Interactivity and Reward-Related Neural Activation during a Serious Videogame

This study sought to determine whether playing a “serious” interactive digital game (IDG) – the Re-Mission videogame for cancer patients – activates mesolimbic neural circuits associated with incentive motivation, and if so, whether such effects stem from the participatory aspects of interactive gameplay, or from the complex sensory/perceptual engagement generated by its dynamic event-stream. Healthy undergraduates were randomized to groups in which they were scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) as they either actively played Re-Mission or as they passively observed a gameplay audio-visual stream generated by a yoked active group subject. Onset of interactive game play robustly activated mesolimbic projection regions including the caudate nucleus and nucleus accumbens, as well as a subregion of the parahippocampal gyrus. During interactive gameplay, subjects showed extended activation of the thalamus, anterior insula, putamen, and motor-related regions, accompanied by decreased activation in parietal and medial prefrontal cortex. Offset of interactive gameplay activated the anterior insula and anterior cingulate. Between-group comparisons of within-subject contrasts confirmed that mesolimbic activation was significantly more pronounced in the active playgroup than in the passive exposure control group. Individual difference analyses also found the magnitude of parahippocampal activation following gameplay onset to correlate with positive attitudes toward chemotherapy assessed both at the end of the scanning session and at an unannounced one-month follow-up. These findings suggest that IDG-induced activation of reward-related mesolimbic neural circuits stems primarily from participatory engagement in gameplay (interactivity), rather than from the effects of vivid and dynamic sensory stimulation

"High temperature gas separation membranes in coal gasification"

In this work we investigate the proof of concept of metal (Cobalt) doped silica membranes for H/CO separation in single and multi tube membrane modules, in addition to a membrane reactor (MR) configuration for the high temperature water gas shift (WGS) reaction. The membranes were prepared by a sol-gel process using tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) in ethanol and HO with cobalt nitrate hexahydrate (Co(NO)26HO). The membranes delivered high H/CO single gas selectivity up to 131. A multi tube membrane module was tested up to 300\ua0C and 4 atmospheres for 55 days (1344\ua0hours) for binary feed gas mixtures containing H and CO at 40:60 concentration ratio. The best membrane performance delivered H purity in excess of 98%. For the high temperature water gas shift reaction and a ternary mixture of 40% (H), 40% (CO) and 20% (CO), which is equivalent to 67.5% CO conversion, the membrane delivered a permeate stream containing 92.5% H. The membranes complied with a flux temperature dependency mechanism, as H permeation had a positive energy of activation whilst CO was negative. As a result, H permeation and separation to other gases increased with temperature. In turn, this effect was combined with high CO conversion for the water gas shift reaction, thus allowing for high throughput of H production and separation in a single processing step. The process integration provided by this work is potentially beneficial for the next generation of high temperature processing unit operations in low emissions coal gasification

Acting White: A critical review

The hypothesis of acting White has been heatedly debated and influential over the last 20 years or so in explaining the Black-White test score gap. Recently, economists have joined the debate and started providing new theoretical and empirical analyses of the phenomenon. This paper critically reviews the arguments that have been advanced to support and refute the hypothesis. This review particularly covers the analyses in economics because the economic analyses are relatively new and usually neglected in other disciplines. Also, nationally representative data are emphasized, whenever possible, to improve the generalizability of the arguments. This review concludes that although the analyses in both noneconomics and economics are thought-provoking and compelling in some respect, a substantial body of empirical evidence is inconsistent with the assumptions of and results from the analyses. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010