Spatial Proximity as a Determinant of Cognitive Control Context

The speed and flexibility of cognitive control is exemplified by the context-specific proportion congruency (CSPC) effect. Two locations on a computer screen may be biased to present either mostly congruent (MC) stimuli or mostly incongruent (MI) stimuli, necessitating rapid shifts of cognitive control in order to maximize speed and accuracy of responding. The episodic retrieval account has posited that the speed and flexibility of control can be explained by attentional settings being bound with contextual cues (e.g. the location at which a stimulus appears) into an episodic representation—allowing for settings to be retrieved automatically. However, what determines which setting is bound with which location cue has not yet been investigated. The present study posited that relative spatial proximity determines which setting is applied to a given location. In Experiment 1, six locations were arranged to manipulate relative spatial proximity. A biased (e.g., MC) location was placed on the top edge of a screen and a biased (e.g., MI) location was placed at the bottom. At the middle of the screen two MC (above fixation) and two MI (below fixation) locations were placed within close proximity. A CSPC effect was found between outer locations at the edge, while the middle locations were treated as a single 50% congruent location. Experiment 2 separated the middle locations to be closer to the outer locations of their same congruency. A CSPC effect was then found between the middle locations. Results are interpreted within the relative proximity hypothesis that posits multiple locations can influence the formation of an episodic representation when they are placed closer to one another relative to other locations

Mitral Cell Dendritic Development in the Mouse Main Olfactory Bulb

Correct targeting and differentiation of the mitral cell (MC) dendrites in the olfactory bulb (OB) is clearly essential for development of functional neuronal circuits. MCs, the primary OB projection neurons, receive odor information from OSN axons via axodendritic synapses on their apical dendrite; the signal is further processed via dendrodendritic synapses on MC lateral dendrites. In the adult, each MC cell apical dendrite targets a single glomerulus, ending in a characteristic glomerular tuft and receiving input from molecularly defined subsets of OSNs. MC lateral dendrites segregate deep to the glomerular layer, in a sublamina of the external plexiform layer. MC dendrites are initially undifferentiated and often supernumerary; the adult form of one apical and several lateral dendrites emerges postnatally. We sought to define more clearly the emergence of MC apical versus lateral dendrites using DiI fills. We also used a dendritic growth cone specific antibody, CDA 1 to assess spatiotemporal patterns of development in the OB. MCs progressed through a broad spectrum of transitional morphologies from a broadly spread arbor of supernumerary dendrites in the embryo to the single apical dendrite and lateral dendrites characteristic of the adult. At P0, MCs exhibit the immature dendritic morphology with a broadly spread arbor of a large number of relatively uniform dendrites. By P1, this arbor appears to have narrowed and one dendrite appears thicker than the others, probably on its way to differentiating into an apical dendrite. At P4, two clearly distinguishable subpopulations of neurons have clearly emerged, but some cells exhibit two apical dendrites. By P8, MCs appear to have an adult dendritic morphology. Quantitative analysis of CDA 1 expression patterns in the OB at postnatal day 0, 2, 4, 8, suggests intra- and interlaminar patterns of dendritic development. Preliminary data further suggest distinct temporal windows of MC dendritic development along the rostrocaudal axis. CDA 1 expression in all laminae decreases significantly by postnatal day 8 and appears indistinguishable from background in the adult. Thus, both lines of data show evidence of significant postnatal dendritic remodeling

Faculty involvement in successful institutional accreditation: Perspectives through the lens of Etzioni's compliance theory

Scope and Method of Study: This is a qualitative study about faculty engagement with their college's and university's assessment programs viewed through Etzioni's Compliance theory.Findings and Conclusions: All three educational institutions visited were perceived as using normative power when viewed in relation to assessment. Two of the institutions used both normative and remunerative power. The use of two or even all three types of influence (normative, remunerative and coercive) are not an unexpected finding (Etzioni, 1968). When normative power was used, participants from all three institutions were able to provide examples of moral involvement with assessment. Faculty engagement had occurred because it was the right thing to do and their involvement was recognized and praised by the administration. In the matter of assessment, all three organizations used their normative power in an effective manner.When remunerative power was used some participants responded with calculative behavior while others did not. This incongruency generally does not lead to an effective organization (Etzioni, 1975). Only one institution was perceived as using some form of coercive power. The expected alienative response may have been observed but overall the institution was not described as using primarily coercive power in order to motivate faculty to become involved with assessment.Additional analyses of the participants' responses to the questions corroborated the importance of a faculty driven assessment program with support and collaboration between administration and faculty (Cross 1997; McEady, 2006; Priddy, 2007). Faculty who were engaged with assessment were cognizant of the value of assessment and its relationship to the accrediting agencies and stakeholders call for accountability of student learning

Subtle Evasions: Mary Sidney and Social Expectations for Women’s Private Roles

Like never before, women and men have public personas, and the actions of the private person have consequences for the public person. The advent of MySpace,Facebook, and Google+, for example, has given every member a public persona that masquerades as a private one, although it is easily searchable in a few seconds with an internet connection. Much like Early Modern commonplace books in which people wrote down quotes they found particularly applicable to their lives or recorded small and large life events, Facebook and similar social networking sites serve as a record of daily activities, thoughts, and sometimes quotes for individual members. Then, as now, those women whose lives cannot be fully chronicled by social media, find that the news networks may take up the slack. Unlike the commonplace book and other private literary pieces that women then wrote for themselves or to circulate among trusted friends, social media now brings with it an inherent danger of public overexposure, an online reputation that anyone can find with an internet connection. The Early Modern woman called her pre-electronic version of this problem publicity. Just as today's smart users care about the degree to which unsavory users can access their information and what they post online,smart women and men in Elizabethan England took great care to maintain their good public reputations. Although Elizabethan society allowed men to have public lives while preserving their private lives at country houses or simply at home in the city, that same society dictated that women avoid public life as much as possible

