Spontaneous lucid dreaming frequency and waking insight

Spontaneous lucid dreaming is characterized by the realization that the currently perceived reality is in fact a dream. As this ability differs between individuals, specific cognitive abilities have been sought that might explain this variability. Here, “insight,” a key feature of spontaneous lucid dreaming, is investigated. Frequent, occasional, and nonlucid dreamers were compared on their successful performance of a compound remote associate problem-solving task, designed to measure insight. Results show that frequent lucid dreamers solve significantly more insight problems overall than nonlucid dreamers. This suggests that the insight experienced during the dream state may relate to the same underlying cognition needed for insight in the waking state. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved

Bitangents to plane quartics via tropical geometry: rationality, A1\mathbb{A}^1-enumeration, and real signed count

We explore extensions of tropical methods to arithmetic enumerative problems such as $\mathbb{A}^1$-enumeration with values in the Grothendieck-Witt ring, and rationality over Henselian valued fields, using bitangents to plane quartics as a test case. We consider quartic curves over valued fields whose tropicalizations are smooth and satisfy a mild genericity condition. We then express obstructions to rationality of bitangents and their points of tangency in terms of twisting of edges of the tropicalization; the latter depends only on the tropicalization and the initial coefficients of the defining equation modulo squares. We also show that the GW-multiplicity of a tropical bitangent, i.e., the multiplicity with which its lifts contribute to the $\mathbb{A}^1$-enumeration of bitangents as defined by Larson and Vogt, can be computed from the tropicalization of the quartic together with the initial coefficients of the defining equation. As an application, we show that the four lifts of most tropical bitangent classes contribute $2\mathbb{H}$, twice the class of the hyperbolic plane, to the $\mathbb{A}^1$-enumeration. These results rely on a degeneration theorem relating the Grothendieck-Witt ring of a Henselian valued field to the Grothendieck-Witt ring of its residue field, in residue characteristic not equal to two.Comment: v2: 46 pages + Appendix. Minor revisions, improved exposition. Final version to appear in Res. Math. Sc

Avoidance loci and tropicalizations of real bitangents to plane quartics

We compare two partitions of real bitangents to smooth plane quartics into sets of 4: one coming from the closures of connected components of the avoidance locus and another coming from tropical geometry. When both are defined, we use the Tarski principle for real closed fields in combination with the topology of real plane quartics and the tropical geometry of bitangents and theta characteristics to show that they coincide.Comment: 4 page

A snapshot of biodiversity protection in Antarctica.

Threats to Antarctic biodiversity are escalating, despite its remoteness and protection under the Antarctic Treaty. Increasing human activity, pollution, biological invasions and the omnipresent impacts of climate change all contribute, and often combine, to exert pressure on Antarctic ecosystems and environments. Here we present a continent-wide assessment of terrestrial biodiversity protection in Antarctica. Despite Antarctic Specially Protected Areas covering less than 2% of Antarctica, 44% of species (including seabirds, plants, lichens and invertebrates) are found in one or more protected areas. However, protection is regionally uneven and biased towards easily detectable and charismatic species like seabirds. Systematic processes to prioritize area protection using the best available data will maximize the likelihood of ensuring long-term protection and conservation of Antarctic biodiversity

Addressing and Educating Northwestern Students on White Privilege and Systemic Racism

Systemic racism has been a part of American Culture for hundreds of generations, and while the United States has come a long way since the 17th century, there is still an overwhelming number of racial injustices happening today which go unaddressed. Due to a lack of diverse education, common misconceptions regarding white privilege, systemic racism, and racial injustice are taken as truth. To address these misconceptions and educate individuals, the organizers of this project researched, collaborated, and then hosted a Racial Injustice Prayer Vigil at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa. This Racial Injustice Prayer Vigil had six different stations: Identity, Colorblindness, Prayer, Lament, Information, and Celebration. The purpose of the prayer vigil was to educate Northwestern Students on White Privilege, Systemic Racism, and Racial Injustice, and to have them self-reflect on their own identities. The overall goal of the project was to allow for more informed, meaningful conversations regarding diversity and racial injustice on campus as a way to combat negative misconceptions and promote social change. At the end of the prayer vigil, visitors were asked to fill out a survey with a list of questions regarding their experience. The organizers received primarily positive feedback, with the only critical feedback being more advertising, longer portion of time, and more flow from station to station. Apparent growth was also found in Appendix B which showed an increase in levels before and after the event in regard to their comfortability level participating in racial conversations

The structure and function of entheses and entheses organs

This thesis deals with the structure and innervation of 3 different types of attachments - the fibrous enthesis of the medial collateral ligament, the muscular attachment of the tibialis anterior onto the tibia, and the fibrocartilaginous enthesis organ of the Achilles tendon. Particular attention was paid to the latter and it was shown that in rats at all ages (neonate, 4 week, 4 month, and 2 month) only the retromalleolar fat pad of the enthesis organ was innervated. In the light of these findings, the fat was studied in further detail and an in vitro investigation determined whether nerve fibres are specifically attracted to the adipose tissue. In man, it was confirmed that the equivalent fat pad (Kager's fat pad) was also innervated and a number of anatomical and histopathological observations associated with this tissue in elderly dissecting room cadavers were described.  The relationship between weight, height and foot length with fat pad structure in human cadaveric tissue was investigated, and the effect of the appetite-inducing hormone, ghrelin on the size of the fat pad in the rat was also explored. As entheses are the primary target organs in the seronegative spondyloarthropathies (autoinflammatory rheumatic conditions), the presence of resident and inflammatory macrophages and neutrophils in the rat Achilles tendon enthesis organ was investigated at a variety of ages. Overall, it was concluded that adipose tissue associated with entheses may play a role in proprioception and be a source of pain in enthesopathies.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo