Weight and see: Loading working memory improves incidental identification of irrelevant faces

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David eCarmel

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Are task-irrelevant stimuli processed to a level enabling individual identification? This question is central both for perceptual processing models and for applied settings (e.g., eyewitness testimony. Lavie’s load theory proposes that working memory actively maintains attentional prioritization of relevant over irrelevant information. Loading working memory thus impairs attentional prioritization, leading to increased processing of task-irrelevant stimuli. Previous research has shown that increased working memory load leads to greater interference effects from response competing distractors. Here we test the novel prediction that increased processing of irrelevant stimuli under high working memory load should lead to a greater likelihood of incidental identification of entirely irrelevant stimuli. To test this, we asked participants to perform a word-categorization task while ignoring task-irrelevant images. The categorization task was performed during the retention interval of a working memory task with either low or high load (defined by memory set size. Following the final experimental trial, a surprise question assessed incidental identification of the irrelevant image. Loading working memory was found to improve identification of task-irrelevant faces, but not of building stimuli (shown in a separate experiment to be less distracting. These findings suggest that working memory plays a critical role in determining whether distracting stimuli will be subsequently identified.

Mechanical problem-solving strategies in left-brain damaged patients and apraxia of tool use.

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Osiurak, François; Jarry, Christophe; Lesourd, Mathieu; Baumard, Josselin; Le Gall, Didier

2013-08-01

Left brain damage (LBD) can impair the ability to use familiar tools (apraxia of tool use) as well as novel tools to solve mechanical problems. Thus far, the emphasis has been placed on quantitative analyses of patients' performance. Nevertheless, the question still to be answered is, what are the strategies employed by those patients when confronted with tool use situations? To answer it, we asked 16 LBD patients and 43 healthy controls to solve mechanical problems by means of several potential tools. To specify the strategies, we recorded the time spent in performing four kinds of action (no manipulation, tool manipulation, box manipulation, and tool-box manipulation) as well as the number of relevant and irrelevant tools grasped. We compared LBD patients' performance with that of controls who encountered difficulties with the task (controls-) or not (controls+). Our results indicated that LBD patients grasped a higher number of irrelevant tools than controls+ and controls-. Concerning time allocation, controls+ and controls- spent significantly more time in performing tool-box manipulation than LBD patients. These results are inconsistent with the possibility that LBD patients could engage in trial-and-error strategies and, rather, suggest that they tend to be perplexed. These findings seem to indicate that the inability to reason about the objects' physical properties might prevent LBD patients from following any problem-solving strategy. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Positive and negative affect produce opposing task-irrelevant stimulus preexposure effects.

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Lazar, Josef; Kaplan, Oren; Sternberg, Terri; Lubow, R E

2012-06-01

In three experiments, groups were exposed to either positive or negative affect video clips, after which they were presented with a series of task-irrelevant stimuli. In the subsequent test task, subjects were required to learn an association between the previously irrelevant stimulus and a consequence, and between a new stimulus and a consequence. Induced positive affect produced a latent inhibition effect (poorer evidence of learning with the previously irrelevant stimulus than with the novel stimulus). In opposition to this, induced negative affect resulted in better evidence of learning with a previously irrelevant stimulus than with a novel stimulus. In general, the opposing effects also were present in participants scoring high on self-report questionnaires of depression (Experiments 2 and 3). These unique findings were predicted and accounted for on the basis of two principles: (a) positive affect broadens the attentional field and negative affect contracts it; and (b) task-irrelevant stimuli are processed in two successive stages, the first encodes stimulus properties, and the second encodes stimulus relationships. The opposing influences of negative and positive mood on the processing of irrelevant stimuli have implications for the role of emotion in general theories of cognition, and possibly for resolving some of the inconsistent findings in research with schizophrenia patients.

Entirely irrelevant distractors can capture and captivate attention

OpenAIRE

Forster, Sophie; Lavie, Nilli

2011-01-01

The question of whether a stimulus onset may capture attention when it is entirely irrelevant to the task and even in the absence of any attentional settings for abrupt onset or any dynamic changes has been highly controversial. In the present study, we designed a novel irrelevant capture task to address this question. Participants engaged in a continuous task making sequential forced choice (letter or digit) responses to each item in an alphanumeric matrix that remained on screen throughout ...

Development of response inhibition in the context of relevant versus irrelevant emotions

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Margot A Schel

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The present study examined the influence of relevant and irrelevant emotions on response inhibition from childhood to early adulthood. Ninety-four participants between 6 and 25 years of age performed two go/nogo tasks with emotional faces (neutral, happy, and fearful as stimuli. In one go/nogo task emotion formed a relevant dimension of the task and in the other go/nogo task emotion was irrelevant and participants had to respond to the color of the faces instead. A special feature of the latter task, in which emotion was irrelevant, was the inclusion of free choice trials, in which participants could freely decide between acting and inhibiting. Results showed a linear increase in response inhibition performance with increasing age both in relevant and irrelevant affective contexts. Relevant emotions had a pronounced influence on performance across age, whereas irrelevant emotions did not. Overall, participants made more false alarms on trials with fearful faces than happy faces, and happy faces were associated with better performance on go trials (higher percentage correct and faster RTs than fearful faces. The latter effect was stronger for young children in terms of accuracy. Finally, during the free choice trials participants did not base their decisions on affective context, confirming that irrelevant emotions do not have a strong impact on inhibition. Together, these findings suggest that across development relevant affective context has a larger influence on response inhibition than irrelevant affective context. When emotions are relevant, a context of positive emotions is associated with better performance compared to a context with negative emotions, especially in young children.

An Overview Of Tool For Response Action Cost Estimating (TRACE)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ferries, S.R.; Klink, K.L.; Ostapkowicz, B.

2012-01-01

Tools and techniques that provide improved performance and reduced costs are important to government programs, particularly in current times. An opportunity for improvement was identified for preparation of cost estimates used to support the evaluation of response action alternatives. As a result, CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company has developed Tool for Response Action Cost Estimating (TRACE). TRACE is a multi-page Microsoft Excel(reg s ign) workbook developed to introduce efficiencies into the timely and consistent production of cost estimates for response action alternatives. This tool combines costs derived from extensive site-specific runs of commercially available remediation cost models with site-specific and estimator-researched and derived costs, providing the best estimating sources available. TRACE also provides for common quantity and key parameter links across multiple alternatives, maximizing ease of updating estimates and performing sensitivity analyses, and ensuring consistency.

RISK COMMUNICATION IN ACTION: THE TOOLS OF MESSAGE MAPPING

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Risk Communication in Action: The Tools of Message Mapping, is a workbook designed to guide risk communicators in crisis situations. The first part of this workbook will review general guidelines for risk communication. The second part will focus on one of the most robust tools o...

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depressed individuals improves suppression of irrelevant mental-sets.

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Greenberg, Jonathan; Shapero, Benjamin G; Mischoulon, David; Lazar, Sara W

2017-04-01

An impaired ability to suppress currently irrelevant mental-sets is a key cognitive deficit in depression. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) was specifically designed to help depressed individuals avoid getting caught in such irrelevant mental-sets. In the current study, a group assigned to MBCT plus treatment-as-usual (n = 22) exhibited significantly lower depression scores and greater improvements in irrelevant mental-set suppression compared to a wait-list plus treatment-as-usual (n = 18) group. Improvements in mental-set-suppression were associated with improvements in depression scores. Results provide the first evidence that MBCT can improve suppression of irrelevant mental-sets and that such improvements are associated with depressive alleviation.

Irrelevant Singletons in Pop-Out Search: Attentional Capture or Filtering Costs?

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Becker, Stefanie I.

2007-01-01

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether costs invoked by the presence of an irrelevant singleton distractor in a visual search task are due to attentional capture by the irrelevant singleton or spatially unrelated filtering costs. Measures of spatial effects were based on distance effects, compatibility effects, and differences…

Insensitivity of visual short-term memory to irrelevant visual information

OpenAIRE

Andrade, Jackie; Kemps, Eva; Werniers, Yves; May, Jon; Szmalec, Arnaud

2002-01-01

Several authors have hypothesised that visuo-spatial working memory is functionally analogous to verbal working memory. Irrelevant background speech impairs verbal short-term memory. We investigated whether irrelevant visual information has an analogous effect on visual short-term memory, using a dynamic visual noise (DVN) technique known to disrupt visual imagery (Quinn & McConnell, 1996a). Experiment 1 replicated the effect of DVN on pegword imagery. Experiments 2 and 3 showed no effect of ...

Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools Action Kit

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The IAQ Tools for Schools Action Kit provides schools with information on how to carry out a practical plan to improve indoor air problems at little- or no-cost using straightforward activities and in-house staff.

Comparative investigations of manual action representations: evidence that chimpanzees represent the costs of potential future actions involving tools.

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Frey, Scott H; Povinelli, Daniel J

2012-01-12

The ability to adjust one's ongoing actions in the anticipation of forthcoming task demands is considered as strong evidence for the existence of internal action representations. Studies of action selection in tool use reveal that the behaviours that we choose in the present moment differ depending on what we intend to do next. Further, they point to a specialized role for mechanisms within the human cerebellum and dominant left cerebral hemisphere in representing the likely sensory costs of intended future actions. Recently, the question of whether similar mechanisms exist in other primates has received growing, but still limited, attention. Here, we present data that bear on this issue from a species that is a natural user of tools, our nearest living relative, the chimpanzee. In experiment 1, a subset of chimpanzees showed a non-significant tendency for their grip preferences to be affected by anticipation of the demands associated with bringing a tool's baited end to their mouths. In experiment 2, chimpanzees' initial grip preferences were consistently affected by anticipation of the forthcoming movements in a task that involves using a tool to extract a food reward. The partial discrepancy between the results of these two studies is attributed to the ability to accurately represent differences between the motor costs associated with executing the two response alternatives available within each task. These findings suggest that chimpanzees are capable of accurately representing the costs of intended future actions, and using those predictions to select movements in the present even in the context of externally directed tool use.

Irrelevant speech does not interfere with serial recall in early blind listeners.

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Kattner, Florian; Ellermeier, Wolfgang

2014-01-01

Phonological working memory is known be (a) inversely related to the duration of the items to be learned (word-length effect), and (b) impaired by the presence of irrelevant speech-like sounds (irrelevant-speech effect). As it is discussed controversially whether these memory disruptions are subject to attentional control, both effects were studied in sighted participants and in a sample of early blind individuals who are expected to be superior in selectively attending to auditory stimuli. Results show that, while performance depended on word length in both groups, irrelevant speech interfered with recall only in the sighted group, but not in blind participants. This suggests that blind listeners may be able to effectively prevent irrelevant sound from being encoded in the phonological store, presumably due to superior auditory processing. The occurrence of a word-length effect, however, implies that blind and sighted listeners are utilizing the same phonological rehearsal mechanism in order to maintain information in the phonological store.

Original article Temperamental variation in learned irrelevance in humans

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Aleksandra Gruszka

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Background Learned irrelevance (LIRR represents one of the mechanisms of attentional set-shifting and refers to the inability to attend to, or to learn about, any aspect of a stimulus previously experienced as irrelevant. Although it has been extensively studied in the context of clinical populations, not much is known about LIRR effects in relation to normal variation in individual differences. The present study was designed to assess how temperamental factors may modulate LIRR. Participants and procedures Sixty-eight healthy volunteers performed a visual discrimination learning task modelled after Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. To test the susceptibility to learned irrelevance, participants were expected to shift their attention either to a dimension that prior to the extra-dimensional shift was completely irrelevant, or to a dimension that was previously partly correlated with reinforcement. Temperamental traits were assessed using the Formal Characteristics of Behaviour-Temperament Inventory (Zawadzki & Strelau, 1997. Intelligence level was stratified according to Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices (Raven, Raven, & Court, 2003. Results Low level of Briskness and high level of Perseverance were related to enhanced susceptibility to LIRR. High levels of Activity and Emotional Reactivity were related to the poorer performance on the extra-dimensional set-shifting. No effects of other temperament characteristics or intelligence on LIRR were observed. Conclusions The results confirm a strong variation in LIRR related to individual differences in temperament, which appears to be unrelated to DA function. Our results highlight the importance of considering individual differences in studies on cognitive control.

The irrelevant sound phenomenon revisited: what role for working memory capacity?

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Beaman, C Philip

2004-09-01

High-span individuals (as measured by the operation span [OSPAN] technique) are less likely than low-span individuals to notice their own names in an unattended auditory stream (A. R. A. Conway, N. Cowan, & M. F. Bunting, 2001). The possibility that OSPAN accounts for individual differences in auditory distraction on an immediate recall test was examined. There was no evidence that high-OSPAN participants were more resistant to the disruption caused by irrelevant speech in serial or in free recall. Low-OSPAN participants did, however, make more semantically related intrusion errors from the irrelevant sound stream in a free recall test (Experiment 4). Results suggest that OSPAN mediates semantic components of auditory distraction dissociable from other aspects of the irrelevant sound effect. ((c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved)

Maximum margin semi-supervised learning with irrelevant data.

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Yang, Haiqin; Huang, Kaizhu; King, Irwin; Lyu, Michael R

2015-10-01

Semi-supervised learning (SSL) is a typical learning paradigms training a model from both labeled and unlabeled data. The traditional SSL models usually assume unlabeled data are relevant to the labeled data, i.e., following the same distributions of the targeted labeled data. In this paper, we address a different, yet formidable scenario in semi-supervised classification, where the unlabeled data may contain irrelevant data to the labeled data. To tackle this problem, we develop a maximum margin model, named tri-class support vector machine (3C-SVM), to utilize the available training data, while seeking a hyperplane for separating the targeted data well. Our 3C-SVM exhibits several characteristics and advantages. First, it does not need any prior knowledge and explicit assumption on the data relatedness. On the contrary, it can relieve the effect of irrelevant unlabeled data based on the logistic principle and maximum entropy principle. That is, 3C-SVM approaches an ideal classifier. This classifier relies heavily on labeled data and is confident on the relevant data lying far away from the decision hyperplane, while maximally ignoring the irrelevant data, which are hardly distinguished. Second, theoretical analysis is provided to prove that in what condition, the irrelevant data can help to seek the hyperplane. Third, 3C-SVM is a generalized model that unifies several popular maximum margin models, including standard SVMs, Semi-supervised SVMs (S(3)VMs), and SVMs learned from the universum (U-SVMs) as its special cases. More importantly, we deploy a concave-convex produce to solve the proposed 3C-SVM, transforming the original mixed integer programming, to a semi-definite programming relaxation, and finally to a sequence of quadratic programming subproblems, which yields the same worst case time complexity as that of S(3)VMs. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our proposed 3C-SVM through systematical experimental comparisons. Copyright �

Stimulus-response correspondence effect as a function of temporal overlap between relevant and irrelevant information processing.

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Wang, Dong-Yuan Debbie; Richard, F Dan; Ray, Brittany

2016-01-01

The stimulus-response correspondence (SRC) effect refers to advantages in performance when stimulus and response correspond in dimensions or features, even if the common features are irrelevant to the task. Previous research indicated that the SRC effect depends on the temporal course of stimulus information processing. The current study investigated how the temporal overlap between relevant and irrelevant stimulus processing influences the SRC effect. In this experiment, the irrelevant stimulus (a previously associated tone) preceded the relevant stimulus (a coloured rectangle). The irrelevant and relevant stimuli onset asynchrony was varied to manipulate the temporal overlap between the irrelevant and relevant stimuli processing. Results indicated that the SRC effect size varied as a quadratic function of the temporal overlap between the relevant stimulus and irrelevant stimulus. This finding extends previous experimental observations that the SRC effect size varies in an increasing or decreasing function with reaction time. The current study demonstrated a quadratic function between effect size and the temporal overlap.

Serial recall of rhythms and verbal sequences: Impacts of concurrent tasks and irrelevant sound.

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Hall, Debbora; Gathercole, Susan E

2011-08-01

Rhythmic grouping enhances verbal serial recall, yet very little is known about memory for rhythmic patterns. The aim of this study was to compare the cognitive processes supporting memory for rhythmic and verbal sequences using a range of concurrent tasks and irrelevant sounds. In Experiment 1, both concurrent articulation and paced finger tapping during presentation and during a retention interval impaired rhythm recall, while letter recall was only impaired by concurrent articulation. In Experiments 2 and 3, irrelevant sound consisted of irrelevant speech or tones, changing-state or steady-state sound, and syncopated or paced sound during presentation and during a retention interval. Irrelevant speech was more damaging to rhythm and letter recall than was irrelevant tone sound, but there was no effect of changing state on rhythm recall, while letter recall accuracy was disrupted by changing-state sound. Pacing of sound did not consistently affect either rhythm or letter recall. There are similarities in the way speech and rhythms are processed that appear to extend beyond reliance on temporal coding mechanisms involved in serial-order recall.

Preserved suppression of salient irrelevant stimuli during visual search in Age-Associated Memory Impairment

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Laura eLorenzo-López

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Previous studies have suggested that older adults with age-associated memory impairment (AAMI may show a significant decline in attentional resource capacity and inhibitory processes in addition to memory impairment. In the present paper, the potential attentional capture by task-irrelevant stimuli was examined in older adults with AAMI compared to healthy older adults using scalp-recorded event-related brain potentials (ERPs. ERPs were recorded during the execution of a visual search task, in which the participants had to detect the presence of a target stimulus that differed from distractors by orientation. To explore the automatic attentional capture phenomenon, an irrelevant distractor stimulus defined by a different feature (color was also presented without previous knowledge of the participants. A consistent N2pc, an electrophysiological indicator of attentional deployment, was present for target stimuli but not for task-irrelevant color stimuli, suggesting that these irrelevant distractors did not attract attention in AAMI older adults. Furthermore, the N2pc for targets was significantly delayed in AAMI patients compared to healthy older controls. Together, these findings suggest a specific impairment of the attentional selection process of relevant target stimuli in these individuals and indicate that the mechanism of top-down suppression of entirely task-irrelevant stimuli is preserved, at least when the target and the irrelevant stimuli are perceptually very different.

Does high memory load kick task-irrelevant information out of visual working memory?

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Yin, Jun; Zhou, Jifan; Xu, Haokui; Liang, Junying; Gao, Zaifeng; Shen, Mowei

2012-04-01

The limited capacity of visual working memory (VWM) requires the existence of an efficient information selection mechanism. While it has been shown that under low VWM load, an irrelevant simple feature can be processed, its fate under high load (e.g., six objects) remains unclear. We explored this issue by probing the "irrelevant-change distracting effect," in which the change of a stored irrelevant feature affects performance. Simple colored shapes were used as stimuli, with color as the target. Using a whole-probe method (presenting six objects in both the memory and test arrays), in Experiment 1 we found that a change to one of the six shapes led to a significant distracting effect. Using a partial-probe method (presenting the probe either at the screen center or at a location selected from the memory array), in Experiment 2 we showed the distracting effect again. These results suggest that irrelevant simple features can be stored into VWM, regardless of memory load.

Left occipitotemporal cortex contributes to the discrimination of tool-associated hand actions: fMRI and TMS evidence.

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Perini, Francesca; Caramazza, Alfonso; Peelen, Marius V

2014-01-01

Functional neuroimaging studies have implicated the left lateral occipitotemporal cortex (LOTC) in both tool and hand perception but the functional role of this region is not fully known. Here, by using a task manipulation, we tested whether tool-/hand-selective LOTC contributes to the discrimination of tool-associated hand actions. Participants viewed briefly presented pictures of kitchen and garage tools while they performed one of two tasks: in the action task, they judged whether the tool is associated with a hand rotation action (e.g., screwdriver) or a hand squeeze action (e.g., garlic press), while in the location task they judged whether the tool is typically found in the kitchen (e.g., garlic press) or in the garage (e.g., screwdriver). Both tasks were performed on the same stimulus set and were matched for difficulty. Contrasting fMRI responses between these tasks showed stronger activity during the action task than the location task in both tool- and hand-selective LOTC regions, which closely overlapped. No differences were found in nearby object- and motion-selective control regions. Importantly, these findings were confirmed by a TMS study, which showed that effective TMS over the tool-/hand-selective LOTC region significantly slowed responses for tool action discriminations relative to tool location discriminations, with no such difference during sham TMS. We conclude that left LOTC contributes to the discrimination of tool-associated hand actions.

Novel fat-link fermion actions for lattice QCD

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zanotti, J.; Bilson-Thompson, S.; Bonnet, F.; Leinweber, D.; Melnitchouk, W.; Williams, A.

2000-01-01

Full text: We are currently exploring new ideas for lattice fermion actions. Naive implementations of fermion actions encounter the well known fermion-doubling problem. In order to solve this problem, Wilson introduced an irrelevant (energy) dimension-five operator (the so-called Wilson term) which explicitly breaks chiral symmetry. The scaling properties of this Wilson action can be improved by introducing any number of irrelevant operators of increasing dimension which also vanish in the continuum limit. In this manner, one can improve fermion actions at finite 'a' by combining operators to eliminate O(a) and perhaps O(a 2 ) errors etc. A popular formulation of a lattice fermion action that achieves this is the Clover action which removes the O(a) error introduced by the Wilson term by introducing an additional irrelevant dimension-five operator. The Clover action can be O(a) improved to all orders in the strong coupling 'g'. While the Clover action displays excellent scaling, it is responsible for revealing the exceptional configuration problem where the quark propagator encounters singular behaviour particularly as the quark mass becomes small. Moreover, its free dispersion relation between energy and momentum is unchanged from the standard Wilson action dispersion and shows a continuum like behaviour only for relatively small momenta [F. X. Lee and D. B. Leinweber, Phys. Rev. D59, 074504 (1999), hep-lat/9711044]. Finally, significant chiral symmetry breaking is apparent as the renormalised quark mass differs significantly from the bare mass of the theory. Hence we propose a different approach to fermion action improvement. One in which the additive renormalisations become small while expressing good chiral behaviour. This can be achieved through the consideration of 'fat-link' fermion actions [T. DeGrand (the MILC collaboration, Phys. Rev. D60, 094501 (1999)]. Fat links are created by averaging or smearing links on the lattice with their nearest neighbours in

Left occipitotemporal cortex contributes to the discrimination of tool-associated hand actions: fMRI and TMS evidence

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Francesca ePerini

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Functional neuroimaging studies have implicated the left lateral occipitotemporal cortex (LOTC in both tool and hand perception but the functional role of this region is not fully known. Here, by using a task manipulation, we tested whether tool-/hand-selective LOTC contributes to the discrimination of tool-associated hand actions. Participants viewed briefly presented pictures of kitchen and garage tools while they performed one of two tasks: in the action task, they judged whether the tool is associated with a hand rotation action (e.g., screwdriver or a hand squeeze action (e.g., garlic press, while in the location task they judged whether the tool is typically found in the kitchen (e.g., garlic press or in the garage (e.g., screwdriver. Both tasks were performed on the same stimulus set and were matched for difficulty. Contrasting fMRI responses between these tasks showed stronger activity during the action task than the location task in both tool- and hand-selective LOTC regions, which closely overlapped. No differences were found in nearby object- and motion-selective control regions. Importantly, these findings were confirmed by a TMS study, which showed that effective TMS over the tool-/hand-selective LOTC region significantly slowed responses for tool action discriminations relative to tool location discriminations, with no such difference during sham TMS. We conclude that left LOTC contributes to the discrimination of tool-associated hand actions.

Emotional prosody of task-irrelevant speech interferes with the retention of serial order.

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Kattner, Florian; Ellermeier, Wolfgang

2018-04-09

Task-irrelevant speech and other temporally changing sounds are known to interfere with the short-term memorization of ordered verbal materials, as compared to silence or stationary sounds. It has been argued that this disruption of short-term memory (STM) may be due to (a) interference of automatically encoded acoustical fluctuations with the process of serial rehearsal or (b) attentional capture by salient task-irrelevant information. To disentangle the contributions of these 2 processes, the authors investigated whether the disruption of serial recall is due to the semantic or acoustical properties of task-irrelevant speech (Experiment 1). They found that performance was affected by the prosody (emotional intonation), but not by the semantics (word meaning), of irrelevant speech, suggesting that the disruption of serial recall is due to interference of precategorically encoded changing-state sound (with higher fluctuation strength of emotionally intonated speech). The authors further demonstrated a functional distinction between this form of distraction and attentional capture by contrasting the effect of (a) speech prosody and (b) sudden prosody deviations on both serial and nonserial STM tasks (Experiment 2). Although serial recall was again sensitive to the emotional prosody of irrelevant speech, performance on a nonserial missing-item task was unaffected by the presence of neutral or emotionally intonated speech sounds. In contrast, sudden prosody changes tended to impair performance on both tasks, suggesting an independent effect of attentional capture. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Between-task competition for intentions and actions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Millington, R.S.; Poljac, E.; Yeung, N.

2013-01-01

People can switch quickly and flexibly from one task to another, but suffer the effects of between-task competition when they do so: After switching, they tend to be distracted by irrelevant stimulus information and hampered by incorrect actions associated with recently performed tasks. This

Independence of irrelevant alternatives and revealed group preferences

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wakker, P.P.; Peters, H.J.M.; Ichiishi, A.N.; Neyman, A.; Tauman, Y.

1990-01-01

It is shown that a Pareto optimal and continuous single-valued choice function defined on the compact convex subsets of the positive orthant of the plane maximizes a real-valued function if and only if it satisfies the independence of irrelevant alternatives condition. Further, this real-valued

The fate of task-irrelevant visual motion: perceptual load versus feature-based attention.

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Taya, Shuichiro; Adams, Wendy J; Graf, Erich W; Lavie, Nilli

2009-11-18

We tested contrasting predictions derived from perceptual load theory and from recent feature-based selection accounts. Observers viewed moving, colored stimuli and performed low or high load tasks associated with one stimulus feature, either color or motion. The resultant motion aftereffect (MAE) was used to evaluate attentional allocation. We found that task-irrelevant visual features received less attention than co-localized task-relevant features of the same objects. Moreover, when color and motion features were co-localized yet perceived to belong to two distinct surfaces, feature-based selection was further increased at the expense of object-based co-selection. Load theory predicts that the MAE for task-irrelevant motion would be reduced with a higher load color task. However, this was not seen for co-localized features; perceptual load only modulated the MAE for task-irrelevant motion when this was spatially separated from the attended color location. Our results suggest that perceptual load effects are mediated by spatial selection and do not generalize to the feature domain. Feature-based selection operates to suppress processing of task-irrelevant, co-localized features, irrespective of perceptual load.

Relevance of the Irrelevant : Using Task-Irrelevant Emotional Stimuli to Test the Load-Hypothesis through ERP’s

OpenAIRE

Andersson, Per

2010-01-01

The role of attention and perceptual resources were studied in a one-back task and a letter-search task, both using the same stimuli. In the letter task, pictures were used as task-irrelevant and distracting emotional stimuli. The emotional processing of the pictures was measured through the Late Positive Potential (LPP), an event-related potential (ERP) recorded with EEG. LPP activity was significantly greater to emotional than neutral stimuli during the one-back task; this shows that emotio...

Insensitivity of visual short-term memory to irrelevant visual information.

Science.gov (United States)

Andrade, Jackie; Kemps, Eva; Werniers, Yves; May, Jon; Szmalec, Arnaud

2002-07-01

Several authors have hypothesized that visuo-spatial working memory is functionally analogous to verbal working memory. Irrelevant background speech impairs verbal short-term memory. We investigated whether irrelevant visual information has an analogous effect on visual short-term memory, using a dynamic visual noise (DVN) technique known to disrupt visual imagery (Quinn & McConnell, 1996b). Experiment I replicated the effect of DVN on pegword imagery. Experiments 2 and 3 showed no effect of DVN on recall of static matrix patterns, despite a significant effect of a concurrent spatial tapping task. Experiment 4 showed no effect of DVN on encoding or maintenance of arrays of matrix patterns, despite testing memory by a recognition procedure to encourage visual rather than spatial processing. Serial position curves showed a one-item recency effect typical of visual short-term memory. Experiment 5 showed no effect of DVN on short-term recognition of Chinese characters, despite effects of visual similarity and a concurrent colour memory task that confirmed visual processing of the characters. We conclude that irrelevant visual noise does not impair visual short-term memory. Visual working memory may not be functionally analogous to verbal working memory, and different cognitive processes may underlie visual short-term memory and visual imagery.

PRIORITIZED ACTIONS FOR MARKETING IMPROVEMENT: A TOOL FOR SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING PROGRAMMES

OpenAIRE

Nikola Rovis

2010-01-01

Purpose of this paper is to offer a pragmatic tool for management and marketing practitioners in small businesses. The name of the tool is Prioritized Action for Marketing Improvements (PAMI). This work gives an overview of marketing and strategy processes in small businesses and a brief description of Dibb and Simkin buying proforma tool. The PAMI tool builds on successfully conducted market segmentation and specification or implicit knowledge on targeted market segments and market positioni...

The Neuroscience of Storing and Molding Tool Action Concepts: how plastic is grounded cognition?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J.C. Mizelle

2010-11-01

Full Text Available Choosing how to use tools to accomplish a task is a natural and seemingly trivial aspect of our lives, yet engages complex neural mechanisms. Recently, work in healthy populations has led to the idea that tool knowledge is grounded to allow for appropriate recall based on some level of personal history. This grounding has presumed neural loci for tool use, centered on parieto-temporo-frontal areas to fuse perception and action representations into one dynamic system. A challenge for this idea is related to one of its great benefits. For such a system to exist, it must be very plastic, to allow for the introduction of novel tools or concepts of tool use and modification of existing ones. Thus, learning new tool usage (familiar tools in new situations and new tools in familiar situations must involve mapping into this grounded network while marinating existing rules for tool usage. This plasticity may present a challenging breadth of encoding that needs to be optimally stored and accessed. The aim of this work is to explore the challenges of plasticity related to changing or incorporating representations of tool action within the theory of grounded cognition and propose a modular model of tool-object goal related accomplishment. While considering the neuroscience evidence for this approach, we will focus on the requisite plasticity for this system. Further, we will highlight challenges for flexibility and organization of already grounded tool actions and provide thoughts on future research to better evaluate mechanisms of encoding in the theory of grounded cognition.

Distinct Temporal Processing of Task-Irrelevant Emotional Facial Expressions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Jong, Peter J.; Koster, Ernst H. W.; Wessel, Ineke; Martens, Sander

There is an ongoing debate concerning the extent to which emotional faces automatically attract attention. Using a single-target Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) methodology, it has been found that presentation of task-irrelevant positive or negative emotionally salient stimuli (e. g.,

Increased Early Processing of Task-Irrelevant Auditory Stimuli in Older Adults.

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Erich S Tusch

Full Text Available The inhibitory deficit hypothesis of cognitive aging posits that older adults' inability to adequately suppress processing of irrelevant information is a major source of cognitive decline. Prior research has demonstrated that in response to task-irrelevant auditory stimuli there is an age-associated increase in the amplitude of the N1 wave, an ERP marker of early perceptual processing. Here, we tested predictions derived from the inhibitory deficit hypothesis that the age-related increase in N1 would be 1 observed under an auditory-ignore, but not auditory-attend condition, 2 attenuated in individuals with high executive capacity (EC, and 3 augmented by increasing cognitive load of the primary visual task. ERPs were measured in 114 well-matched young, middle-aged, young-old, and old-old adults, designated as having high or average EC based on neuropsychological testing. Under the auditory-ignore (visual-attend task, participants ignored auditory stimuli and responded to rare target letters under low and high load. Under the auditory-attend task, participants ignored visual stimuli and responded to rare target tones. Results confirmed an age-associated increase in N1 amplitude to auditory stimuli under the auditory-ignore but not auditory-attend task. Contrary to predictions, EC did not modulate the N1 response. The load effect was the opposite of expectation: the N1 to task-irrelevant auditory events was smaller under high load. Finally, older adults did not simply fail to suppress the N1 to auditory stimuli in the task-irrelevant modality; they generated a larger response than to identical stimuli in the task-relevant modality. In summary, several of the study's findings do not fit the inhibitory-deficit hypothesis of cognitive aging, which may need to be refined or supplemented by alternative accounts.

Task-irrelevant auditory feedback facilitates motor performance in musicians

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Virginia eConde

2012-05-01

Full Text Available An efficient and fast auditory–motor network is a basic resource for trained musicians due to the importance of motor anticipation of sound production in musical performance. When playing an instrument, motor performance always goes along with the production of sounds and the integration between both modalities plays an essential role in the course of musical training. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of task-irrelevant auditory feedback during motor performance in musicians using a serial reaction time task (SRTT. Our hypothesis was that musicians, due to their extensive auditory–motor practice routine during musical training, have a superior performance and learning capabilities when receiving auditory feedback during SRTT relative to musicians performing the SRTT without any auditory feedback. Here we provide novel evidence that task-irrelevant auditory feedback is capable to reinforce SRTT performance but not learning, a finding that might provide further insight into auditory-motor integration in musicians on a behavioral level.

Action learning: a tool for the development of strategic skills for Nurse Consultants?

Science.gov (United States)

Young, Sarah; Nixon, Eileen; Hinge, Denise; McFadyen, Jan; Wright, Vanessa; Lambert, Pauline; Pilkington, Carolyn; Newsome, Christine

2010-01-01

This paper will discuss the process of action learning and the outcomes of using action learning as a tool to achieve a more strategic function from Nurse Consultant posts. It is documented that one of the most challenging aspect of Nurse Consultant roles, in terms of leadership, is the strategic contribution they make at a senior corporate Trust level, often across organizations and local health economies. A facilitated action learning set was established in Brighton, England, to support the strategic leadership development of eight nurse consultant posts across two NHS Trusts. Benefits to patient care, with regard to patient pathways and cross-organizational working, have been evident outcomes associated with the nurse consultant posts involved in the action learning set. Commitment by organizational nurse leaders is essential to address the challenges facing nurse consultants to implement change at strategic levels. The use of facilitated action learning had been a successful tool in developing the strategic skills of Nurse Consultant posts within this setting. Action learning sets may be successfully applied to a range of senior nursing posts with a strategic remit and may assist post holders in achieving better outcomes pertinent to their roles.

A Lyapunov Function Based Remedial Action Screening Tool Using Real-Time Data

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mitra, Joydeep [Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States); Ben-Idris, Mohammed [Univ. of Nevada, Reno, NV (United States); Faruque, Omar [Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL (United States); Backhaus, Scott [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Deb, Sidart [LCG Consulting, Los Altos, CA (United States)

2016-03-30

This report summarizes the outcome of a research project that comprised the development of a Lyapunov function based remedial action screening tool using real-time data (L-RAS). The L-RAS is an advanced computational tool that is intended to assist system operators in making real-time redispatch decisions to preserve power grid stability. The tool relies on screening contingencies using a homotopy method based on Lyapunov functions to avoid, to the extent possible, the use of time domain simulations. This enables transient stability evaluation at real-time speed without the use of massively parallel computational resources. The project combined the following components. 1. Development of a methodology for contingency screening using a homotopy method based on Lyapunov functions and real-time data. 2. Development of a methodology for recommending remedial actions based on the screening results. 3. Development of a visualization and operator interaction interface. 4. Testing of screening tool, validation of control actions, and demonstration of project outcomes on a representative real system simulated on a Real-Time Digital Simulator (RTDS) cluster. The project was led by Michigan State University (MSU), where the theoretical models including homotopy-based screening, trajectory correction using real-time data, and remedial action were developed and implemented in the form of research-grade software. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) contributed to the development of energy margin sensitivity dynamics, which constituted a part of the remedial action portfolio. Florida State University (FSU) and Southern California Edison (SCE) developed a model of the SCE system that was implemented on FSU's RTDS cluster to simulate real-time data that was streamed over the internet to MSU where the L-RAS tool was executed and remedial actions were communicated back to FSU to execute stabilizing controls on the simulated system. LCG Consulting developed the visualization

Cognitive conflict increases processing of negative, task-irrelevant stimuli.

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Ligeza, Tomasz S; Wyczesany, Miroslaw

2017-10-01

The detection of cognitive conflict is thought to trigger adjustments in executive control. It has been recently shown that cognitive conflict increases processing of stimuli that are relevant to the ongoing task and that these modulations are exerted by the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). However, it is still unclear whether such control influences are unspecific and might also affect the processing of task-irrelevant stimuli. The aim of the study was to examine if cognitive conflict affects processing of neutral and negative, task-irrelevant pictures. Participants responded to congruent (non-conflict) or to incongruent (conflict-eliciting) trials of a modified flanker task. Each response was followed by a presentation of a neutral or negative picture. The late positive potential (LPP) in response to picture presentation was used to assess the level of picture processing after conflict vs non-conflict trials. Connectivity between the DLPFC and attentional and perceptual areas during picture presentation was analysed to check if the DLPFC might be a source of these modulations. ERP results showed an effect of cognitive conflict only on processing of negative pictures: LPP in response to negative pictures was increased after conflict trials, whereas LPP in response to neutral pictures remained unchanged. Cortical connectivity analysis showed that conflict trials intensified information flow from the DLPFC towards attentional and perceptual regions. Results suggest that cognitive conflict increases processing of task-irrelevant stimuli; however, they must display high biological salience. Increase in cognitive control exerted by the DLPFC over attentional and perceptual regions is a probable mechanism of the effect. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Emergence of Selective Attention through Probabilistic Associations between Stimuli and Actions.

