Controlling actions and experiencing control: the influence of movement execution and goal achievement on the Sense of Agency

Some recent theoretical models of the Sense of Agency - i.e., the feeling of controlling one's movements and their impact on the external environment (Aarts et al., 2012; Moore & Fletcher, 2012; Tsakiris et al., 2010) - suggest that this experience relies on the integration of various cues (Synofzik, 2008; Moore & Fletcher, 2012). However, only a few studies (Caspar, et al., 2016; David et al., 2016) manipulated in the same paradigm information about the executed movement and information about the achievement of the goal of the action. Hence, the respective roles of these two action cues for the Sense of Agency remains unclear. My Ph.D. thesis presents the results of two studies aimed at filling this gap. During my Ph.D., my colleagues and I devised a novel paradigm where participants performed a simple goal-directed action – pressing a button of a certain color – while they observed a virtual hand performing an action in a virtual scenario from a first-person perspective. The virtual action could be similar or different with respect to the one executed by the participant, and information about movement and about the achievement of the goal of the action could be independently and simultaneously manipulated. While participants performed the task, we collected direct and indirect measures of their Sense of Agency. In addition, we measured participant’s reaction times: indeed, a second aim of these two studies was to understand whether unexpected movement and goal related information also affects participant’s behavior and leads to behavioral adjustments, similarly to the commission of real errors (Danielmeier & Ullsperger, 2011). A detailed description of the paradigm, and the results of two behavioral studies where we employed it are reported in the thesis. In chapter 1, I provide an overview of literature supporting the fact that the Sense of Agency is sensitive both to the control of one's movements and to the achievement of the goal of the action. However, I also show that these two action cues were mostly investigated separately, which prevents a comparison of their relevance for the Sense of Agency. In chapter 2 I present the result of the first study. Our aim was to understand how violated predictions concerning movement execution and the achievement of the goal of the action influence the Sense of Agency. In Chapter 3, I present the results of the second study, where we compared the effects of the manipulation of information relative to movement execution and goal achievement respectively in freely chosen and cued actions. In particular, we wanted to investigate the influence of freedom to act on the Sense of Agency. Finally, in the Appendix I report preliminary results of an experiment where we investigated the neurocognitive processes (by means of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) underlying a different but related topic: the capacity of the individuals to exert agency, i.e., to control one’s own ocular movements when one is exposed to potentially distracting social stimuli (i.e., other’s gaze). Overall, the results of the studies described in chapters 2 and 3 suggest that the Sense of Agency is mostly influenced by movement related information, and that under some specific circumstances the feeling of control is also influenced by goal achievement and by freedom to act. Additionally, unexpected information concerning both the executed movement and the achievement of the goal of the action may lead to behavioral adjustments

Aesthetic benchmarks supporting the design of domestic safety products: a socket cover protector

In developed countries, the growing number of domestic accidents has pushed firms to find new devices (and to improve the current ones) in order to increase the level of domestic safety, especially for children, that are among the most affected. In order to prevent some of the " electrical risk " accidents, they have made various kinds of devices to cover the sockets (outlets) present in a normal house. These devices are called " socket cover protectors " , and, for the removable ones, their design has always been focused on the making of an object hard to be pulled out from the socket by children but easy to be managed by parents (so, easy to put in and to pull out for them). For all we know, it's never been considered the possibility that the aesthetic appearance of a device like that could be useful to dissuade a child from handling or trying to play with it. In this paper, we claim that a particular aesthetic analysis could be a useful tool if it would be introduced into the lifecycle design of a home safety product – like a socket cover protector -in order to make a more effective device. In fact, our aesthetic analysis is structured in order to make an object that doesn't stimulate the curiosity of children (so, an object not aesthetically appealing), so that the likelihood of a contact between child and device is reduced (and so the likelihood for him to pull out the device)

Components of the E. coli envelope are affected by and can react to protein over-production in the cytoplasm.

