Manipulating Paradigm and Attention via a Mindfulness Meditation Training Program Improves P300-Based BCI.

To date, only one study has situationally bolstered attentional resources in an effort to improve P300-BCI performance. The current study implements a 4-week Mindfulness Meditation Training Program (MMTP) as a nonmedicinal means to increase concentrative attention and to reduce lapses of attention; MMTP is expected to improve P300-BCI performance by enhancing attentional resources and reducing distractibility. A second aim is to test the efficacy of the checkerboard paradigm (CBP) against the standard row-column paradigm (RCP). Online results show that MMTP had greater accuracies than CTRL and that CBP outperformed the RCP. MMTP participants provided greater amplitude positive target responses, but these differences were not statistically significant. CBP had greater positive amplitude peaks and negative peaks than RCP. The discussion focuses on potential benefits of MMTP for P300-based BCIs, provides further support for the construct validity of mindfulness, and addresses future directions of the translational applicability of MMTP to in-home settings

Rapid Savanna Response to Changing Precipitation Intensity

As the atmosphere warms, precipitation events are likely to become less frequent but more intense. While extensive efforts have been made to understand how changes in mean annual precipitation will affect plant growth, particularly in semi-arid systems, relatively little is known about how increasing precipitation intensity will affect plant growth and hydrologic cycles. A recent study by Kulmatiski and Beard (2013) found that small increases in precipitation intensity increased woody plant growth and decreased grass growth in a three-year experiment in a savanna system, Kruger National Park. Here we report results from the following two years of that experiment. Due to naturally large precipitation events, plant available water was similar between treatment and control plots in the last two years of the study allowing us to test woody plant and grass responses to treatment removal (i.e., legacy effects). Treatment effects on grass and tree growth disappeared within months of treatment removal. However, due to a legacy effect of treatments, tree mass was greater in treatment that control plots at the end of the experiment. Measurements of root recruitment and hydrological tracer uptake, but not root volume helped explain plant growth responses to treatments. Results suggest that savanna plants respond rapidly to changes in precipitation intensity, but because of legacy effects, occasional increases in precipitation intensity can result in long-term shrub encroachment

Integrating Mindfulness and Character Strengths for Improved Well-Being, Stress, and Relationships: : A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Mindfulness-Based Strengths Practice

The integration of mindfulness and character strengths is an emerging area of research and practice. The evidence-based, 8-week program, Mindfulness-Based Strengths Practice (MBSP) represents a unique approach in that the starting point and focus is on what is best in human beings – their character strengths. These qualities are then leveraged to improve one’s meditation practice or area of mindful living (referred to as “strong mindfulness”) and in turn, mindfulness is used as a lens for deepening awareness and use of strengths (referred to as “mindful strengths use”). While early controlled studies find MBSP to elicit well-being and reduce stress, and find it to be superior to popular mindfulness programs for different outcomes, we are not aware of any published qualitative analyses examining the MBSP participant’s experience. This study offers insights from a large international sample and extends the empirical data on MBSP, including the novel finding of benefit for building positive relationships, as well as confirming other findings such as the most common obstacles people confront in mindfulness practices. Additional areas discussed using qualitative and quantitative findings include the most beneficial mindfulness/character strengths practices, the use of inward and outward-oriented practices, cognizance of the integration of mindfulness and character strengths, and self-reported positive outcomes, including substantial benefits to stress and problem management and boosts to meaning, purpose, engagement, accomplishment, and sense of self

