Verbal paired associates and the hippocampus: The role of scenes

It is widely agreed that patients with bilateral hippocampal damage are impaired at binding pairs of words together. Consequently, the verbal paired associates (VPA) task has become emblematic of hippocampal function. This VPA deficit is not well understood and is particularly difficult for hippocampal theories with a visuospatial bias to explain (e.g., cognitive map and scene construction theories). Resolving the tension among hippocampal theories concerning the VPA could be important for leveraging a fuller understanding of hippocampal function. Notably, VPA tasks typically use high imagery concrete words and so conflate imagery and binding. To determine why VPA engages the hippocampus, we devised an fMRI encoding task involving closely matched pairs of scene words, pairs of object words, and pairs of very low imagery abstract words. We found that the anterior hippocampus was engaged during processing of both scene and object word pairs in comparison to abstract word pairs, despite binding occurring in all conditions. This was also the case when just subsequently remembered stimuli were considered. Moreover, for object word pairs, fMRI activity patterns in anterior hippocampus were more similar to those for scene imagery than object imagery. This was especially evident in participants who were high imagery users and not in mid and low imagery users. Overall, our results show that hippocampal engagement during VPA, even when object word pairs are involved, seems to be evoked by scene imagery rather than binding. This may help to resolve the issue that visuospatial hippocampal theories have in accounting for verbal memory

Supporting Second Chances: Employment Strategies for Reentry Programs

The Second Chance Act supports a range of reentry programs around the country, designed to help those returning from jail or prison make a successful transition to life on the outside. In 2008, the Annie E. Casey Foundation commissioned Public/Private Ventures (P/PV) to create a resource that would be useful for Second Chance Act grantees as they develop employment strategies, by distilling lessons from research on a range of employment programs. "Supporting Second Chances" offers concrete suggestions for practitioners, based on a review of relevant literature and P/PV's own extensive experience with reentry and workforce development research and programming. The guide explores strategies in three major areas:Services aimed at helping people find immediate employment;Services that provide paid job experiences to participants; andServices that help people gain occupational skills.For each area, we provide: an overview of the approach, including its history and a brief definition; a high-level summary of the most recent and rigorous research available about the approach; an example of the approach in action; key "takeaways" for Second Chance Act grantees and other programs serving formerly incarcerated individuals; and where to go to learn more.Since the ultimate success of an employment strategy may hinge on a range of additional supports, the guide also features a section called "Beyond Getting a Job," which presents three approaches to help formerly incarcerated individuals get the most out of their paychecks and move into better jobs. The final section synthesizes lessons drawn from across the studies reviewed for the guide

The volumetric rate of calcium-rich transients in the local universe

We present a measurement of the volumetric rate of `calcium-rich' optical transients in the local universe, using a sample of three events from the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF). This measurement builds on a detailed study of the PTF transient detection efficiencies, and uses a Monte Carlo simulation of the PTF survey. We measure the volumetric rate of calcium-rich transients to be higher than previous estimates: $1.21^{+1.13}_{-0.39}\times10^{-5}$ events yr$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-3}$. This is equivalent to 33-94% of the local volumetric type Ia supernova rate. This calcium-rich transient rate is sufficient to reproduce the observed calcium abundances in galaxy clusters, assuming an asymptotic calcium yield per calcium-rich event of ~0.05$\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$. We also study the PTF detection efficiency of these transients as a function of position within their candidate host galaxies. We confirm as a real physical effect previous results that suggest calcium-rich transients prefer large physical offsets from their host galaxies.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 9 pages, 5 figure

Do Small-mass Neutrinos participate in Gauge Transformations?

Neutrino oscillation experiments presently suggest that neutrinos have a small but finite mass. If neutrinos are to have mass, there should be a Lorentz frame in which they can be brought to rest. This paper discusses how Wigner's little groups can be used to distinguish between massive and massless particles. We derive a representation of the SL(2,c) group which separates out the two sets of spinors contained therein. One set is gauge dependent. The other set is gauge-invariant and represents polarized neutrinos. We show that a similar calculation can be done for the Dirac equation. In the large-momentum/zero-mass limit, the Dirac spinors can be separated into large and small components. The large components are gauge invariant, while the small components are not. These small components represent spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ non-zero mass particles. If we renormalize the large components, these gauge invariant spinors again represent the polarization of neutrinos. Massive neutrinos cannot be invariant under gauge transformations.Comment: 15 page

Regulation Fair Disclosure and its Effect on Corporate Information: a Checkup on a Controversial Rule & Content Analysis of Hewlett-Packard News Release Habits

On October 23, 2000, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) instituted Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD), which mandated that all public companies give stock-moving information to all investors simultaneously. What seems simple in concept has actually been difficult for many companies to interpret and has resulted in some falling victim to sanctions from the SEC. Siebel Systems, ImClone Systems, Tyco International, Adelphia Communications and Raytheon are some examples of companies who have recently engaged in corporate fraud that has misled investors. Reg FD is in existence today to stop companies from hand-picking who gets their news first. This study will provide background on Reg FD and what effect it has had on disclosure for publicly held companies, analysts and investor relations professionals. Reg FD is just over six years old - what are the differences since the implementation over the last three years compared with the first three years? Is disclosure of stock-moving news happening with more frequency? This author will take a look at the news release practices of Hewlett Packard and compare what it has done since the inception of Reg FD. This author is in charge of a newsroom in New York for Business Wire - a company that distributes hundreds of news releases on a daily basis. It is that involvement in news distribution over the last 18 years which has motivated the author to focus on this topic

“A Mere Matter of Marching”: US Soldiers on the Niagara Frontier during the War of 1812

The Niagara Frontier was as a primary location for the battles of the War of 1812. Old Fort Niagara, located at the mouth of the Niagara River and Lake Ontario, served as a headquarters for both the Americans and the British military during the war. Archaeological excavations of a soldiers’ barracks at the fort revealed important material evidence for these occupations. This article reviews the ceramics, gun flints, military buttons, and a cap plate recovered from excavations in the summers of 2011 and 2013. This research seeks to distinguish between the American and British occupations of the fort and to better understand the meaning of this material culture to the soldiers living at the fort. The excavations recovered more evidence of the American, rather than the British, occupation of the fort. These excavations reveal the United States’ poor preparation for war along with the lack of adequate and consistent sources of supply

Introduction: Crossing Borders During the War of 1812

Editor\u27s introduction to the special issue on the War of 1812

Bottom-up Development in Haiti

iv, 63 p. : ill., maps ; 28 cm

Encoding of 3D head direction information in the human brain

Head direction cells are critical for navigation because they convey information about which direction an animal is facing within an environment. To date, most studies on head direction encoding have been conducted on a horizontal two-dimensional (2D) plane, and little is known about how three-dimensional (3D) direction information is encoded in the brain despite humans and other animals living in a 3D world. Here, we investigated head direction encoding in the human brain while participants moved within a virtual 3D "spaceship" environment. Movement was not constrained to planes and instead participants could move along all three axes in volumetric space as if in zero gravity. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) multivoxel pattern similarity analysis, we found evidence that the thalamus, particularly the anterior portion, and the subiculum encoded the horizontal component of 3D head direction (azimuth). In contrast, the retrosplenial cortex was significantly more sensitive to the vertical direction (pitch) than to the azimuth. Our results also indicated that vertical direction information in the retrosplenial cortex was significantly correlated with behavioral performance during a direction judgment task. Our findings represent the first evidence showing that the "classic" head direction system that has been identified on a horizontal 2D plane also seems to encode vertical and horizontal heading in 3D space in the human brain