BACKGROUND: Protein over-expression in bacteria is still the easiest, cheapest and therefore preferred way to obtain large amounts of proteins for industrial and laboratory scale preparations. Several studies emphasized the importance of understanding cellular and molecular mechanisms triggered by protein over-production in order to obtain higher yield and better quality of the recombinant product. Almost every step leading to a fully functional polypeptide has been investigated, from mRNA stability to the role of molecular chaperones, from aggregation to bottlenecks in the secretory pathway. In this context, we focused on the still poorly addressed relationship between protein production in the cytoplasm and the bacterial envelope, an active and reactive cell compartment that controls interactions with the environment and several major cellular processes. Results available to date show that the accumulation of foreign proteins in the cytoplasm induces changes in the membrane lipids and in the levels of mRNAs for some membrane proteins. However, a direct connection between membrane protein expression levels and soluble/aggregated protein accumulation in the cytoplasm has never been reported. RESULTS: By the use of a combined physiological and proteomic approach, we investigated the effects on the cell membrane of E. coli of the overexpression of two recombinant proteins, the B. cepacia lipase (BCL) and the green fluorescent protein (GFP). Both polypeptides are expressed in the cytoplasm at similar levels but GFP is fully soluble whereas inactive BCL accumulates in inclusion bodies.Growth and viability of the transformed cells were tested in the presence of different drugs. We found that chloramphenycol preferentially inhibited the strain over-producing GFP while SDS was more effective when BCL inclusion bodies accumulated in the cytoplasm. In contrast, both proteins induced a similar response in the membrane proteome, i.e. increased levels of LamB, OmpF, OmpA and TolC. Under all tested conditions, the lipopolysaccharide was not affected, suggesting that a specific rather than a generalized rearrangement of the envelope was induced. CONCLUSION: Taking together physiological and biochemical evidence, our work indicates that the E. coli envelope can sense protein over-expression in the cytoplasm and react by modulating the abundance of some membrane proteins, with possible consequences on the membrane traffic of small solutes, i.e. nutrients, drugs and metabolites. Such a response seems to be independent on the nature of the protein being over-expressed. On the other hand both our data reported herein and previous results indicate that membrane lipids may act as a second stress sensor responsive to the aggregation state of the recombinant protein and further contribute to changes in cellular exchanges with the environment.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Components of the E. coli envelope are affected by and can react to protein over-production in the cytoplasm

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Protein over-expression in bacteria is still the easiest, cheapest and therefore preferred way to obtain large amounts of proteins for industrial and laboratory scale preparations. Several studies emphasized the importance of understanding cellular and molecular mechanisms triggered by protein over-production in order to obtain higher yield and better quality of the recombinant product. Almost every step leading to a fully functional polypeptide has been investigated, from mRNA stability to the role of molecular chaperones, from aggregation to bottlenecks in the secretory pathway. In this context, we focused on the still poorly addressed relationship between protein production in the cytoplasm and the bacterial envelope, an active and reactive cell compartment that controls interactions with the environment and several major cellular processes. Results available to date show that the accumulation of foreign proteins in the cytoplasm induces changes in the membrane lipids and in the levels of mRNAs for some membrane proteins. However, a direct connection between membrane protein expression levels and soluble/aggregated protein accumulation in the cytoplasm has never been reported.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>By the use of a combined physiological and proteomic approach, we investigated the effects on the cell membrane of <it>E. coli </it>of the overexpression of two recombinant proteins, the <it>B. cepacia </it>lipase (BCL) and the green fluorescent protein (GFP). Both polypeptides are expressed in the cytoplasm at similar levels but GFP is fully soluble whereas inactive BCL accumulates in inclusion bodies.</p> <p>Growth and viability of the transformed cells were tested in the presence of different drugs. We found that chloramphenycol preferentially inhibited the strain over-producing GFP while SDS was more effective when BCL inclusion bodies accumulated in the cytoplasm. In contrast, both proteins induced a similar response in the membrane proteome, i.e. increased levels of LamB, OmpF, OmpA and TolC. Under all tested conditions, the lipopolysaccharide was not affected, suggesting that a specific rather than a generalized rearrangement of the envelope was induced.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Taking together physiological and biochemical evidence, our work indicates that the <it>E. coli </it>envelope can sense protein over-expression in the cytoplasm and react by modulating the abundance of some membrane proteins, with possible consequences on the membrane traffic of small solutes, i.e. nutrients, drugs and metabolites. Such a response seems to be independent on the nature of the protein being over-expressed. On the other hand both our data reported herein and previous results indicate that membrane lipids may act as a second stress sensor responsive to the aggregation state of the recombinant protein and further contribute to changes in cellular exchanges with the environment.</p

Peggy Deamer, The Architect as Worker. Immaterial Labor, the Creative Class, and the Politics of Design

An anthology of essays that revolve around a cloud of topics concerning the architectural profession – from the notions of immaterial production and creative work at large to the ethics of the profession and the labour conditions in architectural practice – The Architect as a Worker includes contributions from practitioners, scholars, theorists and sociologists outside of the architectural milieu, critics and activists. The wide spectrum of themes raised and the many ways they are approached ..