The Chaucer Review: An Indexed Bibliography Vols. 1-30

The Chaucer Review is essential reading for Chaucerians at all levels of study. More than any other resource, it provides a record of most of the significant trends in medieval and Chaucer scholarship for the past three decades. It has, however, grown so rich and full that only with difficulty can we make the best use of it. Even those of us fortunate enough to have been charter subscribers and to have our own full runs of the Journal have no ready way to know what is in the more than three linear feet of the quarterly numbers of the Chaucer journal that now occupy our shelves. The purpose of this special issue of the journal is to provide scholars with a compiled list of all of the nearly 800 articles that have appeared, and, more important, a subject index to all of those articles.Subtitled A Journal of Medieval Studies and Literary Criticism, The Chaucer Review has spoken boldly and fully and long as the prominent sounding board for scholars of medieval literature, especially Chaucerians. Fundamental as this journal is, as issue after issue has come from The Pennsylvania State University Press, finding material in The Chaucer Review has been an increasingly daunting and frustrating challenge. The staff of the journal has provided at the end of each volume a list of the articles to appear in that volume and a comprehensive list at the end of each decade, but there has been no index. The titles of the articles are some guide to the contents, but every scholar knows that the titles often contain only the most subtle hint about what the article is really about. Who would know, for example, that Jackson J. Campbell's "Polonius among the Pilgrims" (7 [1972]: 40) is about the fictional teller of the Manciple's Tale? No one has before now attempted to provide a subject-matter index of the journal

Take and Eat: Eve, Mary, and Feminist Christianity

In current critical discussions, much ink covers women's bodies, and much of this discussion centers on the ways in which women's bodies are constructed by the phallocentric language that writers use to describe them. Indeed, the literary history of women's bodies in language has problematized pregnancy, lactation, menstruation, and sexual desirability.Critical discussion includes Bynum's study of medieval women and food in Holy Feast, Holy Fast (1987), Bell's examination of Italian saints in Holy Anorexia (1985), extended discussions of female mystics, and discussions of individual works, such as Laura Esquivel's Like Water.for Chocolate and Toni Morrison's Beloved. Yet few theorists have addressed the connection between women and food as a widespread literary phenomenon(Magid, 2008; Heller and Moran, 2003). The persistent comparison of women to Eve or to Mary - and women's position between the two examples - is now commonly recognized in feminist thinking (Wil1iamsand Echols, 1994). Although Eve's sin was appetite and Mary's virtue was(sexual) abstinence, most considerations of women and their bodies relate in some way to the sexual: early feminists argue for female capability to do much more than produce d1ildren (see the introduction to Freedman,2007), and second and third wave feminists argue for separate study of women's bodies and experiences.1 While important lines of inquiry, these kinds of scholarship point to reproductive function as a touchstone, and such an approach deserves reconsideration. Instead of focusing on the sexual nature of Mary's virtue and its seemingly easy contrast to Eve's reckless eating, critics might reconsider the relationship between women,appetite, and food. Thinking of food as a location of female power and pleasure, the recognition of which has long been denied to women, scholars might offer new insights into the struggle that women historically have had (and many women still do have) with food and sustenance

Neurofeedback as a treatment intervention in ADHD:current evidence and practice

Purpose of Review Current traditional treatments for ADHD present serious limitations in terms of long-term maintenance of symptom remission and side effects. Here, we provide an overview of the rationale and scientific evidence of the efficacy of neurofeedback in regulating the brain functions in ADHD. We also review the institutional and professional regulation of clinical neurofeedback implementations. Recent Findings Based on meta-analyses and (large multicenter) randomized controlled trials, three standard neurofeedback training protocols, namely theta/beta (TBR), sensori-motor rhythm (SMR), and slow cortical potential (SCP), turn out to be efficacious and specific. However, the practical implementation of neurofeedback as a clinical treatment is currently not regulated. Summary We conclude that neurofeedback based on standard protocols in ADHD should be considered as a viable treatment alternative and suggest that further research is needed to understand how specific neurofeedback protocols work. Eventually, we emphasize the need for standard neurofeedback training for practitioners and binding standards for use in clinical practic

Exploring the use of organic biotic remains for reconstructing Antarctic cryosphere variability: Sea ice dwellers as storytellers

According to the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, Earth’s temperature will rise at least 1.5°C on average globally, and even 2-3 times more on the poles. Therefore, studying the geological past is important to determine the implications for the stability of the Antarctic ice sheet and sea ice. As we cannot travel back in time, this research uses the so-called sedimentary archive, existing of layers of ocean floor, from which remains of organisms, ocean currents and climate conditions can be derived. In this thesis research methods based on organic fossils and molecules obtained from layers of ocean floor are explored and improved upon and subsequently applied to reconstruct the history of the ocean close to the Antarctic ice sheet. This thesis describes the diversity of organic microfossils obtained from a core with sediments up to 11.000 years old, which serves as reference material for further study. To improve our understanding of the environmental conditions that these microfossils preferred, their abundance is compared to data on meltwater discharge, surface water temperature and sea-ice concentrations. Application of these methods on a core containing the previous interglacial, shows that during periods of warming processes were at play that resemble the processes we see around Antarctica today, such as an increase in meltwater discharge. A reconstruction of the period between 34 and 26 million years ago, when CO2 concentrations were comparable to today, show that seawater temperatures were on average 17°C and there was only little sea ice present