The Bangor Gambling Task (BGT, Bowman & Turnbull, 2004) is a simple test of emotion-based decision-making, with contingencies varying across five blocks of 20 trials. This is the first study to characterise BGT performance in survivors of traumatic brain injury (TBI) relative to healthy controls. The study also aimed to explore sub-groups (cluster analysis), and identify predictors of task performance (multiple regression). Thirty survivors of TBI and 39 controls completed the BGT and measures of premorbid IQ, working memory, and executive function. Results showed that survivors of TBI made more gamble choices than controls (total BGT score), although the groups did not significantly differ when using a cut-off score for ‘impaired’ performance. Unexpectedly, the groups did not significantly differ in their performance across the blocks, however, the cluster analysis revealed three subgroups (with survivors of TBI and controls represented in each cluster). Findings also indicated that age and group were significant predictors of overall BGT performance, but not gender, premorbid IQ, or working memory and executive function. In conclusion, the study findings are consistent with an individual differences account of emotion-based decision-making, and a number of issues need to be addressed prior to recommending the clinical use of the BGT

Social cognition and executive functioning predictors of supervisors’ appraisal of interpersonal behaviour in the workplace following acquired brain injury

BACKGROUND: Social cognition and executive functioning difficulties following acquired brain injury have been linked to negative employment outcomes, such as demotion and loss of vocational roles. These are very counter-intuitive and challenging difficulties for other employees and work supervisors who have little or no brain injury knowledge, whose perceptions of play a key role in their responses to these difficulties and the final outcome of such problems for vocational status. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to study the relationship between social cognition and executive functioning difficulties and the perceptions of work supervisors’ appraisal of survivor interpersonal behaviour and social skills in the workplace. METHOD: The performance of 73 survivors of acquired brain injury (47% TBI, 38% CVA, 15% other ABI type; 73% male; mean age 45.44 years, range 19-64 years; mean time since injury 6.36 years, range 10.5-31.33 years), currently in a vocational rehabilitation placement) on neuropsychological tests of executive functioning and social cognition was measured. Informant ratings on the Social Skills Factor subscale from the Work Personality Profile (WPP, Bolton&Roessler, 1986) were used as the primary outcome measure, a vocational functioning questionnaire assessing social and presentational aspects of workplace behaviour. The raters were non-clinical workplace informants acting in a supervisory role (supervisory placement providers and job coaches). RESULTS: Correlational analysis identified significant associations between the WPP and survivor goal-orientated planning and implementation, mentalising ability, recognition of positive and negative emotions, and recognition of simple sarcasm (all significant at p < 0.05). These correlates were entered into a stepwise multiple regression. The combination final of survivor mentalising ability and executive functioning explained 32%of the variance in the WPP ratings (F (2, 52) = 12.15, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Certain limitations of the study withstanding, the current findings add to previous literature in highlighting the relevance of survivor executive functioning and social cognition difficulties for the perceptions and appraisal of work colleagues, consistent with other studies that have identified negative vocational outcomes associated with such neuropsychological difficulties. The implications for vocational rehabilitation are discussed

Effects of turbulent pumping on stellar activity cycles

Stellar magnetic activity of solar like stars is thought to be due to an internal dynamo. While the Sun has been the subject of intense research for refining dynamo models, observations of magnetic cyclic activity in solar type stars have become more and more available, opening a new path to understand the underlying physics behind stellar cycles. For instance, it is key to understand how stellar rotation rate influences magnetic cycle period \Pcyc. Recent numerical simulations of advection-dominated Babcock Leighton models have demonstrated that it is difficult to explain this observed trend given a) the strong influence of the cycle period to the meridional circulation amplitude and b) the fact that 3D models indicate that meridional flows become weaker as the rotation rate increases. In this paper, we introduce the turbulent pumping mechanism as another advective process capable also of transporting the magnetic fields. We found that this model is now able to reproduce the observations under the assumption that this effect increases as $\Omega^2$. The turbulent pumping becomes indeed another major player able to circumvent the meridional circulation. However, for high rotation rates ($\Omega \simeq 5 \Omega_\odot$), its effects dominate those of the meridional circulation, entering a new class of regime dominated by the advection of turbulent pumping and thus leading to a cyclic activity qualitatively different from that of the sun.Comment: Published in Astronomische Nachrichten; 11 pages, 8 figure