Freedom to act enhances the sense of agency, while movement and goal-related prediction errors reduce it

The Sense of Agency (SoA) is the experience of controlling one’s movements and their external consequences. Accumulating evidence suggests that freedom to act enhances SoA, while prediction errors are known to reduce it. Here, we investigated if prediction errors related to movement or to the achievement of the goal of the action exert the same influence on SoA during free and cued actions. Participants pressed a freely chosen or cued-colored button, while observing a virtual hand moving in the same or in the opposite direction—i.e., movement-related prediction error—and pressing the selected or a different color—i.e., goal-related prediction error. To investigate implicit and explicit components of SoA, we collected indirect (i.e., Synchrony Judgments) and direct (i.e., Judgments of Causation) measures. We found that participants judged virtual actions as more synchronous when they were free to act. Additionally, movement-related prediction errors reduced both perceived synchrony and judgments of causation, while goal-related prediction errors impaired exclusively the latter. Our results suggest that freedom to act enhances SoA and that movement and goal-related prediction errors lead to an equivalent reduction of SoA in free and cued actions. Our results also show that the influence of freedom to act and goal achievement may be limited, respectively, to implicit and explicit SoA, while movement information may affect both components. These findings provide support to recent theories that view SoA as a multifaceted construct, by showing that different action cues may uniquely influence the feeling of control

GPGPU for track finding in High Energy Physics

The LHC experiments are designed to detect large amount of physics events produced with a very high rate. Considering the future upgrades, the data acquisition rate will become even higher and new computing paradigms must be adopted for fast data-processing: General Purpose Graphics Processing Units (GPGPU) is a novel approach based on massive parallel computing. The intense computation power provided by Graphics Processing Units (GPU) is expected to reduce the computation time and to speed-up the low-latency applications used for fast decision taking. In particular, this approach could be hence used for high-level triggering in very complex environments, like the typical inner tracking systems of the multi-purpose experiments at LHC, where a large number of charged particle tracks will be produced with the luminosity upgrade. In this article we discuss a track pattern recognition algorithm based on the Hough Transform, where a parallel approach is expected to reduce dramatically the execution time.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, proceedings prepared for GPU-HEP 2014 conference, submitted to DESY-PROC-201

Multi-wavelength SPAD photoplethysmography for cardio-respiratory monitoring

There is a growing interest in photoplethysmography (PPG) for the continuous monitoring of cardio-respiratory signals by portable instrumentation aimed at the early diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases. In this context, it is conceivable that PPG sensors working at different wavelengths simultaneously can optimize the identification of apneas and the quantification of the associated heart-rate changes or other parameters that depend on the PPG shape (e.g., systematic vascular resistance and pressure), when evaluating the severity of breathing disorders during sleep and in general for health monitoring. Therefore, the objective of this work is to present a novel pulse oximeter that provides synchronous data logging related to three light wavelengths (green, red, and infrared) in transmission mode to optimize both heart rate measurements and a reliable and continuous assessment of oxygen saturation. The transmission mode is considered more robust over motion artifacts than reflection mode, but current pulse oximeters cannot employ green light in transmission mode due to the high absorbance of body tissues at this wavelength. For this reason, our device is based on a Single-Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) with very short deadtime (less than 1 ns) to have, at the same time, the single photon sensitivity and high-count rate that allows acquiring all the wavelengths of interest on the same site and in transmission mode. Previous studies have shown that SPAD cameras can be used for measuring the heart rate through remote PPG, but oxygen saturation and heart-rate measures through contact SPAD-based PPG sensors have never been addressed so far. The results of the preliminary validation on six healthy volunteers reflect the expected physiological phenomena, providing rms errors in the Inter Beat Interval estimation smaller than 70 ms (with green light) and a maximum error in the oxygen saturation smaller than 1% during the apneas. Our prototype demonstrates the reliability of SPAD-based devices for continuous long-term monitoring of cardio-respiratory variables as an alternative to photodiodes especially when minimal area and optical power are required

High School Graphics Experience Influencing the Self-Efficacy of First-Year Engineering Students in an Introductory Engineering Graphics Course

Today's students enter engineering colleges with different technical backgrounds and prior graphics experience. This may due to their high school of provenience, which can be technical or non-technical. The prior experience affects students&rsquo; ability in learning and hence their motivation and self-efficacy beliefs. This study intended to evaluate the role of prior high school graphics experience in first-year engineering students' self-efficacy beliefs in an introductory engineering graphics course. It also intended to evaluate the relationship between such freshmen's self-efficacy beliefs and their performance. Two assessment instruments were used in this study. The first is the eight-item Course Interest Survey (CIS) Confidence subscale, which was used to assess self-efficacy beliefs. The second is a multiple choice questionnaire designed on the course topics, which was used to assess performance. Ninety-nine students of the University of Brescia (Italy) participated in the experiment. Significant differences in self-efficacy were found between engineering freshmen from the technical high school versus engineering freshmen from the non-technical high school. A significant relationship between self-efficacy and performance was found only for engineering freshmen from the technical high school