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Luca Simione

Full Text Available In this paper we show how a multilayer neural network trained to master a context-dependent task in which the action co-varies with a certain stimulus in a first context and with a second stimulus in an alternative context exhibits selective attention, i.e. filtering out of irrelevant information. This effect is rather robust and it is observed in several variations of the experiment in which the characteristics of the network as well as of the training procedure have been varied. Our result demonstrates how the filtering out of irrelevant information can originate spontaneously as a consequence of the regularities present in context-dependent training set and therefore does not necessarily depend on specific architectural constraints. The post-evaluation of the network in an instructed-delay experimental scenario shows how the behaviour of the network is consistent with the data collected in neuropsychological studies. The analysis of the network at the end of the training process indicates how selective attention originates as a result of the effects caused by relevant and irrelevant stimuli mediated by context-dependent and context-independent bidirectional associations between stimuli and actions that are extracted by the network during the learning.

The Role of Expertise in Tool Use: Skill Differences in Functional Action Adaptations to Task Constraints

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Bril, Blandine; Rein, Robert; Nonaka, Tetsushi; Wenban-Smith, Francis; Dietrich, Gilles

2010-01-01

Tool use can be considered a particularly useful model to understand the nature of functional actions. In 3 experiments, tool-use actions typified by stone knapping were investigated. Participants had to detach stone flakes from a flint core through a conchoidal fracture. Successful flake detachment requires controlling various functional…

Synchronized brain activity during rehearsal and short-term memory disruption by irrelevant speech is affected by recall mode.

Science.gov (United States)

Kopp, Franziska; Schröger, Erich; Lipka, Sigrid

2006-08-01

EEG coherence as a measure of synchronization of brain activity was used to investigate effects of irrelevant speech. In a delayed serial recall paradigm 21 healthy participants retained verbal items over a 10-s delay with and without interfering irrelevant speech. Recall after the delay was varied in two modes (spoken vs. written). Behavioral data showed the classic irrelevant speech effect and a superiority of written over spoken recall mode. Coherence, however, was more sensitive to processing characteristics and showed interactions between the irrelevant speech effect and recall mode during the rehearsal delay in theta (4-7.5 Hz), alpha (8-12 Hz), beta (13-20 Hz), and gamma (35-47 Hz) frequency bands. For gamma, a rehearsal-related decrease of the duration of high coherence due to presentation of irrelevant speech was found in a left-lateralized fronto-central and centro-temporal network only in spoken but not in written recall. In theta, coherence at predominantly fronto-parietal electrode combinations was indicative for memory demands and varied with individual working memory capacity assessed by digit span. Alpha coherence revealed similar results and patterns as theta coherence. In beta, a left-hemispheric network showed longer high synchronizations due to irrelevant speech only in written recall mode. EEG results suggest that mode of recall is critical for processing already during the retention period of a delayed serial recall task. Moreover, the finding that different networks are engaged with different recall modes shows that the disrupting effect of irrelevant speech is not a unitary mechanism.

Continuum limit and improved action in lattice theories. Pt. 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Symanzik, K.

1983-03-01

Corrections to continuum theory results stemming from finite lattice-spacing can be diminished systematically by use of lattice actions that include also suitable irrelevant terms. We describe in detail the principles of such constructions at the example of PHI 4 theory. (orig.)

Causal knowledge and imitation/emulation switching in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and children (Homo sapiens).

Science.gov (United States)

Horner, Victoria; Whiten, Andrew

2005-07-01

This study explored whether the tendency of chimpanzees and children to use emulation or imitation to solve a tool-using task was a response to the availability of causal information. Young wild-born chimpanzees from an African sanctuary and 3- to 4-year-old children observed a human demonstrator use a tool to retrieve a reward from a puzzle-box. The demonstration involved both causally relevant and irrelevant actions, and the box was presented in each of two conditions: opaque and clear. In the opaque condition, causal information about the effect of the tool inside the box was not available, and hence it was impossible to differentiate between the relevant and irrelevant parts of the demonstration. However, in the clear condition causal information was available, and subjects could potentially determine which actions were necessary. When chimpanzees were presented with the opaque box, they reproduced both the relevant and irrelevant actions, thus imitating the overall structure of the task. When the box was presented in the clear condition they instead ignored the irrelevant actions in favour of a more efficient, emulative technique. These results suggest that emulation is the favoured strategy of chimpanzees when sufficient causal information is available. However, if such information is not available, chimpanzees are prone to employ a more comprehensive copy of an observed action. In contrast to the chimpanzees, children employed imitation to solve the task in both conditions, at the expense of efficiency. We suggest that the difference in performance of chimpanzees and children may be due to a greater susceptibility of children to cultural conventions, perhaps combined with a differential focus on the results, actions and goals of the demonstrator.

On the irrelevance of the leverage effect

OpenAIRE

Nippel, Peter

2001-01-01

Financial leverage increases the expected return on equity. We show that this leverage effect is not only irrelevant for shareholders' present wealth but also for the return on their investments. This result is straightforward if we do not only look at the return on equity but at the return on shareholders' total wealth. Any relevance leverage may have is definitely due to market imperfections. These may simply cause differences in market access for firms and individuals or lead to agency pro...

Attentional control during visual search: The effect of irrelevant singletons

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Theeuwes, J.; Burger, R.

1998-01-01

Four experiments investigated whether a highly salient color singleton can be ignored during serial search. Observers searched for a target letter among nontarget letters and were instructed to ignore an irrelevant, highly salient color singleton that was either compatible or incompatible with the

Attention to irrelevant cues is related to positive symptoms in schizophrenia.

Science.gov (United States)

Morris, Richard; Griffiths, Oren; Le Pelley, Michael E; Weickert, Thomas W

2013-05-01

Many modern learning theories assume that the amount of attention to a cue depends on how well that cue predicted important events in the past. Schizophrenia is associated with deficits in attention and recent theories of psychosis have argued that positive symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations are related to a failure of selective attention. However, evidence demonstrating that attention to irrelevant cues is related to positive symptoms in schizophrenia is lacking. We used a novel method of measuring attention to nonpredictive (and thus irrelevant) cues in a causal learning test (Le Pelley ME, McLaren IP. Learned associability and associative change in human causal learning. Q J Exp Psychol B. 2003;56:68-79) to assess whether healthy adults and people with schizophrenia discriminate previously predictive and nonpredictive cues. In a series of experiments with independent samples, we demonstrated: (1) when people with schizophrenia who had severe positive symptoms successfully distinguished between predictive and nonpredictive cues during training, they failed to discriminate between predictive and nonpredictive cues relative to healthy adults during subsequent testing and (2) learning about nonpredictive cues was correlated with more severe positive symptoms scores in schizophrenia. These results suggest that positive symptoms of schizophrenia are related to increased attention to nonpredictive cues during causal learning. This deficit in selective attention results in learning irrelevant causal associations and may be the basis of positive symptoms in schizophrenia.

Task-irrelevant memory load induces inattentional blindness without temporo-parietal suppression.

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Matsuyoshi, Daisuke; Ikeda, Takashi; Sawamoto, Nobukatsu; Kakigi, Ryusuke; Fukuyama, Hidenao; Osaka, Naoyuki

2010-08-01

We often fail to consciously detect an unexpected object when we are engaged in an attention-demanding task (inattentional blindness). The inattentional blindness which is induced by visual short-term memory (VSTM) load has been proposed to result from a suppression of temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) activity that involves stimulus-driven attention. However, the fact that, inversely proportional to TPJ activity, intraparietal sulcus (IPS) activity correlates with VSTM load renders questionable the account of inattentional blindness based only on TPJ activity. Here, we investigated whether the TPJ is solely responsible for inattentional blindness by decoupling IPS and TPJ responses to VSTM load and then using the same manipulation to test the behavioral inattentional blindness performance. Experiment 1 showed that TPJ activity was not suppressed by task-irrelevant load while the IPS responded to both task-relevant and task-irrelevant load. Although the TPJ account of inattentional blindness predicts that the degree of inattentional blindness should track TPJ activity, we found in Experiment 2 that inattentional blindness was induced not only by task-relevant load but also by task-irrelevant load, showing inconsistency between the extent of inattentional blindness and TPJ response. These findings suggest that inattentional blindness can be induced without suppression of TPJ activity and seem to offer the possibility that the IPS contributes to conscious perception. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Education tools for entrepreneurship creating an action-learning environment through educational learning tools

CERN Document Server

Gómez, Jaime; Vélez-Torres, Francisco; Rueda-Armengot, Carlos

2016-01-01

This book examines education in entrepreneurship through an action-learning environment that employs various education tools, technology tools and pedagogical methods being implemented into university curriculums around the world. Entrepreneurship in all of its aspects, connotations, and applications has undoubtedly become a major force for new and sustainable wealth creation in both emerging and developed economies. This notion has been encouraging universities to incorporate entrepreneurship-related competencies into the curriculums of almost all subjects, as researchers, educators, and administrators alike acknowledge that students must be fully engaged and prepared to thrive in a society increasingly defined by innovation. In this context, the primary challenge consists in how to inspire or work beyond the mental limits in the classroom; to determine which learning platforms are required or useful to unlock and stimulate creativity and eliminate the human aversion to failure. Featuring contributions and c...

Neural bases of selective attention in action video game players.

Science.gov (United States)

Bavelier, D; Achtman, R L; Mani, M; Föcker, J

2012-05-15

Over the past few years, the very act of playing action video games has been shown to enhance several different aspects of visual selective attention, yet little is known about the neural mechanisms that mediate such attentional benefits. A review of the aspects of attention enhanced in action game players suggests there are changes in the mechanisms that control attention allocation and its efficiency (Hubert-Wallander, Green, & Bavelier, 2010). The present study used brain imaging to test this hypothesis by comparing attentional network recruitment and distractor processing in action gamers versus non-gamers as attentional demands increased. Moving distractors were found to elicit lesser activation of the visual motion-sensitive area (MT/MST) in gamers as compared to non-gamers, suggestive of a better early filtering of irrelevant information in gamers. As expected, a fronto-parietal network of areas showed greater recruitment as attentional demands increased in non-gamers. In contrast, gamers barely engaged this network as attentional demands increased. This reduced activity in the fronto-parietal network that is hypothesized to control the flexible allocation of top-down attention is compatible with the proposal that action game players may allocate attentional resources more automatically, possibly allowing more efficient early filtering of irrelevant information. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Removal of irrelevant information from working memory: sometimes fast, sometimes slow, and sometimes not at all.

Science.gov (United States)

Oberauer, Klaus

2018-03-12

To function properly, working memory must be rapidly updated. Updating requires the removal of information no longer relevant. I present six experiments designed to explore the boundary conditions and the time course of removal. A condition in which three out of six memory items can be removed was compared to two baseline conditions in which either three or six items were encoded and maintained in working memory. The time for removal was varied. In experiment 1, in the removal condition, a distinct subset of three words was cued to be irrelevant after encoding all six words. With longer removal time, response times in the removal condition approximated those in the set-size 3 baseline, but accuracies stayed at the set-size 6 level. In experiment 2, in which a random subset of three words was cued as irrelevant, there was no evidence for removal. Experiments 3 and 4 showed that when each item is cued as relevant or irrelevant after its encoding, irrelevant items can be removed rapidly and completely. Experiments 5 and 6 showed that complete removal was no longer possible when words had to be processed before being cued as irrelevant. The pattern of findings can be explained by distinguishing two forms of removal: deactivation removes working-memory contents from the set of competitors for retrieval; unbinding contents from their contexts removes them from working memory entirely, so that they also cease to compete for limited capacity. © 2018 New York Academy of Sciences.

Are There Ways out of the Self-inflicted Irrelevance of the Qualitative Off-stream?

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Norbert Groeben

2006-09-01

Full Text Available The qualitative paradigm is relatively irrelevant in psychological research and teaching, which is not only due to the hegemony of the quantitative paradigm. This irrelevance also arises from the fragmentation within the qualitative research paradigm, which is a result of the principle of a close interdependence of research object and method; this fragmentation is evident in the lack of a systematic approach to the concept of method. The conviction to conduct a superior psychological approach leads to destructive competition both within the qualitative paradigm and in relation to the quantitative paradigm. Instead, I recommend the pursuit of approaches that attempt to integrate qualitative and quantitative research methods on the basis of the idea of ontological layers, clearly distinct from esoteric approaches. Above all, the development of sophisticated and complex methods of statistical analysis appears a promising way to overcome the self-inflicted irrelevance of the qualitative research paradigm. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0604347

Irrelevant Auditory and Visual Events Induce a Visual Attentional Blink

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Van der Burg, Erik; Nieuwenstein, Mark R.; Theeuwes, Jan; Olivers, Christian N. L.

2013-01-01

In the present study we investigated whether a task-irrelevant distractor can induce a visual attentional blink pattern. Participants were asked to detect only a visual target letter (A, B, or C) and to ignore the preceding auditory, visual, or audiovisual distractor. An attentional blink was

A Proof-Irrelevant Model of Martin-Löf's Logical Framework

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fridlender, Daniel

2003-01-01

objects with different degree of relevance: those that denote proofs are irrelevant whereas those that denote types are not. In fact a whole hierarchy of relevance exists. Another difference is the higher level of detail in the formulation of the formal theory, such as the explicit manipulation...

Open-plan office noise: The susceptibility and suitability of different cognitive tasks for work in the presence of irrelevant speech

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Helena Jahncke

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of the present study was to test which tasks are suitable for work in open-plan offices according to how susceptible they are to disruption produced by the mere presence of irrelevant speech. The tasks were chosen to tap fundamental capacities of office work involving: search for relevant information, remembering material, counting, and generation of words. The hypothesis was that tasks requiring semantic processing should be impaired by irrelevant speech. To determine the magnitude of performance decrease, two sound conditions (quiet, irrelevant speech were compared. The results showed that tasks based on episodic short-term-memory and rehearsal of the presented material were more sensitive to disruption by irrelevant speech than tasks which did not require rehearsal or were based on long-term memory retrieval. The present study points to the inappropriateness of tasks, such as information search and remembering of material, for work environments within which irrelevant speech is ubiquitous.

Risk Sensitivity, Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives and Continuity of Bargaining Solutions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M.B.M. de Koster (René); H.J.M. Peters (Hans); S.H. Tijs; P.P. Wakker (Peter)

1983-01-01

textabstractBargaining solutions are considered which have the following four properties: individual rationality, Pareto optimality, independence of equivalent utility representations, and independence of irrelevant alternatives. A main result of this paper is a simple proof of the fact that all

The use of web2 tools in action research

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kolbæk, Raymond; Steensgaard, Randi; Angel, Sanne

2017-01-01

. Furthermore we try to evidence-based the concept of "Sample handlings" and examines whether this concept can be used as a flexible methodological tool for developing workflow that promotes patient participation in their own rehabilitation. We use a action research design to identify actual problems, develop......, to test, evaluate and implement specific actions to promote patient participation in rehabilitation. Four nurses and four social and health assistants is having a "co-researcher" active role. The interaction with the researchers creates a reflexive and dynamic process with a learning and competence......Abstract Content: Major challenges occurs, when trying to implement research in clinical practice. In the West Danish Center for Spinal Cord Injury, we are doing a practice-based ph.d. project, that involves the practice field's own members as co-researchers. In the management of the project we use...

Trigger Foods: The Influence of “Irrelevant†Alternatives in School Lunchrooms

OpenAIRE

Hanks, Andrew S.; Just, David R.; Wansink, Brian

2012-01-01

Rational choice theory commonly assumes that the presence of unselected choices cannot impact which among the remaining choices is selected–-often referred to as “independence of irrelevant alternatives.†We show that such seemingly irrelevant alternatives influence choice in a school lunch setting. In these lunchrooms, we provide evidence that the presence of specific side dishes-–trigger foods-–can strongly increase the sales of unhealthy à la carte options, even when the trigger foods a...

Construct Relevant or Irrelevant? The Role of Linguistic Complexity in the Assessment of English Language Learners' Science Knowledge

Science.gov (United States)

Avenia-Tapper, Brianna; Llosa, Lorena

2015-01-01

This article addresses the issue of language-related construct-irrelevant variance on content area tests from the perspective of systemic functional linguistics. We propose that the construct relevance of language used in content area assessments, and consequent claims of construct-irrelevant variance and bias, should be determined according to…

Preferential processing of task-irrelevant beloved-related information and task performance: Two event-related potential studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Langeslag, Sandra J E; van Strien, Jan W

2017-09-18

People who are in love have better attention for beloved-related information, but report having trouble focusing on other tasks, such as (home)work. So, romantic love can both improve and hurt cognition. Emotional information is preferentially processed, which improves task performance when the information is task-relevant, but hurts task performance when it is task-irrelevant. Because beloved-related information is highly emotional, the effects of romantic love on cognition may resemble these effects of emotion on cognition. We examined whether beloved-related information is preferentially processed even when it is task-irrelevant and whether this hurts task performance. In two event-related potential studies, participants who had recently fallen in love performed a visuospatial short-term memory task. Task-irrelevant beloved, friend, and stranger faces were presented during maintenance (Study 1), or encoding (Study 2). The Early Posterior Negativity (EPN) reflecting early automatic attentional capturing and the Late Positive Potential (LPP) reflecting sustained motivated attention were largest for beloved pictures. Thus, beloved pictures are preferentially processed even when they are task-irrelevant. Task performance and reaction times did not differ between beloved, friend, and stranger conditions. Nevertheless, self-reported obsessive thinking about the beloved tended to correlate negatively with task performance, and positively with reaction times, across conditions. So, although task-irrelevant beloved-related information does not impact task performance, more obsessive thinking about the beloved might relate to poorer and slower overall task performance. More research is needed to clarify why people experience trouble focusing on beloved-unrelated tasks and how this negative effect of love on cognition could be reduced. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Saving emissions trading from irrelevance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tindale, Stephen

2013-01-01

Uncontrolled climate change is the greatest risk that humanity faces. The main burden will fall on developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. But Europe and its residents will also be damaged in many ways, including extreme weather, heat waves, and the spread of tropical diseases. Climate change is a quintessentially global challenge. If pollution shifts from one part of the world to another - from Europe to China, for example - the global climate is no better off. The main EU climate policy, the Emissions Trading System, now stipulates such a low carbon price that it has become essentially irrelevant. The European Commission should propose a Europe-wide carbon price floor of euro 30 per tonne, high enough to influence investment decisions and encourage energy efficiency and low-carbon energy supply. The Commission should also propose border tax adjustments, with the revenue returned to the country of origin

When Does Between-Sequence Phonological Similarity Promote Irrelevant Sound Disruption?

Science.gov (United States)

Marsh, John E.; Vachon, Francois; Jones, Dylan M.

2008-01-01

Typically, the phonological similarity between to-be-recalled items and TBI auditory stimuli has no impact if recall in serial order is required. However, in the present study, the authors have shown that the free recall, but not serial recall, of lists of phonologically related to-be-remembered items was disrupted by an irrelevant sound stream…

Effects of visual working memory on brain information processing of irrelevant auditory stimuli.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jiagui Qu

Full Text Available Selective attention has traditionally been viewed as a sensory processing modulator that promotes cognitive processing efficiency by favoring relevant stimuli while inhibiting irrelevant stimuli. However, the cross-modal processing of irrelevant information during working memory (WM has been rarely investigated. In this study, the modulation of irrelevant auditory information by the brain during a visual WM task was investigated. The N100 auditory evoked potential (N100-AEP following an auditory click was used to evaluate the selective attention to auditory stimulus during WM processing and at rest. N100-AEP amplitudes were found to be significantly affected in the left-prefrontal, mid-prefrontal, right-prefrontal, left-frontal, and mid-frontal regions while performing a high WM load task. In contrast, no significant differences were found between N100-AEP amplitudes in WM states and rest states under a low WM load task in all recorded brain regions. Furthermore, no differences were found between the time latencies of N100-AEP troughs in WM states and rest states while performing either the high or low WM load task. These findings suggested that the prefrontal cortex (PFC may integrate information from different sensory channels to protect perceptual integrity during cognitive processing.

Effects of visual working memory on brain information processing of irrelevant auditory stimuli.

Science.gov (United States)

Qu, Jiagui; Rizak, Joshua D; Zhao, Lun; Li, Minghong; Ma, Yuanye

2014-01-01

Selective attention has traditionally been viewed as a sensory processing modulator that promotes cognitive processing efficiency by favoring relevant stimuli while inhibiting irrelevant stimuli. However, the cross-modal processing of irrelevant information during working memory (WM) has been rarely investigated. In this study, the modulation of irrelevant auditory information by the brain during a visual WM task was investigated. The N100 auditory evoked potential (N100-AEP) following an auditory click was used to evaluate the selective attention to auditory stimulus during WM processing and at rest. N100-AEP amplitudes were found to be significantly affected in the left-prefrontal, mid-prefrontal, right-prefrontal, left-frontal, and mid-frontal regions while performing a high WM load task. In contrast, no significant differences were found between N100-AEP amplitudes in WM states and rest states under a low WM load task in all recorded brain regions. Furthermore, no differences were found between the time latencies of N100-AEP troughs in WM states and rest states while performing either the high or low WM load task. These findings suggested that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) may integrate information from different sensory channels to protect perceptual integrity during cognitive processing.

Neural correlates of pantomiming familiar and unfamiliar tools: action semantics versus mechanical problem solving?

Science.gov (United States)

Vingerhoets, Guy; Vandekerckhove, Elisabeth; Honoré, Pieterjan; Vandemaele, Pieter; Achten, Eric

2011-06-01

This study aims to reveal the neural correlates of planning and executing tool use pantomimes and explores the brain's response to pantomiming the use of unfamiliar tools. Sixteen right-handed volunteers planned and executed pantomimes of equally graspable familiar and unfamiliar tools while undergoing fMRI. During the planning of these pantomimes, we found bilateral temporo-occipital and predominantly left hemispheric frontal and parietal activation. The execution of the pantomimes produced additional activation in frontal and sensorimotor regions. In the left posterior parietal region both familiar and unfamiliar tool pantomimes elicit peak activity in the anterior portion of the lateral bank of the intraparietal sulcus--A region associated with the representation of action goals. The cerebral activation during these pantomimes is remarkably similar for familiar and unfamiliar tools, and direct comparisons revealed only few differences. First, the left cuneus is significantly active during the planning of pantomimes of unfamiliar tools, reflecting increased visual processing of the novel objects. Second, executing (but not planning) familiar tool pantomimes showed significant activation on the convex portion of the inferior parietal lobule, a region believed to serve as a repository for skilled object-related gestures. Given the striking similarity in brain activation while pantomiming familiar and unfamiliar tools, we argue that normal subjects use both action semantics and function from structure inferences simultaneously and interactively to give rise to flexible object-to-goal directed behavior. Copyright © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Numeracy moderates the influence of task-irrelevant affect on probability weighting.

Science.gov (United States)

Traczyk, Jakub; Fulawka, Kamil

2016-06-01

Statistical numeracy, defined as the ability to understand and process statistical and probability information, plays a significant role in superior decision making. However, recent research has demonstrated that statistical numeracy goes beyond simple comprehension of numbers and mathematical operations. On the contrary to previous studies that were focused on emotions integral to risky prospects, we hypothesized that highly numerate individuals would exhibit more linear probability weighting because they would be less biased by incidental and decision-irrelevant affect. Participants were instructed to make a series of insurance decisions preceded by negative (i.e., fear-inducing) or neutral stimuli. We found that incidental negative affect increased the curvature of the probability weighting function (PWF). Interestingly, this effect was significant only for less numerate individuals, while probability weighting in more numerate people was not altered by decision-irrelevant affect. We propose two candidate mechanisms for the observed effect. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

From capture to inhibition: How does irrelevant information influence visual search? Evidence from a spatial cuing paradigm.

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Christine eMertes

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Even though information is spatially and temporally irrelevant, it can influence the processing of subsequent information. The present study used a spatial cuing paradigm to investigate the origins of this persisting influence by means of event-related potentials (ERPs of the EEG. An irrelevant color cue that was either contingent (color search or non-contingent (shape search on attentional sets was presented prior to a target array with different stimulus-onset asynchronies (SOA; 200, 400, 800 ms. Behavioral results indicated that color cues captured attention only when they shared target-defining properties. These same-location effects persisted over time but were pronounced when cue and target array were presented in close succession. N2pc showed that the color cue generally drew attention, but was strongest in the contingent condition. A subsequently emerging contralateral posterior positivity referred to the irrelevant cue (i.e. distractor positivity; Pd was unaffected by the attentional set and therefore interpreted as an inhibitory process required to enable a re-direction of the attentional focus. CDA was only observable in the contingent condition, indicating the transfer of spatial information into working memory and thus providing an explanation for the same-location effect for longer SOAs. Inhibition of this irrelevant information was reflected by a second contralateral positivity triggered through target presentation. The results suggest that distracting information is actively maintained when it resembles a sought-after object. However, two independent attentional processes are at work to compensate for attentional distraction: The timely inhibition of attentional capture and the active inhibition of mental representation of irrelevant information.

Irrelevant sound disrupts speech production: exploring the relationship between short-term memory and experimentally induced slips of the tongue.

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Saito, Satoru; Baddeley, Alan

2004-10-01

To explore the relationship between short-term memory and speech production, we developed a speech error induction technique. The technique, which was adapted from a Japanese word game, exposed participants to an auditory distractor word immediately before the utterance of a target word. In Experiment 1, the distractor words that were phonologically similar to the target word led to a greater number of errors in speaking the target than did the dissimilar distractor words. Furthermore, the speech error scores were significantly correlated with memory span scores. In Experiment 2, memory span scores were again correlated with the rate of the speech errors that were induced from the task-irrelevant speech sounds. Experiment 3 showed a strong irrelevant-sound effect in the serial recall of nonwords. The magnitude of the irrelevant-sound effects was not affected by phonological similarity between the to-be-remembered nonwords and the irrelevant-sound materials. Analysis of recall errors in Experiment 3 also suggested that there were no essential differences in recall error patterns between the dissimilar and similar irrelevant-sound conditions. We proposed two different underlying mechanisms in immediate memory, one operating via the phonological short-term memory store and the other via the processes underpinning speech production.

Involuntary top-down control by search-irrelevant features: Visual working memory biases attention in an object-based manner.

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Foerster, Rebecca M; Schneider, Werner X

2018-03-01

Many everyday tasks involve successive visual-search episodes with changing targets. Converging evidence suggests that these targets are retained in visual working memory (VWM) and bias attention from there. It is unknown whether all or only search-relevant features of a VWM template bias attention during search. Bias signals might be configured exclusively to task-relevant features so that only search-relevant features bias attention. Alternatively, VWM might maintain objects in the form of bound features. Then, all template features will bias attention in an object-based manner, so that biasing effects are ranked by feature relevance. Here, we investigated whether search-irrelevant VWM template features bias attention. Participants had to saccade to a target opposite a distractor. A colored cue depicted the target prior to each search trial. The target was predefined only by its identity, while its color was irrelevant. When target and cue matched not only in identity (search-relevant) but also in color (search-irrelevant), saccades went more often and faster directly to the target than without any color match (Experiment 1). When introducing a cue-distractor color match (Experiment 2), direct target saccades were most likely when target and cue matched in the search-irrelevant color and least likely in case of a cue-distractor color match. When cue and target were never colored the same (Experiment 3), cue-colored distractors still captured the eyes more often than different-colored distractors despite color being search-irrelevant. As participants were informed about the misleading color, the result argues against a strategical and voluntary usage of color. Instead, search-irrelevant features biased attention obligatorily arguing for involuntary top-down control by object-based VWM templates. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Emotion and false memory: How goal-irrelevance can be relevant for what people remember.

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Van Damme, Ilse; Kaplan, Robin L; Levine, Linda J; Loftus, Elizabeth F

2017-02-01

Elaborating on misleading information concerning emotional events can lead people to form false memories. The present experiment compared participants' susceptibility to false memories when they elaborated on information associated with positive versus negative emotion and pregoal versus postgoal emotion. Pregoal emotion reflects appraisals that goal attainment or failure is anticipated but has not yet occurred (e.g., hope and fear). Postgoal emotion reflects appraisals that goal attainment or failure has already occurred (e.g., happiness and devastation). Participants watched a slideshow depicting an interaction between a couple and were asked to empathise with the protagonist's feelings of hope (positive pregoal), happiness (positive postgoal), fear (negative pregoal), or devastation (negative postgoal); in control conditions, no emotion was mentioned. Participants were then asked to reflect on details of the interaction that had occurred (true) or had not occurred (false), and that were relevant or irrelevant to the protagonist's goal. Irrespective of emotional valence, participants in the pregoal conditions were more susceptible to false memories concerning goal-irrelevant details than were participants in the other conditions. These findings support the view that pregoal emotions narrow attention to information relevant to goal pursuit, increasing susceptibility to false memories for irrelevant information.

Operational controlling - a tool of translating strategy into action

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

2011-03-01

Full Text Available . Enterprises have a lot of problems with realization their strategic aims in the fast changing and competitive business arena from many years. Effective execution of strategic plan needs its translating into action, task results and indicators of everyday activities. The success on the market is attainable by communicating strategic and operating goals on the each level of organizational structure and their connecting with budget of units or employee motivation. The scorecards balancing in finance, customer, process and development perspectives is very useful for pointing - what do we control with? or - what do we have to achieve? But doesn't answer to question about ways of enterprise managing. Main aim of the article is proving that operational controlling system is a essential tool for translating strategy into action. The Balanced Scorecard methodology should to take into consideration system and process connection of enterprise with procurement, co-operation or distribution supply chain also.

From Capture to Inhibition: How does Irrelevant Information Influence Visual Search? Evidence from a Spatial Cuing Paradigm.

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Mertes, Christine; Wascher, Edmund; Schneider, Daniel

2016-01-01

Even though information is spatially and temporally irrelevant, it can influence the processing of subsequent information. The present study used a spatial cuing paradigm to investigate the origins of this persisting influence by means of event-related potentials (ERPs) of the EEG. An irrelevant color cue that was either contingent (color search) or non-contingent (shape search) on attentional sets was presented prior to a target array with different stimulus-onset asynchronies (SOA; 200, 400, 800 ms). Behavioral results indicated that color cues captured attention only when they shared target-defining properties. These same-location effects persisted over time but were pronounced when cue and target array were presented in close succession. N2 posterior contralateral (N2pc) showed that the color cue generally drew attention, but was strongest in the contingent condition. A subsequently emerging contralateral posterior positivity referred to the irrelevant cue (i.e., distractor positivity, Pd) was unaffected by the attentional set and therefore interpreted as an inhibitory process required to enable a re-direction of the attentional focus. Contralateral delay activity (CDA) was only observable in the contingent condition, indicating the transfer of spatial information into working memory and thus providing an explanation for the same-location effect for longer SOAs. Inhibition of this irrelevant information was reflected by a second contralateral positivity triggered through target presentation. The results suggest that distracting information is actively maintained when it resembles a sought-after object. However, two independent attentional processes are at work to compensate for attentional distraction: the timely inhibition of attentional capture and the active inhibition of mental representation of irrelevant information.

Neural networks engaged in short-term memory rehearsal are disrupted by irrelevant speech in human subjects.

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Kopp, Franziska; Schröger, Erich; Lipka, Sigrid

2004-01-02

Rehearsal mechanisms in human short-term memory are increasingly understood in the light of both behavioural and neuroanatomical findings. However, little is known about the cooperation of participating brain structures and how such cooperations are affected when memory performance is disrupted. In this paper we use EEG coherence as a measure of synchronization to investigate rehearsal processes and their disruption by irrelevant speech in a delayed serial recall paradigm. Fronto-central and fronto-parietal theta (4-7.5 Hz), beta (13-20 Hz), and gamma (35-47 Hz) synchronizations are shown to be involved in our short-term memory task. Moreover, the impairment in serial recall due to irrelevant speech was preceded by a reduction of gamma band coherence. Results suggest that the irrelevant speech effect has its neural basis in the disruption of left-lateralized fronto-central networks. This stresses the importance of gamma band activity for short-term memory operations.

Inhibition in movement plan competition: reach trajectories curve away from remembered and task-irrelevant present but not from task-irrelevant past visual stimuli.

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Moehler, Tobias; Fiehler, Katja

2017-11-01

The current study investigated the role of automatic encoding and maintenance of remembered, past, and present visual distractors for reach movement planning. The previous research on eye movements showed that saccades curve away from locations actively kept in working memory and also from task-irrelevant perceptually present visual distractors, but not from task-irrelevant past distractors. Curvature away has been associated with an inhibitory mechanism resolving the competition between multiple active movement plans. Here, we examined whether reach movements underlie a similar inhibitory mechanism and thus show systematic modulation of reach trajectories when the location of a previously presented distractor has to be (a) maintained in working memory or (b) ignored, or (c) when the distractor is perceptually present. Participants performed vertical reach movements on a computer monitor from a home to a target location. Distractors appeared laterally and near or far from the target (equidistant from central fixation). We found that reaches curved away from the distractors located close to the target when the distractor location had to be memorized and when it was perceptually present, but not when the past distractor had to be ignored. Our findings suggest that automatically encoding present distractors and actively maintaining the location of past distractors in working memory evoke a similar response competition resolved by inhibition, as has been previously shown for saccadic eye movements.

Listening to music primes space: pianists, but not novices, simulate heard actions.

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Taylor, J Eric T; Witt, Jessica K

2015-03-01

Musicians sometimes report twitching in their fingers or hands while listening to music. This anecdote could be indicative of a tendency for auditory-motor co-representation in musicians. Here, we describe two studies showing that pianists (Experiment 1), but not novices (Experiment 2) automatically generate spatial representations that correspond to learned musical actions while listening to music. Participants made one-handed movements to the left or right from a central location in response to visual stimuli while listening to task-irrelevant auditory stimuli, which were scales played on a piano. These task-irrelevant scales were either ascending (compatible with rightward movements) or descending (compatible with leftward movements). Pianists were faster to respond when the scale direction was compatible with the direction of response movement, whereas novices' movements were unaffected by the scale. These results are in agreement with existing research on action-effect coupling in musicians, which draw heavily on common coding theory. In addition, these results show how intricate auditory stimuli (ascending or descending scales) evoke coarse, domain-general spatial representations.

The effects of meaningful irrelevant speech and road traffic noise on teachers' attention, episodic and semantic memory.

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Enmarker, Ingela

2004-11-01

The aim of the present experiment was to examine the effects of meaningful irrelevant speech and road traffic noise on attention, episodic and semantic memory, and also to examine whether the noise effects were age-dependent. A total of 96 male and female teachers in the age range of 35-45 and 55-65 years were randomly assigned to a silent or the two noise conditions. Noise effects found in episodic memory were limited to a meaningful text, where cued recall contrary to expectations was equally impaired by the two types of noise. However, meaningful irrelevant speech also deteriorated recognition of the text, whereas road traffic noise caused no decrement. Retrieval from two word fluency tests in semantic memory showed strong effects of noise exposure, one affected by meaningful irrelevant speech and the other by road traffic noise. The results implied that both acoustic variation and the semantic interference could be of importance for noise impairments. The expected age-dependent noise effects did not show up.

Motivational Tuning of Fronto-Subthalamic Connectivity Facilitates Control of Action Impulses

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Herz, Damian M.; Christensen, Mark S.; Bruggemann, Norbert

2014-01-01

It is critical for survival to quickly respond to environmental stimuli with the most appropriate action. This task becomes most challenging when response tendencies induced by relevant and irrelevant stimulus features are in conflict, and have to be resolved in real time. Inputs from the pre...... for fast and accurate responses. These effects were mediated by enhanced activation and connectivity of the IFG–STN pathway. These results provide causal evidence for a pivotal role of the IFG–STN pathway during action control. Additionally, they suggest a parallel rather than hierarchical organization...

Facilitation of responses by task-irrelevant complex deviant stimuli.

