Specific Roles Of Macaque Parietal Regions In Making Saccades And Reaches

A principle task of our brain is to guide movements, includng saccade: fast eye movements) and reaches towards things that we see. Regions in the parietal cortex such as LIP and PRR are active during visually-guided movements. Neurons in these areas respond differentially for saccades versus reaches, but in most parietal areas there is some response: in single unit recording as well as in fMRI imaging) with either type of movement. This raises an important question. What is the functional significance of the neuronal activity in parietal areas? Recording and imaging studies can only show correlations; causal roles must be inferred. The activity in any particular area could reflect where the subject\u27s spatial attention is directed, without regard for what behavior the subject will perform. Stronger activity in one task compared to another could reflect differential allocation of attention. For example, we might attend more strongly to a target for an eye movement than to a target for an arm movement, or vice versa. Alternatively, might play a causal role in driving only one type of movement. In this case, the weaker activity evoked during a different type of movement might serve no purpose at all; it might represent a contingency plan to perform the non-selected movement; or it might be serve some other function unrelated to the specific movement - for example, weak saccade-related activity in an area with strong arm movement related signals might support play no role in driving eye movements, but instead provide timing information to the reaching system to support eye-hand coordination. To help resolve this mystery, we used an interventional approach. We asked what happens to reaches and saccades when we reversibly lesioned specific areas in the monkey parietal cortex. In order to establish what brain regions were affected in each inactivation experiment, we developed a novel technique to image the location of the lesions in vivo. The results of this causal manipulation were clear: LIP lesions delay the initiation of saccades and have no effect on reaches, while PRR lesions delay the initiation of reaches and have no effect on saccades. We obtained further evidence for a more motoric role for parietal areas than previously suspected. PRR was active for reaches of only the contralateral arm, aimed at targets in either hemisphere - similar to the typical profiles of motor but not visual sensory areas. Interestingly, LIP lesions did influence reaches, but only when the animals were allowed to first look at the target before reaching for it. We believe that in this case, the reaching movement waits for the saccade system, and so the direct effect of the lesion on the saccades has an indirect effect on the reaches. These results are important for several reasons. First, they resolve a long-standing debate regarding the functional specificity of parietal areas with regard to particular movements and attention. They provide new information on the circuits guiding eye movements, arm movements and eye-hand coordination. Finally, our results underscore the fact that measurements of neuronal activity can be misleading, and are only one of several tools that must be used in order to understand brain function

En god og en dårlig nyhet: Om DNAs effekt på oppklaringsprosenten i vinningssaker

Nordisk politiforskning er et Open Access-tidsskrift. Hele tidsskriftet er tilgjengelig på Idunn: https://www.idunn.no/nordisk_politiforskning/2016/01The expansion of the Norwegian DNA database in 2008, the so called «DNA reform», was founded on the belief that DNA increases the detection rate of volume crime significantly. We have conducted a study of Norwegian police registers to see what effects DNA actually has on detection rates in volume crime. The good news is that there is little doubt that DNA affects the detection rate. The overall detection rate for the criminal offenses we have studied in our selected police districts in the selected period was 8 %. In cases with a DNA profile the detection rate was 44 %. In cases with hits against the DNA identity register the detection rate was 81%, and in cases with hits against the DNA investigation register the detection rate was 62 %. However, the bad news is the very low proportion of cases where police gather biological samples which result in a DNA-profile and hits. This implies that no matter how high the detection rate is in cases with DNA profile, it will not affect the overall detection rate

En god og en dårlig nyhet: Om DNAs effekt på oppklaringsprosenten i vinningssaker

Nordisk politiforskning er et Open Access-tidsskrift. Hele tidsskriftet er tilgjengelig på Idunn: https://www.idunn.no/nordisk_politiforskning/2016/01The expansion of the Norwegian DNA database in 2008, the so called «DNA reform», was founded on the belief that DNA increases the detection rate of volume crime significantly. We have conducted a study of Norwegian police registers to see what effects DNA actually has on detection rates in volume crime. The good news is that there is little doubt that DNA affects the detection rate. The overall detection rate for the criminal offenses we have studied in our selected police districts in the selected period was 8 %. In cases with a DNA profile the detection rate was 44 %. In cases with hits against the DNA identity register the detection rate was 81%, and in cases with hits against the DNA investigation register the detection rate was 62 %. However, the bad news is the very low proportion of cases where police gather biological samples which result in a DNA-profile and hits. This implies that no matter how high the detection rate is in cases with DNA profile, it will not affect the overall detection rate

Is local always best? Social acceptance of small hydropower projects in Norway.