Differential Tissue Response to Growth Hormone in Mice

Growth hormone (GH) has been shown to act directly on multiple tissues throughout the body. Historically, it was believed that GH acted directly in the liver and only indirectly in other tissues via insulin‐like growth hormone 1 (IGF‐1). Despite extensive work to describe GH action in individual tissues, a comparative analysis of acute GH signaling in key metabolic tissues has not been performed. Herein, we address this knowledge gap. Acute tissue response to human recombinant GH was assessed in mice by measuring signaling via phospho‐STAT5 immunoblotting. STAT5 activation is an easily and reliably detected early marker of GH receptor engagement. We found differential tissue sensitivities; liver and kidney were equally GH‐sensitive and more sensitive than white adipose tissue, heart, and muscle (gastrocnemius). Gastrocnemius had the greatest maximal response compared to heart, liver, white adipose tissue, and whole kidney. Differences in maximum responsiveness were positively correlated with tissue STAT5 abundance, while differences in sensitivity were not explained by differences in GH receptor levels. Thus, GH sensitivity and responsiveness of distinct metabolic tissues differ and may impact physiology and disease

Grocery Outlet Bargain Market II

The US food retail sector is discussed, and how Grocery Bargain Markets fits within that sector. Growth and expansion plans are discussed, with emphasis on the growing Hispanic market in the Los Angeles area

Northern Red-Bellied Cooter Conservation

https://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/gps-posters/1612/thumbnail.jp

A kinetic energy based rheology for granular materials

Granular materials represent the most abundant form of matter on earth and are most simply described as a collection of a large numbers of interacting solid particulates (often referred to as grains or simply particles). Such materials are represented in the construction industry (e.g. concrete powder), as powders in the pharmaceutical industry and make up a large proportion of agricultural processing. Beyond industrial motivations, countless natural phenomena are manifested as granular materials/flows, such as avalanches, volcanic eruptions and landslides. Evidently, the ubiquity of granular materials means that being able to predict their rheological properties is essential for both optimising industrial processes and understanding important natural phenomena. In this thesis, the canonical micro-to-macro transition is followed, primarily, in the context of non-spherical particles using the Multi-Sphere Discrete Element Method (MS-DEM). A brief overview of the motivations of this thesis, as well as a cursory introduction to some of the most important concepts explored is provided in Chapter 1. In Chapter 2, the validity of contact models used for the MS-DEM is investigated. Five sources of critical error are identified, three errors are found to be algorithmic in nature, with two shown to occur due to erroneous fundamental physics. Interestingly, the foundational source of error is independent of the contact model, making the findings in Chapter 2 applicable to a wide range of problems. All of the errors are shown to be rectified with the proposals put forward in Chapter 2 and should substantially improve the quality of not only MS-DEM simulations, but related methods for simulating non-spherical particles. In Chapter 3, Lees-Edwards boundary conditions are implemented for the MS-DEM. It is shown that a traditional approach to implementing Lees-Edwards conditions will result in significant microstructural and macroscopic errors when using the MS-DEM. By proposing a new algorithm, Lees-Edwards conditions are successfully implemented for the MS-DEM, allowing one to perform accurate simulations of large strain simple shear flows to study the rheology of non-spherical particulate systems. In Chapters 4 to 6, a new kinetic energy based dimensionless number is proposed, which is shown to form a power-law relationship with the inertial number. Extensive volume-controlled discrete element method simulations show that this power law scaling successfully collapses simple shear flow data, spanning from dilute systems to beyond the jamming point. The constitutive equations derived from this scaling are valid across a broad range of inter-particle friction coefficients and are insensitive to finite stiffness effects. Additionally, the constitutive equations remain valid for highly dilute systems, a wide range of restitution coefficient as well as for elongated particles. Moreover, it is also shown that the traditional µ(I) rheology can be recovered from the proposed framework. An extensive analysis of the differences between the granular kinetic energy and temperature is then performed to understand the utility of the kinetic energy for constitutive modelling. Finally, a brief summary of the findings in this thesis and suggestions for future work are provided in Chapter 7

Attitude Control Systems

Attitude control systems play an integral role in many modern technologies. This project develops and inspects an autonomous attitude control system for an underwater vehicle. Throughout the project, an understanding of the fundamentals of attitude control and an appreciation for the complexity involved in a relatively simple, yet comprehensive, operational system were achieved. More specifically, the mathematic expressions, computer programs, and physical variables and components, along with the interactions between elements of the system, were extensively studied