Dry season rice varieties for the Ord River Valley

PREVIOUS experimental work at the Kimberley Research Station (Langfield 1961) showed that, in general, indica varieties of rice are best adapted for wet-season sowing and japonica varieties for dry-season sowing. This article gives the results of three rice variety and time of planting experiments carried out at Kimberley Research Station in the I960, 1961, and 1962 dry seasons. The recommendation is to sow the variety Caloro during May

Phosphate requirements of rice in the Ord River Valley

A three-year experiment on the initial and maintenance phosphate requirements of wet-season rice was carried out at Kimberley Research Station between 1960 and 1963. Application of 2 cwt. per acre superphosphate as the first application on new land, followed by annual application of 1J cwt. per acre is recommended

How to assess the existence of competing strategies in cognitive tasks: a primer on the fixed-point property

When multiple strategies can be used to solve a type of problem, the observed response time distributions are often mixtures of multiple underlying base distributions each representing one of these strategies. For the case of two possible strategies, the observed response time distributions obey the fixed-point property. That is, there exists one reaction time that has the same probability of being observed irrespective of the actual mixture proportion of each strategy. In this paper we discuss how to compute this fixed-point, and how to statistically assess the probability that indeed the observed response times are generated by two competing strategies. Accompanying this paper is a free R package that can be used to compute and test the presence or absence of the fixed-point property in response time data, allowing for easy to use tests of strategic behavior

Inducible ablation of mouse Langerhans cells diminishes but fails to abrogate contact hypersensitivity

Langerhans cells (LC) form a unique subset of dendritic cells (DC) in the epidermis but so far their in vivo functions in skin immunity and tolerance could not be determined, in particular in relation to dermal DC (dDC). Here, we exploit a novel diphtheria toxin (DT) receptor (DTR)/DT-based system to achieve inducible ablation of LC without affecting the skin environment. Within 24 h after intra-peritoneal injection of DT into Langerin-DTR mice LC are completely depleted from the epidermis and only begin to return 4 wk later. LC deletion occurs by apoptosis in the absence of inflammation and, in particular, the dDC compartment is not affected. In LC-depleted mice contact hypersensitivity (CHS) responses are significantly decreased, although ear swelling still occurs indicating that dDC can mediate CHS when necessary. Our results establish Langerin-DTR mice as a unique tool to study LC function in the steady state and to explore their relative importance compared with dDC in orchestrating skin immunity and toleranc

Same-sex and different-sex parent households and child health outcomes:Findings from the national survey of children's health

Objective: Using the 2011–2012 National Survey of Children's Health data set, we compared spouse/partner relationships and parent-child relationships (family relationships), parenting stress, and children's general health, emotional difficulties, coping behavior, and learning behavior (child outcomes) in households of same-sex (female) versus different-sex continuously coupled parents with biological offspring. We assessed whether associations among family relationships, parenting stress, and child outcomes were different in the 2 household types. Methods: Parental and child characteristics were matched for 95 female same-sex parent and 95 different-sex parent households with children 6 to 17 years old. One parent per household was interviewed by telephone. Multivariate analyses of variance and multiple linear regressions were conducted. Results: No differences were observed between household types on family relationships or any child outcomes. Same-sex parent households scored higher on parenting stress (95% confidence interval = 2.03–2.30) than different-sex parent households (95% confidence interval = 1.76–2.03), p = .006. No significant interactions between household type and family relationships or household type and parenting stress were found for any child outcomes. Conclusion: Children with female same-sex parents and different-sex parents demonstrated no differences in outcomes, despite female same-sex parents reporting more parenting stress. Future studies may reveal the sources of this parenting stress

Neural Repetition Suppression Modulates Time Perception:Evidence From Electrophysiology and Pupillometry

Human time perception is malleable and subject to many biases. For example, it has repeatedly been shown that stimuli that are physically intense or that are unexpected seem to last longer. Two competing hypotheses have been proposed to account for such biases: One states that these temporal illusions are the result of increased levels of arousal that speeds up neural clock dynamics, whereas the alternative "magnitude coding" account states that the magnitude of sensory responses causally modulates perceived durations. Common experimental paradigms used to study temporal biases cannot dissociate between these accounts, as arousal and sensory magnitude covary and modulate each other. Here, we present two temporal discrimination experiments where two flashing stimuli demarcated the start and end of a to-be-timed interval. These stimuli could be either in the same or a different location, which led to different sensory responses because of neural repetition suppression. Crucially, changes and repetitions were fully predictable, which allowed us to explore effects of sensory response magnitude without changes in arousal or surprise. Intervals with changing markers were perceived as lasting longer than those with repeating markers. We measured EEG (Experiment 1) and pupil size (Experiment 2) and found that temporal perception was related to changes in ERPs (P2) and pupil constriction, both of which have been related to responses in the sensory cortex. Conversely, correlates of surprise and arousal (P3 amplitude and pupil dilation) were unaffected by stimulus repetitions and changes. These results demonstrate, for the first time, that sensory magnitude affects time perception even under constant levels of arousal