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Schomaker, J; Meeter, M

2014-05-01

Novel stimuli reliably attract attention, suggesting that novelty may disrupt performance when it is task-irrelevant. However, under certain circumstances novel stimuli can also elicit a general alerting response having beneficial effects on performance. In a series of experiments we investigated whether different aspects of novelty--stimulus novelty, contextual novelty, surprise, deviance, and relative complexity--lead to distraction or facilitation. We used a version of the visual oddball paradigm in which participants responded to an occasional auditory target. Participants responded faster to this auditory target when it occurred during the presentation of novel visual stimuli than of standard stimuli, especially at SOAs of 0 and 200 ms (Experiment 1). Facilitation was absent for both infrequent simple deviants and frequent complex images (Experiment 2). However, repeated complex deviant images did facilitate responses to the auditory target at the 200 ms SOA (Experiment 3). These findings suggest that task-irrelevant deviant visual stimuli can facilitate responses to an unrelated auditory target in a short 0-200 millisecond time-window after presentation. This only occurs when the deviant stimuli are complex relative to standard stimuli. We link our findings to the novelty P3, which is generated under the same circumstances, and to the adaptive gain theory of the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system (Aston-Jones and Cohen, 2005), which may explain the timing of the effects. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Measuring the quality of Patients’ goals and action plans: development and validation of a novel tool

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Teal Cayla R

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The purpose of this study is to develop and test reliability, validity, and utility of the Goal-Setting Evaluation Tool for Diabetes (GET-D. The effectiveness of diabetes self-management is predicated on goal-setting and action planning strategies. Evaluation of self-management interventions is hampered by the absence of tools to assess quality of goals and action plans. To address this gap, we developed the GET-D, a criteria-based, observer rating scale that measures the quality of patients’ diabetes goals and action plans. Methods We conducted 3-stage development of GET-D, including identification of criteria for observer ratings of goals and action plans, rater training and pilot testing; and then performed psychometric testing of the GET-D. Results Trained raters could effectively rate the quality of patient-generated goals and action plans using the GET-D. Ratings performed by trained evaluators demonstrated good raw agreement (94.4% and inter-rater reliability (Kappa = 0.66. Scores on the GET-D correlated well with measures theoretically associated with goal-setting, including patient activation (r=.252, P Conclusions The GET-D can reliably and validly rate the quality of goals and action plans. It holds promise as a measure of intervention fidelity for clinical interventions that promote diabetes self-management behaviors to improve clinical outcomes. Trial registration Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00481286

[Written personalized action plan for atopic dermatitis: a patient education tool].

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Gabeff, R; Assathiany, R; Barbarot, S; Salinier, C; Stalder, J-F

2014-07-01

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is the most frequent children's chronic skin disease. Management of AD can be difficult because local treatments must be adapted to the skin's condition. Between consultations, sudden changes in the state of the disease can make it difficult to manage local treatment. Parents and children need information that will help them adapt their treatment to the course of their disease. Aiming to enable parents to better treat their atopic child by themselves, we have developed a personalized action plan in order to simplify, personalize, and adapt the medical prescription to the state of the disease. The Personalized Written Action Plan for Atopics (PA2P) is based on the model used in the treatment of asthma, with integrated specificities for AD in children. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility and pertinence of the PA2P for pediatricians to use in private practice. A total of 479 pediatricians answered a questionnaire sent by e-mail. The vast majority of the respondents gave positive reviews of the tool: 99% of the pediatricians declared the tool to be pertinent, qualifying it as clear and logical. The PA2P appeared to be appropriate for the atopic patient because it improves the families' involvement in the application of local treatment by offering personalized care and by simplifying the doctor's prescription. Finally, 72% of doctors responding to the questionnaire were willing to take part in future studies involving parents. More than a gadget, the PA2P could become a useful tool for therapeutic patient education. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Eating tools in hand activate the brain systems for eating action: a transcranial magnetic stimulation study.

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Yamaguchi, Kaori; Nakamura, Kimihiro; Oga, Tatsuhide; Nakajima, Yasoichi

2014-07-01

There is increasing neuroimaging evidence suggesting that visually presented tools automatically activate the human sensorimotor system coding learned motor actions relevant to the visual stimuli. Such crossmodal activation may reflect a general functional property of the human motor memory and thus can be operating in other, non-limb effector organs, such as the orofacial system involved in eating. In the present study, we predicted that somatosensory signals produced by eating tools in hand covertly activate the neuromuscular systems involved in eating action. In Experiments 1 and 2, we measured motor evoked response (MEP) of the masseter muscle in normal humans to examine the possible impact of tools in hand (chopsticks and scissors) on the neuromuscular systems during the observation of food stimuli. We found that eating tools (chopsticks) enhanced the masseter MEPs more greatly than other tools (scissors) during the visual recognition of food, although this covert change in motor excitability was not detectable at the behavioral level. In Experiment 3, we further observed that chopsticks overall increased MEPs more greatly than scissors and this tool-driven increase of MEPs was greater when participants viewed food stimuli than when they viewed non-food stimuli. A joint analysis of the three experiments confirmed a significant impact of eating tools on the masseter MEPs during food recognition. Taken together, these results suggest that eating tools in hand exert a category-specific impact on the neuromuscular system for eating. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Attentional capture by irrelevant transients leads to perceptual errors in a competitive change detection task

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Daniel eSchneider

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Theories on visual change detection imply that attention is a necessary but not sufficient prerequisite for aware perception. Misguidance of attention due to salient irrelevant distractors can therefore lead to severe deficits in change detection. The present study investigates the mechanisms behind such perceptual errors and their relation to error processing on higher cognitive levels. Participants had to detect a luminance change that occasionally occurred simultaneously with an irrelevant orientation change in the opposite hemi-field (conflict condition. By analyzing event-related potentials in the EEG separately in those error prone conflict trials for correct and erroneous change detection, we demonstrate that only correct change detection was associated with the allocation of attention to the relevant luminance change. Erroneous change detection was associated with an initial capture of attention towards the irrelevant orientation change in the N1 time window and a lack of subsequent target selection processes (N2pc. Errors were additionally accompanied by an increase of the fronto-central N2 and a kind of error negativity (Ne or ERN, which, however, peaked prior to the response. These results suggest that a strong perceptual conflict by salient distractors can disrupt the further processing of relevant information and thus affect its aware perception. Yet, it does not impair higher cognitive processes for conflict and error detection, indicating that these processes are independent from awareness.

Evidence for habituation of the irrelevant-sound effect on serial recall.

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Röer, Jan P; Bell, Raoul; Buchner, Axel

2014-05-01

Working memory theories make opposing predictions as to whether the disruptive effect of task-irrelevant sound on serial recall should be attenuated after repeated exposure to the auditory distractors. Although evidence of habituation has emerged after a passive listening phase, previous attempts to observe habituation to to-be ignored distractors on a trial-by-trial basis have proven to be fruitless. With the present study, we suggest that habituation to auditory distractors occurs, but has often been overlooked because past attempts to measure habituation in the irrelevant-sound paradigm were not sensitive enough. In a series of four experiments, the disruptive effects of to-be-ignored speech and music relative to a quiet control condition were markedly reduced after eight repetitions, regardless of whether trials were presented in blocks (Exp. 1) or in a random order (Exp. 2). The auditory distractor's playback direction (forward, backward) had no effect (Exp. 3). The same results were obtained when the auditory distractors were only presented in a retention interval after the presentation of the to-be-remembered items (Exp. 4). This pattern is only consistent with theoretical accounts that allow for attentional processes to interfere with the maintenance of information in working memory.

Load-Dependent Increases in Delay-Period Alpha-Band Power Track the Gating of Task-Irrelevant Inputs to Working Memory

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Andrew J. Heinz

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Studies exploring the role of neural oscillations in cognition have revealed sustained increases in alpha-band power (ABP during the delay period of verbal and visual working memory (VWM tasks. There have been various proposals regarding the functional significance of such increases, including the inhibition of task-irrelevant cortical areas as well as the active retention of information in VWM. The present study examines the role of delay-period ABP in mediating the effects of interference arising from on-going visual processing during a concurrent VWM task. Specifically, we reasoned that, if set-size dependent increases in ABP represent the gating out of on-going task-irrelevant visual inputs, they should be predictive with respect to some modulation in visual evoked potentials resulting from a task-irrelevant delay period probe stimulus. In order to investigate this possibility, we recorded the electroencephalogram while subjects performed a change detection task requiring the retention of two or four novel shapes. On a portion of trials, a novel, task-irrelevant bilateral checkerboard probe was presented mid-way through the delay. Analyses focused on examining correlations between set-size dependent increases in ABP and changes in the magnitude of the P1, N1 and P3a components of the probe-evoked response and how such increases might be related to behavior. Results revealed that increased delay-period ABP was associated with changes in the amplitude of the N1 and P3a event-related potential (ERP components, and with load-dependent changes in capacity when the probe was presented during the delay. We conclude that load-dependent increases in ABP likely play a role in supporting short-term retention by gating task-irrelevant sensory inputs and suppressing potential sources of disruptive interference.

Mental simulation of drawing actions enhances delayed recall of a complex figure.

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De Lucia, Natascia; Trojano, Luigi; Senese, Vincenzo Paolo; Conson, Massimiliano

2016-10-01

Motor simulation implies that the same motor representations involved in action execution are re-enacted during observation or imagery of actions. Neurofunctional data suggested that observation of letters or abstract paintings can elicit simulation of writing or drawing gestures. We performed four behavioural experiments on right-handed healthy participants to test whether observation of a static and complex geometrical figure implies re-enactment of drawing actions. In Experiment 1, participants had to observe the stimulus without explicit instruction (observation-only condition), while performing irrelevant finger tapping (motor dual task), or while articulating irrelevant verbal material (verbal dual task). Delayed drawing of the stimulus was less accurate in the motor dual-task (interfering with simulation of hand actions) than in verbal dual-task and observation-only conditions. In Experiment 2, delayed drawing in the observation only was as accurate as when participants encoded the stimulus by copying it; in both conditions, accuracy was higher than when participants were instructed to observe the stimulus to recall it later verbally (observe to recall), thus being discouraged from engaging motor simulation. In Experiment 3, delayed drawing was as accurate in the observation-only condition as when participants imagined copying the stimulus; accuracy in both conditions was higher than in the observe-to-recall condition. In Experiment 4, in the observe-only condition participants who observed the stimulus with their right arm hidden behind their back were significantly less accurate than participants who had their left arm hidden. These findings converge in suggesting that mere observation of a geometrical stimulus can activate motor simulation and re-enactment of drawing actions.

Suppressing Irrelevant Information from Working Memory: Evidence for Domain-Specific Deficits in Poor Comprehenders

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Pimperton, Hannah; Nation, Kate

2010-01-01

Previous research has suggested that children with specific reading comprehension deficits (poor comprehenders) show an impaired ability to suppress irrelevant information from working memory, with this deficit detrimentally impacting on their working memory ability, and consequently limiting their reading comprehension performance. However, the…

Assessing participants' perceptions on group-based principles for action in community-based health enhancing physical activity programmes: The APEF tool.

Science.gov (United States)

Herens, Marion; Wagemakers, Annemarie

2017-12-01

In community-based health enhancing physical activity (CBHEPA) programmes, group-based principles for action such as active participation, enjoyment, and fostering group processes are widely advocated. However, not much is known about participants' perceptions of these principles as there are no assessment tools available. Therefore, this article describes the development of the APEF (Active Participation, Enjoyment, and Fostering group processes) tool and reports on its implementation in a Dutch CBHEPA programme. Indicators for the principles have been identified from literature research, interviews with professionals, and secondary analysis of three group interviews with 11 practitioners. To address the identified indicators, the APEF tool was developed, pretested, and used in 10 focus groups with 76 participants. The APEF tool consists of eight statements about group-based principles for action, on which CBHEPA participants vote, followed by in-depth discussion. The voting procedure engages participants. Spider diagrams visualise participants' perceptions of group-based principles. The APEF tool addresses the challenge of relating group level outcomes to individual outcomes such as physical activity behaviour. The tool facilitates as well as evaluates group-based principles for action, it stimulates dialogue and is culturally sensitive, but it needs strong facilitating skills to manage group dynamics. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Not all choices are created equal: Task-relevant choices enhance motor learning compared to task-irrelevant choices.

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Carter, Michael J; Ste-Marie, Diane M

2017-12-01

Lewthwaite et al. (2015) reported that the learning benefits of exercising choice (i.e., their self-controlled condition) are not restricted to task-relevant features (e.g., feedback). They found that choosing one's golf ball color (Exp. 1) or choosing which of two tasks to perform at a later time plus which of two artworks to hang (Exp. 2) resulted in better retention than did being denied these same choices (i.e., yoked condition). The researchers concluded that the learning benefits derived from choice, whether irrelevant or relevant to the to-be-learned task, are predominantly motivational because choice is intrinsically rewarding and satisfies basic psychological needs. However, the absence of a group that made task-relevant choices and the lack of psychological measures significantly weakened their conclusions. Here, we investigated how task-relevant and task-irrelevant choices affect motor-skill learning. Participants practiced a spatiotemporal motor task in either a task-relevant group (choice over feedback schedule), a task-irrelevant group (choice over the color of an arm-wrap plus game selection), or a no-choice group. The results showed significantly greater learning in the task-relevant group than in both the task-irrelevant and no-choice groups, who did not differ significantly. Critically, these learning differences were not attributed to differences in perceptions of competence or autonomy, but instead to superior error-estimation abilities. These results challenge the perspective that motivational influences are the root cause of self-controlled learning advantages. Instead, the findings add to the growing evidence highlighting that the informational value gained from task-relevant choices makes a greater relative contribution to these advantages than motivational influences do.

The Article Idea Chart: A participatory action research tool to aid involvement in dissemination

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cheryl Forchuk

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Participatory-action research encourages the involvement of all key stakeholders in the research process and is especially well suited to mental health research. Previous literature outlines the importance of engaging stakeholders in the development of research questions and methodologies, but little has been written about ensuring the involvement of all stakeholders (especially non-academic members in dissemination opportunities such as publication development. The Article Idea Chart was developed as a specific methodology for engaging all stakeholders in data analysis and publication development. It has been successfully utilised in a number of studies and is an effective tool for ensuring the dissemination process of participatory-action research results is both inclusive and transparent to all team members, regardless of stakeholder group. Keywords: participatory-action research, mental health, dissemination, community capacity building, publications, authorship

Approach-avoidance of facial affect is moderated by the presence of an observer-irrelevant trigger

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Renard, S.B.; de Jong, P.J.; Pijnenborg, G.H.M.

This study examined whether approach-avoidance related behaviour elicited by facial affect is moderated by the presence of an observer-irrelevant trigger that may influence the observer's attributions of the actor's emotion. Participants were shown happy, disgusted, and neutral facial expressions.

Obligatory encoding of task-irrelevant features depletes working memory resources.

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Marshall, Louise; Bays, Paul M

2013-02-18

Selective attention is often considered the "gateway" to visual working memory (VWM). However, the extent to which we can voluntarily control which of an object's features enter memory remains subject to debate. Recent research has converged on the concept of VWM as a limited commodity distributed between elements of a visual scene. Consequently, as memory load increases, the fidelity with which each visual feature is stored decreases. Here we used changes in recall precision to probe whether task-irrelevant features were encoded into VWM when individuals were asked to store specific feature dimensions. Recall precision for both color and orientation was significantly enhanced when task-irrelevant features were removed, but knowledge of which features would be probed provided no advantage over having to memorize both features of all items. Next, we assessed the effect an interpolated orientation-or color-matching task had on the resolution with which orientations in a memory array were stored. We found that the presence of orientation information in the second array disrupted memory of the first array. The cost to recall precision was identical whether the interfering features had to be remembered, attended to, or could be ignored. Therefore, it appears that storing, or merely attending to, one feature of an object is sufficient to promote automatic encoding of all its features, depleting VWM resources. However, the precision cost was abolished when the match task preceded the memory array. So, while encoding is automatic, maintenance is voluntary, allowing resources to be reallocated to store new visual information.

Predictions of Actions and Their Justifications in False-Belief Tasks: The Role of Executive Function

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Putko Adam

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The main objective of this study was to examine whether children’s ability to justify their action predictions in terms of mental states is related, in a similar way as the ability to predict actions, to such aspects of executive function (EF as executive control and working memory. An additional objective was to check whether the frequency of different types of justifications made by children in false-belief tasks is associated with aforementioned aspects of EF, as well as language. The study included 59 children aged 3-4 years. The ability to predict actions and to justify these predictions was measured with false-belief tasks. Luria’s hand-game was used to assess executive control, and the Counting and Labelling dual-task was used to assess working memory capacity. Language development was controlled using an embedded syntax test. It was found that executive control was a significant predictor of the children’s ability to justify their action predictions in terms of mental states, even when age and language were taken into account. Results also indicated a relationship between the type of justification in the false-belief task and language development. With the development of language children gradually cease to justify their action predictions in terms of current location, and they tend to construct irrelevant justifications before they begin to refer to beliefs. Data suggest that executive control, in contrast to language, is a factor which affects the development of the children’s ability to justify their action predictions only in its later phase, during a shift from irrelevant to correct justifications.

Soundscape actions: A tool for noise treatment based on three workshops in landscape architecture

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Gunnar Cerwén; Jacob Kreutzfeldt; Carola Wingren

2017-01-01

This paper reports experiences from three workshops dealing with soundscape as a noise treatment approach in landscape architecture.The workshops were conducted between 2012 and 2016 in different contexts,for different purposes and with different participants.The paper describes the workshop approach employed and analyzes the proposals made by workshop participants to employ "soundscape action" as an operational tool in landscape architecture projects.Through a process of 'keywording' and clustering proposals from the workshops,22 pragmatic soundscape actions emerged and are described on a general level.The paper then discusses the outcomes and experiences from the workshops and relates this to landscape architecture practice.

Irrelevant sensory stimuli interfere with working memory storage: evidence from a computational model of prefrontal neurons.

Science.gov (United States)

Bancroft, Tyler D; Hockley, William E; Servos, Philip

2013-03-01

The encoding of irrelevant stimuli into the memory store has previously been suggested as a mechanism of interference in working memory (e.g., Lange & Oberauer, Memory, 13, 333-339, 2005; Nairne, Memory & Cognition, 18, 251-269, 1990). Recently, Bancroft and Servos (Experimental Brain Research, 208, 529-532, 2011) used a tactile working memory task to provide experimental evidence that irrelevant stimuli were, in fact, encoded into working memory. In the present study, we replicated Bancroft and Servos's experimental findings using a biologically based computational model of prefrontal neurons, providing a neurocomputational model of overwriting in working memory. Furthermore, our modeling results show that inhibition acts to protect the contents of working memory, and they suggest a need for further experimental research into the capacity of vibrotactile working memory.

Rumination impairs the control of stimulus-induced retrieval of irrelevant information, but not attention, control, or response selection in general.

Science.gov (United States)

Colzato, Lorenza S; Steenbergen, Laura; Hommel, Bernhard

2018-01-23

The aim of the study was to throw more light on the relationship between rumination and cognitive-control processes. Seventy-eight adults were assessed with respect to rumination tendencies by means of the LEIDS-r before performing a Stroop task, an event-file task assessing the automatic retrieval of irrelevant information, an attentional set-shifting task, and the Attentional Network Task, which provided scores for alerting, orienting, and executive control functioning. The size of the Stroop effect and irrelevant retrieval in the event-five task were positively correlated with the tendency to ruminate, while all other scores did not correlate with any rumination scale. Controlling for depressive tendencies eliminated the Stroop-related finding (an observation that may account for previous failures to replicate), but not the event-file finding. Taken altogether, our results suggest that rumination does not affect attention, executive control, or response selection in general, but rather selectively impairs the control of stimulus-induced retrieval of irrelevant information.

Reflective action assessment with a prospective clinical problem solving tool in the context of rehabilitation medicine: an illustrative case study.

Science.gov (United States)

Kellett, David; Mpofu, Elias; Madden, Richard

2013-06-01

This study describes a case formulation approach applying a prospective ICF derived clinical tool to assess rehabilitation needs for a community dwelling stroke survivor with care from an outpatient rehabilitation medicine clinic. Case history data on the person were assessed for rehabilitation management planning using a prospective tool to interlink current with projected future functional status in everyday settings. Implicit assessment with reflective action informed decision points at each stage of the rehabilitation process. As a result of reflective action using the prospective tool, rehabilitation management led to significant changes in client participation after limitations to mobility and self care were mapped to the living conditions of the stroke survivor. The context sensitive rehabilitative plan resulted in higher subjective health-related quality of life in the stroke survivor and significant other and enhanced their capacity for participation. Reflective action informed assessment applying ICF concepts to clinical problem solving resulted in positive gains in health-related quality of life in a stroke survivor.

Socially anxious individuals with low working memory capacity could not inhibit the goal-irrelevant information.

Science.gov (United States)

Moriya, Jun; Sugiura, Yoshinori

2013-01-01

Socially anxious individuals are interfered by distractors. Recent work has suggested that low working memory capacity and inappropriate temporary goal induce attention to distractors. We investigated the effects of working memory capacity and temporary goal on attention to distractors in social anxiety. Participants viewed a rapid serial visual presentation, in which participants reported the identity of a single target letter drawn in red. Distractors appeared before the target was presented. When the color of distractors was red (i.e., goal-relevant stimuli), low-capacity individuals were strongly interfered by the distractors compared to high-capacity individuals regardless of social anxiety. When the color of distractors was goal-irrelevant, low-capacity and high socially anxious individuals were strongly interfered by the distractors. These results suggest that socially anxious individuals with low working memory capacity could not inhibit the goal-irrelevant information and direct attention to distractors.

Socially Anxious Individuals with Low Working Memory Capacity Could Not Inhibit the Goal-Irrelevant Information

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jun eMoriya

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Socially anxious individuals are interfered by distractors. Recent work has suggested that low working memory capacity and inappropriate temporary goal induce attentional capture to distractors. We investigated the effects of working memory capacity and temporary goal on attentional capture to distractors in social anxiety. Participants viewed a rapid serial visual presentation, in which participants reported the identity of a single target letter drawn in red. Distractors appeared before the target was presented. When the color of distractors was red (i.e., goal-relevant stimuli, low-capacity individuals were strongly interfered by the distractors compared to high-capacity individuals regardless of social anxiety. When the color of distractors was goal-irrelevant, low-capacity and high socially anxious individuals were strongly interfered by the distractors. These results suggest that socially anxious individuals with low working memory capacity could not inhibit the goal-irrelevant information and direct attention to distractors.

Task-irrelevant novel sounds improve attentional performance in children with and without ADHD

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Jana eTegelbeckers

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Task-irrelevant salient stimuli involuntarily capture attention and can lead to distraction from an ongoing task, especially in children with ADHD. However, there has been tentative evidence that the presentation of novel sounds can have beneficial effects on cognitive performance. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the influence of novel sounds compared to no sound and a repeatedly presented standard sound on attentional performance in children and adolescents with and without ADHD. We therefore had 32 patients with ADHD and 32 typically developing children and adolescents (8 to 13 years executed a flanker task in which each trial was preceded either by a repeatedly presented standard sound (33%, an unrepeated novel sound (33% or no auditory stimulation (33%. Task-irrelevant novel sounds facilitated attentional performance similarly in children with and without ADHD, as indicated by reduced omission error rates, reaction times, and reaction time variability without compromising performance accuracy. By contrast, standard sounds, while also reducing omission error rates and reaction times, led to increased commission error rates. Therefore, the beneficial effect of novel sounds exceeds cueing of the target display by potentially increased alerting and/or enhanced behavioral control.

Effects of irrelevant speech and traffic noise on speech perception and cognitive performance in elementary school children.

Science.gov (United States)

Klatte, Maria; Meis, Markus; Sukowski, Helga; Schick, August

2007-01-01

The effects of background noise of moderate intensity on short-term storage and processing of verbal information were analyzed in 6 to 8 year old children. In line with adult studies on "irrelevant sound effect" (ISE), serial recall of visually presented digits was severely disrupted by background speech that the children did not understand. Train noises of equal Intensity however, had no effect. Similar results were demonstrated with tasks requiring storage and processing of heard information. Memory for nonwords, execution of oral instructions and categorizing speech sounds were significantly disrupted by irrelevant speech. The affected functions play a fundamental role in the acquisition of spoken and written language. Implications concerning current models of the ISE and the acoustic conditions in schools and kindergardens are discussed.

fMRI correlates of object-based attentional facilitation versus suppression of irrelevant stimuli, dependent on global grouping and endogenous cueing.

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Elliot D Freeman

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Theories of object-based attention often make two assumptions: that attentional resources are facilitatory, and that they spread automatically within grouped objects. Consistent with this, ignored visual stimuli can be easier to process, or more distracting, when perceptually grouped with an attended target stimulus. But in past studies, the ignored stimuli often shared potentially relevant features or locations with the target. In this fMRI study, we measured the effects of attention and grouping on Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD responses in the human brain to entirely task-irrelevant events.Two checkerboards were displayed each in opposite hemifields, while participants responded to check-size changes in one pre-cued hemifield, which varied between blocks. Grouping (or segmentation between hemifields was manipulated between blocks, using common (versus distinct motion cues. Task-irrelevant transient events were introduced by randomly changing the colour of either checkerboard, attended or ignored, at unpredictable intervals. The above assumptions predict heightened BOLD signals for irrelevant events in attended versus ignored hemifields for ungrouped contexts, but less such attentional modulation under grouping, due to automatic spreading of facilitation across hemifields. We found the opposite pattern, in primary visual cortex. For ungrouped stimuli, BOLD signals associated with task-irrelevant changes were lower, not higher, in the attended versus ignored hemifield; furthermore, attentional modulation was not reduced but actually inverted under grouping, with higher signals for events in the attended versus ignored hemifield.

With task experience students learn to ignore the content, not just the location of irrelevant information

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rop, Gertjan; Verkoeijen, Peter P J L; van Gog, Tamara

2017-01-01

Presentation of irrelevant additional information hampers learning. However, using a word-learning task, recent research demonstrated that an initial negative effect of mismatching pictures on learning no longer occurred once learners gained task experience. It is unclear, however, whether learners

Oculomotor guidance and capture by irrelevant faces.

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Christel Devue

Full Text Available Even though it is generally agreed that face stimuli constitute a special class of stimuli, which are treated preferentially by our visual system, it remains unclear whether faces can capture attention in a stimulus-driven manner. Moreover, there is a long-standing debate regarding the mechanism underlying the preferential bias of selecting faces. Some claim that faces constitute a set of special low-level features to which our visual system is tuned; others claim that the visual system is capable of extracting the meaning of faces very rapidly, driving attentional selection. Those debates continue because many studies contain methodological peculiarities and manipulations that prevent a definitive conclusion. Here, we present a new visual search task in which observers had to make a saccade to a uniquely colored circle while completely irrelevant objects were also present in the visual field. The results indicate that faces capture and guide the eyes more than other animated objects and that our visual system is not only tuned to the low-level features that make up a face but also to its meaning.

Non-obvious influences on perception-action abilities.

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Turvey, Michael T; Sheya, Adam

2017-10-01

The sciences of development and learning have been slow to acknowledge that absence of an identifiable experience that relates straightforwardly to a given perception-action ability need not mean that experience per se is irrelevant to the emergence of that ability. A recent study reveals that a difference in diet (plain vs. energy rich) leads to a difference in how rats navigate (use of geometry vs. use of features, respectively). It is a good example of how a seemingly unrelated experience (e.g., what the rats eat) can be a non-obvious yet crucial determiner of perception-action modes. We situate this finding in the broader context of the related conceptions of Schneirla's and Lehrman's Developmental Systems Theory, Gottlieb's Probabilistic Epigenesis, and Bolles's Structure of Learning (see article for references). In doing so we highlight that such phenomena may be the norm, both in development and learning, rather than the exception.

Hybrid Monte Carlo algorithm with fat link fermion actions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kamleh, Waseem; Leinweber, Derek B.; Williams, Anthony G.

2004-01-01

The use of APE smearing or other blocking techniques in lattice fermion actions can provide many advantages. There are many variants of these fat link actions in lattice QCD currently, such as flat link irrelevant clover (FLIC) fermions. The FLIC fermion formalism makes use of the APE blocking technique in combination with a projection of the blocked links back into the special unitary group. This reunitarization is often performed using an iterative maximization of a gauge invariant measure. This technique is not differentiable with respect to the gauge field and thus prevents the use of standard Hybrid Monte Carlo simulation algorithms. The use of an alternative projection technique circumvents this difficulty and allows the simulation of dynamical fat link fermions with standard HMC and its variants. The necessary equations of motion for FLIC fermions are derived, and some initial simulation results are presented. The technique is more general however, and is straightforwardly applicable to other smearing techniques or fat link actions

The development of attention skills in action video game players.

Science.gov (United States)

Dye, M W G; Green, C S; Bavelier, D

2009-07-01

Previous research suggests that action video game play improves attentional resources, allowing gamers to better allocate their attention across both space and time. In order to further characterize the plastic changes resulting from playing these video games, we administered the Attentional Network Test (ANT) to action game players and non-playing controls aged between 7 and 22 years. By employing a mixture of cues and flankers, the ANT provides measures of how well attention is allocated to targets as a function of alerting and orienting cues, and to what extent observers are able to filter out the influence of task irrelevant information flanking those targets. The data suggest that action video game players of all ages have enhanced attentional skills that allow them to make faster correct responses to targets, and leaves additional processing resources that spill over to process distractors flanking the targets.

The Effect of Task-Irrelevant Fearful-Face Distractor on Working Memory Processing in Mild Cognitive Impairment versus Healthy Controls: An Exploratory fMRI Study in Female Participants

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Amer M. Burhan

2016-01-01

Full Text Available In mild cognitive impairment (MCI, a risk state for Alzheimer’s disease, patients have objective cognitive deficits with relatively preserved functioning. fMRI studies have identified anomalies during working memory (WM processing in individuals with MCI. The effect of task-irrelevant emotional face distractor on WM processing in MCI remains unclear. We aim to explore the impact of fearful-face task-irrelevant distractor on WM processing in MCI using fMRI. Hypothesis. Compared to healthy controls (HC, MCI patients will show significantly higher BOLD signal in a priori identified regions of interest (ROIs during a WM task with a task-irrelevant emotional face distractor. Methods. 9 right-handed female participants with MCI and 12 matched HC performed a WM task with standardized task-irrelevant fearful versus neutral face distractors randomized and counterbalanced across WM trials. MRI images were acquired during the WM task and BOLD signal was analyzed using statistical parametric mapping (SPM to identify signal patterns during the task response phase. Results. Task-irrelevant fearful-face distractor resulted in higher activation in the amygdala, anterior cingulate, and frontal areas, in MCI participants compared to HC. Conclusions. This exploratory study suggests altered WM processing as a result of fearful-face distractor in MCI.

Differential impact of relevant and irrelevant dimension primes on rule-based and information-integration category learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Grimm, Lisa R; Maddox, W Todd

2013-11-01

Research has identified multiple category-learning systems with each being "tuned" for learning categories with different task demands and each governed by different neurobiological systems. Rule-based (RB) classification involves testing verbalizable rules for category membership while information-integration (II) classification requires the implicit learning of stimulus-response mappings. In the first study to directly test rule priming with RB and II category learning, we investigated the influence of the availability of information presented at the beginning of the task. Participants viewed lines that varied in length, orientation, and position on the screen, and were primed to focus on stimulus dimensions that were relevant or irrelevant to the correct classification rule. In Experiment 1, we used an RB category structure, and in Experiment 2, we used an II category structure. Accuracy and model-based analyses suggested that a focus on relevant dimensions improves RB task performance later in learning while a focus on an irrelevant dimension improves II task performance early in learning. © 2013.

TargetRNA: a tool for predicting targets of small RNA action in bacteria

OpenAIRE

Tjaden, Brian

2008-01-01

Many small RNA (sRNA) genes in bacteria act as posttranscriptional regulators of target messenger RNAs. Here, we present TargetRNA, a web tool for predicting mRNA targets of sRNA action in bacteria. TargetRNA takes as input a genomic sequence that may correspond to an sRNA gene. TargetRNA then uses a dynamic programming algorithm to search each annotated message in a specified genome for mRNAs that evince basepair-binding potential to the input sRNA sequence. Based on the calculated basepair-...

A crossmodal crossover: opposite effects of visual and auditory perceptual load on steady-state evoked potentials to irrelevant visual stimuli.

Science.gov (United States)

Jacoby, Oscar; Hall, Sarah E; Mattingley, Jason B

2012-07-16

Mechanisms of attention are required to prioritise goal-relevant sensory events under conditions of stimulus competition. According to the perceptual load model of attention, the extent to which task-irrelevant inputs are processed is determined by the relative demands of discriminating the target: the more perceptually demanding the target task, the less unattended stimuli will be processed. Although much evidence supports the perceptual load model for competing stimuli within a single sensory modality, the effects of perceptual load in one modality on distractor processing in another is less clear. Here we used steady-state evoked potentials (SSEPs) to measure neural responses to irrelevant visual checkerboard stimuli while participants performed either a visual or auditory task that varied in perceptual load. Consistent with perceptual load theory, increasing visual task load suppressed SSEPs to the ignored visual checkerboards. In contrast, increasing auditory task load enhanced SSEPs to the ignored visual checkerboards. This enhanced neural response to irrelevant visual stimuli under auditory load suggests that exhausting capacity within one modality selectively compromises inhibitory processes required for filtering stimuli in another. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Control processes through the suppression of the automatic response activation triggered by task-irrelevant information in the Simon-type tasks.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Sanga; Lee, Sang Ho; Cho, Yang Seok

2015-11-01

The congruency sequence effect, one of the indices of cognitive control, refers to a smaller congruency effect after an incongruent than congruent trial. Although the effect has been found across a variety of conflict tasks, there is not yet agreement on the underlying mechanism. The present study investigated the mechanism underlying cognitive control by using a cross-task paradigm. In Experiments 1, 2, and 3, participants performed a modified Simon task and a spatial Stroop task alternately in a trial-by-trial manner. The task-irrelevant dimension of the two tasks was perceptually and conceptually identical in Experiment 1, whereas it was perceptually different but conceptually identical in Experiment 2. The response sets for both tasks were different in Experiment 3. In Experiment 4, participants performed two Simon tasks with different task-relevant dimensions. In all experiments in which the task-irrelevant dimension and response mode were shared, significant congruency sequence effects were found between the two different congruencies, indicating that Simon-type conflicts were resolved by a control mechanism, which is specific to an abstract task-irrelevant stimulus spatial dimension. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Chassis organism from Corynebacterium glutamicum--a top-down approach to identify and delete irrelevant gene clusters.

Science.gov (United States)

Unthan, Simon; Baumgart, Meike; Radek, Andreas; Herbst, Marius; Siebert, Daniel; Brühl, Natalie; Bartsch, Anna; Bott, Michael; Wiechert, Wolfgang; Marin, Kay; Hans, Stephan; Krämer, Reinhard; Seibold, Gerd; Frunzke, Julia; Kalinowski, Jörn; Rückert, Christian; Wendisch, Volker F; Noack, Stephan

2015-02-01

For synthetic biology applications, a robust structural basis is required, which can be constructed either from scratch or in a top-down approach starting from any existing organism. In this study, we initiated the top-down construction of a chassis organism from Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 13032, aiming for the relevant gene set to maintain its fast growth on defined medium. We evaluated each native gene for its essentiality considering expression levels, phylogenetic conservation, and knockout data. Based on this classification, we determined 41 gene clusters ranging from 3.7 to 49.7 kbp as target sites for deletion. 36 deletions were successful and 10 genome-reduced strains showed impaired growth rates, indicating that genes were hit, which are relevant to maintain biological fitness at wild-type level. In contrast, 26 deleted clusters were found to include exclusively irrelevant genes for growth on defined medium. A combinatory deletion of all irrelevant gene clusters would, in a prophage-free strain, decrease the size of the native genome by about 722 kbp (22%) to 2561 kbp. Finally, five combinatory deletions of irrelevant gene clusters were investigated. The study introduces the novel concept of relevant genes and demonstrates general strategies to construct a chassis suitable for biotechnological application. © 2014 The Authors. Biotechnology Journal published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-NoDerivs Licence, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non- commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

A Systematic Review of Tools Used to Assess Team Leadership in Health Care Action Teams.

Science.gov (United States)

Rosenman, Elizabeth D; Ilgen, Jonathan S; Shandro, Jamie R; Harper, Amy L; Fernandez, Rosemarie

2015-10-01

To summarize the characteristics of tools used to assess leadership in health care action (HCA) teams. HCA teams are interdisciplinary teams performing complex, critical tasks under high-pressure conditions. The authors conducted a systematic review of the PubMed/MEDLINE, CINAHL, ERIC, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and Web of Science databases, key journals, and review articles published through March 2012 for English-language articles that applied leadership assessment tools to HCA teams in all specialties. Pairs of reviewers assessed identified articles for inclusion and exclusion criteria and abstracted data on study characteristics, tool characteristics, and validity evidence. Of the 9,913 abstracts screened, 83 studies were included. They described 61 team leadership assessment tools. Forty-nine tools (80%) provided behaviors, skills, or characteristics to define leadership. Forty-four tools (72%) assessed leadership as one component of a larger assessment, 13 tools (21%) identified leadership as the primary focus of the assessment, and 4 (7%) assessed leadership style. Fifty-three studies (64%) assessed leadership at the team level; 29 (35%) did so at the individual level. Assessments of simulated (n = 55) and live (n = 30) patient care events were performed. Validity evidence included content validity (n = 75), internal structure (n = 61), relationship to other variables (n = 44), and response process (n = 15). Leadership assessment tools applied to HCA teams are heterogeneous in content and application. Comparisons between tools are limited by study variability. A systematic approach to team leadership tool development, evaluation, and implementation will strengthen understanding of this important competency.

From Provenance Standards and Tools to Queries and Actionable Provenance

Science.gov (United States)

Ludaescher, B.

2017-12-01

The W3C PROV standard provides a minimal core for sharing retrospective provenance information for scientific workflows and scripts. PROV extensions such as DataONE's ProvONE model are necessary for linking runtime observables in retrospective provenance records with conceptual-level prospective provenance information, i.e., workflow (or dataflow) graphs. Runtime provenance recorders, such as DataONE's RunManager for R, or noWorkflow for Python capture retrospective provenance automatically. YesWorkflow (YW) is a toolkit that allows researchers to declare high-level prospective provenance models of scripts via simple inline comments (YW-annotations), revealing the computational modules and dataflow dependencies in the script. By combining and linking both forms of provenance, important queries and use cases can be supported that neither provenance model can afford on its own. We present existing and emerging provenance tools developed for the DataONE and SKOPE (Synthesizing Knowledge of Past Environments) projects. We show how the different tools can be used individually and in combination to model, capture, share, query, and visualize provenance information. We also present challenges and opportunities for making provenance information more immediately actionable for the researchers who create it in the first place. We argue that such a shift towards "provenance-for-self" is necessary to accelerate the creation, sharing, and use of provenance in support of transparent, reproducible computational and data science.

Directive and incentive functions of affective action consequences: an ideomotor approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Eder, Andreas B; Rothermund, Klaus; De Houwer, Jan; Hommel, Bernhard

2015-07-01

Five experiments examined whether affective consequences become associated with the responses producing them and whether anticipations of positive and negative action outcomes influence action control differently. In a learning phase, one response produced pleasant and another response unpleasant visual effects. In a subsequent test phase, the same actions were carried out in response to a neutral feature of affective stimuli. Results showed that responses were faster when the irrelevant valence of the response cue matched the valence of the response outcome, but only when the responses still produced outcomes. These results suggest that affective action consequences have a directive function in that they facilitate the selection of the associated response over other responses, even when the response outcome is unpleasant (Experiment 4A). Results of another experiment showed that affective action consequences can also have an incentive function in that responses with pleasant outcomes are generally facilitated relative to responses with unpleasant outcomes. However, this motivational effect was seen only in a free-choice test (Experiment 5). The results suggest that behavioral impulses induced by ideomotor processes are constrained by the motivational evaluation of the anticipated action outcome. A model that integrates motivational factors into ideomotor theory is presented.

Brain processing of task-relevant and task-irrelevant emotional words: an ERP study.

Science.gov (United States)

González-Villar, Alberto J; Triñanes, Yolanda; Zurrón, Montserrat; Carrillo-de-la-Peña, María T

2014-09-01

Although there is evidence for preferential perceptual processing of written emotional information, the effects of attentional manipulations and the time course of affective processing require further clarification. In this study, we attempted to investigate how the emotional content of words modulates cerebral functioning (event-related potentials, ERPs) and behavior (reaction times, RTs) when the content is task-irrelevant (emotional Stroop Task, EST) or task-relevant (emotional categorization task, ECT), in a sample of healthy middle-aged women. In the EST, the RTs were longer for emotional words than for neutral words, and in the ECT, they were longer for neutral and negative words than for positive words. A principal components analysis of the ERPs identified various temporospatial factors that were differentially modified by emotional content. P2 was the first emotion-sensitive component, with enhanced factor scores for negative nouns across tasks. The N2 and late positive complex had enhanced factor scores for emotional relative to neutral information only in the ECT. The results reinforce the idea that written emotional information has a preferential processing route, both when it is task-irrelevant (producing behavioral interference) and when it is task-relevant (facilitating the categorization). After early automatic processing of the emotional content, late ERPs become more emotionally modulated as the level of attention to the valence increases.

Two Equals One: Two Human Actions During Social Interaction Are Grouped as One Unit in Working Memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Ding, Xiaowei; Gao, Zaifeng; Shen, Mowei

2017-09-01

Every day, people perceive other people performing interactive actions. Retaining these actions of human agents in working memory (WM) plays a pivotal role in a normal social life. However, whether the semantic knowledge embedded in the interactive actions has a pervasive impact on the storage of the actions in WM remains unknown. In the current study, we investigated two opposing hypotheses: (a) that WM stores the interactions individually (the individual-storage hypothesis) and (b) that WM stores the interactions as chunks (the chunk-storage hypothesis). We required participants to memorize a set of individual actions while ignoring the underlying social interactions. We found that although the social-interaction aspect was task irrelevant, the interactive actions were stored in WM as chunks that were not affected by memory load (Experiments 1 and 2); however, inverting the human actions vertically abolished this chunking effect (Experiment 3). These results suggest that WM automatically and efficiently used semantic knowledge about interactive actions to store them and support the chunk-storage hypothesis.

Algorithmic modeling of the irrelevant sound effect (ISE) by the hearing sensation fluctuation strength.

Science.gov (United States)

Schlittmeier, Sabine J; Weissgerber, Tobias; Kerber, Stefan; Fastl, Hugo; Hellbrück, Jürgen

2012-01-01

Background sounds, such as narration, music with prominent staccato passages, and office noise impair verbal short-term memory even when these sounds are irrelevant. This irrelevant sound effect (ISE) is evoked by so-called changing-state sounds that are characterized by a distinct temporal structure with varying successive auditory-perceptive tokens. However, because of the absence of an appropriate psychoacoustically based instrumental measure, the disturbing impact of a given speech or nonspeech sound could not be predicted until now, but necessitated behavioral testing. Our database for parametric modeling of the ISE included approximately 40 background sounds (e.g., speech, music, tone sequences, office noise, traffic noise) and corresponding performance data that was collected from 70 behavioral measurements of verbal short-term memory. The hearing sensation fluctuation strength was chosen to model the ISE and describes the percept of fluctuations when listening to slowly modulated sounds (f(mod) background sounds, the algorithm estimated behavioral performance data in 63 of 70 cases within the interquartile ranges. In particular, all real-world sounds were modeled adequately, whereas the algorithm overestimated the (non-)disturbance impact of synthetic steady-state sounds that were constituted by a repeated vowel or tone. Implications of the algorithm's strengths and prediction errors are discussed.

Enhanced discriminative fear learning of phobia-irrelevant stimuli in spider-fearful individuals

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Carina eMosig

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Avoidance is considered as a central hallmark of all anxiety disorders. The acquisition and expression of avoidance which leads to the maintenance and exacerbation of pathological fear is closely linked to Pavlovian and operant conditioning processes. Changes in conditionability might represent a key feature of all anxiety disorders but the exact nature of these alterations might vary across different disorders. To date, no information is available on specific changes in conditionability for disorder-irrelevant stimuli in specific phobia (SP. The first aim of this study was to investigate changes in fear acquisition and extinction in spider-fearful individuals as compared to non-fearful participants by using the de novo fear conditioning paradigm. Secondly, we aimed to determine whether differences in the magnitude of context-dependent fear retrieval exist between spider-fearful and non-fearful individuals. Our findings point to an enhanced fear discrimination in spider-fearful individuals as compared to non-fearful individuals at both the physiological and subjective level. The enhanced fear discrimination in spider-fearful individuals was neither mediated by increased state anxiety, depression, nor stress tension. Spider-fearful individuals displayed no changes in extinction learning and/or fear retrieval. Surprisingly, we found no evidence for context-dependent modulation of fear retrieval in either group. Here we provide first evidence that spider-fearful individuals show an enhanced discriminative fear learning of phobia-irrelevant (de novo stimuli. Our findings provide novel insights into the role of fear acquisition and expression for the development and maintenance of maladaptive responses in the course of SP.

Altered visual-spatial attention to task-irrelevant information is associated with falls risk in older adults

Science.gov (United States)

Nagamatsu, Lindsay S.; Munkacsy, Michelle; Liu-Ambrose, Teresa; Handy, Todd C.

2014-01-01

Executive cognitive functions play a critical role in falls risk – a pressing health care issue in seniors. In particular, intact attentional processing is integral for safe mobility and navigation. However, the specific contribution of impaired visual-spatial attention in falls remains unclear. In this study, we examined the association between visual-spatial attention to task-irrelevant stimuli and falls risk in community-dwelling older adults. Participants completed a visual target discrimination task at fixation while task-irrelevant probes were presented in both visual fields. We assessed attention to left and right peripheral probes using event-related potentials (ERPs). Falls risk was determined using the valid and reliable Physiological Profile Assessment (PPA). We found a significantly positive association between reduced attentional facilitation, as measured by the N1 ERP component, and falls risk. This relationship was specific to probes presented in the left visual field and measured at ipsilateral electrode sites. Our results suggest that fallers exhibit reduced attention to the left side of visual space and provide evidence that impaired right hemispheric function and/or structure may contribute to falls. PMID:24436970

On the influence of reward on action-effect binding

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paul Simon Muhle-Karbe

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Ideomotor theory states that the formation of anticipatory representations about the perceptual consequences of an action (i.e. action-effect (A-E binding provides the functional basis of voluntary action control. A host of studies has demonstrated that A-E binding occurs fast and effortlessly, yet only little is known about cognitive and affective factors that influence this learning process. In the present study, we sought to test whether the motivational value of an action modulates the acquisition of A-E associations. To this end, we associated specific actions with monetary incentives during the acquisition of novel A-E mappings. In a subsequent test phase, the degree of binding was assessed by presenting the former effect stimuli as task-irrelevant response primes in a forced-choice response task in the absence of any reward. Binding, as indexed by response priming through the former action effects, was only found for reward-related A-E mappings. Moreover, the degree to which reward associations modulated the binding strength was predicted by individuals’ trait sensitivity to reward. These observations indicate that the association of actions and their immediate outcomes depends on the motivational value of the action during learning, as well as on the motivational disposition of the individual. On a larger scale, these findings also highlight the link between ideomotor theories and reinforcement-learning theories, providing an interesting perspective for future research on anticipatory regulation of behavior.

Implementation of structure-mapping inference by event-file binding and action planning: a model of tool-improvisation analogies.

Science.gov (United States)

Fields, Chris

2011-03-01

Structure-mapping inferences are generally regarded as dependent upon relational concepts that are understood and expressible in language by subjects capable of analogical reasoning. However, tool-improvisation inferences are executed by members of a variety of non-human primate and other species. Tool improvisation requires correctly inferring the motion and force-transfer affordances of an object; hence tool improvisation requires structure mapping driven by relational properties. Observational and experimental evidence can be interpreted to indicate that structure-mapping analogies in tool improvisation are implemented by multi-step manipulation of event files by binding and action-planning mechanisms that act in a language-independent manner. A functional model of language-independent event-file manipulations that implement structure mapping in the tool-improvisation domain is developed. This model provides a mechanism by which motion and force representations commonly employed in tool-improvisation structure mappings may be sufficiently reinforced to be available to inwardly directed attention and hence conceptualization. Predictions and potential experimental tests of this model are outlined.

Object words modulate the activity of the mirror neuron system during action imitation.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Haiyan; Tang, Honghong; Ge, Yue; Yang, Suyong; Mai, Xiaoqin; Luo, Yue-Jia; Liu, Chao

2017-11-01

Although research has demonstrated that the mirror neuron system (MNS) plays a crucial role in both action imitation and action-related semantic processing, whether action-related words can inversely modulate the MNS activity remains unclear. Here, three types of task-irrelevant words (body parts, verbs, and manufactured objects) were presented to examine the modulation effect of these words on the MNS activity during action observation and imitation. Twenty-two participants were recruited for the fMRI scanning and remaining data from 19 subjects were reported here. Brain activity results showed that word types elicited different modulation effects over nodes of the MNS (i.e., the right inferior frontal gyrus, premotor cortex, inferior parietal lobule, and STS), especially during the imitation stage. Compared with other word conditions, action imitation following manufactured objects words induced stronger activation in these brain regions during the imitation stage. These results were consistent in both task-dependent and -independent ROI analysis. Our findings thus provide evidence for the unique effect of object words on the MNS during imitation of action, which may also confirm the key role of goal inference in action imitation.

Individual differences in the influence of task-irrelevant Pavlovian cues on human behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Garofalo, Sara; di Pellegrino, Giuseppe

2015-01-01

Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) refers to the process of a Pavlovian reward-paired cue acquiring incentive motivational proprieties that drive choices. It represents a crucial phenomenon for understanding cue-controlled behavior, and it has both adaptive and maladaptive implications (i.e., drug-taking). In animals, individual differences in the degree to which such cues bias performance have been identified in two types of individuals that exhibit distinct Conditioned Responses (CR) during Pavlovian conditioning: Sign-Trackers (ST) and Goal-Trackers (GT). Using an appetitive PIT procedure with a monetary reward, the present study investigated, for the first time, the extent to which such individual differences might affect the influence of reward-paired cues in humans. In a first task, participants learned an instrumental response leading to reward; then, in a second task, a visual Pavlovian cue was associated with the same reward; finally, in a third task, PIT was tested by measuring the preference for the reward-paired instrumental response when the task-irrelevant reward-paired cue was presented, in the absence of the reward itself. In ST individuals, but not in GT individuals, reward-related cues biased behavior, resulting in an increased likelihood to perform the instrumental response independently paired with the same reward when presented with the task-irrelevant reward-paired cue, even if the reward itself was no longer available (i.e., stronger PIT effect). This finding has important implications for developing individualized treatment for maladaptive behaviors, such as addiction.

Individual differences in the influence of task-irrelevant Pavlovian cues on human behavior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sara eGarofalo

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT refers to the process of a Pavlovian reward-paired cue acquiring incentive motivational proprieties that drive choices. It represents a crucial phenomenon for understanding cue-controlled behavior, and it has both adaptive and maladaptive implications (i.e., drug-taking. In animals, individual differences in the degree to which such cues bias performance have been identified in two types of individuals that exhibit distinct Conditioned Responses during Pavlovian conditioning: Sign-Trackers (ST and Goal-Trackers (GT. Using an appetitive PIT procedure with a monetary reward, the present study investigated, for the first time, the extent to which such individual differences might affect the influence of reward-paired cues in humans. In a first task, participants learned an instrumental response leading to reward; then, in a second task, a visual Pavlovian cue was associated with the same reward; finally, in a third task, PIT was tested by measuring the preference for the reward-paired instrumental response when the task-irrelevant reward-paired cue was presented, in the absence of the reward itself. In ST individuals, but not in GT individuals, reward-related cues biased behavior, resulting in an increased likelihood to perform the instrumental response independently paired with the same reward when presented with the task-irrelevant reward-paired cue, even if the reward itself was no longer available (i.e., stronger PIT effect. This finding has important implications for developing individualized treatment for maladaptive behaviors, such as addiction.

Individual differences in the influence of task-irrelevant Pavlovian cues on human behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Garofalo, Sara; di Pellegrino, Giuseppe

2015-01-01

Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) refers to the process of a Pavlovian reward-paired cue acquiring incentive motivational proprieties that drive choices. It represents a crucial phenomenon for understanding cue-controlled behavior, and it has both adaptive and maladaptive implications (i.e., drug-taking). In animals, individual differences in the degree to which such cues bias performance have been identified in two types of individuals that exhibit distinct Conditioned Responses (CR) during Pavlovian conditioning: Sign-Trackers (ST) and Goal-Trackers (GT). Using an appetitive PIT procedure with a monetary reward, the present study investigated, for the first time, the extent to which such individual differences might affect the influence of reward-paired cues in humans. In a first task, participants learned an instrumental response leading to reward; then, in a second task, a visual Pavlovian cue was associated with the same reward; finally, in a third task, PIT was tested by measuring the preference for the reward-paired instrumental response when the task-irrelevant reward-paired cue was presented, in the absence of the reward itself. In ST individuals, but not in GT individuals, reward-related cues biased behavior, resulting in an increased likelihood to perform the instrumental response independently paired with the same reward when presented with the task-irrelevant reward-paired cue, even if the reward itself was no longer available (i.e., stronger PIT effect). This finding has important implications for developing individualized treatment for maladaptive behaviors, such as addiction. PMID:26157371

What characterizes changing-state speech in affecting short-term memory? An EEG study on the irrelevant sound effect.

Science.gov (United States)

Schlittmeier, Sabine J; Weisz, Nathan; Bertrand, Olivier

2011-12-01

The irrelevant sound effect (ISE) describes reduced verbal short-term memory during irrelevant changing-state sounds which consist of different and distinct auditory tokens. Steady-state sounds lack such changing-state features and do not impair performance. An EEG experiment (N=16) explored the distinguishing neurophysiological aspects of detrimental changing-state speech (3-token sequence) compared to ineffective steady-state speech (1-token sequence) on serial recall performance. We analyzed evoked and induced activity related to the memory items as well as spectral activity during the retention phase. The main finding is that the behavioral sound effect was exclusively reflected by attenuated token-induced gamma activation most pronounced between 50-60 Hz and 50-100 ms post-stimulus onset. Changing-state speech seems to disrupt a behaviorally relevant ongoing process during target presentation (e.g., the serial binding of the items). Copyright © 2011 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

The problem of latent attentional capture: Easy visual search conceals capture by task-irrelevant abrupt onsets.

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Gaspelin, Nicholas; Ruthruff, Eric; Lien, Mei-Ching

2016-08-01

Researchers are sharply divided regarding whether irrelevant abrupt onsets capture spatial attention. Numerous studies report that they do and a roughly equal number report that they do not. This puzzle has inspired numerous attempts at reconciliation, none gaining general acceptance. The authors propose that abrupt onsets routinely capture attention, but the size of observed capture effects depends critically on how long attention dwells on distractor items which, in turn, depends critically on search difficulty. In a series of spatial cuing experiments, the authors show that irrelevant abrupt onsets produce robust capture effects when visual search is difficult, but not when search is easy. Critically, this effect occurs even when search difficulty varies randomly across trials, preventing any strategic adjustments of the attentional set that could modulate probability of capture by the onset cue. The authors argue that easy visual search provides an insensitive test for stimulus-driven capture by abrupt onsets: even though onsets truly capture attention, the effects of capture can be latent. This observation helps to explain previous failures to find capture by onsets, nearly all of which used an easy visual search. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

When action is not enough: tool-use reveals tactile-dependent access to Body Schema.

Science.gov (United States)

Cardinali, L; Brozzoli, C; Urquizar, C; Salemme, R; Roy, A C; Farnè, A

2011-11-01

Proper motor control of our own body implies a reliable representation of body parts. This information is supposed to be stored in the Body Schema (BS), a body representation that appears separate from a more perceptual body representation, the Body Image (BI). The dissociation between BS for action and BI for perception, originally based on neuropsychological evidence, has recently become the focus of behavioural studies in physiological conditions. By inducing the rubber hand illusion in healthy participants, Kammers et al. (2009) showed perceptual changes attributable to the BI to which the BS, as indexed via motor tasks, was immune. To more definitively support the existence of dissociable body representations in physiological conditions, here we tested for the opposite dissociation, namely, whether a tool-use paradigm would induce a functional update of the BS (via a motor localization task) without affecting the BI (via a perceptual localization task). Healthy subjects were required to localize three anatomical landmarks on their right arm, before and after using the same arm to control a tool. In addition to this classical task-dependency approach, we assessed whether preferential access to the BS could also depend upon the way positional information about forearm targets is provided, to subsequently execute the same task. To this aim, participants performed either verbally or tactually driven versions of the motor and perceptual localization tasks. Results showed that both the motor and perceptual tasks were sensitive to the update of the forearm representation, but only when the localization task (perceptual or motor) was driven by a tactile input. This pattern reveals that the motor output is not sufficient per se, but has to be coupled with tactually mediated information to guarantee access to the BS. These findings shade a new light on the action-perception models of body representations and underlie how functional plasticity may be a useful tool to

Monetary reward modulates task-irrelevant perceptual learning for invisible stimuli.

Science.gov (United States)

Pascucci, David; Mastropasqua, Tommaso; Turatto, Massimo

2015-01-01

Task Irrelevant Perceptual Learning (TIPL) shows that the brain's discriminative capacity can improve also for invisible and unattended visual stimuli. It has been hypothesized that this form of "unconscious" neural plasticity is mediated by an endogenous reward mechanism triggered by the correct task performance. Although this result has challenged the mandatory role of attention in perceptual learning, no direct evidence exists of the hypothesized link between target recognition, reward and TIPL. Here, we manipulated the reward value associated with a target to demonstrate the involvement of reinforcement mechanisms in sensory plasticity for invisible inputs. Participants were trained in a central task associated with either high or low monetary incentives, provided only at the end of the experiment, while subliminal stimuli were presented peripherally. Our results showed that high incentive-value targets induced a greater degree of perceptual improvement for the subliminal stimuli, supporting the role of reinforcement mechanisms in TIPL.

Task-Based Listening Assessment and the Influence of Construct-Irrelevant Variance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arshya Keyvanfar

2008-02-01

Full Text Available Task-based listening tests such as IELTS require testees to listen to some information on a CD and simultaneously answer the related items. To answer such items, testees are expected to comprehend, analyze, compare and infer pieces of information while listening to the incoming audio material. The present research attempted to investigate whether the two major characteristics of question type and consecutive/simultaneous performance have any impact on the listening performance of Iranian EFL learners. Findings indicated that participants had a significantly better performance when they tackled the tasks consecutively, and performed even better in listening MC items rather than in listening task-based items. The researchers, thus, concluded that task-based listening tests such as IELTS listening module may be under the influence of construct-irrelevant variance.

Effects of task-irrelevant grouping on visual selection in partial report

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lunau, Rasmus; Habekost, Thomas

2017-01-01

and the selection criterion was luminance. This effect was accompanied by impaired selectivity in unsorted-color trials. Overall, the results suggest that the benefit of task-irrelevant color grouping of targets is contingent on the processing locus of the selection criterion....... the color of the elements in these trials. In the sorted-color condition, the color of the display elements was arranged according to the selection criterion, and in the unsorted-color condition, colors were randomly assigned. The distractor cost was inferred by subtracting performance in partial......-report trials from performance in a control condition that had no distractors in the display. Across five experiments, we manipulated trial order, selection criterion, and exposure duration, and found that attentional selectivity was improved in sorted-color trials when the exposure duration was 200 ms...

Integral Action: Management Tool for Municipal Governments Centralized by the National Policy of Territorial Consolidation and Reconstruction

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Orlando Antonio Mejía Quintero

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Integral action has been a key tool for social development, regarding the achievements of the national government to recover legitimacy and governability. Since its beginning in 2002 and up to date, the consolidation process—represented in the National Policy of Territorial Consolidation and Reconstruction (NPTCR— has presented changes in its strategy, in line with current circumstances. This article is theoretically based on the concepts of legitimacy and governability and on the doctrine of integral action of the Armed Forces, complemented with the experience of officers who worked on this strategy or currently run it. Thus, this study offers recommendations to the national government for decision making in modifying the development of NPTCR, taking into account the current historical moment.

Potentiation of latent inhibition by haloperidol and clozapine is attenuated in Dopamine D2 receptor (Drd-2)-deficient mice: Do antipsychotics influence learning to ignore irrelevant stimuli via both Drd-2 and non-Drd-2 mechanisms?

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O’Callaghan, Matthew J; Bay-Richter, Cecilie; O’Tuathaigh, Colm MP; Heery, David M; Waddington, John L; Moran, Paula M

2014-01-01

Whether the dopamine Drd-2 receptor is necessary for the behavioural action of antipsychotic drugs is an important question, as Drd-2 antagonism is responsible for their debilitating motor side effects. Using Drd-2 null mice (Drd2 -/-) it has previously been shown that Drd-2 is not necessary for antipsychotic drugs to reverse D-amphetamine disruption of latent inhibition (LI), a behavioural measure of learning to ignore irrelevant stimuli. Weiner’s ‘two-headed’ model indicates that antipsychotics not only reverse LI disruption, ‘disrupted LI’, but also potentiate LI when low/absent in controls, ‘persistent’ LI. We investigated whether antipsychotic drugs haloperidol or clozapine potentiated LI in wild-type controls or Drd2 -/-. Both drugs potentiated LI in wild-type but not in Drd2-/- mice, suggesting moderation of this effect of antipsychotics in the absence of Drd-2. Haloperidol potentiated LI similarly in both Drd1-/- and wild-type mice, indicating no such moderation in Drd1-/-. These data suggest that antipsychotic drugs can have either Drd-2 or non-Drd-2 effects on learning to ignore irrelevant stimuli, depending on how the abnormality is produced. Identification of the non-Drd-2 mechanism may help to identify novel non-Drd2 based therapeutic strategies for psychosis. PMID:25122042

Plan Generation and Evaluation Using Action Networks

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Peot, Mark

2003-01-01

... from potential actions of the plan. Methods used to accomplish these results included the use of Action Networks, and development of a suite of analysis tools in support of the AFRL Campaign Assessment Tool...

Action Planning Mediates Guidance of Visual Attention from Working Memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Feldmann-Wüstefeld, Tobias; Schubö, Anna

2015-01-01

Visual search is impaired when a salient task-irrelevant stimulus is presented together with the target. Recent research has shown that this attentional capture effect is enhanced when the salient stimulus matches working memory (WM) content, arguing in favor of attention guidance from WM. Visual attention was also shown to be closely coupled with action planning. Preparing a movement renders action-relevant perceptual dimensions more salient and thus increases search efficiency for stimuli sharing that dimension. The present study aimed at revealing common underlying mechanisms for selective attention, WM, and action planning. Participants both prepared a specific movement (grasping or pointing) and memorized a color hue. Before the movement was executed towards an object of the memorized color, a visual search task (additional singleton) was performed. Results showed that distraction from target was more pronounced when the additional singleton had a memorized color. This WM-guided attention deployment was more pronounced when participants prepared a grasping movement. We argue that preparing a grasping movement mediates attention guidance from WM content by enhancing representations of memory content that matches the distractor shape (i.e., circles), thus encouraging attentional capture by circle distractors of the memorized color. We conclude that templates for visual search, action planning, and WM compete for resources and thus cause interferences.

Monetary reward modulates task-irrelevant perceptual learning for invisible stimuli.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Pascucci

Full Text Available Task Irrelevant Perceptual Learning (TIPL shows that the brain's discriminative capacity can improve also for invisible and unattended visual stimuli. It has been hypothesized that this form of "unconscious" neural plasticity is mediated by an endogenous reward mechanism triggered by the correct task performance. Although this result has challenged the mandatory role of attention in perceptual learning, no direct evidence exists of the hypothesized link between target recognition, reward and TIPL. Here, we manipulated the reward value associated with a target to demonstrate the involvement of reinforcement mechanisms in sensory plasticity for invisible inputs. Participants were trained in a central task associated with either high or low monetary incentives, provided only at the end of the experiment, while subliminal stimuli were presented peripherally. Our results showed that high incentive-value targets induced a greater degree of perceptual improvement for the subliminal stimuli, supporting the role of reinforcement mechanisms in TIPL.

Skeleton-Based Human Action Recognition With Global Context-Aware Attention LSTM Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Jun; Wang, Gang; Duan, Ling-Yu; Abdiyeva, Kamila; Kot, Alex C.

2018-04-01

Human action recognition in 3D skeleton sequences has attracted a lot of research attention. Recently, Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks have shown promising performance in this task due to their strengths in modeling the dependencies and dynamics in sequential data. As not all skeletal joints are informative for action recognition, and the irrelevant joints often bring noise which can degrade the performance, we need to pay more attention to the informative ones. However, the original LSTM network does not have explicit attention ability. In this paper, we propose a new class of LSTM network, Global Context-Aware Attention LSTM (GCA-LSTM), for skeleton based action recognition. This network is capable of selectively focusing on the informative joints in each frame of each skeleton sequence by using a global context memory cell. To further improve the attention capability of our network, we also introduce a recurrent attention mechanism, with which the attention performance of the network can be enhanced progressively. Moreover, we propose a stepwise training scheme in order to train our network effectively. Our approach achieves state-of-the-art performance on five challenging benchmark datasets for skeleton based action recognition.

Retroactive effects of irrelevant speech on serial recall from short-term memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Norris, Dennis; Baddeley, Alan D; Page, Michael P A

2004-09-01

The authors report 5 serial-recall experiments. In 4 of the 5 experiments, they show that irrelevant sound (IS) has a retroactive effect on material already in memory. In Experiment 1, IS presented during a filled retention interval had a reliable effect on list recall. Four further experiments, 3 of which used retroactive IS, showed that IS continued to-have an effect on recall following a long, filled retention interval. Articulatory suppression during visual input was found to abolish the long-lasting, retroactive effect of IS, supporting the idea that IS affects the phonological-loop component of short-term memory. IS also, therefore, seems to affect a longer term memory system with which the loop interacts. ((c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved)

The minimalist grammar of action

Science.gov (United States)

Pastra, Katerina; Aloimonos, Yiannis

2012-01-01

Language and action have been found to share a common neural basis and in particular a common ‘syntax’, an analogous hierarchical and compositional organization. While language structure analysis has led to the formulation of different grammatical formalisms and associated discriminative or generative computational models, the structure of action is still elusive and so are the related computational models. However, structuring action has important implications on action learning and generalization, in both human cognition research and computation. In this study, we present a biologically inspired generative grammar of action, which employs the structure-building operations and principles of Chomsky's Minimalist Programme as a reference model. In this grammar, action terminals combine hierarchically into temporal sequences of actions of increasing complexity; the actions are bound with the involved tools and affected objects and are governed by certain goals. We show, how the tool role and the affected-object role of an entity within an action drives the derivation of the action syntax in this grammar and controls recursion, merge and move, the latter being mechanisms that manifest themselves not only in human language, but in human action too. PMID:22106430

Actionable nuggets: knowledge translation tool for the needs of patients with spinal cord injury.

Science.gov (United States)

McColl, Mary Ann; Aiken, Alice; Smith, Karen; McColl, Alexander; Green, Michael; Godwin, Marshall; Birtwhistle, Richard; Norman, Kathleen; Brankston, Gabrielle; Schaub, Michael

2015-05-01

To present the results of a pilot study of an innovative methodology for translating best evidence about spinal cord injury (SCI) for family practice. Review of Canadian and international peer-reviewed literature to develop SCI Actionable Nuggets, and a mixed qualitative-quantitative evaluation to determine Nuggets' effect on physician knowledge of and attitudes toward patients with SCI, as well as practice accessibility. Ontario, Newfoundland, and Australia. Forty-nine primary care physicians. Twenty Actionable Nuggets (pertaining to key health issues associated with long-term SCI) were developed. Nugget postcards were mailed weekly for 20 weeks to participating physicians. Prior knowledge of SCI was self-rated by participants; they also completed an online posttest to assess the information they gained from the Nugget postcards. Participants' opinions about practice accessibility and accommodations for patients with SCI, as well as the acceptability and usefulness of Nuggets, were assessed in interviews. With Actionable Nuggets, participants' knowledge of the health needs of patients with SCI improved, as knowledge increased from a self-rating of fair (58%) to very good (75%) based on posttest quiz results. The mean overall score for accessibility and accommodations in physicians' practices was 72%. Participants' awareness of the need for screening and disease prevention among this population also increased. The usefulness and acceptability of SCI Nugget postcards were rated as excellent. Actionable Nuggets are a knowledge translation tool designed to provide family physicians with concise, practical information about the most prevalent and pressing primary care needs of patients with SCI. This evidence-based resource has been shown to be an excellent fit with information consumption processes in primary care. They were updated and adapted for distribution by the Canadian Medical Association to approximately 50,000 primary care physicians in Canada, in both

Action Research on a WebQuest as an Instructional Tool for Writing Abstracts of Research Articles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Krismiyati Latuperissa

2012-08-01

Full Text Available The massive growth of and access to information technology (IT has enabled the integration of technology into classrooms. One such integration is the use of WebQuests as an instructional tool in teaching targeted learning activities such as writing abstracts of research articles in English for English as a Foreign Language (EFL learners. In the academic world, writing an abstract of a research paper or final project in English can be challenging for EFL students. This article presents an action research project on the process and outcomes of using a WebQuest designed to help 20 Indonesian university IT students write a research article’s abstract in English. Findings reveal that despite positive feedback, changes need to be made to make the WebQuest a more effective instructional tool for the purpose it was designed.

The role of social interaction and pedagogical cues for eliciting and reducing overimitation in preschoolers.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoehl, Stefanie; Zettersten, Martin; Schleihauf, Hanna; Grätz, Sabine; Pauen, Sabina

2014-06-01

The tendency to imitate causally irrelevant actions is termed overimitation. Here we investigated (a) whether communication of a model performing irrelevant actions is necessary to elicit overimitation in preschoolers and (b) whether communication of another model performing an efficient action modulates the subsequent reduction of overimitation. In the study, 5-year-olds imitated irrelevant actions both when they were modeled by a communicative and pedagogical experimenter and when they were modeled by a non-communicative and non-pedagogical experimenter. However, children stopped using the previously learned irrelevant actions only when they were subsequently shown the more efficient way to achieve the goal by a pedagogical experimenter. Thus, communication leads preschoolers to adapt their imitative behavior but does not seem to affect overimitation in the first place. Results are discussed with regard to the importance of communication for the transmission of cultural knowledge during development. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

OOTW Force Design Tools

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bell, R.E.; Hartley, D.S.III; Packard, S.L.

1999-05-01

This report documents refined requirements for tools to aid the process of force design in Operations Other Than War (OOTWs). It recommends actions for the creation of one tool and work on other tools relating to mission planning. It also identifies the governmental agencies and commands with interests in each tool, from whom should come the user advisory groups overseeing the respective tool development activities. The understanding of OOTWs and their analytical support requirements has matured to the point where action can be taken in three areas: force design, collaborative analysis, and impact analysis. While the nature of the action and the length of time before complete results can be expected depends on the area, in each case the action should begin immediately. Force design for OOTWs is not a technically difficult process. Like force design for combat operations, it is a process of matching the capabilities of forces against the specified and implied tasks of the operation, considering the constraints of logistics, transport and force availabilities. However, there is a critical difference that restricts the usefulness of combat force design tools for OOTWs: the combat tools are built to infer non-combat capability requirements from combat capability requirements and cannot reverse the direction of the inference, as is required for OOTWs. Recently, OOTWs have played a larger role in force assessment, system effectiveness and tradeoff analysis, and concept and doctrine development and analysis. In the first Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), each of the Services created its own OOTW force design tool. Unfortunately, the tools address different parts of the problem and do not coordinate the use of competing capabilities. These tools satisfied the immediate requirements of the QDR, but do not provide a long-term cost-effective solution.

Utilization of Probabilistic Cues in the Presence of Irrelevant Information: A Comparison of Risky Choice in Children and Adults

Science.gov (United States)

Betsch, Tilmann; Lang, Anna

2013-01-01

We studied risky choices in preschoolers, elementary schoolers, and adults using an information board paradigm crossing two options with two cues that differ in their probability of making valid predictions (p = 0.50 vs. p = 0.83). We also varied the presence of normatively irrelevant information. Choice patterns indicate that preschoolers were…

Is credit for early action credible early action?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rolfe, C.; Michaelowa, A.; Dutschke, M.

1999-12-01

Credit for early action as a tool for greenhouse gas emissions reduction is compared with various market instruments as a means of narrowing the gap between projected emissions and those of the Kyoto Protocol. Market instruments work by creating a market price for emissions and use the market to encourage reductions at the lowest price, which is done by placing limits on greenhouse gas emissions and allowing the market to decide where reductions occur, or by imposing a carbon tax or emissions charge. While they can be applied within a sector, they are usually used to encourage reductions throughout the economy or across large sectors. Credit for early action also creates an incentive for emissions reductions throughout the economy or at least across many sectors. Credit for early action tools do not work by either imposing a carbon tax or emissions charge or placing limits on emissions, rather they promise that entities that take action against greenhouse gases prior to the imposition of a carbon tax or emissions limits will receive a credit against future taxes or limits. An overview is provided of the Kyoto Protocol and the rationale for taking early action, and a review is included of the theory and specific proposals for market instruments and credit for early action. A comparative analysis is provided of these approaches by examining their relative efficiency, environmental effectiveness, and impacts on the redistribution of wealth. Credit for early action is viewed as problematic on a number of counts and is seen as an interim strategy for imposition while political support for market instruments develop. The environmental effectiveness of credit for early action is very difficult to predict, and credit for early action programs do not yield the lowest cost emissions reductions. Credit for early action programs will not achieve compliance with the Kyoto Protocol at the lowest cost, and credits for early action will increase the compliance costs for those who

Falling out of time: enhanced memory for scenes presented at behaviorally irrelevant points in time in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Science.gov (United States)

Levy-Gigi, Einat; Kéri, Szabolcs

2012-01-01

Spontaneous encoding of the visual environment depends on the behavioral relevance of the task performed simultaneously. If participants identify target letters or auditory tones while viewing a series of briefly presented natural and urban scenes, they demonstrate effective scene recognition only when a target, but not a behaviorally irrelevant distractor, appears together with the scene. Here, we show that individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), who witnessed the red sludge disaster in Hungary, show the opposite pattern of performance: enhanced recognition of scenes presented together with distractors and deficient recognition of scenes presented with targets. The recognition of trauma-related and neutral scenes was not different in individuals with PTSD. We found a positive correlation between memory for scenes presented with auditory distractors and re-experiencing symptoms (memory intrusions and flashbacks). These results suggest that abnormal encoding of visual scenes at behaviorally irrelevant events might be associated with intrusive experiences by disrupting the flow of time.

Falling out of time: enhanced memory for scenes presented at behaviorally irrelevant points in time in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Einat Levy-Gigi

Full Text Available Spontaneous encoding of the visual environment depends on the behavioral relevance of the task performed simultaneously. If participants identify target letters or auditory tones while viewing a series of briefly presented natural and urban scenes, they demonstrate effective scene recognition only when a target, but not a behaviorally irrelevant distractor, appears together with the scene. Here, we show that individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD, who witnessed the red sludge disaster in Hungary, show the opposite pattern of performance: enhanced recognition of scenes presented together with distractors and deficient recognition of scenes presented with targets. The recognition of trauma-related and neutral scenes was not different in individuals with PTSD. We found a positive correlation between memory for scenes presented with auditory distractors and re-experiencing symptoms (memory intrusions and flashbacks. These results suggest that abnormal encoding of visual scenes at behaviorally irrelevant events might be associated with intrusive experiences by disrupting the flow of time.

Food words distract the hungry: Evidence of involuntary semantic processing of task-irrelevant but biologically-relevant unexpected auditory words.

Science.gov (United States)

Parmentier, Fabrice B R; Pacheco-Unguetti, Antonia P; Valero, Sara

2018-01-01

Rare changes in a stream of otherwise repeated task-irrelevant sounds break through selective attention and disrupt performance in an unrelated visual task by triggering shifts of attention to and from the deviant sound (deviance distraction). Evidence indicates that the involuntary orientation of attention to unexpected sounds is followed by their semantic processing. However, past demonstrations relied on tasks in which the meaning of the deviant sounds overlapped with features of the primary task. Here we examine whether such processing is observed when no such overlap is present but sounds carry some relevance to the participants' biological need to eat when hungry. We report the results of an experiment in which hungry and satiated participants partook in a cross-modal oddball task in which they categorized visual digits (odd/even) while ignoring task-irrelevant sounds. On most trials the irrelevant sound was a sinewave tone (standard sound). On the remaining trials, deviant sounds consisted of spoken words related to food (food deviants) or control words (control deviants). Questionnaire data confirmed state (but not trait) differences between the two groups with respect to food craving, as well as a greater desire to eat the food corresponding to the food-related words in the hungry relative to the satiated participants. The results of the oddball task revealed that food deviants produced greater distraction (longer response times) than control deviants in hungry participants while the reverse effect was observed in satiated participants. This effect was observed in the first block of trials but disappeared thereafter, reflecting semantic saturation. Our results suggest that (1) the semantic content of deviant sounds is involuntarily processed even when sharing no feature with the primary task; and that (2) distraction by deviant sounds can be modulated by the participants' biological needs.

Stimulus-response correspondence in go-nogo and choice tasks: Are reactions altered by the presence of an irrelevant salient object?

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Lien, Mei-Ching; Pedersen, Logan; Proctor, Robert W

2016-11-01

In 2-choice tasks, responses are faster when stimulus location corresponds to response location, even when stimulus location is irrelevant. Dolk et al. (J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 39:1248-1260, 2013a) found this stimulus-response correspondence effect with a single response location in a go-nogo task when an irrelevant Japanese waving cat was present. They argued that salient objects trigger spatial coding of the response relative to that object. We examined this claim using both behavioral and lateralized readiness potential (LRP) measures. In Experiment 1 participants determined the pitch of a left- or right-positioned tone, whereas in Experiment 2 they determined the color of a dot within a centrally located hand pointing left, right, or straight ahead. In both experiments, participants performed a go-nogo task with the right-index finger and a 2-choice task with both index fingers, with a left-positioned Japanese waving cat present or absent. For the go-nogo task, the cat induced a correspondence effect on response times (RT) to the tones (Experiment 1) but not the visual stimuli (Experiment 2). For the 2-choice task, a correspondence effect was evident in all conditions in both experiments. Cat's presence/absence did not significantly modulate the effect for right and left responses, although there was a trend toward increased RT and LRP for right responses in Experiment 1. The results imply that a salient, irrelevant object could provide a reference frame for response coding when attention is available to process it, as is likely in an auditory task (Experiment 1) but not a visual task (Experiment 2).

Notes on relevant, irrelevant, marginal and extremal double trace perturbations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Porrati, Massimo; Yu, Cedric C.Y. [Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics,Department of Physics, New York University,4 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003 (United States)

2016-11-08

Double trace deformations, that is products of two local operators, define perturbations of conformal field theories that can be studied exactly in the large-N limit. Even when the double trace deformation is irrelevant in the infrared, it is believed to flow to an ultraviolet fixed point. In this note we define the Källen-Lehmann representation of the two-point function of a local operator O in a theory perturbed by the square of such operator. We use such representation to discover potential pathologies at intermediate points in the flow that may prevent to reach the UV fixed point. We apply the method to an “extremal” deformation that naively would flow to a UV fixed point where the operator O would saturate the unitarity bound Δ=(d/2)−1. We find that the UV fixed point is not conformal and that the deformed two-point function propagates unphysical modes. We interpret the result as showing that the flow to the UV fixed point does not exist. This resolves a potential puzzle in the holographic interpretation of the deformation.

Action Planning Mediates Guidance of Visual Attention from Working Memory

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Tobias Feldmann-Wüstefeld

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Visual search is impaired when a salient task-irrelevant stimulus is presented together with the target. Recent research has shown that this attentional capture effect is enhanced when the salient stimulus matches working memory (WM content, arguing in favor of attention guidance from WM. Visual attention was also shown to be closely coupled with action planning. Preparing a movement renders action-relevant perceptual dimensions more salient and thus increases search efficiency for stimuli sharing that dimension. The present study aimed at revealing common underlying mechanisms for selective attention, WM, and action planning. Participants both prepared a specific movement (grasping or pointing and memorized a color hue. Before the movement was executed towards an object of the memorized color, a visual search task (additional singleton was performed. Results showed that distraction from target was more pronounced when the additional singleton had a memorized color. This WM-guided attention deployment was more pronounced when participants prepared a grasping movement. We argue that preparing a grasping movement mediates attention guidance from WM content by enhancing representations of memory content that matches the distractor shape (i.e., circles, thus encouraging attentional capture by circle distractors of the memorized color. We conclude that templates for visual search, action planning, and WM compete for resources and thus cause interferences.

Human Actions Made Tangible

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Buur, Jacob; Caglio, Agnese; Jensen, Lars Christian

2014-01-01

, a method developed to engage people from different backgrounds in collaboratively analysing videos with the help of physical objects. We will present one of these tools, Action Scrabble, for analysing temporal organisation of human actions. We work with a case of skilled forklift truck driving...

"Creative Blocs": Action Research Study on the Implementation of Lego as a Tool for Reflective Practice with Social Care Practitioners

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Cavaliero, Tamsin

2017-01-01

The aim of this study is to investigate whether Lego could be used as a tool for reflective practice with social care practitioners (SCPs) and student practitioners. This article outlines an action research study conducted in an institute of higher education in Ireland. Findings from this study suggest that Lego can be used to support student…

The National Radon Archive as a useful tool for developing and updating the National Radon Action Plan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bochicchio, F.; Antignani, S.; Carpentieri, C.; Ampollini, M.; Caccia, B.; Pozzi, S.; Venoso, G.

2017-01-01

International recommendations and regulations require developing of National Radon Action Plans (NRAPs) to effectively manage the protection of workers and population from radon exposure. In Italy, a NRAP was published in 2002 and several activities have been carried out in this framework. Information and data regarding these and previous activities have been collected in a National Radon Archive (NRA). Activities carried out by institutionally involved institutes and agencies include several national and regional surveys, involving more than 50 000 indoor environments (dwellings, schools and workplaces), and remedial actions performed in ∼350 buildings, largely in schools. Data collected in the NRA allowed also to estimate that lung cancer deaths attributable to radon exposure in Italy are ∼3400 per year. On-going developments of the Italian NRA finalized to effectively use it as tool for developing, monitoring and updating the NRAP are also described. (authors)

The development of a Simplified, Effective, Labour Monitoring-to-Action (SELMA) tool for Better Outcomes in Labour Difficulty (BOLD): study protocol.

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Souza, João Paulo; Oladapo, Olufemi T; Bohren, Meghan A; Mugerwa, Kidza; Fawole, Bukola; Moscovici, Leonardo; Alves, Domingos; Perdona, Gleici; Oliveira-Ciabati, Livia; Vogel, Joshua P; Tunçalp, Özge; Zhang, Jim; Hofmeyr, Justus; Bahl, Rajiv; Gülmezoglu, A Metin

2015-05-26

The partograph is currently the main tool available to support decision-making of health professionals during labour. However, the rate of appropriate use of the partograph is disappointingly low. Apart from limitations that are associated with partograph use, evidence of positive impact on labour-related health outcomes is lacking. The main goal of this study is to develop a Simplified, Effective, Labour Monitoring-to-Action (SELMA) tool. The primary objectives are: to identify the essential elements of intrapartum monitoring that trigger the decision to use interventions aimed at preventing poor labour outcomes; to develop a simplified, monitoring-to-action algorithm for labour management; and to compare the diagnostic performance of SELMA and partograph algorithms as tools to identify women who are likely to develop poor labour-related outcomes. A prospective cohort study will be conducted in eight health facilities in Nigeria and Uganda (four facilities from each country). All women admitted for vaginal birth will comprise the study population (estimated sample size: 7,812 women). Data will be collected on maternal characteristics on admission, labour events and pregnancy outcomes by trained research assistants at the participating health facilities. Prediction models will be developed to identify women at risk of intrapartum-related perinatal death or morbidity (primary outcomes) throughout the course of labour. These predictions models will be used to assemble a decision-support tool that will be able to suggest the best course of action to avert adverse outcomes during the course of labour. To develop this set of prediction models, we will use up-to-date techniques of prognostic research, including identification of important predictors, assigning of relative weights to each predictor, estimation of the predictive performance of the model through calibration and discrimination, and determination of its potential for application using internal validation

P3-10: Crossmodal Perceptual Grouping Modulates Subjective Causality between Action and Outcome

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Takahiro Kawabe

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Agents have to determine which external events their action has causally produced. A sensation of causal relation between action and outcome is called subjective causality. Subjective causality has been linked to the comparator model. This model assumes that the brain compares an internal prediction for action outcome with an actual sensory outcome, distinguishing between self and externally produced outcomes depending on spatiotemporal congruency. However, recent studies have expressed some doubt about the idea that subjective causality arises depending solely on the spatiotemporal congruency, suggesting instead that other perceptual/cognitive factors play a critical role in determining subjective causality. We hypothesized that crossmodal grouping between action and outcome contributed to subjective causality. Crossmodal temporal grouping is an essential factor for crossmodal simultaneity judgments with ungrouped crossmodal signals likely to be judged as non-simultaneous. We predicted that subjective causality would decrease when an agent's action was not temporally grouped with action outcome. In the experiment, observers were asked to press a key in order to trigger a display change with some temporal delay. To disrupt temporal grouping between action and outcome, a task-irrelevant visual flash or tone was sometimes presented synchronously with the button press and/or the display change. Subjective causality was decreased when the flash or the tone was coincided with the button press. This demonstrates that perceptual grouping has a key role in determination of subjective causality, a result that is not accounted for by the standard comparator model.

Task-irrelevant distractors in the delay period interfere selectively with visual short-term memory for spatial locations.

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Marini, Francesco; Scott, Jerry; Aron, Adam R; Ester, Edward F

2017-07-01

Visual short-term memory (VSTM) enables the representation of information in a readily accessible state. VSTM is typically conceptualized as a form of "active" storage that is resistant to interference or disruption, yet several recent studies have shown that under some circumstances task-irrelevant distractors may indeed disrupt performance. Here, we investigated how task-irrelevant visual distractors affected VSTM by asking whether distractors induce a general loss of remembered information or selectively interfere with memory representations. In a VSTM task, participants recalled the spatial location of a target visual stimulus after a delay in which distractors were presented on 75% of trials. Notably, the distractor's eccentricity always matched the eccentricity of the target, while in the critical conditions the distractor's angular position was shifted either clockwise or counterclockwise relative to the target. We then computed estimates of recall error for both eccentricity and polar angle. A general interference model would predict an effect of distractors on both polar angle and eccentricity errors, while a selective interference model would predict effects of distractors on angle but not on eccentricity errors. Results showed that for stimulus angle there was an increase in the magnitude and variability of recall errors. However, distractors had no effect on estimates of stimulus eccentricity. Our results suggest that distractors selectively interfere with VSTM for spatial locations.

Selective attention to task-irrelevant emotional distractors is unaffected by the perceptual load associated with a foreground task.

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Hindi Attar, Catherine; Müller, Matthias M

2012-01-01

A number of studies have shown that emotionally arousing stimuli are preferentially processed in the human brain. Whether or not this preference persists under increased perceptual load associated with a task at hand remains an open question. Here we manipulated two possible determinants of the attentional selection process, perceptual load associated with a foreground task and the emotional valence of concurrently presented task-irrelevant distractors. As a direct measure of sustained attentional resource allocation in early visual cortex we used steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) elicited by distinct flicker frequencies of task and distractor stimuli. Subjects either performed a detection (low load) or discrimination (high load) task at a centrally presented symbol stream that flickered at 8.6 Hz while task-irrelevant neutral or unpleasant pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) flickered at a frequency of 12 Hz in the background of the stream. As reflected in target detection rates and SSVEP amplitudes to both task and distractor stimuli, unpleasant relative to neutral background pictures more strongly withdrew processing resources from the foreground task. Importantly, this finding was unaffected by the factor 'load' which turned out to be a weak modulator of attentional processing in human visual cortex.

Selective attention to task-irrelevant emotional distractors is unaffected by the perceptual load associated with a foreground task.

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Catherine Hindi Attar

Full Text Available A number of studies have shown that emotionally arousing stimuli are preferentially processed in the human brain. Whether or not this preference persists under increased perceptual load associated with a task at hand remains an open question. Here we manipulated two possible determinants of the attentional selection process, perceptual load associated with a foreground task and the emotional valence of concurrently presented task-irrelevant distractors. As a direct measure of sustained attentional resource allocation in early visual cortex we used steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs elicited by distinct flicker frequencies of task and distractor stimuli. Subjects either performed a detection (low load or discrimination (high load task at a centrally presented symbol stream that flickered at 8.6 Hz while task-irrelevant neutral or unpleasant pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS flickered at a frequency of 12 Hz in the background of the stream. As reflected in target detection rates and SSVEP amplitudes to both task and distractor stimuli, unpleasant relative to neutral background pictures more strongly withdrew processing resources from the foreground task. Importantly, this finding was unaffected by the factor 'load' which turned out to be a weak modulator of attentional processing in human visual cortex.

Burst analysis tool for developing neuronal networks exhibiting highly varying action potential dynamics

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Fikret Emre eKapucu

2012-06-01

Full Text Available In this paper we propose a firing statistics based neuronal network burst detection algorithm for neuronal networks exhibiting highly variable action potential dynamics. Electrical activity of neuronal networks is generally analyzed by the occurrences of spikes and bursts both in time and space. Commonly accepted analysis tools employ burst detection algorithms based on predefined criteria. However, maturing neuronal networks, such as those originating from human embryonic stem cells (hESC, exhibit highly variable network structure and time-varying dynamics. To explore the developing burst/spike activities of such networks, we propose a burst detection algorithm which utilizes the firing statistics based on interspike interval (ISI histograms. Moreover, the algorithm calculates interspike interval thresholds for burst spikes as well as for pre-burst spikes and burst tails by evaluating the cumulative moving average and skewness of the ISI histogram. Because of the adaptive nature of the proposed algorithm, its analysis power is not limited by the type of neuronal cell network at hand. We demonstrate the functionality of our algorithm with two different types of microelectrode array (MEA data recorded from spontaneously active hESC-derived neuronal cell networks. The same data was also analyzed by two commonly employed burst detection algorithms and the differences in burst detection results are illustrated. The results demonstrate that our method is both adaptive to the firing statistics of the network and yields successful burst detection from the data. In conclusion, the proposed method is a potential tool for analyzing of hESC-derived neuronal cell networks and thus can be utilized in studies aiming to understand the development and functioning of human neuronal networks and as an analysis tool for in vitro drug screening and neurotoxicity assays.

Action Learning in China

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Marquardt, Michael J.

2015-01-01

Action learning was introduced into China less than 20 years ago, but has rapidly become a valuable tool for organizations seeking to solve problems, develop their leaders, and become learning organizations. This article provides an historical overview of action learning in China, its cultural underpinnings, and five case studies. It concludes…

Increasing Working Memory Load Reduces Processing of Cross-Modal Task-Irrelevant Stimuli Even after Controlling for Task Difficulty and Executive Capacity.

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Simon, Sharon S; Tusch, Erich S; Holcomb, Phillip J; Daffner, Kirk R

2016-01-01

The classic account of the load theory (LT) of attention suggests that increasing cognitive load leads to greater processing of task-irrelevant stimuli due to competition for limited executive resource that reduces the ability to actively maintain current processing priorities. Studies testing this hypothesis have yielded widely divergent outcomes. The inconsistent results may, in part, be related to variability in executive capacity (EC) and task difficulty across subjects in different studies. Here, we used a cross-modal paradigm to investigate whether augmented working memory (WM) load leads to increased early distracter processing, and controlled for the potential confounders of EC and task difficulty. Twenty-three young subjects were engaged in a primary visual WM task, under high and low load conditions, while instructed to ignore irrelevant auditory stimuli. Demands of the high load condition were individually titrated to make task difficulty comparable across subjects with differing EC. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to measure neural activity in response to stimuli presented in both the task relevant modality (visual) and task-irrelevant modality (auditory). Behavioral results indicate that the load manipulation and titration procedure of the primary visual task were successful. ERPs demonstrated that in response to visual target stimuli, there was a load-related increase in the posterior slow wave, an index of sustained attention and effort. Importantly, under high load, there was a decrease of the auditory N1 in response to distracters, a marker of early auditory processing. These results suggest that increased WM load is associated with enhanced attentional engagement and protection from distraction in a cross-modal setting, even after controlling for task difficulty and EC. Our findings challenge the classic LT and offer support for alternative models.

Increasing working memory load reduces processing of cross-modal task-irrelevant stimuli even after controlling for task difficulty and executive capacity

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Sharon Sanz Simon

2016-08-01

Full Text Available The classic account of the Load Theory (LT of attention suggests that increasing cognitive load leads to greater processing of task-irrelevant stimuli due to competition for limited executive resource that reduces the ability to actively maintain current processing priorities. Studies testing this hypothesis have yielded widely divergent outcomes. The inconsistent results may, in part, be related to variability in executive capacity (EC and task difficulty across subjects in different studies. Here, we used a cross-modal paradigm to investigate whether augmented working memory (WM load leads to increased early distracter processing, and controlled for the potential confounders of EC and task difficulty. Twenty-three young subjects were engaged in a primary visual WM task, under high and low load conditions, while instructed to ignore irrelevant auditory stimuli. Demands of the high load condition were individually titrated to make task difficulty comparable across subjects with differing EC. Event-related potentials (ERPs were used to measure neural activity in response to stimuli presented in both the task relevant modality (visual and task-irrelevant modality (auditory. Behavioral results indicate that the load manipulation and titration procedure of the primary visual task were successful. ERPs demonstrated that in response to visual target stimuli, there was a load-related increase in the posterior slow wave, an index of sustained attention and effort. Importantly, under high load, there was a decrease of the auditory N1 in response to distracters, a marker of early auditory processing. These results suggest that increased WM load is associated with enhanced attentional engagement and protection from distraction in a cross-modal setting, even after controlling for task difficulty and EC. Our findings challenge the classic LT and offer support for alternative models.

Control of methylxanthines in the competition horse: pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic studies on caffeine, theobromine and theophylline for the assessment of irrelevant concentrations.

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Machnik, Marc; Kaiser, Simone; Koppe, Sophie; Kietzmann, Manfred; Schenk, Ina; Düe, Michael; Thevis, Mario; Schänzer, Wilhelm; Toutain, Pierre-Louis

2017-09-01

Methylxanthines positives in competition samples have challenged doping control laboratories and racing jurisdictions since methylxanthines are naturally occurring prohibited substances and often constituents of feed. For theobromine, an international threshold (renamed in International Residue Limit, IRL) of 2 µg/mL in urine has been established. On the basis of the data presented herein, a threshold or rather an IRL for theobromine in plasma of 0.3 µg/mL was proposed and was thereupon approved by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA). Official recommendations for reporting caffeine and theophylline are still lacking. The aim of the study was to investigate IRLs for theobromine in blood and for caffeine and theophylline in blood and urine. Therefore, a set of six administrations were carried out including both single i.v. and single oral administrations of caffeine, theobromine and theophylline. Plasma and urine concentrations were determined using a validated liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Applying the Toutain model approach an effective plasma concentration (EPC) of caffeine was estimated at 3.05 µg/mL, irrelevant concentrations in blood (IPC) and urine (IUC) approached 6 and 12 ng/mL, respectively. EPC of theobromine was calculated with 3.80 µg/mL, and irrelevant concentrations of theobromine were determined at 8 ng/mL in plasma and at 142 ng/mL in urine. Toutain modelling of the theophylline data produced an EPC, IPC, and IUC of 3.20 µg/mL, 6 ng/mL, and 75 ng/mL, respectively. The obtained irrelevant concentrations were used to postulate IRLs for theobromine in plasma and for caffeine and theophylline in plasma and urine. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The effect of age on involuntary capture of attention by irrelevant sounds: a test of the frontal hypothesis of aging.

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Andrés, Pilar; Parmentier, Fabrice B R; Escera, Carles

2006-01-01

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of aging on the involuntary capture of attention by irrelevant sounds (distraction) and the use of these sounds as warning cues (alertness) in an oddball paradigm. We compared the performance of older and younger participants on a well-characterized auditory-visual distraction task. Based on the dissociations observed in aging between attentional processes sustained by the anterior and posterior attentional networks, our prediction was that distraction by irrelevant novel sounds would be stronger in older adults than in young adults while both groups would be equally able to use sound as an alert to prepare for upcoming stimuli. The results confirmed both predictions: there was a larger distraction effect in the older participants, but the alert effect was equivalent in both groups. These results give support to the frontal hypothesis of aging [Raz, N. (2000). Aging of the brain and its impact on cognitive performance: integration of structural and functional finding. In F.I.M. Craik & T.A. Salthouse (Eds.) Handbook of aging and cognition (pp. 1-90). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum; West, R. (1996). An application of prefrontal cortex function theory to cognitive aging. Psychological Bulletin, 120, 272-292].

Isothermal microcalorimetry, a new tool to monitor drug action against Trypanosoma brucei and Plasmodium falciparum.

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Tanja Wenzler

Full Text Available Isothermal microcalorimetry is an established tool to measure heat flow of physical, chemical or biological processes. The metabolism of viable cells produces heat, and if sufficient cells are present, their heat production can be assessed by this method. In this study, we investigated the heat flow of two medically important protozoans, Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense and Plasmodium falciparum. Heat flow signals obtained for these pathogens allowed us to monitor parasite growth on a real-time basis as the signals correlated with the number of viable cells. To showcase the potential of microcalorimetry for measuring drug action on pathogenic organisms, we tested the method with three antitrypanosomal drugs, melarsoprol, suramin and pentamidine and three antiplasmodial drugs, chloroquine, artemether and dihydroartemisinin, each at two concentrations on the respective parasite. With the real time measurement, inhibition was observed immediately by a reduced heat flow compared to that in untreated control samples. The onset of drug action, the degree of inhibition and the time to death of the parasite culture could conveniently be monitored over several days. Microcalorimetry is a valuable element to be added to the toolbox for drug discovery for protozoal diseases such as human African trypanosomiasis and malaria. The method could probably be adapted to other protozoan parasites, especially those growing extracellularly.

The capture of attention by entirely irrelevant pictures of calorie-dense foods.

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Cunningham, Corbin A; Egeth, Howard E

2018-04-01

Inborn preference for palatable energy-dense food is thought to be an evolutionary adaptation. One way this preference manifests itself is through the control of visual attention. In the present study, we investigated how attentional capture is influenced by changes in naturally occurring goal-states, in this case desire for energy-dense foods (typically high fat and/or high sugar). We demonstrate that even when distractors are entirely irrelevant, participants were significantly more distracted by energy-dense foods compared with non-food objects and even low-energy foods. Additionally, we show the lability of these goal-states by having a separate set of participants consume a small amount of calorie-dense food prior to the task. The amount of distraction by the energy-dense food images in this case was significantly reduced and no different than distraction by images of low-energy foods and images of non-food objects. While naturally occurring goal-states can be difficult to ignore, they also are highly flexible.

Exploring the evolutionary origins of overimitation: a comparison across domesticated and non-domesticated canids.

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Johnston, Angie M; Holden, Paul C; Santos, Laurie R

2017-07-01

When learning from others, human children tend to faithfully copy - or 'overimitate' - the actions of a demonstrator, even when these actions are irrelevant for solving the task at hand. We investigate whether domesticated dogs (Canis familiaris) and dingoes (Canis dingo) share this tendency to overimitate in three experiments. In Experiment 1, dogs and dingoes had the opportunity to solve a puzzle after watching an ostensive demonstrator who used both a relevant action and an irrelevant action. We find clear evidence against overimitation in both species. In contrast to human children (Horner & Whiten, 2005), dogs and dingoes used the irrelevant action less often across trials, suggesting that both species were filtering out the irrelevant action as they gained experience with the puzzle (like chimpanzees; Horner & Whiten, 2005). Experiments 2 and 3 provide further evidence against overimitation, demonstrating that both species' behavior is better characterized by individual exploration than overimitation. Given that both species, particularly dogs, show human-like social learning in other contexts, these findings provide additional evidence that overimitation may be a unique aspect of human social learning. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/g2mRniJZ7aU. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Resistance irrelevant CYP417A2v2 was found degrading insecticide in Laodelphax striatellus.

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Miah, Mohammad Asaduzzaman; Elzaki, Mohammed Esmail Abdalla; Han, Zhaojun

2017-07-01

Cytochrome P450 monooxygenases (CYPs) usually overexpressed in resistant strain were found involved in oxidative detoxification of insecticides. In this study, an investigation was conducted to confirm if resistance irrelevant CYPs which were not overexpressed in resistant strain before, were capable of degrading insecticides. Three resistance irrelevant CYPs viz. CYP417A2v2, CYP425A1v2, and CYP4DJ1 from CYP4 family of Laodelphax striatellus were randomly selected for experiments. CYP417A2v2 and CYP425A1v2 were found expressed successfully in Sf9 cell line while CYP4DJ1 was not expressed successfully and out of two expressed CYPs, only CYP417A2v2 showed its efficient catalytic activity. For catalytic activity, three traditional model probe substrates and five insecticides were assayed. For the probe substrates screened, p -nitroanisole and ethoxycoumarin were preferentially metabolized by CYP417A2v2 (specific activity 3.76 ± 1.22 and 1.63 ± 0.37 nmol min -1  mg protein -1 , respectively) and they may be potential diagnostic probes for this enzyme. Among insecticides, only imidacloprid was efficiently degraded by CYP417A2v2. Incubation of imidacloprid with CYP417A2v2 of L. striatellus and subsequent HPLC, LC-MS, and MS/MS analysis revealed the formation of imidacloprid metabolites, that is, 4' or 5'hydroxy-imidacloprid by hydroxylation. This result implies the exemption of CYPs character that it is not always, all the CYPs degrading insecticides being selected and overexpressed in resistant strains and the degrading CYPs without mutations to upregulate could be candidates during insecticide resistance evolution. This characterization of individual insect CYPs in insecticide degradation can provide insight for better understand of insecticide resistance development.

Understanding what helps or hinders asthma action plan use: a systematic review and synthesis of the qualitative literature.

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Ring, Nicola; Jepson, Ruth; Hoskins, Gaylor; Wilson, Caroline; Pinnock, Hilary; Sheikh, Aziz; Wyke, Sally

2011-11-01

To understand better what helps and/or hinders asthma action plan use from the professionals and patients/carers perspective. Systematic review and qualitative synthesis (using meta-ethnography). Nineteen studies (20 papers) were included in an analysis of patients/carers' and professionals' views. Seven main influences on action plan implementation were identified including perceived un-helpfulness and irrelevance of the plans. Translation and synthesis of the original authors' interpretations suggested that action plan promotion and use was influenced by professional and patient/carers' asthma beliefs and attitudes and patient/carer experiences of managing asthma. Action plan use is hindered because professionals and patients/carers have different explanatory models of asthma, its management and their respective roles in the management process. Patients/carers, based on their experiential knowledge of their condition, perceive themselves as capable, effective in managing their asthma, but health professionals do not always share this view. Professionally provided medically focused action plans that do not 'fit' with and incorporate the patients'/carers' views of asthma, and their management strategies, will continue to be under-utilised. Professionals need to develop a more patient-centred, partnership-based, approach to the joint development and review of action plans, recognising the experiential asthma knowledge of patients/carers. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

On Commitments and Other Uncertainty Reduction Tools in Joint Action

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Michael John

2015-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we evaluate the proposal that a central function of commitments within joint action is to reduce various kinds of uncertainty, and that this accounts for the prevalence of commitments in joint action. While this idea is prima facie attractive, we argue that it faces two serious problems. First, commitments can only reduce uncertainty if they are credible, and accounting for the credibility of commitments proves not to be straightforward. Second, there are many other ways in which uncertainty is commonly reduced within joint actions, which raises the possibility that commitments may be superfluous. Nevertheless, we argue that the existence of these alternative uncertainty reduction processes does not make commitments superfluous after all but, rather, helps to explain how commitments may contribute in various ways to uncertainty reduction.

Mirror neurons: action observation treatment as a tool in stroke rehabilitation.

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Franceschini, M; Agosti, M; Cantagallo, A; Sale, P; Mancuso, M; Buccino, G

2010-12-01

The observation of actions performed by others activate in an observer the same neural structures (including mirror neurons) as when he/she actually performs the same actions. The aim of the present study was to assess whether action observation treatment may improve upper limb motor impairment in chronic stroke patients. This was an observational study. Patients were recruited by three Italian Centres for Neurorehabilitation between 2006 and 2008. Twenty-eight chronic stroke patients with upper limb impairment have undergone for four weeks, five days a week, a rehabilitation treatment based on observation of video-clips presenting hand daily actions, followed by the imitation of those same actions with the affected limb. Functional evaluation by means of Modified Barthel Index (MBI), Frenchay Arm Test (FAT) and Fugl Meyer (FM) was carried out twice before treatment (BT1 and BT2), at an interval of 15 days, then after treatment (AT1) and finally at a two-month follow-up (AT2). Wilcoxon Signed Rank test was applied to test differences between scores obtained from functional scales before and after treatment (BT1 vs. BT2; BT2 vs. AT1; AT1 vs. AT2). In all scales, scores did not differ when comparing BT1 with BT2. Scores improved significantly in all scales at AT1 as compared to BT2 (MBI, P=0.026; FAT, P=0.005; FM, P=0.001). This improvement was still present at the two-month follow-up as testified by no score difference between AT1 and AT2. Action Observation Treatment may become a useful strategy in the rehabilitation of stroke patients. The present preliminary study suggests that stimulation of neural structures (including mirror neurons), activated when the patients actually perform the same actions as those observed could constitute a good alternative rehabilitative approach in chronic stroke patients.

The tool in the brain: Apraxia in ADL.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marta M. N. Bienkiewicz

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Humans differ from other animals in the way they can skilfully and precisely operate or invent tools to facilitate their everyday life. Tools have dominated our home, travel and work environment, becoming an integral step for our motor skills development. What happens when the part of the brain responsible for tool use is damaged in our adult life due to a cerebrovascular accident? How does daily life change when we lose the previously mastered ability to make use of the objects around us? How do patients suffering from compromised tool use cope with food preparation, personal hygiene, grooming, housework or use of home appliances? In this literature review we present a state of the art for single and multiple tool use research, with a focus on the impact that apraxia (impaired ability to perform tool-based actions and action disorganisation syndrome (impaired ability to carry our multi-step actions have on activities of daily living (ADL. Firstly, we summarise the behavioural studies investigating the impact of apraxia and other comorbidity syndromes, such as neglect or visual extinction, on ADL. We discuss the hallmarks of the compromised tool use in terms of the sequencing of action steps, conceptual errors committed, spatial motor control and temporal organisation of the movement. In addition, we present an up-to-date overview of the neuroimaging and lesion analyses studies that provide an insight into neural correlates of tool use in the human brain and functional changes in the neural organisation following a stroke, in the context of ADL. Finally we discuss the current practice in neurorehabilitation of ADL in apraxia and action disorganisation syndrome aiming at increasing patients’ independence.

Is there proof that backreaction of inhomogeneities is irrelevant in cosmology?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Buchert, T; Ostrowski, J J; Roukema, B F; Carfora, M; Ellis, G F R; Kolb, E W; MacCallum, M A H; Räsänen, S; Andersson, L; Coley, A A; Wiltshire, D L

2015-01-01

No. In a number of papers, Green and Wald argue that the standard FLRW model approximates our Universe extremely well on all scales, except close to strong-field astrophysical objects. In particular, they argue that the effect of inhomogeneities on average properties of the Universe (backreaction) is irrelevant. We show that this latter claim is not valid. Specifically, we demonstrate, referring to their recent review paper, that (i) their two-dimensional example used to illustrate the fitting problem differs from the actual problem in important respects, and it assumes what is to be proven; (ii) the proof of the trace-free property of backreaction is unphysical and the theorem about it fails to be a mathematically general statement; (iii) the scheme that underlies the trace-free theorem does not involve averaging and therefore does not capture crucial non-local effects; (iv) their arguments are to a large extent coordinate-dependent, and (v) many of their criticisms of backreaction frameworks do not apply to the published definitions of these frameworks. It is therefore incorrect to infer that Green and Wald have proven a general result that addresses the essential physical questions of backreaction in cosmology. (paper)

Perspectives on object manipulation and action grammar for percussive actions in primates.

Science.gov (United States)

Hayashi, Misato

2015-11-19

The skill of object manipulation is a common feature of primates including humans, although there are species-typical patterns of manipulation. Object manipulation can be used as a comparative scale of cognitive development, focusing on its complexity. Nut cracking in chimpanzees has the highest hierarchical complexity of tool use reported in non-human primates. An analysis of the patterns of object manipulation in naive chimpanzees after nut-cracking demonstrations revealed the cause of difficulties in learning nut-cracking behaviour. Various types of behaviours exhibited within a nut-cracking context can be examined in terms of the application of problem-solving strategies, focusing on their basis in causal understanding or insightful intentionality. Captive chimpanzees also exhibit complex forms of combinatory manipulation, which is the precursor of tool use. A new notation system of object manipulation was invented to assess grammatical rules in manipulative actions. The notation system of action grammar enabled direct comparisons to be made between primates including humans in a variety of object-manipulation tasks, including percussive-tool use. © 2015 The Author(s).

Social Audits for Community Action: A tool to Initiate Community Action for Reducing Child Mortality

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Nandan D

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Research question : (i What is the community′s perception (assessment & analysis of causes underlying neonatal, infant and under five deaths? (ii What action does the community take thereafter? Objectives : To stimulate the community to assess and analyze the causes and underlying social delays responsible for neonatal, infant and under five deaths in their villages and subsequently take collective action to prevent these deaths in future using Social Audits for Community Action (SACA. Design : Retrospective Participatory study. Setting : Rural community development blocks, district Agra, Uttar Pradesh. Material and Methods : SACA were conducted in a total of 152 villages of Fathehpur Sikri and Bichpuri blocks of district Agra, U.P. One SACA was conducted in each of the 211 anganwadi catchment areas, wherein 10-15 women from different socio-clusters of the community participated in a participatory discussion on issues pertaining to number of births and deaths of children less than five years of age in the last one-year. Results : 7656 live births and 749 under-five deaths were reported during the year 2002. The neonatal, infant and under-five mortality rate was 39.4, 73.5 and 85 per 1,000 live births respectively. Hypothermia, pneumonia, birth asphyxia, prematurity and low birth weight emerged as major causes of neonatal deaths. Majority of deaths of infants and children 1-5 years of age were found to have occurred due to severe malnutrition and diarrhoea. The community realized that majority of deaths occurred because of the delay in recognition of the seriousness of problem, delay in taking decision to seek appropriate care and delay in arranging transport/money. Subsequently, behaviour change communication strategies were re-defined to help community assess signs of illness and take preparedness measures to prevent child deaths in future. Conclusion : Strategies like dialoguing with the community using social audits for community action is

Cell transfection as a tool to study growth hormone action

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Norstedt, G; Enberg, B; Francis, S

1994-01-01

The isolation of growth hormone receptor (GHR) cDNA clones has made possible the transfection of GHRs into cultured cells. Our aim in this minireview is to show how the application of such approaches have benefited GHR research. GH stimulation of cells expressing GHR cDNAs can cause an alteration...... is important in GH action. The GH signals are transmitted to the nucleus and GH regulated genes have now begun to be characterized. The ability to use cell transfection for mechanistic studies of GH action will be instrumental to define domains within the receptor that are of functional importance...

Humour production may enhance observational learning of a new tool-use action in 18-month-old infants.

Science.gov (United States)

Esseily, Rana; Rat-Fischer, Lauriane; Somogyi, Eszter; O'Regan, Kevin John; Fagard, Jacqueline

2016-01-01

Many studies have shown that making children laugh enhances certain cognitive capacities such as attention, motivation, perception and/or memory, which in turn enhance learning. However, no study thus far has investigated whether laughing has an effect on learning earlier in infancy. The goal of this study was to see whether using humour with young infants in a demonstration of a complex tool-use task can enhance their learning. Fifty-three 18-month-old infants participated in this study and were included either in a humorous or a control demonstration group. In both groups infants observed an adult using a tool to retrieve an out-of-reach toy. What differed between groups was that in the humorous demonstration group, instead of playing with the toy, the adult threw it on the floor immediately after retrieval. The results show that infants who laughed at the demonstration in the humorous demonstration group reproduced significantly more frequent target actions than infants who did not laugh and those in the control group. This effect is discussed with regard to individual differences in terms of temperament and social capacities as well as positive emotion and dopamine release.

Automatic imitation in rhythmical actions: kinematic fidelity and the effects of compatibility, delay, and visual monitoring.

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Daniel L Eaves

Full Text Available We demonstrate that observation of everyday rhythmical actions biases subsequent motor execution of the same and of different actions, using a paradigm where the observed actions were irrelevant for action execution. The cycle time of the distractor actions was subtly manipulated across trials, and the cycle time of motor responses served as the main dependent measure. Although distractor frequencies reliably biased response cycle times, this imitation bias was only a small fraction of the modulations in distractor speed, as well as of the modulations produced when participants intentionally imitated the observed rhythms. Importantly, this bias was not only present for compatible actions, but was also found, though numerically reduced, when distractor and executed actions were different (e.g., tooth brushing vs. window wiping, or when the dominant plane of movement was different (horizontal vs. vertical. In addition, these effects were equally pronounced for execution at 0, 4, and 8 s after action observation, a finding that contrasts with the more short-lived effects reported in earlier studies. The imitation bias was also unaffected when vision of the hand was occluded during execution, indicating that this effect most likely resulted from visuomotor interactions during distractor observation, rather than from visual monitoring and guidance during execution. Finally, when the distractor was incompatible in both dimensions (action type and plane the imitation bias was not reduced further, in an additive way, relative to the single-incompatible conditions. This points to a mechanism whereby the observed action's impact on motor processing is generally reduced whenever this is not useful for motor planning. We interpret these findings in the framework of biased competition, where intended and distractor actions can be represented as competing and quasi-encapsulated sensorimotor streams.

State Wildlife Action Plans as Tools for Adapting to a Continuously Changing Climate

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Metivier, D. W.; Yocum, H.; Ray, A. J.

2015-12-01

Public land management plans are potentially powerful policies for building sustainability and adaptive capacity. Land managers are recognizing the need to respond to numerous climate change impacts on natural and human systems. For the first time, in 2015, the federal government required each state to incorporate climate change into their State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAP) as a condition for funding. As important land management tools, SWAPs have the potential to guide state agencies in shaping and implementing practices for climate change adaptation. Intended to be revised every ten years, SWAPs can change as conditions and understanding of climate change evolves. This study asks what practices are states using to integrate climate change, and how does this vary between states? To answer this question, we conducted a broad analysis among seven states (CO, MT, NE, ND, SD, UT, WY) and a more in-depth analysis of four states (CO, ND, SD, WY). We use seven key factors that represent best practices for incorporating climate change identified in the literature. These best practices are species prioritization, key habitats, threats, monitoring, partnerships and participation, identification of management options, and implementation of management options. The in-depth analysis focuses on how states are using climate change information for specific habitats addressed in the plans. We find that states are integrating climate change in many different ways, showing varying degrees of sophistication and preparedness. We summarize different practices and highlight opportunities to improve the effectiveness of plans through: communication tools across state lines and stakeholders, explicit targeting of key habitats, enforcement and monitoring progress and success, and conducting vulnerability analyses that incorporate topics beyond climate and include other drivers, trajectories, and implications of historic and future land-use change.

Registered Replication Report: Testing Disruptive Effects of Irrelevant Speech on Visual-Spatial Working Memory

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Tatiana Kvetnaya

2018-04-01

Full Text Available A Partial Replication of “Functional Equivalence of Verbal and Spatial Information in Serial Short-Term Memory (Jones, Farrand, Stuart, & Morris, 1995; Experiment 4” The irrelevant speech effect (ISE—the phenomenon that background speech impairs serial recall of visually presented material—has been widely used for examining the structure of short-term memory. In Experiment 4, Jones, Farrand, Stuart, and Morris (1995 employed the ISE to demonstrate that impairment of performance is determined by the changing-state characteristics of the material, rather than its modality of origin. The present study directly replicated the spatial condition of Experiment 4 with 'N' = 40 German participants. In contrast to the original findings, no main effect of sound type was observed, 'F'(2, 78 = 0.81, 'p' = .450, η2'p' = .02. The absence of an ISE in the spatial domain does not support the changing state hypothesis.

Cooperative Engineering as a Joint Action

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Joffredo-Le Brun, Sophie; Morellato, Mireille; Sensevy, Gérard; Quilio, Serge

2018-01-01

This paper describes some elements of a specific kind of design-based research, cooperative engineering. In the first part of the paper, we argue that cooperative engineering can be analyzed through a joint action framework. We first present some conceptual tools that the Joint Action Theory in Didactics proposes in order to understand didactic…

Narratives and Activity Theory as Reflective Tools in Action Research

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Stuart, Kaz

2012-01-01

Narratives and activity theory are useful as socially constructed data collection tools that allow a researcher access to the social, cultural and historical meanings that research participants place on events in their lives. This case study shows how these tools were used to promote reflection within a cultural-historical activity theoretically…

Benchmarking government action for obesity prevention--an innovative advocacy strategy.

Science.gov (United States)

Martin, J; Peeters, A; Honisett, S; Mavoa, H; Swinburn, B; de Silva-Sanigorski, A

2014-01-01

Successful obesity prevention will require a leading role for governments, but internationally they have been slow to act. League tables of benchmark indicators of action can be a valuable advocacy and evaluation tool. To develop a benchmarking tool for government action on obesity prevention, implement it across Australian jurisdictions and to publicly award the best and worst performers. A framework was developed which encompassed nine domains, reflecting best practice government action on obesity prevention: whole-of-government approaches; marketing restrictions; access to affordable, healthy food; school food and physical activity; food in public facilities; urban design and transport; leisure and local environments; health services, and; social marketing. A scoring system was used by non-government key informants to rate the performance of their government. National rankings were generated and the results were communicated to all Premiers/Chief Ministers, the media and the national obesity research and practice community. Evaluation of the initial tool in 2010 showed it to be feasible to implement and able to discriminate the better and worse performing governments. Evaluation of the rubric in 2011 confirmed this to be a robust and useful method. In relation to government action, the best performing governments were those with whole-of-government approaches, had extended common initiatives and demonstrated innovation and strong political will. This new benchmarking tool, the Obesity Action Award, has enabled identification of leading government action on obesity prevention and the key characteristics associated with their success. We recommend this tool for other multi-state/country comparisons. Copyright © 2013 Asian Oceanian Association for the Study of Obesity. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Simulation of Floaters in Action

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Morten Eggert; Ulriksen, Martin Dalgaard; Damkilde, Lars

This report is the first in a series of three, which altogether documents: 1. theory 2. numerical implementation 3. application for Simulation of Floaters in Action (SOFIA), which is a structural analysis tool for slender offshore structures, such as monopiles, jacket structures and floating space...... frame structures. The current report represents the theoretical basis, while the numerical implementation and application of SOFIA are documented in two individual reports. In relation to other structural analysis tools, the present tool allows for geometrical nonlinearities, which may be exhibited...

Automatic Imitation in Rhythmical Actions: Kinematic Fidelity and the Effects of Compatibility, Delay, and Visual Monitoring

Science.gov (United States)

Eaves, Daniel L.; Turgeon, Martine; Vogt, Stefan

2012-01-01

We demonstrate that observation of everyday rhythmical actions biases subsequent motor execution of the same and of different actions, using a paradigm where the observed actions were irrelevant for action execution. The cycle time of the distractor actions was subtly manipulated across trials, and the cycle time of motor responses served as the main dependent measure. Although distractor frequencies reliably biased response cycle times, this imitation bias was only a small fraction of the modulations in distractor speed, as well as of the modulations produced when participants intentionally imitated the observed rhythms. Importantly, this bias was not only present for compatible actions, but was also found, though numerically reduced, when distractor and executed actions were different (e.g., tooth brushing vs. window wiping), or when the dominant plane of movement was different (horizontal vs. vertical). In addition, these effects were equally pronounced for execution at 0, 4, and 8 s after action observation, a finding that contrasts with the more short-lived effects reported in earlier studies. The imitation bias was also unaffected when vision of the hand was occluded during execution, indicating that this effect most likely resulted from visuomotor interactions during distractor observation, rather than from visual monitoring and guidance during execution. Finally, when the distractor was incompatible in both dimensions (action type and plane) the imitation bias was not reduced further, in an additive way, relative to the single-incompatible conditions. This points to a mechanism whereby the observed action’s impact on motor processing is generally reduced whenever this is not useful for motor planning. We interpret these findings in the framework of biased competition, where intended and distractor actions can be represented as competing and quasi-encapsulated sensorimotor streams. PMID:23071623

Irrelevant stimulus processing in ADHD: catecholamine dynamics and attentional networks

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Francisco eAboitiz

2014-03-01

Full Text Available A cardinal symptom of Attenion Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD is a general distractibility where children and adults shift their attentional focus to stimuli that are irrelevant to the ongoing behavior. This has been attributed to a deficit in dopaminergic signaling in cortico-striatal networks that regulate goal-directed behavior. Furthermore, recent imaging evidence points to an impairment of large scale, antagonistic brain networks that normally contribute to attentional engagement and disengagement, such as the task-positive networks and the Default Mode Network (DMN. Related networks are the ventral attentional network (VAN involved in attentional shifting, and the salience network (SN related to task expectancy. Here we discuss the tonic-phasic dynamics of catecholaminergic signaling in the brain, and attempt to provide a link between this and the activities of the large-scale cortical networks that regulate behavior. More specifically, we propose that a disbalance of tonic catecholamine levels during task performance produce an emphasis of phasic signaling and increased excitability of the VAN, yielding distractibility symptoms. Likewise, immaturity of the SN may relate to abnormal tonic signaling and an incapacity to build up a proper executive system during task performance. We discuss different lines of evidence including pharmacology, brain imaging and electrophysiology, that are consistent with our proposal. Finally, restoring the pharmacodynamics of catecholaminergic signaling seems crucial to alleviate ADHD symptoms; however, the possibility is open to explore cognitive rehabilitation strategies to top-down modulate network dynamics compensating the pharmacological deficits.

Tools for language: patterned iconicity in sign language nouns and verbs.

Science.gov (United States)

Padden, Carol; Hwang, So-One; Lepic, Ryan; Seegers, Sharon

2015-01-01

When naming certain hand-held, man-made tools, American Sign Language (ASL) signers exhibit either of two iconic strategies: a handling strategy, where the hands show holding or grasping an imagined object in action, or an instrument strategy, where the hands represent the shape or a dimension of the object in a typical action. The same strategies are also observed in the gestures of hearing nonsigners identifying pictures of the same set of tools. In this paper, we compare spontaneously created gestures from hearing nonsigning participants to commonly used lexical signs in ASL. Signers and gesturers were asked to respond to pictures of tools and to video vignettes of actions involving the same tools. Nonsigning gesturers overwhelmingly prefer the handling strategy for both the Picture and Video conditions. Nevertheless, they use more instrument forms when identifying tools in pictures, and more handling forms when identifying actions with tools. We found that ASL signers generally favor the instrument strategy when naming tools, but when describing tools being used by an actor, they are significantly more likely to use more handling forms. The finding that both gesturers and signers are more likely to alternate strategies when the stimuli are pictures or video suggests a common cognitive basis for differentiating objects from actions. Furthermore, the presence of a systematic handling/instrument iconic pattern in a sign language demonstrates that a conventionalized sign language exploits the distinction for grammatical purpose, to distinguish nouns and verbs related to tool use. Copyright © 2014 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Action observation and mirror neuron network: a tool for motor stroke rehabilitation.

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Sale, P; Franceschini, M

2012-06-01

Mirror neurons are a specific class of neurons that are activated and discharge both during observation of the same or similar motor act performed by another individual and during the execution of a motor act. Different studies based on non invasive neuroelectrophysiological assessment or functional brain imaging techniques have demonstrated the presence of the mirror neuron and their mechanism in humans. Various authors have demonstrated that in the human these networks are activated when individuals learn motor actions via execution (as in traditional motor learning), imitation, observation (as in observational learning) and motor imagery. Activation of these brain areas (inferior parietal lobe and the ventral premotor cortex, as well as the caudal part of the inferior frontal gyrus [IFG]) following observation or motor imagery may thereby facilitate subsequent movement execution by directly matching the observed or imagined action to the internal simulation of that action. It is therefore believed that this multi-sensory action-observation system enables individuals to (re) learn impaired motor functions through the activation of these internal action-related representations. In humans, the mirror mechanism is also located in various brain segment: in Broca's area, which is involved in language processing and speech production and not only in centres that mediate voluntary movement, but also in cortical areas that mediate visceromotor emotion-related behaviours. On basis of this finding, during the last 10 years various studies were carry out regarding the clinical use of action observation for motor rehabilitation of sub-acute and chronic stroke patients.

Your company's history as a leadership tool.

Science.gov (United States)

Seaman, John T; Smith, George David

2012-12-01

When the history of an organization comes up, it's usually in connection with an anniversary--just part of the "balloons and fireworks" (as one business leader characterized his company's bicentennial celebration, knowing that the investment of time and money would have little staying power). A fast-changing world leaves little time for nostalgia and irrelevant details--or, worse, strategies for winning the last war. But the authors, business historians at the Winthrop Group, assert that leaders with no patience for history are missing a vital truth: A sophisticated understanding of the past is one of the most powerful tools they have for shaping the future. The job of leaders, most would agree, is to inspire collective efforts and devise smart strategies for the future. History can be profitably employed on both fronts. As a leader strives to get people working together productively, communicating the history of the enterprise can instill a sense of identity and purpose and suggest the goals that will resonate. In its most familiar form, as a narrative about the past, history is a rich explanatory tool with which executives can make a case for change and motivate people to overcome challenges. Taken to a higher level, it also serves as a potent problem-solving tool, one that offers pragmatic insights, valid generalizations, and meaningful perspectives--a way to cut through management fads and the noise of the moment to what really matters.

Socially extended intentions-in-action

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Blomberg, Olle

2011-01-01

According to a widely accepted constraint on the content of intentions, here called the exclusivity constraint, one cannot intend to perform another agent’s action, even if one might be able to intend that she performs it. For example, while one can intend that one’s guest leaves before midnight......, one cannot intend to perform her act of leaving. However, Deborah Tollefsen’s (2005) account of joint activity requires participants to have intentions-in-action (in John Searle’s (1983) sense) that violate this constraint. I argue that the exclusivity constraint should not be accepted...... as an unconditional constraint on the contents of intentions-in-action: one may intend to perform a basic action that belongs both to oneself and to another agent. Based on the phenomenology of tool use, I first argue that intentions-in-action of one’s basic actions may be technologically extended, meaning...

Temporal and spatial predictability of an irrelevant event differently affect detection and memory of items in a visual sequence

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Junji eOhyama

2016-02-01

Full Text Available We examined how the temporal and spatial predictability of a task-irrelevant visual event affects the detection and memory of a visual item embedded in a continuously changing sequence. Participants observed 11 sequentially presented letters, during which a task-irrelevant visual event was either present or absent. Predictabilities of spatial location and temporal position of the event were controlled in 2 × 2 conditions. In the spatially predictable conditions, the event occurred at the same location within the stimulus sequence or at another location, while, in the spatially unpredictable conditions, it occurred at random locations. In the temporally predictable conditions, the event timing was fixed relative to the order of the letters, while in the temporally unpredictable condition, it could not be predicted from the letter order. Participants performed a working memory task and a target detection reaction time task. Memory accuracy was higher for a letter simultaneously presented at the same location as the event in the temporally unpredictable conditions, irrespective of the spatial predictability of the event. On the other hand, the detection reaction times were only faster for a letter simultaneously presented at the same location as the event when the event was both temporally and spatially predictable. Thus, to facilitate ongoing detection processes, an event must be predictable both in space and time, while memory processes are enhanced by temporally unpredictable (i.e., surprising events. Evidently, temporal predictability has differential effects on detection and memory of a visual item embedded in a sequence of images.

Planning for Action: The Impact of an Asthma Action Plan Decision Support Tool Integrated into an Electronic Health Record (EHR) at a Large Health Care System.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuhn, Lindsay; Reeves, Kelly; Taylor, Yhenneko; Tapp, Hazel; McWilliams, Andrew; Gunter, Andrew; Cleveland, Jeffrey; Dulin, Michael

2015-01-01

Asthma is a chronic airway disease that can be difficult to manage, resulting in poor outcomes and high costs. Asthma action plans assist patients with self-management, but provider compliance with this recommendation is limited in part because of guideline complexity. This project aimed to embed an electronic asthma action plan decision support tool (eAAP) into the medical record to streamline evidence-based guidelines for providers at the point of care, create individualized patient handouts, and evaluate effects on disease outcomes. eAAP development occurred in 4 phases: web-based prototype creation, multidisciplinary team engagement, pilot, and system-wide dissemination. Medical record and hospital billing data compared frequencies of asthma exacerbations before and after eAAP receipt with matched controls. Between December 2012 and September 2014, 5174 patients with asthma (∼10%) received eAAPs. Results showed an association between eAAP receipt and significant reductions in pediatric asthma exacerbations, including 33% lower odds of requiring oral steroids (P < .001), compared with controls. Equivalent adult measures were not statistically significant. This study supports existing evidence that patient self-management plays an important role in reducing asthma exacerbations. We show the feasibility of leveraging technology to provide guideline-based decision support through an eAAP, addressing known challenges of implementation into routine practice. © Copyright 2015 by the American Board of Family Medicine.

Comprehension of Action Negation Involves Inhibitory Simulation

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Francesco eForoni

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Previous research suggests that action language is comprehended by activating the motor system. We report a study, investigating a critical question in this research field: Do negative sentences activate the motor system? Participants were exposed to sentences in the affirmation and negation forms while the zygomatic muscle activity on the left side of the face was continuously measured (Electromyography technique: EMG. Sentences were descriptions of emotional expressions that mapped either directly upon the zygomatic muscle (e.g., ‘I am smiling’ or did not (e.g., ‘I am frowning’. Reading sentences involving the negation of the activity of a specific muscle (zygomatic major - I am not smiling is shown to lead to the inhibition of this muscle. Reading sentences involving the affirmative form instead (I am smiling leads to the activation of zygomatic mucle. In contrast, sentences describing an activity that is irrelevant to the zygomatic muscle (e.g., ‘I am frowning’ or ‘I am not frowning’ produce no muscle activity. These results extend the range of simulation models to negation and by implication to an abstract domain. We discuss how this research contributes to the grounding of abstract and concrete concepts.

Why Do Irrelevant Alternatives Matter? An fMRI-TMS Study of Context-Dependent Preferences.

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Chung, Hui-Kuan; Sjöström, Tomas; Lee, Hsin-Ju; Lu, Yi-Ta; Tsuo, Fu-Yun; Chen, Tzai-Shuen; Chang, Chi-Fu; Juan, Chi-Hung; Kuo, Wen-Jui; Huang, Chen-Ying

2017-11-29

Both humans and animals are known to exhibit a violation of rationality known as "decoy effect": introducing an irrelevant option (a decoy) can influence choices among other (relevant) options. Exactly how and why decoys trigger this effect is not known. It may be an example of fast heuristic decision-making, which is adaptive in natural environments, but may lead to biased choices in certain markets or experiments. We used fMRI and transcranial magnetic stimulation to investigate the neural underpinning of the decoy effect of both sexes. The left ventral striatum was more active when the chosen option dominated the decoy. This is consistent with the hypothesis that the presence of a decoy option influences the valuation of other options, making valuation context-dependent even when choices appear fully rational. Consistent with the idea that control is recruited to prevent heuristics from producing biased choices, the right inferior frontal gyrus, often implicated in inhibiting prepotent responses, connected more strongly with the striatum when subjects successfully overrode the decoy effect and made unbiased choices. This is further supported by our transcranial magnetic stimulation experiment: subjects whose right inferior frontal gyrus was temporarily disrupted made biased choices more often than a control group. Our results suggest that the neural basis of the decoy effect could be the context-dependent activation of the valuation area. But the differential connectivity from the frontal area may indicate how deliberate control monitors and corrects errors and biases in decision-making. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Standard theories of rational decision-making assume context-independent valuations of available options. Motivated by the importance of this basic assumption, we used fMRI to study how the human brain assigns values to available options. We found activity in the valuation area to be consistent with the hypothesis that values depend on irrelevant aspects

Forum Theater’s potential as a Research Tool

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Andrea Calsamiglia Madurga

2016-03-01

Full Text Available We present a theoretical and epistemological reflection on Forum Theater’s potential as a Research Tool. Our presence on social action and research has led us to a double reflection on qualitative research’s limitations on the affect studies and the Forum Theater’s potential as a research tool to tackle research about affects. After some specific experiences in action research (qualitative research on romantic love and gender violence, and the creation process of the Forum Theater “Is it a joke?”, we explore Forum Theatre’s possibilities as a research tool in the feminist epistemology framework.

Assessing the role of learning devices and geovisualisation tools for collective action in natural resource management: Experiences from Vietnam.

Science.gov (United States)

Castella, Jean-Christophe

2009-02-01

In northern Vietnam uplands the successive policy reforms that accompanied agricultural decollectivisation triggered very rapid changes in land use in the 1990s. From a centralized system of natural resource management, a multitude of individual strategies emerged which contributed to new production interactions among farming households, changes in landscape structures, and conflicting strategies among local stakeholders. Within this context of agrarian transition, learning devices can help local communities to collectively design their own course of action towards sustainable natural resource management. This paper presents a collaborative approach combining a number of participatory methods and geovisualisation tools (e.g., spatially explicit multi-agent models and role-playing games) with the shared goal to analyse and represent the interactions between: (i) decision-making processes by individual farmers based on the resource profiles of their farms; (ii) the institutions which regulate resource access and usage; and (iii) the biophysical and socioeconomic environment. This methodological pathway is illustrated by a case study in Bac Kan Province where it successfully led to a communication platform on natural resource management. In a context of rapid socioeconomic changes, learning devices and geovisualisation tools helped embed the participatory approach within a process of community development. The combination of different tools, each with its own advantages and constraints, proved highly relevant for supporting collective natural resource management.

Action preparation modulates sensory perception in unseen personal space: An electrophysiological investigation.

Science.gov (United States)

Job, Xavier E; de Fockert, Jan W; van Velzen, José

2016-08-01

Behavioural and electrophysiological evidence has demonstrated that preparation of goal-directed actions modulates sensory perception at the goal location before the action is executed. However, previous studies have focused on sensory perception in areas of peripersonal space. The present study investigated visual and tactile sensory processing at the goal location of upcoming movements towards the body, much of which is not visible, as well as visible peripersonal space. A motor task cued participants to prepare a reaching movement towards goals either in peripersonal space in front of them or personal space on the upper chest. In order to assess modulations of sensory perception during movement preparation, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded in response to task-irrelevant visual and tactile probe stimuli delivered randomly at one of the goal locations of the movements. In line with previous neurophysiological findings, movement preparation modulated visual processing at the goal of a movement in peripersonal space. Movement preparation also modulated somatosensory processing at the movement goal in personal space. The findings demonstrate that tactile perception in personal space is subject to similar top-down sensory modulation by motor preparation as observed for visual stimuli presented in peripersonal space. These findings show for the first time that the principles and mechanisms underlying adaptive modulation of sensory processing in the context of action extend to tactile perception in unseen personal space. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Final Documentation: Incident Management And Probabilities Courses of action Tool (IMPACT).

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Edwards, Donna M.; Ray, Jaideep; Tucker, Mark D.; Whetzel, Jonathan; Cauthen, Katherine Regina

2018-03-01

This report pulls together the documentation produced for the IMPACT tool, a software-based decision support tool that provides situational awareness, incident characterization, and guidance on public health and environmental response strategies for an unfolding bio-terrorism incident.

78 FR 68459 - Medical Device Development Tools; Draft Guidance for Industry, Tool Developers, and Food and Drug...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-11-14

... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Food and Drug Administration [Docket No. FDA-2013-D-1279] Medical Device Development Tools; Draft Guidance for Industry, Tool Developers, and Food and Drug Administration Staff; Availability AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS. ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: The Food...

Is focusing on the triad in suspected child abuse cases really irrelevant and of no practical use?

Science.gov (United States)

Lynøe, Niels; Eriksson, Anders

2018-06-11

Since its publication in 2016, the report by the Swedish Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Assessment of Social Services on the diagnostic accuracy of the triad for determining traumatic shaking (1) has been criticised, mainly by paediatricians. One repeated criticism has been that the report focused on the triad of symptoms, namely subdural haematoma, retinal haemorrhages and encephalopathy, in cases without signs of impact. This focus has been described by some critics as one that has been created by lawyers to use in court cases and the triad itself has been dismissed as irrelevant and of no practical or clinical use (2-3) This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Socio-emotionally Significant Experience and Children’s Processing of Irrelevant Auditory Stimuli

Science.gov (United States)

Schermerhorn, Alice C.; Bates, John E.; Puce, Aina; Molfese, Dennis L.

2017-01-01

Theory and research indicate considerable influence of socio-emotionally significant experiences on children’s functioning and adaptation. In the current study, we examined neurophysiological correlates of children’s allocation of information processing resources to socio-emotionally significant events, specifically, simulated marital interactions. We presented 9- to 11-year-old children (n = 24; 11 females) with 15 videos of interactions between two actors posing as a married couple. Task-irrelevant brief auditory probes were presented during the videos, and event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited to the auditory probes were measured. As hypothesized, exposure to higher levels of interparental conflict was associated with smaller P1, P2, and N2 ERPs to the probes. This finding is consistent with the idea that children who had been exposed to more interparental conflict attended more to the videos and diverted fewer cognitive resources to processing the probes, thereby producing smaller ERPs to the probes. In addition, smaller N2s were associated with more child behavior problems, suggesting that allocating fewer processing resources to the probes was associated with more problem behavior. Results are discussed in terms of implications of socio-emotionally significant experiences for children’s processing of interpersonal interactions. PMID:27993611

Disability Rights, Gender, and Development: A Resource Tool for Action. Full Report

Science.gov (United States)

de Silva de Alwis, Rangita

2008-01-01

This resource tool builds a normative framework to examine the intersections of disability rights and gender in the human rights based approach to development. Through case studies, good practices and analyses the research tool makes recommendations and illustrates effective tools for the implementation of gender and disability sensitive laws,…

Collective Action Competence: An Asset to Campus Sustainability

Science.gov (United States)

Clark, Charlotte R.

2016-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to operationalize theories of social learning and collective action for campus sustainability practitioners at higher education institutions (IHEs) to enhance their work, and to introduce the concept of collective action competence as a practical tool. Design/methodology/approach: This paper presents a…

Elements of social action

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marjanović Miloš

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Because of the significant analytical advantages, the author prefers social action as initial sociological concept in the relation to social phenomenon. Its basic elements are: actors, subjects and tools, needs and interests, values and norms, positions and roles. Actors set in motion and unify the rest of elements, guide to the magic triangle of sociology (movement, change, order, reaffirm actor paradigm to systemic paradigm. Subjects and tools materialize an action and its overestimate results in technological determinism or (by means of property as institutional appropriation of nature in the (unclassed historical type of society. Needs and interests are the basis of person's motivation and starting point for depth analysis of sociability. The expansion of legitimate interests circle develops techniques of normative regulation. Values and norms guide to institutional-organizational, positions to vertical and roles to horizontal structure. Values give the meaning to the action as well as to human existence, they are orientations of motivate system of personality but also basic aspect of society. As abstractions, values are latent background of norms and they tell to us what to do, and norms how to do something. Norms are specified instructions for suitable behavior Without normative order, not to be possible the satisfying of needs and the conciliation of interests. Riches, power and prestige are components of social position, and legal status is the determination of rights and obligations of the position. Roles are normative expectation of behavior. Toward kinds of sanctions roles are classified. Roles but also other elements of social action are starting point for sociological analysis of legal norms and institutes. On the other side, the observation of legal component of social actions enriches, strengths and precises sociological analysis of them.

Designing appropriate complementary feeding recommendations: tools for programmatic action.

Science.gov (United States)

Daelmans, Bernadette; Ferguson, Elaine; Lutter, Chessa K; Singh, Neha; Pachón, Helena; Creed-Kanashiro, Hilary; Woldt, Monica; Mangasaryan, Nuné; Cheung, Edith; Mir, Roger; Pareja, Rossina; Briend, André

2013-09-01

Suboptimal complementary feeding practices contribute to a rapid increase in the prevalence of stunting in young children from age 6 months. The design of effective programmes to improve infant and young child feeding requires a sound understanding of the local situation and a systematic process for prioritizing interventions, integrating them into existing delivery platforms and monitoring their implementation and impact. The identification of adequate food-based feeding recommendations that respect locally available foods and address gaps in nutrient availability is particularly challenging. We describe two tools that are now available to strengthen infant and young child-feeding programming at national and subnational levels. ProPAN is a set of research tools that guide users through a step-by-step process for identifying problems related to young child nutrition; defining the context in which these problems occur; formulating, testing, and selecting behaviour-change recommendations and nutritional recipes; developing the interventions to promote them; and designing a monitoring and evaluation system to measure progress towards intervention goals. Optifood is a computer-based platform based on linear programming analysis to develop nutrient-adequate feeding recommendations at lowest cost, based on locally available foods with the addition of fortified products or supplements when needed, or best recommendations when the latter are not available. The tools complement each other and a case study from Peru illustrates how they have been used. The readiness of both instruments will enable partners to invest in capacity development for their use in countries and strengthen programmes to address infant and young child feeding and prevent malnutrition. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The Distraction in Action Tool©: Feasibility and Usability in Clinical Settings.

Science.gov (United States)

Hanrahan, Kirsten; Kleiber, Charmaine; Miller, Ben J; Davis, Heather; McCarthy, Ann Marie

2017-11-10

Distraction is a relatively simple, evidence-based intervention to minimize child distress during medical procedures. Timely on-site interventions that instruct parents on distraction coaching are needed. The purpose of this study was to test the feasibility and usability of the Distraction in Action Tool© (DAT©), which 1) predicts child risk for distress with a needle stick and 2) provides individualized instructions for parents on how to be a distraction coach for their child in clinical settings. A mixed-methods descriptive design was used to test feasibility and usability of DAT in the Emergency Department and a Phlebotomy Lab at a large Midwest Academic Medical Center. Twenty parents of children ages 4-10years requiring venipuncture and clinicians performing 13 of those procedures participated. Participants completed an evaluation and participated in a brief interview. The average age of the children was 6.8years, and 80% of parent participants were mothers. Most parents reported the DAT was not difficult to use (84.2%), understandable (100%), and they had a positive experience (89.5%). Clinicians thought DAT was helpful (100%) and did not cause a meaningful delay in workflow (92%). DAT can be used by parents and clinicians to assess their children's risk for procedure related distress and learn distraction techniques to help their children during needle stick procedures. DAT for parents is being disseminated via social media and an open-access website. Further research is needed to disseminate and implement DAT in community healthcare settings. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Action observation as a tool for neurorehabilitation to moderate motor deficits and aphasia following stroke

Science.gov (United States)

Ertelt, Denis; Binkofski, Ferdinand

2012-01-01

The mirror neuron system consists of a set of brain areas capable of matching action observation with action execution. One core feature of the mirror neuron system is the activation of motor areas by action observation alone. This unique capacity of the mirror neuron system to match action perception and action execution stimulated the idea that mirror neuron system plays a crucial role in the understanding of the content of observed actions and may participate in procedural learning. These features bear a high potential for neurorehabilitation of motor deficits and of aphasia following stroke. Since the first articles exploring this principle were published, a growing number of follow-up studies have been conducted in the last decade. Though, the combination of action observation with practice of the observed actions seems to constitute the most powerful approach. In the present review, we present the existing studies analyzing the effects of this neurorehabilitative approach in clinical settings especially in the rehabilitation of stroke associated motor deficits and give a perspective on the ongoing trials by our research group. The data obtained up to date showed significant positive effect of action observation on recovery of motor functions of the upper limbs even in the chronic state after stroke, indicating that our approach might become a new standardized add-on feature of modern neurorehabilitative treatment schemes. PMID:25624838

Playing Action Video Games Improves Visuomotor Control.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Li; Chen, Rongrong; Chen, Jing

2016-08-01

Can playing action video games improve visuomotor control? If so, can these games be used in training people to perform daily visuomotor-control tasks, such as driving? We found that action gamers have better lane-keeping and visuomotor-control skills than do non-action gamers. We then trained non-action gamers with action or nonaction video games. After they played a driving or first-person-shooter video game for 5 or 10 hr, their visuomotor control improved significantly. In contrast, non-action gamers showed no such improvement after they played a nonaction video game. Our model-driven analysis revealed that although different action video games have different effects on the sensorimotor system underlying visuomotor control, action gaming in general improves the responsiveness of the sensorimotor system to input error signals. The findings support a causal link between action gaming (for as little as 5 hr) and enhancement in visuomotor control, and suggest that action video games can be beneficial training tools for driving. © The Author(s) 2016.

Responding to Cyber Bullying: An Action Tool for School Leaders

Science.gov (United States)

Myers, Jill Joline; McCaw, Donna S.; Hemphill, Leaunda S.

2011-01-01

A parent brings a cyber bullying incident to your attention and expects you to resolve it. What are the students' rights and your responsibilities according to the law? Because the laws regarding disciplinary action are still evolving, this manual fills the gap by providing public school leaders with data-driven solutions for managing cyber…

Action Observation and Motor Imagery: Innovative Cognitive Tools in the Rehabilitation of Parkinson’s Disease

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giovanni Abbruzzese

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Parkinson’s disease (PD is characterized by a progressive impairment of motor skills with deterioration of autonomy in daily living activities. Physiotherapy is regarded as an adjuvant to pharmacological and neurosurgical treatment and may provide small and short-lasting clinical benefits in PD patients. However, the development of innovative rehabilitation approaches with greater long-term efficacy is a major unmet need. Motor imagery (MI and action observation (AO have been recently proposed as a promising rehabilitation tool. MI is the ability to imagine a movement without actual performance (or muscle activation. The same cortical-subcortical network active during motor execution is engaged in MI. The physiological basis of AO is represented by the activation of the “mirror neuron system.” Both MI and AO are involved in motor learning and can induce improvements of motor performance, possibly mediated by the development of plastic changes in the motor cortex. The review of available evidences indicated that MI ability and AO feasibility are substantially preserved in PD subjects. A few preliminary studies suggested the possibility of using MI and AO as parts of rehabilitation protocols for PD patients.

Changes in management actions after the Hospital Accreditation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andréia Guerra Siman

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Objective: to understand the changes in the management actions after the Hospital Accreditation. Methods: a case study. The study included 12 managers of a hospital accredited with excellence. Data collection was carried out with interviews with semi-structured and subjected to content analysis. Results: about changes in management actions were recorded significantly three categories: Work organization with quality tools; management actions before and after the accreditation; and challenges faced by modifying the management actions. Conclusion: accreditation mobilized changes in management actions with quality instruments of adoption used to organize the work and accountability of those involved in the process. However, there were challenges to be overcome to achieve accreditation by managers.

Talent Management: Emphasis on Action

Science.gov (United States)

Butterfield, Barbara

2008-01-01

Recent discussions among HR practitioners in higher education have focused on talent management; specifically, the concept of developing a college or university talent management approach balanced between planning and action. Talent management as a planning tool looks very similar to workforce planning, but where HR will experience a real…

Live action role-playing games

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tychsen, Anders; Hitchens, Michael; Brolund, Thea

2006-01-01

Live action role-playing games share a range of characteristics with massively multi-player online games (MMOGs). Because these games have existed for more than 20 years, players of these games have a substantial amount of experience in handling issues pertinent to MMOGs. Survey and review of live...... action role-playing games, whose participant count can be in the thousands, reveal that features such as size, theme, game master-to-player ratio, and others interact to form complex systems that require several different groups of control tools to manage. The way that these games are managed offers...

An Investigation of Tool Mediation in the Research Activity of Eighth-Grade Students

Science.gov (United States)

Henry, Nancy L.

2016-01-01

Technology and a variety of resources play an important role in students' educational lives. Vygotsky's (1987) theory of tool mediation suggests that cultural tools, such as computer software influence individuals' thinking and action. However, it is not completely understood how technology and other resources influence student action. Middle…

Qualitative evaluation of the implementation of the Interdisciplinary Management Tool: a reflective tool to enhance interdisciplinary teamwork using Structured, Facilitated Action Research for Implementation.

Science.gov (United States)

Nancarrow, Susan A; Smith, Tony; Ariss, Steven; Enderby, Pamela M

2015-07-01

Reflective practice is used increasingly to enhance team functioning and service effectiveness; however, there is little evidence of its use in interdisciplinary teams. This paper presents the qualitative evaluation of the Interdisciplinary Management Tool (IMT), an evidence-based change tool designed to enhance interdisciplinary teamwork through structured team reflection. The IMT incorporates three components: an evidence-based resource guide; a reflective implementation framework based on Structured, Facilitated Action Research for Implementation methodology; and formative and summative evaluation components. The IMT was implemented with intermediate care teams supported by independent facilitators in England. Each intervention lasted 6 months and was evaluated over a 12-month period. Data sources include interviews, a focus group with facilitators, questionnaires completed by team members and documentary feedback from structured team reports. Data were analysed qualitatively using the Framework approach. The IMT was implemented with 10 teams, including 253 staff from more than 10 different disciplines. Team challenges included lack of clear vision; communication issues; limited career progression opportunities; inefficient resource use; need for role clarity and service development. The IMT successfully engaged staff in the change process, and resulted in teams developing creative strategies to address the issues identified. Participants valued dedicated time to focus on the processes of team functioning; however, some were uncomfortable with a focus on teamwork at the expense of delivering direct patient care. The IMT is a relatively low-cost, structured, reflective way to enhance team function. It empowers individuals to understand and value their own, and others' roles and responsibilities within the team; identify barriers to effective teamwork, and develop and implement appropriate solutions to these. To be successful, teams need protected time to take

Dynamic Contingency Analysis Tool

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

2016-01-14

The Dynamic Contingency Analysis Tool (DCAT) is an open-platform and publicly available methodology to help develop applications that aim to improve the capabilities of power system planning engineers to assess the impact and likelihood of extreme contingencies and potential cascading events across their systems and interconnections. Outputs from the DCAT will help find mitigation solutions to reduce the risk of cascading outages in technically sound and effective ways. The current prototype DCAT implementation has been developed as a Python code that accesses the simulation functions of the Siemens PSS/E planning tool (PSS/E). It has the following features: It uses a hybrid dynamic and steady-state approach to simulating the cascading outage sequences that includes fast dynamic and slower steady-state events. It integrates dynamic models with protection scheme models for generation, transmission, and load. It models special protection systems (SPSs)/remedial action schemes (RASs) and automatic and manual corrective actions. Overall, the DCAT attempts to bridge multiple gaps in cascading-outage analysis in a single, unique prototype tool capable of automatically simulating and analyzing cascading sequences in real systems using multiprocessor computers.While the DCAT has been implemented using PSS/E in Phase I of the study, other commercial software packages with similar capabilities can be used within the DCAT framework.

Blocking of irrelevant memories by posterior alpha activity boosts memory encoding.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Hyojin; Lee, Dong Soo; Kang, Eunjoo; Kang, Hyejin; Hahm, Jarang; Kim, June Sic; Chung, Chun Kee; Jensen, Ole

2014-08-01

In our daily lives, we are confronted with a large amount of information. Because only a small fraction can be encoded in long-term memory, the brain must rely on powerful mechanisms to filter out irrelevant information. To understand the neuronal mechanisms underlying the gating of information into long-term memory, we employed a paradigm where the encoding was directed by a "Remember" or a "No-Remember" cue. We found that posterior alpha activity increased prior to the "No-Remember" stimuli, whereas it decreased prior to the "Remember" stimuli. The sources were localized in the parietal cortex included in the dorsal attention network. Subjects with a larger cue-modulation of the alpha activity had better memory for the to-be-remembered items. Interestingly, alpha activity reflecting successful inhibition following the "No-Remember" cue was observed in the frontal midline structures suggesting preparatory inhibition was mediated by anterior parts of the dorsal attention network. During the presentation of the memory items, there was more gamma activity for the "Remember" compared to the "No-Remember" items in the same regions. Importantly, the anticipatory alpha power during cue predicted the gamma power during item. Our findings suggest that top-down controlled alpha activity reflects attentional inhibition of sensory processing in the dorsal attention network, which then finally gates information to long-term memory. This gating is achieved by inhibiting the processing of visual information reflected by neuronal synchronization in the gamma band. In conclusion, the functional architecture revealed by region-specific changes in the alpha activity reflects attentional modulation which has consequences for long-term memory encoding. Copyright © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Empowering America's Communities to Prepare for the Effects of Climate Change: Developing Actionable Climate Science Under the President's Climate Action Plan

Science.gov (United States)

Duffy, P. B.; Colohan, P.; Driggers, R.; Herring, D.; Laurier, F.; Petes, L.; Ruffo, S.; Tilmes, C.; Venkataraman, B.; Weaver, C. P.

2014-12-01

Effective adaptation to impacts of climate change requires best-available information. To be most useful, this information should be easily found, well-documented, and translated into tools that decision-makers use and trust. To meet these needs, the President's Climate Action Plan includes efforts to develop "actionable climate science". The Climate Data Initiative (CDI) leverages the Federal Government's extensive, open data resources to stimulate innovation and private-sector entrepreneurship in support of actions to prepare for climate change. The Initiative forges commitments and partnerships from the private, NGO, academic, and public sectors to create data-driven tools. Open data from Federal agencies to support this innovation is available on Climate.Data.gov, initially focusing on coastal flooding but soon to expand to topics including food, energy, water, energy, transportation, and health. The Climate Resilience Toolkit (CRT) will facilitate access to data-driven resilience tools, services, and best practices, including those accessible through the CDI. The CRT will also include access to training and tutorials, case studies, engagement forums, and other information sources. The Climate Action Plan also calls for a public-private partnership on extreme weather risk, with the goal of generating improved assessments of risk from different types of extreme weather events, using methods and data that are transparent and accessible. Finally, the U.S. Global Change Research Program and associated agencies work to advance the science necessary to inform decisions and sustain assessments. Collectively, these efforts represent increased emphasis across the Federal Government on the importance of information to support climate resilience.

Action experience, more than observation, influences mu rhythm desynchronization.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erin N Cannon

Full Text Available Since the discovery of mirror neurons in premotor and parietal areas of the macaque monkey, the idea that action and perception may share the same neural code has been of central interest in social, developmental, and cognitive neurosciences. A fundamental question concerns how a putative human mirror neuron system may be tuned to the motor experiences of the individual. The current study tested the hypothesis that prior motor experience modulated the sensorimotor mu and beta rhythms. Specifically, we hypothesized that these sensorimotor rhythms would be more desynchronized after active motor experience compared to passive observation experience. To test our hypothesis, we collected EEG from adult participants during the observation of a relatively novel action: an experimenter used a claw-like tool to pick up a toy. Prior to EEG collection, we trained one group of adults to perform this action with the tool (performers. A second group comprised trained video coders, who only had experience observing the action (observers. Both the performers and the observers had no prior motor and visual experience with the action. A third group of novices was also tested. Performers exhibited the greatest mu rhythm desynchronization in the 8-13 Hz band, particularly in the right hemisphere compared to observers and novices. This study is the first to contrast active tool-use experience and observation experience in the mu rhythm and to show modulation with relatively shorter amounts of experience than prior mirror neuron expertise studies. These findings are discussed with respect to its broader implication as a neural signature for a mechanism of early social learning.

Action Research: A Tool for Promoting Faculty Development and Continuous Improvement in Leadership Preparation

Science.gov (United States)

Carver, Cynthia L.; Klein, C. Suzanne

2013-01-01

This paper introduces the use of action research to examine the content and outcomes of university-based leadership preparation programs. Using examples drawn from an ongoing action research project with candidates in a master's level principal preparation program, we demonstrate how the collection and analysis of candidate's written reflections,…

Mechanism for Corrective Action on Budget Imbalances

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ion Lucian CATRINA

2014-02-01

Full Text Available The European Fiscal Compact sets the obligation for the signatory states to establish an automatic mechanism for taking corrective action on budget imbalances. Nevertheless, the European Treaty says nothing about the tools that should be used in order to reach the desired equilibrium of budgets, but only that it should aim at correcting deviations from the medium-term objective or the adjustment path, including their cumulated impact on government debt dynamics. This paper is aiming at showing that each member state has to build the correction mechanism according to the impact of the chosen tools on economic growth and on general government revenues. We will also emphasize that the correction mechanism should be built not only exacerbating the corrective action through spending/ tax based adjustments, but on a high quality package of economic policies as well.

Inhibition of irrelevant information is not necessary to performance of expert chess players.

Science.gov (United States)

Postal, Virginie

2012-08-01

Some studies on expertise have demonstrated that the difference between novices and experts can be partly due to a lack of knowledge about which information is relevant for a given situation. This lack of knowledge seems to be associated with the selection of correct information and with inhibitory processes. However, while the efficiency of inhibitory processes can lead to better performance in the normal population, it seems that experts in chess do not base their performance on this process but rather on an automatic and parallel encoding of information. Two experiments investigated the processes involved in a check detection task. The congruence of the information was manipulated in a Stroop situation similar to Reingold, Charness, Scheltetus, & Stampe (2001). The results showed that the experts did not benefit from cuing with a congruent cue and that they did not show any interference effect by the incongruent cue, contrary to less skilled chess players who benefited from cuing (Exp. 1). An attentional priming procedure confirmed the automatic encoding of chess relations in the more skilled chess players by showing no advantage from the prime in this group (Exp. 2). Taken together, the results indicate that the processing was serial for the less skilled chess players and that it was automatic and parallel for the more expert chess players. The inhibition of irrelevant information does not seem necessary to process information rapidly and efficiently.

Mental Schemas Hamper Memory Storage of Goal-Irrelevant Information.

Science.gov (United States)

Sweegers, C C G; Coleman, G A; van Poppel, E A M; Cox, R; Talamini, L M

2015-01-01

. An important determinant in this matter is likely related to momentary goals, such that mental schemas facilitate memory processing of goal-relevant input, but suppress processing of goal-irrelevant information. - Schema-congruent information suffers from shallow encoding.- Schema congruency induces poor item and context memory.- The parietal old/new effect is less pronounced for schema-congruent items.- Schemas exert different influences on memory formation depending on current goals.

Decoupling in an expanding universe boundary RG-flow affects initial conditions for inflation

CERN Document Server

Schalm, K; Van der Schaar, J P; Schalm, Koenraad; Shiu, Gary; Schaar, Jan Pieter van der

2004-01-01

We study decoupling in FRW spacetimes, emphasizing a Lagrangian description throughout. To account for the vacuum choice ambiguity in cosmological settings, we introduce an arbitrary boundary action representing the initial conditions. RG flow in these spacetimes naturally affects the boundary interactions. As a consequence the boundary conditions are sensitive to high-energy physics through irrelevant terms in the boundary action. Using scalar field theory as an example, we derive the leading dimension four irrelevant boundary operators. We discuss how the known vacuum choices, e.g. the Bunch-Davies vacuum, appear in the Lagrangian description and square with decoupling. For all choices of boundary conditions encoded by relevant boundary operators, of which the known ones are a subset, backreaction is under control. All, moreover, will generically feel the influence of high-energy physics through irrelevant (dimension four) boundary corrections. Having established a coherent effective field theory framework ...

Social Learning in the Real-World: 'Over-Imitation' Occurs in Both Children and Adults Unaware of Participation in an Experiment and Independently of Social Interaction.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrew Whiten

Full Text Available The current study avoided the typical laboratory context to determine instead whether over-imitation-the disposition to copy even visibly, causally unnecessary actions-occurs in a real-world context in which participants are unaware of being in an experiment. We disguised a puzzle-box task as an interactive item available to the public within a science engagement zone of Edinburgh Zoo. As a member of the public approached, a confederate acting as a zoo visitor retrieved a reward from the box using a sequence of actions containing both causally relevant and irrelevant elements. Despite the absence of intentional demonstration, or social pressure to copy, a majority of both child and even adult observers included all causally irrelevant actions in their reproduction. This occurred even though causal irrelevance appeared manifest because of the transparency of the puzzle-box. That over-imitation occurred so readily in a naturalistic context, devoid of social interaction and pressure, suggests that humans are opportunistic social learners throughout the lifespan, copying the actions of other individuals even when these actions are not intentionally demonstrated, and their causal significance is not readily apparent. The disposition to copy comprehensively, even when a mere onlooker, likely provides humans, irrespective of their age, with a powerful mechanism to extract maximal information from the social environment.

National action plan 2016-2019 for the management of the radon-related risk

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mortureux, Marc; Vallet, Benoit; Struillou, Yves; Girometti, Laurent

2017-01-01

After a brief presentation of the context, and a presentation of aspects related to the plan governance and strategies (plan steering, actors in the radon risk management, synthesis of main actions in France, regulatory evolutions and new strategies), this report presents the three axes of the national action plan for 2016-2019. The first one consists in the implementation of a global strategy of information and in developing tools to collect and share information. The second one consists in a continuous knowledge improvement. The third one consists in a better taking into account of radon risk management in buildings. Sheets are then proposed which describe the various actions associated with these axes (5 actions for the first one, 10 for the second, and 5 for the third one). Each sheet comprises the action title, its objectives, methods and tools, its coordinator and actors, its agenda and current status

Theoretical Modeling of Rock Breakage by Hydraulic and Mechanical Tool

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hongxiang Jiang

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Rock breakage by coupled mechanical and hydraulic action has been developed over the past several decades, but theoretical study on rock fragmentation by mechanical tool with water pressure assistance was still lacking. The theoretical model of rock breakage by mechanical tool was developed based on the rock fracture mechanics and the solution of Boussinesq’s problem, and it could explain the process of rock fragmentation as well as predicating the peak reacting force. The theoretical model of rock breakage by coupled mechanical and hydraulic action was developed according to the superposition principle of intensity factors at the crack tip, and the reacting force of mechanical tool assisted by hydraulic action could be reduced obviously if the crack with a critical length could be produced by mechanical or hydraulic impact. The experimental results indicated that the peak reacting force could be reduced about 15% assisted by medium water pressure, and quick reduction of reacting force after peak value decreased the specific energy consumption of rock fragmentation by mechanical tool. The crack formation by mechanical or hydraulic impact was the prerequisite to improvement of the ability of combined breakage.

Chimpanzees' Context-Dependent Tool Use Provides Evidence for Separable Representations of Hand and Tool Even during Active Use within Peripersonal Space

Science.gov (United States)

Povinelli, Daniel J.; Reaux, James E.; Frey, Scott H.

2010-01-01

Considerable attention has been devoted to behaviors in which tools are used to perform actions in extrapersonal space by extending the reach. Evidence suggests that these behaviors result in an expansion of the body schema and peripersonal space. However, humans often use tools to perform tasks within peripersonal space that cannot be…

Metal Vapor Arcing Risk Assessment Tool

Science.gov (United States)

Hill, Monika C.; Leidecker, Henning W.

2010-01-01

The Tin Whisker Metal Vapor Arcing Risk Assessment Tool has been designed to evaluate the risk of metal vapor arcing and to help facilitate a decision toward a researched risk disposition. Users can evaluate a system without having to open up the hardware. This process allows for investigating components at risk rather than spending time and money analyzing every component. The tool points to a risk level and provides direction for appropriate action and documentation.

Tools for primary care management of inflammatory bowel disease

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bennett, Alice L; Munkholm, Pia; Andrews, Jane M

2015-01-01

Healthcare systems throughout the world continue to face emerging challenges associated with chronic disease management. Due to the likely increase in chronic conditions in the future it is now vital that cooperation and support between specialists, generalists and primary health care physicians ...... supportive literature. The purpose of this review is to investigate what non-specialist tools, action plans or guidelines for IBD are published in readily searchable medical literature and compare these to those which exist for other chronic conditions....... are helpful but they are not designed for the primary care setting. Few non-expert IBD management tools or guidelines exist compared with those used for other chronic diseases such as asthma and scant data have been published regarding the usefulness of such tools including IBD action plans and associated...

Using a map-based assessment tool for the development of cost-effective WFD river basin action programmes in a changing climate.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaspersen, Bjarke Stoltze; Jacobsen, Torsten Vammen; Butts, Michael Brian; Jensen, Niels H; Boegh, Eva; Seaby, Lauren Paige; Müller, Henrik Gioertz; Kjaer, Tyge

2016-08-01

For the 2nd and 3rd river basin management cycles (2015-2027) of the Water Framework Directive (WFD), EU Member States are required to fully integrate climate change into the process of river basin management planning (RBMP). Complying with the main WFD objective of achieving 'good ecological status' in all water bodies in Denmark requires Programmes of Measures (PoMs) to reduce nitrogen (N) pollution from point and diffuse sources. Denmark is among the world's most intensively farmed countries and in spite of thirty years of significant policy actions to reduce diffuse nutrient emissions, there is still a need for further reductions. In addition, the impacts of climate change are projected to lead to a situation where nutrient loads will have to be reduced still further in comparison to current climate conditions. There is an urgent need to address this challenge in WFD action programmes in order to develop robust and cost-effective adaptation strategies for the next WFD RBMP cycles. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate and discuss how a map-based PoMs assessment tool can support the development of adaptive and cost-effective strategies to reduce N losses in the Isefjord and Roskilde Fjord River Basin in the north east of Denmark. The tool facilitates assessments of the application of agri-environmental measures that are targeted towards low retention agricultural areas, where limited or no surface and subsurface N reduction takes place. Effects of climate change on nitrate leaching were evaluated using the dynamic agro-ecosystem model 'Daisy'. Results show that nitrate leaching rates increase by approx. 25% under current management practices. This impact outweighs the expected total N reduction effect of Baseline 2015 and the first RBMP in the case study river basin. The particular PoMs investigated in our study show that WFD N reduction targets can be achieved by targeted land use changes on approx. 4% of the agricultural area under current climate conditions

Radioactive contamination, what actions for the polluted sites; Contamination radioactive, quelles actions pour les sites pollues

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2004-07-01

The nuclear safety authority and the direction of prevention of pollutions and risks have organised the first edition of the national colloquium: radioactive contamination: what actions for polluted sites. Four axes can be taken to follow this colloquium: prevention, outstanding tools to evaluate risks and rehabilitation, a better responsibility of operators and memory keeping. (N.C.)

Design based action research in the world of robot technology and learning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Majgaard, Gunver

2010-01-01

Why is design based action research method important in the world of robot technology and learning? The article explores how action research and interaction-driven design can be used in development of educational robot technological tools. The actual case is the development of “Fraction Battle......” which is about learning fractions in primary school. The technology is based on robot technology. An outdoor digital playground is taken into to the classroom and then redesigned. The article argues for interaction design takes precedence to technology or goal driven design for development...... of educational tools....

The development of tool manufacture in humans: what helps young children make innovative tools?

Science.gov (United States)

Chappell, Jackie; Cutting, Nicola; Apperly, Ian A; Beck, Sarah R

2013-11-19

We know that even young children are proficient tool users, but until recently, little was known about how they make tools. Here, we will explore the concepts underlying tool making, and the kinds of information and putative cognitive abilities required for children to manufacture novel tools. We will review the evidence for novel tool manufacture from the comparative literature and present a growing body of data from children suggesting that innovation of the solution to a problem by making a tool is a much more challenging task than previously thought. Children's difficulty with these kinds of tasks does not seem to be explained by perseveration with unmodified tools, difficulty with switching to alternative strategies, task pragmatics or issues with permission. Rather, making novel tools (without having seen an example of the required tool within the context of the task) appears to be hard, because it is an example of an 'ill-structured problem'. In this type of ill-structured problem, the starting conditions and end goal are known, but the transformations and/or actions required to get from one to the other are not specified. We will discuss the implications of these findings for understanding the development of problem-solving in humans and other animals.

The development of tool manufacture in humans: what helps young children make innovative tools?

Science.gov (United States)

Chappell, Jackie; Cutting, Nicola; Apperly, Ian A.; Beck, Sarah R.

2013-01-01

We know that even young children are proficient tool users, but until recently, little was known about how they make tools. Here, we will explore the concepts underlying tool making, and the kinds of information and putative cognitive abilities required for children to manufacture novel tools. We will review the evidence for novel tool manufacture from the comparative literature and present a growing body of data from children suggesting that innovation of the solution to a problem by making a tool is a much more challenging task than previously thought. Children's difficulty with these kinds of tasks does not seem to be explained by perseveration with unmodified tools, difficulty with switching to alternative strategies, task pragmatics or issues with permission. Rather, making novel tools (without having seen an example of the required tool within the context of the task) appears to be hard, because it is an example of an ‘ill-structured problem’. In this type of ill-structured problem, the starting conditions and end goal are known, but the transformations and/or actions required to get from one to the other are not specified. We will discuss the implications of these findings for understanding the development of problem-solving in humans and other animals. PMID:24101620

Fronto-parietal coding of goal-directed actions performed by artificial agents.

Science.gov (United States)

Kupferberg, Aleksandra; Iacoboni, Marco; Flanagin, Virginia; Huber, Markus; Kasparbauer, Anna; Baumgartner, Thomas; Hasler, Gregor; Schmidt, Florian; Borst, Christoph; Glasauer, Stefan

2018-03-01

With advances in technology, artificial agents such as humanoid robots will soon become a part of our daily lives. For safe and intuitive collaboration, it is important to understand the goals behind their motor actions. In humans, this process is mediated by changes in activity in fronto-parietal brain areas. The extent to which these areas are activated when observing artificial agents indicates the naturalness and easiness of interaction. Previous studies indicated that fronto-parietal activity does not depend on whether the agent is human or artificial. However, it is unknown whether this activity is modulated by observing grasping (self-related action) and pointing actions (other-related action) performed by an artificial agent depending on the action goal. Therefore, we designed an experiment in which subjects observed human and artificial agents perform pointing and grasping actions aimed at two different object categories suggesting different goals. We found a signal increase in the bilateral inferior parietal lobule and the premotor cortex when tool versus food items were pointed to or grasped by both agents, probably reflecting the association of hand actions with the functional use of tools. Our results show that goal attribution engages the fronto-parietal network not only for observing a human but also a robotic agent for both self-related and social actions. The debriefing after the experiment has shown that actions of human-like artificial agents can be perceived as being goal-directed. Therefore, humans will be able to interact with service robots intuitively in various domains such as education, healthcare, public service, and entertainment. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Using Forensic Science Problems as Teaching Tools

Science.gov (United States)

Duncan, Kanesa; Daly-Engel, Toby

2006-01-01

The desire to observe and understand the natural world is strong in young children, but high school students often consider science irrelevant to their daily lives. Therefore, as teachers of older age groups, the authors constantly struggle to engage students in scientific exploration so they can master concepts and appreciate the nature of…

Designing a tool for service-dominant business strategies using action design research

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lüftenegger, E.R.; Comuzzi, M.; Grefen, P.W.P.J.

2017-01-01

Both academic research and industrial practice recognize difficulties in translating the principles of service-dominant (S-D) business logic into actionable insights for practitioners, particularly when considering S-D logic at the strategic level. To address this problem, this paper focuses on the

Interest Deductibility and the BEPS Action Plan: nihil novi sub sole?

OpenAIRE

Traversa, Edoardo

2013-01-01

Interest payments between affiliated companies which aim at shifting profit from high to low tax countries are a well-known and frequently used tool in international tax planning. It is therefore not surprising that in the OECD Action Plan on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) (Action Plan) considerable attention is given to the measures limiting the deductibility of (excessive) intra-group interest payments.1 The Action Plan does not, however, provide any clear guidance as to which, amo...

Why do people fail to turn good intentions into action? The role of executive control processes in the translation of healthy eating intentions into action in young Scottish adults

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Allan Julia L

2008-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Despite the significant health benefits associated with eating healthily, diet is extremely difficult to change, with the majority of people who intend to eat more healthily failing to do so. Recent evidence has suggested that the ability to turn intentions into actions may be related to individual differences in one facet of executive control – cognitive inhibition (i.e. the ability to inhibit irrelevant information and suppress prepotent responses. The present study investigates the role of this and other executive processes (inhibition, task switching, planning and cognitive flexibility in the translation of dietary intentions into action. In addition, as the literature suggests that weak executive control may be associated with hyper-responsivity to cues to action, the role of executive processes in susceptibility to environmental food cues and responses to If-Then plans designed to cue intended behaviour are investigated. Methods Future intentions about consumption of fruits and vegetables and snack foods will be measured in a sample of young adults. Actual consumption of the target foods will be recorded with computerised diaries over a subsequent 3-day period. Performance on a battery of established executive control tasks (Go-NoGo, Tower task, Verbal Fluency task and Trail-Making will be used to predict the discrepancy between intended and actual dietary behaviour. In addition, executive control scores will be used to predict reported susceptibility to environmental food cues and benefit derived from the use of 'If-Then plans' designed to cue intended behaviour. Discussion Our findings will add to understanding about the role of executive control in translating intentions into actions and may demonstrate potential for future public health interventions. If participants with weak executive control are found to be less likely to eat as they intend than those with strong executive control, then interventions that

Effective 1.0: An Analytic Effective Action Analysis Library

OpenAIRE

Hetherington, James P. J.; Stephens, Philip

2006-01-01

Effective is a C++ library which provides the user a toolbox to study the effective action of an arbitrary field theory. From the field content, gauge groups and representations an appropriate action is generated symbolically. The effective potential, mass spectrum, field couplings and vacuum expectation values are then obtained automatically; tree level results are obtained analytically while many tools, both numeric and analytic, provide a variety of approaches to deal with the one-loop cor...

More than meets the eye:age differences in the capture and suppression of oculomotor action

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. Richard eRidderinkhof

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Salient visual stimuli capture attention and trigger an eye-movement towards its location reflexively, regardless of an observer’s intentions. Here we investigate the effect of aging 1 on the extent to which salient yet task-irrelevant stimuli capture saccades, and 2 on the ability to selectively suppress such oculomotor responses. Young and older adults were asked to direct their eyes to a target appearing in a stimulus array. Analysis of overall performance shows that saccades to the target object were disrupted by the appearance of a task-irrelevant abrupt-onset distractor when the location of this distractor did not coincide with that of the target object. Conditional Capture Function analyses revealed that, compared to young adults, older adults were more susceptible to oculomotor capture, and exhibited deficient selective suppression of the responses captured by task-irrelevant distractors. These effects were uncorrelated, suggesting two independent sources off age-related decline. The fact that these process-specific age effects remained concealed in overall oculomotor performance analyses emphasizes the utility of looking beyond the surface; indeed, there may be more than meets the eye.

Practical Reason, Another Approach of Safe Action

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blazsin, H.; Guarnieri, F.; Martin, C.

2016-01-01

Born from the realisation that technology is neither the only source of risk, nor the exclusive solution, the concept of safety culture aimed at reintegrating human action, skills and symbolic productions (representations, beliefs, values, cognitive abilities, etc.) in the preservation of safety. As such it constituted a turning point for risk management and safety studies. Yet, the concept seems to raise more and more questions, both as a concept and as a practical tool (Simard, 2000; Fuchs, 2012; Edwards et al., 2013; Lopez de Castro et al., 2013). Mostly, these questions revolve around the lack of consensus over one shared definition of safety culture; around the idea that a number of its traditionally accepted characteristics, such as its systemic nature, remain to be demonstrated; finally, and maybe most importantly, that its implementation through such management tools as questionnaires, indicators, dashboards, has deprived safety culture of its substance and diverted from its original purpose, i.e., putting humanity back at the heart of safety (Guldenmund, 2007; Karsh, Waterson, Holden, 2013; Reiman, Rollenhagen, 2013). Indeed such tools lead to classify and quantify reality in an attempt at reproducibility, leaving aside the many aspects of human action that do not fit the associated categories as well as its complexity.

WAPTT - Web Application Penetration Testing Tool

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

DURIC, Z.

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Web applications vulnerabilities allow attackers to perform malicious actions that range from gaining unauthorized account access to obtaining sensitive data. The number of reported web application vulnerabilities in last decade is increasing dramatically. The most of vulnerabilities result from improper input validation and sanitization. The most important of these vulnerabilities based on improper input validation and sanitization are: SQL injection (SQLI, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS and Buffer Overflow (BOF. In order to address these vulnerabilities we designed and developed the WAPTT (Web Application Penetration Testing Tool tool - web application penetration testing tool. Unlike other web application penetration testing tools, this tool is modular, and can be easily extended by end-user. In order to improve efficiency of SQLI vulnerability detection, WAPTT uses an efficient algorithm for page similarity detection. The proposed tool showed promising results as compared to six well-known web application scanners in detecting various web application vulnerabilities.

Getting a handle on virtual tools: An examination of the neuronal activity associated with virtual tool use.

Science.gov (United States)

Rallis, Austin; Fercho, Kelene A; Bosch, Taylor J; Baugh, Lee A

2018-01-31

Tool use is associated with three visual streams-dorso-dorsal, ventro-dorsal, and ventral visual streams. These streams are involved in processing online motor planning, action semantics, and tool semantics features, respectively. Little is known about the way in which the brain represents virtual tools. To directly assess this question, a virtual tool paradigm was created that provided the ability to manipulate tool components in isolation of one another. During functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), adult participants performed a series of virtual tool manipulation tasks in which vision and movement kinematics of the tool were manipulated. Reaction time and hand movement direction were monitored while the tasks were performed. Functional imaging revealed that activity within all three visual streams was present, in a similar pattern to what would be expected with physical tool use. However, a previously unreported network of right-hemisphere activity was found including right inferior parietal lobule, middle and superior temporal gyri and supramarginal gyrus - regions well known to be associated with tool processing within the left hemisphere. These results provide evidence that both virtual and physical tools are processed within the same brain regions, though virtual tools recruit bilateral tool processing regions to a greater extent than physical tools. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Using Web 2.0 and social media technologies to foster proenvironmental action

Science.gov (United States)

Matthew T. Ballew; Allen M. Omoto; Patricia L. Winter

2015-01-01

Research from a variety of disciplines suggests that online technologies (i.e., Web 2.0 and social media) have considerable potential for spurring proenvironmental action; however, relatively little work examines how to effectively capitalize on these communication and organization tools. This review paper describes the Technologies for Proenvironmental Action Model (...

Are objects the same as groups? ERP correlates of spatial attentional guidance by irrelevant feature similarity.

Science.gov (United States)

Kasai, Tetsuko; Moriya, Hiroki; Hirano, Shingo

2011-07-05

It has been proposed that the most fundamental units of attentional selection are "objects" that are grouped according to Gestalt factors such as similarity or connectedness. Previous studies using event-related potentials (ERPs) have shown that object-based attention is associated with modulations of the visual-evoked N1 component, which reflects an early cortical mechanism that is shared with spatial attention. However, these studies only examined the case of perceptually continuous objects. The present study examined the case of separate objects that are grouped according to feature similarity (color, shape) by indexing lateralized potentials at posterior sites in a sustained-attention task that involved bilateral stimulus arrays. A behavioral object effect was found only for task-relevant shape similarity. Electrophysiological results indicated that attention was guided to the task-irrelevant side of the visual field due to achromatic-color similarity in N1 (155-205 ms post-stimulus) and early N2 (210-260 ms) and due to shape similarity in early N2 and late N2 (280-400 ms) latency ranges. These results are discussed in terms of selection mechanisms and object/group representations. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Systems Thinking, Lean Production and Action Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Seddon, John; Caulkin, Simon

2007-01-01

Systems thinking underpins "lean" management and is best understood through action-learning as the ideas are counter-intuitive. The Toyota Production System is just that--a system; the failure to appreciate that starting-place and the advocacy of "tools" leads many to fail to grasp what is, without doubt, a significant…

Actions to promote professional ethics in the people supported education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sucel Batista-Fonseca

2016-06-01

Full Text Available An action plan aimed at strengthening professional ethics supported by the methodology of popular education is a tool for achieving quality in the institutions used by managers and by workers committed with efficiency in our organizations. This study seeks to propose an action plan that promotes ethics in institutions supported by the methodology of popular education. The development of this proposal was made aided by documentary analysis with the use of theoretical methods such as analysis-synthesis, induction, deduction, and leaning on the technique of participant observation. The authors have investigated about professional ethics and Popular Education and analyzed these categories separately. The literature review showed that the methodology of popular education is an essential tool to encourage professional ethics.

Y-12 Plant remedial action Technology Logic Diagram: Volume 3, Technology evaluation data sheets: Part A, Remedial action

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1994-09-01

The Y-12 Plant Remedial Action Technology Logic Diagram (TLD) was developed to provide a decision-support tool that relates environmental restoration (ER) problems at the Y-12 Plant to potential technologies that can remediate these problems. The TLD identifies the research, development, demonstration, testing, and evaluation needed for sufficient development of these technologies to allow for technology transfer and application to remedial action (RA) activities. The TLD consists of three volumes. Volume 1 contains an overview of the TLD, an explanation of the program-specific responsibilities, a review of identified technologies, and the rankings of remedial technologies. Volume 2 contains the logic linkages among environmental management goals, environmental problems and the various technologies that have the potential to solve these problems. Volume 3 contains the TLD data sheets. This report is Part A of Volume 3 and contains the Remedial Action section

Y-12 Plant remedial action Technology Logic Diagram: Volume 3, Technology evaluation data sheets: Part A, Remedial action

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1994-09-01

The Y-12 Plant Remedial Action Technology Logic Diagram (TLD) was developed to provide a decision-support tool that relates environmental restoration (ER) problems at the Y-12 Plant to potential technologies that can remediate these problems. The TLD identifies the research, development, demonstration, testing, and evaluation needed for sufficient development of these technologies to allow for technology transfer and application to remedial action (RA) activities. The TLD consists of three volumes. Volume 1 contains an overview of the TLD, an explanation of the program-specific responsibilities, a review of identified technologies, and the rankings of remedial technologies. Volume 2 contains the logic linkages among environmental management goals, environmental problems and the various technologies that have the potential to solve these problems. Volume 3 contains the TLD data sheets. This report is Part A of Volume 3 and contains the Remedial Action section.