Meridional circulation dynamics in a cyclic convective dynamo

Surface observations indicate that the speed of the solar meridional circulation in the photosphere varies in anti-phase with the solar cycle. The current explanation for the source of this variation is that inflows into active regions alter the global surface pattern of the meridional circulation. When these localized inflows are integrated over a full hemisphere, they contribute to slowing down the axisymmetric poleward horizontal component. The behavior of this large-scale flow deep inside the convection zone remains largely unknown. Present helioseismic techniques are not sensitive enough to capture the dynamics of this weak large-scale flow. Moreover, the large time of integration needed to map the meridional circulation inside the convection zone, also masks some of the possible dynamics on shorter timescales. In this work we examine the dynamics of the meridional circulation that emerges from a 3D MHD global simulation of the solar convection zone. Our aim is to assess and quantify the behavior of meridional circulation deep inside the convection zone where the cyclic large-scale magnetic field can reach considerable strength. Our analyses indicate that the meridional circulation morphology and amplitude are both highly influenced by the magnetic field via the impact of magnetic torques on the global angular momentum distribution. A dynamic feature induced by these magnetic torques is the development of a prominent upward flow at mid-latitudes in the lower convection zone that occurs near the equatorward edge of the toroidal bands and that peaks during cycle maximum. Globally, the dynamo-generated large-scale magnetic field drives variations in the meridional flow, in stark contrast to the conventional kinematic flux transport view of the magnetic field being advected passively by the flow.Centra-ISTGRPS-UdeMNatural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of CanadaNational Science FoundationUniversity of the Algarveinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Mineral and organic fertilization alters the microbiome of a soil nematode Dorylaimus stagnalis and its resistome

Although the effects of fertilization on the abundance and diversity of soil nematodes have been widely studied, the impact of fertilization on soil nematode microbiomes remains largely unknown. Here, we investigated how different fertilizers: no fertilizer, mineral fertilizer, clean slurry (pig manure with a reduced antibiotic burden) and dirty slurry (pig manure with antibiotics) affect the microbiome of a dominant soil nematode and its associated antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). The results of 16S rRNA gene high throughput sequencing showed that the microbiome of the soil nematode Dorylaimus stagnalis is diverse (Shannon index: 9.95) and dominated by Proteobacteria (40.3%). Application of mineral fertilizers significantly reduced the diversity of the nematode microbiome (by 28.2%; P < 0.05) but increased the abundance of Proteobacteria (by 70.1%; P = 0.001). Microbial community analysis, using a null hypothesis model, indicated that microbiomes associated with the nematode are not neutrally assembled. Organic fertilizers also altered the diversity of the nematode microbiome, but had no impact on its composition as illustrated by principal coordinates analysis (PCoA). Interestingly, although no change of total ARGs was observed in the nematode microbiome and no significant relationship existed between nematode microbiome and resistome, the abundance of 48 out of a total of 75 ARGs was enriched in the organic fertilizer treatments. Thus, the data suggests that ARGs in the nematode microbiome still had a risk of horizontal gene transfer under fertilization and nematodes might be a potential refuge for ARGs

Reconciling autonomy and beneficence in treatment decision-making for animal patients

This article explores how the concept of consent to medical treatment applies in the veterinary context, and aims to evaluate normative justifications for owner consent to treatment of animal patients. We trace the evolution of the test for valid consent in human health decision-making, against a backdrop of increased recognition of the importance of patient rights and a gradual judicial espousal of a doctrine of informed consent grounded in a particular understanding of autonomy. We argue that, notwithstanding the adoption of a similar discourse of informed consent in professional veterinary codes, notions of autonomy and informed consent are not easily transferrable to the veterinary medicine context, given inter alia the tripartite relationship between veterinary professional, owner and animal patient. We suggest that a more appropriate, albeit inexact, analogy may be drawn with paediatric practice which is premised on a similarly tripartite relationship and where decisions must be reached in the best interests of the child. However, acknowledging the legal status of animals as property and how consent to veterinary treatment is predicated on the animal owner’s willingness and ability to pay, we propose that the appropriate response is for veterinary professionals generally to accept the client’s choice, provided this is informed. Yet such client autonomy must be limited where animal welfare concerns exist, so that beneficence continues to play an important role in the veterinary context. We suggest that this ‘middle road’ should be reflected in professional veterinary guidance

The construction of 'awareness of disability' following traumatic brain injury (TBI) : an investigation into family discourses

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