Examining Cardiac and Behavioral Responses in a Modality Dominance Task

The current study examined cardiac and behavioral responsesto changing auditory and visual information while usingmodified oddball tasks. When instructed to press the samebutton for auditory and visual oddballs, auditory dominancewas found with cross-modal presentation slowing downvisual response times and decreasing visual accuracy. Wheninstructed to make separate responses to auditory and visualoddballs, visual dominance was found with cross-modalpresentation slowing down response times and decreasingauditory accuracy. However, examination of cardiacresponses that were time-locked to stimulus onset show cross-modal facilitation effects, with discrimination of oddballs andstandards occurring earlier in the course of processing in thecross-modal condition than in the unimodal conditions. Thesefindings shed light on potential mechanisms underlyingmodality dominance effects and have implications on tasksthat require simultaneous processing of auditory and visualinformation

A comparison of plot-based satellite and Earth system model estimates of tropical forest net primary production

Net primary production (NPP) by plants represents the largest annual flux of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere to the terrestrial biosphere, playing a critical role in the global carbon (C) cycle and the Earth’s climate. Rates of NPP in tropical forests are thought to be among the highest on Earth, but debates about the magnitude, patterns, and controls of NPP in the tropics highlight uncertainty in our understanding of how tropical forests may respond to environmental change. Here, we compared tropical NPP estimates generated using three common approaches: (1) field-based methods scaled from plot-level measurements of plant biomass, (2) radiation-based methods that model NPP from satellite-derived radiation absorption by plants, (3) and biogeochemical model-based methods. For undisturbed tropical forests as a whole, the three methods produced similar NPP estimates (i.e. about 10 Pg C yr1). However, the three different approaches produced vastly different patterns of NPP both in space and through time, suggesting that our understanding of tropical NPP is poor and that our ability to predict the response of NPP in the tropics to environmental change is limited. To address this shortcoming, we suggest the development of an expanded, high-density, permanent network of sites where NPP is continuously evaluated using multiple approaches. Well-designed NPP megatransects that include a high-density plot network would significantly increase the accuracy and certainty in the observed rates and patterns of tropical NPP and improve the reliability of Earth system models used to predict NPP–carbon cycle–climate interactions into the futur

Assessing the effectiveness, practicality and cost effectiveness of mitigation measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from intensively cultivated peatlands

Peatlands drained for agriculture are among the most intensive sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the land-use sector. Policy decisions on the most effective strategies to reduce GHG emissions in line with Paris Agreement goals, alongside strategies that can halt any ongoing soil and biodiversity losses, are hindered by a lack of understanding on how proposed mitigation measures are likely to be received by the farming sector. Research has identified effective GHG reduction measures, but successful on-farm adoption of these measures is contingent upon farmer perceptions of the relative practicality of implementing the measures, and the economic impact that adoption will have on the farm business. In this study, Best–Worst Scaling, a discrete choice survey method, was utilised to elicit expert (climate change, policy and biodiversity) and farmer opinion on the relative effectiveness, practicality and level of economic cost of mitigation measures that can reduce GHG emissions at the farm level. The method enabled individual mitigation measures to be ranked by effectiveness (expert opinion), practicality and economic cost (farmer opinions). There were no measures ranked as both effective and practical, or effective with low cost, but there were measures ranked by farmers as practical and low cost to implement. These included: more effective nutrient management, reduced or no tillage, the installation of buffer zones, increased fossil fuel efficiency and the optimisation of irrigation systems. The strong divergence of ‘effective’ measures on the one hand, and ‘practical’ and ‘economic’ measures on the other, highlights the major challenges involved in reducing high GHG emissions from agricultural organic soils. Resolving these challenges will require a combination of financial mechanisms to compensate farmers for higher costs and/or reduced yields, engagement and advice to support farmers in adopting changes in management practice, and agricultural innovation and adaptation to maintain overall food production and economic viability. If these challenges are overcome, more sustainable landscape management on agricultural lowland peat could make significant contributions to achieve national and international climate change targets

