A link between attentional function, effective eye movements, and driving ability

The misallocation of driver visual attention has been suggested as a major contributing factor to vehicle accidents. One possible reason is that the relatively high cognitive demands of driving limits the ability to efficiently allocate gaze. We present an experiment that explores the relationship between attentional function and visual performance when driving. Drivers performed two variations of a multiple object tracking task targeting aspects of cognition including sustained attention, dual-tasking, covert attention and visuomotor skill. They also drove a number of courses in a driving simulator. Eye movements were recorded throughout. We found that individuals who performed better in the cognitive tasks exhibited more effective eye movement strategies when driving, such as scanning more of the road, and they also exhibited better driving performance. We discuss the potential link between an individual's attentional function, effective eye movements and driving ability. We also discuss the use of a visuomotor task in assessing driving behaviour

Retardation of atherosclerosis in immunocompetent apolipoprotein (apo) E-deficient mice followingliver-directed administration of a [E1-, E3-,polymerase-] adenovirus vector containing the elongation factor-1a promoter driving expression of human apoE cDNA

Although gene transfer of human apolipoprotein E (apoE), a 34-kDa circulating glycoprotein, to the liver of apoEdeficient(apoE-/-) mice using recombinant adenoviral vectors (rAd) is antiatherogenic, its full therapeutic potentialhas yet to be realized. First generation vectors led to immune clearance of transduced hepatocytes, while animproved vector with adenovirus regions E1, E3 and DNA polymerase deleted also had transient effects due tocellular shutdown of the cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter. Here, we have studied an alternative promoter from thecellular elongation factor 1a (EF-1a) gene, injecting 6-8 week old apoE-/- mice intravenously with 2x1010 virusparticles (vp) of the [E1-, E3-, polymerase-] rAd vector Ad-EF1·-apoE. Plasma apoE levels were low (18-55 ng/ml)and failed to reduce plasma cholesterol or normalize the adverse lipoprotein profile. By contrast, thehyperlipidaemic phenotype of apoE-/- mice treated with Ad-CMV-apoE (2x1010 vp) was transiently normalized.Nevertheless, at termination (265 days) the aortic lesion areas in animals given Ad-EF1·-apoE were significantlyreduced by 15% (P<0.05) compared to untreated animals, a decrease approaching that in Ad-CMV-apoE-treatedmice (23%; P<0.02). Importantly, the attenuation of apoE transgene expression noted with the CMV promoter wasabsent with the EF-1a promoter, which gave relatively sustained, albeit low, levels of plasma apoE throughout thestudy period

Graphene films printable on flexible substrates for sensor applications

Fifteen-layered graphene films have been successfully deposited onto flexible substrates using a commercial ink consisting of graphene particles dispersed in an acrylic polymer binder. A value of 74.9 × 105cm−2 was obtained for the density of defects, primarily located at the flake edges, from the ratio of the D and G Raman peaks located at 1345cm1 and 1575cm1 respectively. 0.5μm thick drop-cast films on interdigitated silver electrodes exhibited Ohmic conduction with a small activation energy of 12meV over the temperature range from 260K to 330K . The photo-thermoelectric effect is believed to be responsible for photoconduction through graphene films under illumination intensity of 10mWm-2 at 270 nm, corresponding to the UV absorption peak. The photo-transient decay at the bias of 1V involves two relaxation processes when the illumination is switched off and values of 8.9 × 103 and 4.3 × 104 are found for the relaxation time constant using the Kohlrauch stretched exponential function analysis.Dr. Indrani Banerjee is grateful to Commonwealth Association, UK for funding the present research work under the fellowship placement scheme (Grant reference INCF-2014-66). The studentship of Ms Faris is partially sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Air Force Material Command, USAF, under Grant No. FA9550-15-1-0123. We are also thankful to Miss V. M. Torrejon of Brunel University for support in computer graphics

Correction: Detecting antimicrobial resistance in Escherichia coli using benchtop attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and machine learning.

Correction for 'Detecting antimicrobial resistance in Escherichia coli using benchtop attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and machine learning' by Hewa G. S. Wijesinghe et al., Analyst, 2021, DOI: 10.1039/d1an00546d

Analisa Sistem Pengendalian Internal Terhadap Proses Keluar-Masuk Barang Pada Perusahaan Logistik Departemen Gudang Studi Pada Pt Cipta Krida Bahari .

Tujuan dilakukan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui apakah praktek sistem informasi yang berjalan sudah sesuai dengan prosedur yang telah ditetapkan perusahaan, dan untuk mengetahui faktor- faktor yang dapat mempengaruhi lead time proses keluar masuk barang. Metode yang dilakukan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode deskriptif analisis, yaitu metode yang bertujuan untuk menggambarkan perusahaan berdasarkan kenyataan yang sesungguhnya terjadi di dalam perusahaan. Adapun data yang diperlukan dalam penelitian ini meliputi standard operasional prosedur (SOP), flow chart , aplikasi yang berhubungan dengan sistem informasi akuntansi khususnya pada proses serah-terima barang di PT Cipta krida Bahari Departemen Gudang cabang Surabaya. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian dan pembahasan, dapat disimpulkan bahwa proses keluar-masuk barang pada PT CKB cabang Surabaya sudah memenuhi standard yang telah ditetapkan oleh perusahaan. Faktor internal yang mempengaruhi lead time proses keluar masuk barang diantaraya kurangnya komunikasi antar warehouseman, permintaan muat barang yang tidak melalui admin gudang, dan adanya kesalahan update pada data outstanding. Sedangkan mendapatkan tally sheet tungya, checker dan operator forklift yang pemilih

Greater than the parts: a review of the information decomposition approach to causal emergence.

Emergence is a profound subject that straddles many scientific disciplines, including the formation of galaxies and how consciousness arises from the collective activity of neurons. Despite the broad interest that exists on this concept, the study of emergence has suffered from a lack of formalisms that could be used to guide discussions and advance theories. Here, we summarize, elaborate on, and extend a recent formal theory of causal emergence based on information decomposition, which is quantifiable and amenable to empirical testing. This theory relates emergence with information about a system's temporal evolution that cannot be obtained from the parts of the system separately. This article provides an accessible but rigorous introduction to the framework, discussing the merits of the approach in various scenarios of interest. We also discuss several interpretation issues and potential misunderstandings, while highlighting the distinctive benefits of this formalism. This article is part of the theme issue 'Emergent phenomena in complex physical and socio-technical systems: from cells to societies'

Spectrally and temporally resolved estimation of neural signal diversity

Quantifying the complexity of neural activity has provided fundamental insights into cognition, consciousness, and clinical conditions. However, the most widely used approach to estimate the complexity of neural dynamics, Lempel-Ziv complexity (LZ), has fundamental limitations that substantially restrict its domain of applicability. In this article we leverage the information-theoretic foundations of LZ to overcome these limitations by introducing a complexity estimator based on state-space models — which we dub Complexity via State-space Entropy Rate (CSER). While having a performance equivalent to LZ in discriminating states of consciousness, CSER boasts two crucial advantages: 1) CSER offers a principled decomposition into spectral components, which allows us to rigorously investigate the relationship between complexity and spectral power; and 2) CSER provides a temporal resolution two orders of magnitude better than LZ, which allows complexity analyses of e.g. event-locked neural signals. As a proof of principle, we use MEG, EEG and ECoG datasets of humans and monkeys to show that CSER identifies the gamma band as the main driver of complexity changes across states of consciousness; and reveals early entropy increases that precede the standard ERP in an auditory mismatch negativity paradigm by approximately 20ms. Overall, by overcoming the main limitations of LZ and substantially extending its range of applicability, CSER opens the door to novel investigations on the fine-grained spectral and temporal structure of the signal complexity associated with cognitive processes and conscious states

Exploring the characteristics and most bothersome symptoms in MECP2 duplication syndrome to pave the path toward developing parent-oriented outcome measures

BACKGROUND: MECP2 Duplication Syndrome (MDS), resulting from the duplication of Xq28 region, including MECP2, is a rare disorder with a nascent understanding in clinical features and severity. Studies using antisense oligonucleotides revealed a broad phenotypic rescue in transgenic mice. With human clinical trials on the horizon, there is a need to develop clinical outcome measures for MDS. METHODS: We surveyed caregivers of MDS individuals to explore the frequency and severity of MDS clinical features, and identify the most meaningful symptoms/domains that need to be included in the outcome measure scales. RESULTS: A total of 101 responses were eligible for the survey. The top six most meaningful symptoms to caregivers in descending order included epilepsy, gross motor, fine motor, communication, infection, and constipation problems. Epilepsy was present in 58.4% of the subjects and 75% were drug‐resistant, Furthermore, ~12% required intensive care unit (ICU) admission. Infections were present in 55% of the subjects, and one‐fourth of them required ICU admission. Constipation was present in ~85% of the subjects and one‐third required enemas/suppositories. CONCLUSION: Our study is one of the largest cohorts conducted on MDS individuals characterizing the frequency and severity of MDS symptoms. Additionally, these study results will contribute to establishing a foundation to develop parent‐reported outcomes in MDS

Psychedelics and schizophrenia: Distinct alterations to Bayesian inference

Schizophrenia and states induced by certain psychotomimetic drugs may share some physiological and phenomenological properties, but they differ in fundamental ways: one is a crippling chronic mental disease, while the others are temporary, pharmacologically-induced states presently being explored as treatments for mental illnesses. Building towards a deeper understanding of these different alterations of normal consciousness, here we compare the changes in neural dynamics induced by LSD and ketamine (in healthy volunteers) against those associated with schizophrenia, as observed in resting-state M/EEG recordings. While both conditions exhibit increased neural signal diversity, our findings reveal that this is accompanied by an increased transfer entropy from the front to the back of the brain in schizophrenia, versus an overall reduction under the two drugs. Furthermore, we show that these effects can be reproduced via different alterations of standard Bayesian inference applied on a computational model based on the predictive processing framework. In particular, the effects observed under the drugs are modelled as a reduction of the precision of the priors, while the effects of schizophrenia correspond to an increased precision of sensory information. These findings shed new light on the similarities and differences between schizophrenia and two psychotomimetic drug states, and have potential implications for the study of consciousness and future mental health treatments