Small-scale development of renewable energy has been identified as one possible solution to meet future energy needs and is well aligned with the general European trend towards further development of community energy projects. Increased local energy production will move energy plants closer to habitation, placing aspects related to social acceptance at the center stage [1, 2]. Until recently, small hydro power [3] projects in Norway have been owned by local farmers and others with property rights to rivers. As the profitability of these projects has decreased, international investors have taken interest in SHP projects as part of their long-term investment strategy. In this paper, we study what influences social acceptance of SHP projects in Norway based on interviews and qualitative data from different SHP projects in Norway. We find that community energy projects often are attributed positive qualities when ownership is local. Thus, we argue that there is a need to consider more thoroughly how to organize ownership of small-scale renewables in the future, if it is to uphold its position as a popular and viable solution to meet future energy needs [3]

Ambient aerosol concentrations of sugars and sugar-alcohols at four different sites in Norway

International audienceSugars and sugar-alcohols are demonstrated to be important constituents of the ambient aerosol water-soluble organic carbon fraction, and to be tracers for primary biological aerosol particles (PBAP). In the present study, levels of four sugars (fructose, glucose, sucrose, trehalose) and three sugar-alcohols (arabitol, inositol, mannitol) in ambient aerosols have been quantified using a novel HPLC/HRMS-TOF (High Performance Liquid Chromatography in combination with High Resolution Mass Spectrometry ? Time of Flight) method to assess the contribution of PBAP to PM>sub>10 and PM2.5. Samples were collected at four sites in Norway at different times of the year in order to reflect the various contributing sources and the spatial and seasonal variation of the selected compounds. Sugars and sugar-alcohols were present at all sites investigated, underlining the ubiquity of these highly polar organic compounds. The highest concentrations were reported for sucrose, reaching a maximum concentration of 320 ng m?3 in PM10 and 55 ng m?3 in PM2.5. The mean concentration of sucrose was up to 10 times higher than fructose, glucose and the dimeric sugar trehalose. The mean concentrations of the sugar-alcohols were typically lower, or equal, to that of the monomeric sugars and trehalose. Peak concentrations of arabitol and mannitol did not exceed 30 ng m?3 in PM10, and for PM2.5 all concentrations were below 6 ng m?3. Sugars and sugar-alcohols were associated primarily with coarse aerosols except during wintertime at the suburban site in Elverum, where a shift towards sub micron aerosols was observed. It is proposed that this shift was due to the intensive use of wood burning for residential heating at this site during winter, confirmed by high concurrent concentrations of levoglucosan. Elevated concentrations of sugars in PM2.5 were observed during spring and early summer at the rural background site Birkenes. It is hypothesized that this was due to ruptured pollen

Baby Can\u27t Wait

https://digitalcommons.psjhealth.org/summit_all/1069/thumbnail.jp

Peter Wessel Zapffes evolutionary existentialism

Målet med denne avhandlingen er å begrunne påstanden om at Peter Wessel Zapffes filosofi markerer en original og distinkt retning innen den pessimistiske tradisjonen. En retning jeg vil kalle for evolusjonær eksistensialisme. Jeg vil vise hvordan hans biologiske metode finner frem til et fundamentalt prinsipp i mennesket, som viser at vi har evner som ikke er egnet til miljøet vi er endel av, og som fører til Zapffes antinatale konklusjon. Ved trekke inn tenkere som Arthur Schopenhauer og Friedrich Nietzsche, så vil jeg vise at det ikke er viljen, men våre egenskaper i kraft av å være menneske, som fører til den pessimistiske vurderingen av livet. Jeg vil deretter vise at i sammenligning med moderne antinatalisme, som vi eksempelvis finner i David Benatar, så gir Zapffe en bedre og sterkere begrunnelse for sin konklusjon. Etter min mening gir Zapffe sitt evolusjonære perspektiv på spørsmålet om hva det betyr å være menneske, en korrelasjon mellom filosofisk prinsipp og etiske konklusjon som han står alene om å ha.My objective for this dissertation is to derive and justify my thesis that Peter Wessel Zapffe marks an original and distinct direction within the pessimistic tradition I call evolutionary existentialism. I intend to show that his biological method points to a fundamental principle in man that show that the species´ characteristics are unsuitable for the environment it is part of and, that leads Zapffe to the anti-natal conclusion. By including thinkers like Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche I will point out there is not the will, but human characteristics that lead to a negative assessment of life as a whole. I will use David Benatar to show that even in light of modern anti-natal theories, Zapffe still show us a deeper and stronger reason for his decision. By doing this, I hope to be able to assert that Zapffe´s evolutionary perspective on the question of what it means to be human, gives him a correlation between philosophical principles and ethical conclusion as he stands alone in having.Filosofi mastergradsoppgaveMAHF-FILOFILO35