An update on the reasons for placement and replacement of direct restorations

Aim: The aim of this study was to review patterns of restoration placement and replacement. A previous study had been carried out in the late 1990s and this study sought to update the literature in this important aspect of dental practice. Method: Studies based on the protocol of Mjör (1981) were selected. Such studies involved participating dentists completing a proforma each time a patient presented for a new or replacement restoration. Results: Twenty-five papers were included in this study, of which 12 were included in the original review. The pre-1998 review reported on the placement of 32,697 restorations, of which 14,391 (44%) were initial placements and 18,306 (56%) were replacements. The new studies included in the post-1998 review reported on an additional 54,023 restorations, of which 22,625 (41.9%) were initial placements and 31,398 (58.1%) were replacements. Therefore, across all studies considered, information is available on 86,720 restorations, of which 37,016 (42.7%) were new placements and 49,704 (57.3%) were replacements. Comparing review periods, there was a reduction in the placement of amalgam restorations from 56.7% (pre-1998 review) to 31.2% (post-1998 review), with a corresponding increase in the placement of resin composites from 36.7% to 48.5%. The most common use of amalgam was seen in Nigeria (71% of restorations), Jordan (59% of restorations) and the UK (47% of restorations). The most frequent use of resin composite was seen in Australia (55% of restorations), Iceland (53% of restorations) and Scandinavia (52% of restorations). Secondary caries was the most common reason for replacing restorations (up to 59% of replacement restorations). Conclusion: In the years subsequent to the initial review, replacement of restorations still accounts for more than half of restorations placed by dentists, and the proportion of replacement restorations continues to increase. Trends towards the increased use of resin composites is noted in recent years. Clinical significance: Further research is required in this area to investigate changes in the approaches to the restoration of teeth, especially with increased understanding of the concept of restoration repair as an alternate to replacement

Comparison of model-predicted and measured moment arms for the rotator cuff muscles

The final publication is available at Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.clinbiomech.2007.02.001. © 2007. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Background The ability of mathematical models of the shoulder to accurately replicate physiological muscle moment arms is unknown. The purpose of this study was to compare model-predicted and experimentally measured moment arms for the rotator cuff muscles during arm elevation. Methods Moment arms obtained from six mathematical models and seven experimental studies were compared for the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis for elevation in the scapular plane. Results All of the included models generated moment arms that generally fell within the range of experimentally measured data. Interpretation The quantitative agreement between model-predicted and experimentally measured moment arms supports the use of the included models for biomechanical shoulder analyses.National Institute of Healt

Fine-tuning language models to find agreement among humans with diverse preferences

Recent work in large language modeling (LLMs) has used fine-tuning to align outputs with the preferences of a prototypical user. This work assumes that human preferences are static and homogeneous across individuals, so that aligning to a a single "generic" user will confer more general alignment. Here, we embrace the heterogeneity of human preferences to consider a different challenge: how might a machine help people with diverse views find agreement? We fine-tune a 70 billion parameter LLM to generate statements that maximize the expected approval for a group of people with potentially diverse opinions. Human participants provide written opinions on thousands of questions touching on moral and political issues (e.g., "should we raise taxes on the rich?"), and rate the LLM's generated candidate consensus statements for agreement and quality. A reward model is then trained to predict individual preferences, enabling it to quantify and rank consensus statements in terms of their appeal to the overall group, defined according to different aggregation (social welfare) functions. The model produces consensus statements that are preferred by human users over those from prompted LLMs (>70%) and significantly outperforms a tight fine-tuned baseline that lacks the final ranking step. Further, our best model's consensus statements are preferred over the best human-generated opinions (>65%). We find that when we silently constructed consensus statements from only a subset of group members, those who were excluded were more likely to dissent, revealing the sensitivity of the consensus to individual contributions. These results highlight the potential to use LLMs to help groups of humans align their values with one another

The Role of the Uncinate Margin in Pancreaticoduodenectomy for Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma: A Survival Analysis

Introduction: Positive margins during pancreaticoduodenectomy for pancreatic cancer portend worse survival, but additional resection of the uncinate margin is typically unfeasible without major vascular reconstruction. The survival benefit of resecting additional neck or bile duct margins in the face of a positive uncinate is also unknown. We examined the impact of re-resection of these margins on survival. Methods: Patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy from 2006-2015. Pancreatic neck, bile duct, uncinate, and duodenal frozen section margins were assessed before and after resection of positive margins. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were compared with log-rank tests. Multivariable Cox regression was used to assess the effect of margin status on overall survival. Results: Among 508 patients identified, 388 (76.4%) underwent a pylorus-preserving procedure, 435 (85.6%) had T3 tumors, and 379 (74.6%) had nodal involvement. There were 21 instances where an uncinate margin was concurrently positive with a neck or bile duct margin; this additional neck or bile duct margin was resected in 13 cases (61.9%). Resection of additional margins when the uncinate was concurrently positive was not associated with improved survival (p=0.36). Median survival with and without positive uncinate margins was 13.8 vs. 19.7 months (p=0.04). A positive uncinate margin was associated with decreased survival independent of other margins and cancer stage (HR 1.28 [95% CI 1.00-1.65]). Conclusion: In patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma, positive uncinate margins are associated with decreased overall survival; resection of additional margins at the neck and bile duct in those with a positive uncinate margin is not warranted