An optimised organic carbon ∕ elemental carbon (OC ∕ EC) fraction separation method for radiocarbon source apportionment applied to low-loaded Arctic aerosol filters

Radiocarbon (14C) analysis of carbonaceous aerosols is used for source apportionment, separating the carbon content into fossil vs. non-fossil origin, and is particularly useful when applied to subfractions of total carbon (TC), i.e. elemental carbon (EC), organic carbon (OC), water-soluble OC (WSOC), and water-insoluble OC (WINSOC). However, this requires an unbiased physical separation of these fractions, which is difficult to achieve. Separation of EC from OC using thermal–optical analysis (TOA) can cause EC loss during the OC removal step and form artificial EC from pyrolysis of OC (i.e. so-called charring), both distorting the 14C analysis of EC. Previous work has shown that water extraction reduces charring. Here, we apply a new combination of a WSOC extraction and 14C analysis method with an optimised OC/EC separation that is coupled with a novel approach of thermal-desorption modelling for compensation of EC losses. As water-soluble components promote the formation of pyrolytic carbon, water extraction was used to minimise the charring artefact of EC and the eluate subjected to chemical wet oxidation to CO2 before direct 14C analysis in a gas-accepting accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS). This approach was applied to 13 aerosol filter samples collected at the Arctic Zeppelin Observatory (Svalbard) in 2017 and 2018, covering all seasons, which bear challenges for a simplified 14C source apportionment due to their low loading and the large portion of pyrolysable species. Our approach provided a mean EC yield of 0:87±0:07 and reduced the charring to 6.5% of the recovered EC amounts. The mean fraction modern (F14C) over all seasons was 0.85±0.17 for TC; 0.61±0.17 and 0.66±0.16 for EC bebefore and after correction with the thermal-desorption model, respectively; and 0.81±0.20 for WSOC

Carbonaceous aerosols in Norwegian urban areas

Little is known regarding levels and source strength of carbonaceous aerosols in Scandinavia. In the present study, ambient aerosol (PM<sub>10</sub> and PM<sub>2.5</sub>) concentrations of elemental carbon (EC), organic carbon (OC), water-insoluble organic carbon (WINSOC), and water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) are reported for a curbside site, an urban background site, and a suburban site in Norway in order to investigate their spatial and seasonal variations. Aerosol filter samples were collected using tandem filter sampling to correct for the positive sampling artefact introduced by volatile and semivolatile OC. Analyses were performed using the thermal optical transmission (TOT) instrument from Sunset Lab Inc., which corrects for charring during analysis. Finally, we estimated the relative contribution of OC from wood burning based on the samples content of levoglucosan. <br><br> Levels of EC varied by more than one order of magnitude between sites, likely due to the higher impact of vehicular traffic at the curbside and the urban background sites. In winter, the level of particulate organic carbon (OC<sub><i>p</i></sub>) at the suburban site was equal to (for PM<sub>10</sub>) or even higher (for PM<sub>2.5</sub>) than the levels observed at the curbside and the urban background sites. This finding was attributed to the impact of residential wood burning at the suburban site in winter, which was confirmed by a high mean concentration of levoglucosan (407 ng m<sup>−3</sup>). This finding indicates that exposure to primary combustion derived OC<sub><i>p</i></sub> could be equally high in residential areas as in a city center. It is demonstrated that OC<sub><i>p</i></sub> from wood burning (OC<sub>wood</sub>) accounted for almost all OC<sub><i>p</i></sub> at the suburban site in winter, allowing a new estimate of the ratio TC<sub><i>p</i></sub>/levoglucosan for both PM<sub>10</sub> and PM<sub>2.5</sub>. Particulate carbonaceous material (PCM=Organic matter+Elemental matter) accounted for 46–83% of PM<sub>10</sub> at the sites studied, thus being the major fraction