Allied health clinicians using translational research in action to develop a reliable stroke audit tool.

Science.gov (United States)

Abery, Philip; Kuys, Suzanne; Lynch, Mary; Low Choy, Nancy

2018-05-23

To design and establish reliability of a local stroke audit tool by engaging allied health clinicians within a privately funded hospital. Design: Two-stage study involving a modified Delphi process to inform stroke audit tool development and inter-tester reliability. Allied health clinicians. A modified Delphi process to select stroke guideline recommendations for inclusion in the audit tool. Reliability study: 1 allied health representative from each discipline audited 10 clinical records with sequential admissions to acute and rehabilitation services. Recommendations were admitted to the audit tool when 70% agreement was reached, with 50% set as the reserve agreement. Inter-tester reliability was determined using intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) across 10 clinical records. Twenty-two participants (92% female, 50% physiotherapists, 17% occupational therapists) completed the modified Delphi process. Across 6 voting rounds, 8 recommendations reached 70% agreement and 2 reached 50% agreement. Two recommendations (nutrition/hydration; goal setting) were added to ensure representation for all disciplines. Substantial consistency across raters was established for the audit tool applied in acute stroke (ICC .71; range .48 to .90) and rehabilitation (ICC.78; range .60 to .93) services. Allied health clinicians within a privately funded hospital generally agreed in an audit process to develop a reliable stroke audit tool. Allied health clinicians agreed on stroke guideline recommendations to inform a stroke audit tool. The stroke audit tool demonstrated substantial consistency supporting future use for service development. This process, which engages local clinicians, could be adopted by other facilities to design reliable audit tools to identify local service gaps to inform changes to clinical practice. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Legged locomotion : Balance, control and tools - from equation to action

OpenAIRE

Ridderström, Christian

2003-01-01

This thesis is about control and balance stability of leggedlocomotion. It also presents a combination of tools that makesit easier to design controllers for large and complicated robotsystems. The thesis is divided into four parts. The first part studies and analyzes how walking machines arecontrolled, examining the literature of over twenty machinesbriefly, and six machines in detail. The goal is to understandhow the controllers work on a level below task and pathplanning, but above actuato...

Persistence of touch DNA on burglary-related tools.

Science.gov (United States)

Pfeifer, Céline M; Wiegand, Peter

2017-07-01

Experts are increasingly concerned by issues regarding the activity level of DNA stains. A case from our burglary-related casework pointed out the need for experiments regarding the persistence of DNA when more than one person touched a tool handle. We performed short tandem repeat (STR) analyses for three groups of tools: (1) personal and mock owned tools; (2) tools, which were first "owned" by a first user and then handled in a burglary action by a second user; and (3) tools, which were first owned by a first user and then handled in a moderate action. At least three types of tool handles were included in each of the groups. Every second user handled the tool with and without gloves. In total, 234 samples were analyzed regarding profile completeness of first and second user as well as properties like detectable major profile or mixture attributes. When second users simulated a burglary by using a tool bare handed, we could not detect the first user as major component on their handles but attribute him to the stain in 1/40 cases. When second users broke up the burglary setup using gloves, the first user matched the DNA handle profile in 37% of the cases. Moderate use of mock borrowed tools demonstrated a material-dependent persistence. In total, we observed that the outcome depends mainly on the nature of contact, the handle material, and the user-specific characteristics. This study intends to supplement present knowledge about persistence of touch DNA with a special emphasis on burglary-related cases with two consecutive users and to act as experimental data for an evaluation of the relevance of alleged hypotheses, when such is needed in a court hearing.

A neural network model of causative actions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jeremy eLee-Hand

2015-06-01

Full Text Available A common idea in models of action representation is that actions are represented in terms of their perceptual effects (see e.g. Prinz, 1997; Hommel et al., 2001; Sahin et al., 2007; Umilta et al., 2008; Hommel et al., 2013. In this paper we extend existing models of effect-based action representations to account for a novel distinction. Some actions bring about effects that are independent events in their own right: for instance, if John 'smashes' a cup, he brings about the event of 'the cup smashing'. Other actions do not bring about such effects. For instance, if John 'grabs' a cup, this action does not cause the cup to 'do' anything: a grab action has well-defined perceptual effects, but these are not registered by the perceptual system that detects independent events involving external objects in the world. In our model, effect-based actions are implemented in several distinct neural circuits, which are organised into a hierarchy based on the complexity of their associated perceptual effects. The circuit at the top of this hierarchy is responsible for actions that bring about independently perceivable events. This circuit receives input from the perceptual module that recognises arbitrary events taking place in the world, and learns movements that reliably cause such events. We assess our model against existing experimental observations about effect-based motor representations, and make some novel experimental predictions. We also consider the possibility that the 'causative actions' circuit in our model can be identified with a motor pathway reported in other work, specialising in 'functional' actions on manipulable tools (Bub et al., 2008; Binkofski and Buxbaum, 2013.

A neural network model of causative actions.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee-Hand, Jeremy; Knott, Alistair

2015-01-01

A common idea in models of action representation is that actions are represented in terms of their perceptual effects (see e.g., Prinz, 1997; Hommel et al., 2001; Sahin et al., 2007; Umiltà et al., 2008; Hommel, 2013). In this paper we extend existing models of effect-based action representations to account for a novel distinction. Some actions bring about effects that are independent events in their own right: for instance, if John smashes a cup, he brings about the event of the cup smashing. Other actions do not bring about such effects. For instance, if John grabs a cup, this action does not cause the cup to "do" anything: a grab action has well-defined perceptual effects, but these are not registered by the perceptual system that detects independent events involving external objects in the world. In our model, effect-based actions are implemented in several distinct neural circuits, which are organized into a hierarchy based on the complexity of their associated perceptual effects. The circuit at the top of this hierarchy is responsible for actions that bring about independently perceivable events. This circuit receives input from the perceptual module that recognizes arbitrary events taking place in the world, and learns movements that reliably cause such events. We assess our model against existing experimental observations about effect-based motor representations, and make some novel experimental predictions. We also consider the possibility that the "causative actions" circuit in our model can be identified with a motor pathway reported in other work, specializing in "functional" actions on manipulable tools (Bub et al., 2008; Binkofski and Buxbaum, 2013).

"HIV is irrelevant to our company": everyday practices and the logic of relationships in HIV/AIDS management by Japanese multinational corporations in northern Thailand.

Science.gov (United States)

Michinobu, Ryoko

2009-03-01

Multinational corporations (MNCs) are important participants in workplace initiatives on HIV/AIDS as they collaborate with international organizations to globally promote various policies and guidelines. To date, MNCs have enacted the majority of such initiatives in North America, Europe and South Africa, but we have little information on how MNCs elsewhere, especially in Japan, have responded to the issue of HIV/AIDS in the workplace. This study examines the actual on the ground situation of HIV/AIDS management in Japanese MNCs, specifically investigating everyday corporate practices in the context of internal interactions and relationships and the resulting practices and outlook concerning HIV/AIDS. It is based on a secondary analysis of ethnographic case studies conducted in 10 Japanese-affiliated companies in northern Thailand. Japanese managers, Thai managers and ordinary Thai workers all considered HIV/AIDS to be "irrelevant" to their company and/or themselves. HIV/AIDS measures in the companies were limited to provision of information. This perception and management of HIV/AIDS developed from their everyday interactions governed by the logic of relationships in the companies. In these interactions, they categorized others based on their ascriptive status, primarily based on class, ethnicity and nationality. They sought scapegoat groups that were lower than them in the class- and ethnicity/nationality-based hierarchical system, and cast the risk of HIV infection upon the scapegoat groups, thus reducing their own sense of risk. The paper shows that the relational logic, not ideals or principles, influences their views of and actions concerning HIV/AIDS management in the companies. This is why Japanese companies are unable to deal with HIV/AIDS in terms of international policies and guidelines that are based on the logic of human rights and the logic of business principles. The results suggest a need for international policymakers to pay more attention to

Shaping Collaboration 2006: action items for the LHC

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Goldfarb, S [CERN-PH, 1211 Geneva 23 (Switzerland); Herr, J; Neal, H A [Assistant Research Scientist, University of Michigan (United States); Research Process Manager, University of Michigan (United States); Professor of Physics, University of Michigan (United States)], E-mail: steven.goldfarb@cern.ch

2008-07-15

Shaping Collaboration 2006 [1] was a workshop held in Geneva, on December 11-13, 2006, to examine the status and future of collaborative tool technology and its usage for large global scientific collaborations, such as those of the CERN LHC [2]. The workshop brought together some of the leading experts in the field of collaborative tools (WACE 2006) [3] with physicists and developers of the LHC collaborations and HENP (High-Energy and Nuclear Physics). We highlight important presentations and key discussions held during the workshop, then focus on a large and aggressive set of goals and specific action items targeted at institutes from all levels of the LHC organization. This list of action items, assembled during a panel discussion at the close of the LHC sessions, includes recommendations for the LHC Users, their Universities, Project Managers, Spokespersons, National Funding Agencies and Host Laboratories. We present this list, along with suggestions for priorities in addressing the immediate and long-term needs of HENP.

Shaping Collaboration 2006: action items for the LHC

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goldfarb, S; Herr, J; Neal, H A

2008-01-01

Shaping Collaboration 2006 [1] was a workshop held in Geneva, on December 11-13, 2006, to examine the status and future of collaborative tool technology and its usage for large global scientific collaborations, such as those of the CERN LHC [2]. The workshop brought together some of the leading experts in the field of collaborative tools (WACE 2006) [3] with physicists and developers of the LHC collaborations and HENP (High-Energy and Nuclear Physics). We highlight important presentations and key discussions held during the workshop, then focus on a large and aggressive set of goals and specific action items targeted at institutes from all levels of the LHC organization. This list of action items, assembled during a panel discussion at the close of the LHC sessions, includes recommendations for the LHC Users, their Universities, Project Managers, Spokespersons, National Funding Agencies and Host Laboratories. We present this list, along with suggestions for priorities in addressing the immediate and long-term needs of HENP

The Experience of Implementing Urban HEART Barcelona: a Tool for Action.

Science.gov (United States)

Novoa, Ana M; Pérez, Glòria; Espelt, Albert; Echave, Cynthia; de Olalla, Patricia G; Calvo, M Jesús; Pasarín, Maribel; Diez, Èlia; Borrell, Carme; Calvo, M Jesús; Cormenzana, Berta; Cortés, Imma; Diez, Èlia; Echave, Cynthia; Espelt, Albert; de Olalla, Patrícia G; Gòmez, Josep; Novoa, Ana M; Pallarès, Montserrat; Pérez, Glòria; Rodríguez-Sanz, Maica

2017-10-16

Urban Health Equity Assessment and Response Tool (HEART) is a tool developed by the World Health Organization whose objective is to provide evidence on urban health inequalities so as to help to decide the best interventions aimed to promote urban health equity. The aim of this paper is to describe the experience of implementing Urban HEART in Barcelona city, both the adaptation of Urban HEART to the city of Barcelona, its use as a means of identifying and monitoring health inequalities among city neighbourhoods, and the difficulties and barriers encountered throughout the process. Although ASPB public health technicians participated in the Urban HEART Advisory Group, had large experience in health inequalities analysis and research and showed interest in implementing the tool, it was not until 2015, when the city council was governed by a new left-wing party for which reducing health inequalities was a priority that Urban HEART could be used. A provisional matrix was developed, including both health and health determinant indicators, which allowed to show how some neighbourhoods in the city systematically fare worse for most of the indicators while others systematically fare better. It also allowed to identify 18 neighbourhoods-those which fared worse in most indicators-which were considered a priority for intervention, which entered the Health in the Barcelona Neighbourhoods programme and the Neighbourhoods Plan. This provisional version was reviewed and improved by the Urban HEART Barcelona Working Group. Technicians with experience in public health and/or in indicator and database management were asked to indicate suitability and relevance from a list of potential indicators. The definitive Urban HEART Barcelona version included 15 indicators from the five Urban HEART domains and improved the previous version in several requirements. Several barriers were encountered, such as having to estimate indicators in scarcely populated areas or finding adequate

Technology-assisted title and abstract screening for systematic reviews: a retrospective evaluation of the Abstrackr machine learning tool.

Science.gov (United States)

Gates, Allison; Johnson, Cydney; Hartling, Lisa

2018-03-12

Machine learning tools can expedite systematic review (SR) processes by semi-automating citation screening. Abstrackr semi-automates citation screening by predicting relevant records. We evaluated its performance for four screening projects. We used a convenience sample of screening projects completed at the Alberta Research Centre for Health Evidence, Edmonton, Canada: three SRs and one descriptive analysis for which we had used SR screening methods. The projects were heterogeneous with respect to search yield (median 9328; range 5243 to 47,385 records; interquartile range (IQR) 15,688 records), topic (Antipsychotics, Bronchiolitis, Diabetes, Child Health SRs), and screening complexity. We uploaded the records to Abstrackr and screened until it made predictions about the relevance of the remaining records. Across three trials for each project, we compared the predictions to human reviewer decisions and calculated the sensitivity, specificity, precision, false negative rate, proportion missed, and workload savings. Abstrackr's sensitivity was > 0.75 for all projects and the mean specificity ranged from 0.69 to 0.90 with the exception of Child Health SRs, for which it was 0.19. The precision (proportion of records correctly predicted as relevant) varied by screening task (median 26.6%; range 14.8 to 64.7%; IQR 29.7%). The median false negative rate (proportion of records incorrectly predicted as irrelevant) was 12.6% (range 3.5 to 21.2%; IQR 12.3%). The workload savings were often large (median 67.2%, range 9.5 to 88.4%; IQR 23.9%). The proportion missed (proportion of records predicted as irrelevant that were included in the final report, out of the total number predicted as irrelevant) was 0.1% for all SRs and 6.4% for the descriptive analysis. This equated to 4.2% (range 0 to 12.2%; IQR 7.8%) of the records in the final reports. Abstrackr's reliability and the workload savings varied by screening task. Workload savings came at the expense of potentially missing

Transition Towards Energy Efficient Machine Tools

CERN Document Server

Zein, André

2012-01-01

Energy efficiency represents a cost-effective and immediate strategy of a sustainable development. Due to substantial environmental and economic implications, a strong emphasis is put on the electrical energy requirements of machine tools for metalworking processes. The improvement of energy efficiency is however confronted with diverse barriers, which sustain an energy efficiency gap of unexploited potential. The deficiencies lie in the lack of information about the actual energy requirements of machine tools, a minimum energy reference to quantify improvement potential and the possible actions to improve the energy demand. Therefore, a comprehensive concept for energy performance management of machine tools is developed which guides the transition towards energy efficient machine tools. It is structured in four innovative concept modules, which are embedded into step-by-step workflow models. The capability of the performance management concept is demonstrated in an automotive manufacturing environment. The ...

Dissociating Perception from Action during Conscious and Unconscious Conflict Adaptation

Science.gov (United States)

Atas, Anne; Desender, Kobe; Gevers, Wim; Cleeremans, Axel

2016-01-01

The detection of a conflict between relevant and irrelevant information on a given trial typically results in a smaller conflict effect on the next trial. This sequential effect has been interpreted as an expression of cognitive control implemented to resolve conflict. In this context, 2 different but related issues have received increasing…

How useful are the strategic tools we teach in business schools?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wright, R.; Paroutis, S.; Blettner, D.P.

2013-01-01

Strategic tools are indispensible for business and competitive analysis. Yet we know very little about managers' internal logic as they put these tools into practical use. We situate our study in a business school context using action learning prior to the manifestation of practice to complement our

Conceptual air sparging decision tool in support of the development of an air sparging optimization decision tool

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1995-09-01

The enclosed document describes a conceptual decision tool (hereinafter, Tool) for determining applicability of and for optimizing air sparging systems. The Tool was developed by a multi-disciplinary team of internationally recognized experts in air sparging technology, lead by a group of project and task managers at Parsons Engineering Science, Inc. (Parsons ES). The team included Mr. Douglas Downey and Dr. Robert Hinchee of Parsons ES, Dr. Paul Johnson of Arizona State University, Dr. Richard Johnson of Oregon Graduate Institute, and Mr. Michael Marley of Envirogen, Inc. User Community Panel Review was coordinated by Dr. Robert Siegrist of Colorado School of Mines (also of Oak Ridge National Laboratory) and Dr. Thomas Brouns of Battelle/Pacific Northwest Laboratory. The Tool is intended to provide guidance to field practitioners and environmental managers for evaluating the applicability and optimization of air sparging as remedial action technique.

Top-Down Modulation of Motor Priming by Belief About Animacy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Liepelt, R.; Brass, M.

2010-01-01

There is recent evidence that we directly map observed actions of other agents onto our own motor repertoire, referred to as direct matching (Iacoboni et al., 1999). This was shown when we are actively engaged in joint action with others' (Sebanz et al. 2003) and also when observing irrelevant

Understanding Nature-Related Behaviors among Children through a Theory of Reasoned Action Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Gotch, Chad; Hall, Troy

2004-01-01

The Theory of Reasoned Action has proven to be a valuable tool for predicting and understanding behavior and, as such, provides a potentially important basis for environmental education program design. This study used a Theory of Reasoned Action approach to examine a unique type of behavior (nature-related activities) and a unique population…

Revision of the protective action guides manual for nuclear incidents

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

DeCair, S.; MacKinney, J.

2007-01-01

EPA's 1992 Manual of Protective Action Guides and Protective Actions for Nuclear Incidents, referred to as the PAG Manual, is a radiological emergency planning and response tool for emergency management officials at the Federal, state, tribal, and local levels. A Protective Action Guide is defined as, the projected dose to reference man, or other defined individual, from a release of radioactive material at which a specific protective action to reduce or avoid that dose is recommended'. The updated version of the PAG Manual accomplishes these key objectives: applying the existing 1992 protective action guides and protective actions to new radiological and nuclear scenarios of concern; updating the dosimetry basis; lowering the recommended dose for administration of stable iodine; providing new guidance concerning consumption of drinking water during or after a radiological emergency; updating the dosimetry basis for all derived levels, and, adding guidance for dealing with long-term site restoration following a major radiological release. (author)

The Humanitarian Action Qualifications Framework : A Quality Assurance Tool for the Humanitarian Sector

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Aardema, Bastiaan; Churruca Muguruza, Cristina

The article presents the European Universities on Professionalisation on Humanitarian Action (EUPRHA) Project as an initiative that seeks to contribute to the professionalisation and quality assurance of the humanitarian sector. Its purpose is to explain the approach and the process leading to the

Social Data Analytics Tool

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hussain, Abid; Vatrapu, Ravi

2014-01-01

This paper presents the design, development and demonstrative case studies of the Social Data Analytics Tool, SODATO. Adopting Action Design Framework [1], the objective of SODATO [2] is to collect, store, analyze, and report big social data emanating from the social media engagement of and social...... media conversations about organizations. We report and discuss results from two demonstrative case studies that were conducted using SODATO and conclude with implications and future work....

Tool for Insider Threat Detection in Corporative Information Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Victor Sergeevich Vedeneev

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Systems and tools for insider threat detection are described. Different meanings of the term “insider”, types of insiders, examples of motivation of insiders, typical insider actions are set.

What actions in the domain of energy saving?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gourlia, J.P.; Richard, P.

2007-01-01

The energy saving potentialities are very often put forward to justify actions of mastery of energy demand. What are the possible substitutes and their result in terms of energy saving? What are the tools implemented and the services proposed by energy suppliers to end-users? What is the optimum mix between the regulatory measures and the market instruments to perform energy saving? What are the costs generated by such measures with respect to the expected results? How to sensibilize citizens to energy saving actions? These questions were debated during a round table which gathered 4 participants and two chairmen. (J.S.)

Inflation as a probe of trans-Planckian physics: a brief review and progress report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shiu, Gary

2005-01-01

We provide a prescription for parametrizing the vacuum choice ambiguity in cosmological settings. We introduce an arbitrary boundary action representing the initial conditions. A Lagrangian description is moreover the natural setting to study decoupling of high-energy physics. RG flow affects the boundary interactions. As a consequence the boundary conditions are sensitive to high-energy physics through irrelevant terms in the boundary action. Using scalar field theory as an example, we derive the leading dimension four irrelevant boundary operators. We discuss flow the known vacuum choices, e.g. the Bunch-Davies vacuum, appear in the Lagrangian description and square with decoupling. For all choices of boundary conditions encoded by relevant boundary operators, of which the known ones are a subset, backreaction is under control. All, moreover, will generically feel the influence of high-energy physics through irrelevant (dimension four) boundary corrections. Having established a coherent effective field theory framework including the vacuum choice ambiguity, we derive an explicit expression for the flower spectrum of inflationary density perturbations including the leading high energy corrections. In accordance with the dimensionality of the leading irrelevant operators, the effect of high energy physics is linearly proportional to the Hubble radius H and the scale of new physics l = 1/M. Effects of such strength are potentially observable in future measurements of the cosmic micflowave background

Penguin Promises: Encouraging Aquarium Visitors to Take Conservation Action

Science.gov (United States)

Mann, Judy Brenda; Ballantyne, Roy; Packer, Jan

2018-01-01

This study investigates the impact of an innovative conservation action campaign called "Penguin Promises" implemented at uShaka Sea World in Durban, South Africa. Communication tools included interpretive signage, exhibits with and without animals, presentations, and personal interactions, along with a specially designed postcard, on…

Dissecting children's observational learning of complex actions through selective video displays.

Science.gov (United States)

Flynn, Emma; Whiten, Andrew

2013-10-01

Children can learn how to use complex objects by watching others, yet the relative importance of different elements they may observe, such as the interactions of the individual parts of the apparatus, a model's movements, and desirable outcomes, remains unclear. In total, 140 3-year-olds and 140 5-year-olds participated in a study where they observed a video showing tools being used to extract a reward item from a complex puzzle box. Conditions varied according to the elements that could be seen in the video: (a) the whole display, including the model's hands, the tools, and the box; (b) the tools and the box but not the model's hands; (c) the model's hands and the tools but not the box; (d) only the end state with the box opened; and (e) no demonstration. Children's later attempts at the task were coded to establish whether they imitated the hierarchically organized sequence of the model's actions, the action details, and/or the outcome. Children's successful retrieval of the reward from the box and the replication of hierarchical sequence information were reduced in all but the whole display condition. Only once children had attempted the task and witnessed a second demonstration did the display focused on the tools and box prove to be better for hierarchical sequence information than the display focused on the tools and hands only. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Diversity in Action workshop | 5 May | Technoparc Business Centre

CERN Multimedia

CERN Diversity Office

2015-01-01

Get an insight into diversity, develop greater sensitivity to differences, acquire new tools to recognise and overcome unconscious biases.   Diversity in Action workshop 5th edition in English Tuesday, 5 May 2015 8:30 a.m. - 12 p.m. Technoparc Business Centre – Saint-Genis-Pouilly Registration and more information on the workshop: http://cern.ch/diversity/in-action On 5 May at 2 p.m., Alan Richter will also lead a forum for discussion  on the topic of “Respect in the workplace”. More information here.  

Design for Motivation: Evaluation of a Design Tool

OpenAIRE

Chasanidou, Dimitra

2018-01-01

Design for motivation constitutes a design practice that focuses on the activation of human motives to perform an action. There is an increasing need to design motivational and engaging mechanisms for voluntary systems, such as innovation platforms, where user participation is a key target. When designing for motivation, a challenge of the early design phases is the selection of appropriate design tool and strategy. The current work presents a design tool, namely DEMO (DEsign for MOtivation),...

Combat to social exclusion, awareness, and action through nuclear energy applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Komatsu, Cintia Nagako, E-mail: cintia@ctmsp.mar.mil.br [Centro Tecnologico da Marinha em Sao Paulo (CTMSP), Sao Paulo, SP (Brazil); Aquino, Afonso Rodrigues de, E-mail: araquino@ipen.com [Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares (IPEN/CNEN-SP), Sao Paulo, SP (Brazil)

2013-07-01

Gradually the world becomes more and more supportive and human. Small actions in our daily behavior contribute in a positive way to the social inclusion of people who has not the same opportunities due to physical appearance, social position or education level. The Companies, the basis of our Economy, can also demonstrate this social inclusion mission offering benefits that do not meet only one social layer, but everybody. This paper aims to make a research about the actions that have that awareness to combat social exclusion, emphasizing nuclear technology as a tool to disseminate of such solidarity actions. (author)

Combat to social exclusion, awareness, and action through nuclear energy applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Komatsu, Cintia Nagako; Aquino, Afonso Rodrigues de

2013-01-01

Gradually the world becomes more and more supportive and human. Small actions in our daily behavior contribute in a positive way to the social inclusion of people who has not the same opportunities due to physical appearance, social position or education level. The Companies, the basis of our Economy, can also demonstrate this social inclusion mission offering benefits that do not meet only one social layer, but everybody. This paper aims to make a research about the actions that have that awareness to combat social exclusion, emphasizing nuclear technology as a tool to disseminate of such solidarity actions. (author)

Mobile phones, social ties, and collective action mobilization in China

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Liu, Jun

2017-01-01

To provide a better understanding of mobile phones as a recruitment tool in collective actions, this study explores the use of mobile phones for mobilizing protest in China. Using in-depth interviews and investigating four cases in which Chinese people employed mobile devices to recruit...... participants for protests, this study observes that mobile communication in China embodies guanxi, the indigenous social tie in Chinese society that introduces reciprocity as an influential facilitator of collective actions. The embedment of reciprocity facilitates the proliferation of mobilizing calls......, legitimizes mobilizing appeals, generates obligations and consolidates solidarity for collective actions. The study concludes with a consideration of the relevance of mobile phones for the embedment of reciprocity in social ties in the mobilization of collective action in authoritarian regimes such as China....

Water Distribution System Risk Tool for Investment Planning (WaterRF Report 4332)

Science.gov (United States)

Product Description/Abstract The product consists of the Pipe Risk Screening Tool (PRST), and a report on the development and use of the tool. The PRST is a software-based screening aid to identify and rank candidate pipes for actions that range from active monitoring (including...

Psychometrics in action, science as practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Pearce, Jacob

2017-07-27

Practitioners in health sciences education and assessment regularly use a range of psychometric techniques to analyse data, evaluate models, and make crucial progression decisions regarding student learning. However, a recent editorial entitled "Is Psychometrics Science?" highlighted some core epistemological and practical problems in psychometrics, and brought its legitimacy into question. This paper attempts to address these issues by applying some key ideas from history and philosophy of science (HPS) discourse. I present some of the conceptual developments in HPS that have bearing on the psychometrics debate. Next, by shifting the focus onto what constitutes the practice of science, I discuss psychometrics in action. Some incorrectly conceptualize science as an assemblage of truths, rather than an assemblage of tools and goals. Psychometrics, however, seems to be an assemblage of methods and techniques. Psychometrics in action represents a range of practices using specific tools in specific contexts. This does not render the practice of psychometrics meaningless or futile. Engaging in debates about whether or not we should regard psychometrics as 'scientific' is, however, a fruitless enterprise. The key question and focus should be whether, on what grounds, and in what contexts, the existing methods and techniques used by psychometricians can be justified or criticized.

High-loop perturbative renormalization constants for Lattice QCD (III): three-loop quark currents for Iwasaki gauge action and n{sub f} = 4 Wilson fermions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brambilla, M.; Di Renzo, F. [Universita di Parma (Italy); INFN, Gruppo Collegato di Parma, Dipartimento di Fisica e Scienze della Terra, Parma (Italy); Hasegawa, M. [Universita di Parma (Italy); Bogoliubov Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Dubna (Russian Federation); INFN, Gruppo Collegato di Parma, Dipartimento di Fisica e Scienze della Terra, Parma (Italy)

2014-07-15

This is the third of a series of papers on three-loop computation of renormalization constants for Lattice QCD. Our main points of interest are results for the regularization defined by the Iwasaki gauge action and n{sub f} Wilson fermions. Our results for quark bilinears renormalized according to the RI'-MOM scheme can be compared to non-perturbative results. The latter are available for twisted mass QCD: being defined in the chiral limit, the renormalization constants must be the same. We also address more general problems. In particular, we discuss a few methodological issues connected to summing the perturbative series such as the effectiveness of boosted perturbation theory and the disentanglement of irrelevant and finite-volume contributions. Discussing these issues we consider not only the new results of this paper, but also those for the regularization defined by the tree-level Symanzik improved gauge action and n{sub f} Wilson fermions, which we presented in a recent paper of ours. We finally comment on the extent to which the techniques we put at work in the NSPT context can provide a fresher look into the lattice version of the RI'-MOM scheme. (orig.)

Development of the remedial action priority system: An improved risk assessment tool for prioritizing hazardous and radioactive-mixed waste disposal sites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Whelan, G.; Strenge, D.L.; Steelman, B.L.; Hawley, K.A.

1985-01-01

The Remedial Action Priority System (RAPS) represents a methodology that prioritizes inactive hazardous and radioactive mixed-waste disposal sites in a scientific and objective manner based on limited site information. This methodology is intended to bridge the technology gap that exists between the initial site evaluation using the Hazard Ranking System (HRS) and the time-consuming process of actual field site characterization, assessment and remediation efforts. The HRS was designed as an initial screening tool to discriminate between hazardous waste sites that do not and those that are likely to power significant problems to human health, safety and/or the environment. The HRS is used by the U.S. EPA to identify sites for nomination to the National Priorities List (NPL). Because the HRS is not designed to evaluate sites containing radionuclides, a modified Hazard Ranking System (mHRS) addressing both hazardous and radioactive mixed wastes was developed by Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Neither the HRS nor the mHRS was designed to prioritize sites that are nominated to the NPL according to their potential risks. To provide DOE with a better management tool for prioritizing funding and human resource allocations for further investigations and possible remediations at its inactive waste sites, PNL is developing the risk assessment methodology called RAPS. Use of RAPS will help DOE ensure that those sites posing the highest potential risk are addressed first

A simple approach to ignoring irrelevant variables by population decoding based on multisensory neurons

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, HyungGoo R.; Pitkow, Xaq; Angelaki, Dora E.

2016-01-01

Sensory input reflects events that occur in the environment, but multiple events may be confounded in sensory signals. For example, under many natural viewing conditions, retinal image motion reflects some combination of self-motion and movement of objects in the world. To estimate one stimulus event and ignore others, the brain can perform marginalization operations, but the neural bases of these operations are poorly understood. Using computational modeling, we examine how multisensory signals may be processed to estimate the direction of self-motion (i.e., heading) and to marginalize out effects of object motion. Multisensory neurons represent heading based on both visual and vestibular inputs and come in two basic types: “congruent” and “opposite” cells. Congruent cells have matched heading tuning for visual and vestibular cues and have been linked to perceptual benefits of cue integration during heading discrimination. Opposite cells have mismatched visual and vestibular heading preferences and are ill-suited for cue integration. We show that decoding a mixed population of congruent and opposite cells substantially reduces errors in heading estimation caused by object motion. In addition, we present a general formulation of an optimal linear decoding scheme that approximates marginalization and can be implemented biologically by simple reinforcement learning mechanisms. We also show that neural response correlations induced by task-irrelevant variables may greatly exceed intrinsic noise correlations. Overall, our findings suggest a general computational strategy by which neurons with mismatched tuning for two different sensory cues may be decoded to perform marginalization operations that dissociate possible causes of sensory inputs. PMID:27334948

Effect of tDCS on task relevant and irrelevant perceptual learning of complex objects.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Meel, Chayenne; Daniels, Nicky; de Beeck, Hans Op; Baeck, Annelies

2016-01-01

During perceptual learning the visual representations in the brain are altered, but these changes' causal role has not yet been fully characterized. We used transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to investigate the role of higher visual regions in lateral occipital cortex (LO) in perceptual learning with complex objects. We also investigated whether object learning is dependent on the relevance of the objects for the learning task. Participants were trained in two tasks: object recognition using a backward masking paradigm and an orientation judgment task. During both tasks, an object with a red line on top of it were presented in each trial. The crucial difference between both tasks was the relevance of the object: the object was relevant for the object recognition task, but not for the orientation judgment task. During training, half of the participants received anodal tDCS stimulation targeted at the lateral occipital cortex (LO). Afterwards, participants were tested on how well they recognized the trained objects, the irrelevant objects presented during the orientation judgment task and a set of completely new objects. Participants stimulated with tDCS during training showed larger improvements of performance compared to participants in the sham condition. No learning effect was found for the objects presented during the orientation judgment task. To conclude, this study suggests a causal role of LO in relevant object learning, but given the rather low spatial resolution of tDCS, more research on the specificity of this effect is needed. Further, mere exposure is not sufficient to train object recognition in our paradigm.

Simulation of operator's actions during severe accident management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Viktorov, A.

2015-01-01

Implementing accident management counter measures or actions to mitigate consequences of a severe accident is essential to reduce radiological risks to the public and environment. Station-specific severe accident management guidelines (SAMGs) have been developed and implemented at all Canadian nuclear power plants. Following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident certain enhancements were introduced to the SAMG, namely consideration of multi-units accidents, events involving spent fuel pools, incorporation of capability offered by the portable emergency mitigating equipment, and so on. To evaluate the adequacy and usability of the SAMGs, CNSC staff initiated a number of activities including a desktop review of SAMG documentation, evaluation of SAMG implementation through exercises and interviews with station staff, and independent verification of SAMG action effectiveness. This paper focuses on the verification of SAMG actions through analytical simulations. The objectives of the work are two-folds: (a) to understand the effectiveness of SAMG-specified mitigation actions in addressing the safety challenges and (b) to check for potential negative effects of the action. Some sensitivity calculations were performed to help understanding of the impact from actions that rely on the partially effective equipment or limited material resources. The severe accident computer code MAAP4-CANDU is used as a tool in this verification. This paper will describe the methodology used in the verification of SAMG actions and some results obtained from simulations. (author)

More than Meets the Eye: Age Differences in the Capture and Suppression of Oculomotor Action

Science.gov (United States)

Ridderinkhof, K. Richard; Wijnen, Jasper G.

2011-01-01

Salient visual stimuli capture attention and trigger an eye-movement toward its location reflexively, regardless of an observer’s intentions. Here we aim to investigate the effect of aging (1) on the extent to which salient yet task-irrelevant stimuli capture saccades, and (2) on the ability to selectively suppress such oculomotor responses. Young and older adults were asked to direct their eyes to a target appearing in a stimulus array. Analysis of overall performance shows that saccades to the target object were disrupted by the appearance of a task-irrelevant abrupt-onset distractor when the location of this distractor did not coincide with that of the target object. Conditional capture function analyses revealed that, compared to young adults, older adults were more susceptible to oculomotor capture, and exhibited deficient selective suppression of the responses captured by task-irrelevant distractors. These effects were uncorrelated, suggesting two independent sources off age-related decline. Thus, with advancing age, salient visual distractors become more distracting; in part because they trigger reflexive eye-movements more potently; in part because of failing top-down control over such reflexes. The fact that these process-specific age effects remained concealed in overall oculomotor performance analyses emphasizes the utility of looking beyond the surface; indeed, there may be more than meets the eye. PMID:22046165

A behavioral intervention tool for recreation managers

Science.gov (United States)

S.M. Burn; P.L. Winter

2008-01-01

Depreciative behaviors and other undesirable recreationist actions continue to be a topic of great interest for recreation management (fig. 1). Maintaining park ecosystems involves responding to and preventing damage from depreciative recreationist behavior, and recreation managers are charged with developing and selecting eff ective tools to address the costly and...

The effective action in Einstein-Maxwell theory

OpenAIRE

Bastianelli, Fiorenzo; Davila, Jose Manuel; Schubert, Christian

2008-01-01

Considerable work has been done on the one-loop effective action in combined electromagnetic and gravitational fields, particularly as a tool for determining the properties of light propagation in curved space. After a short review of previous work, I present some recent results obtained using the worldline formalism. In particular, I will discuss various ways of generalizing the QED Euler-Heisenberg Lagrangian to the Einstein-Maxwell case.

Radioactive contamination, what actions for the polluted sites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2004-01-01

The nuclear safety authority and the direction of prevention of pollutions and risks have organised the first edition of the national colloquium: radioactive contamination: what actions for polluted sites. Four axes can be taken to follow this colloquium: prevention, outstanding tools to evaluate risks and rehabilitation, a better responsibility of operators and memory keeping. (N.C.)

Integrating spatial support tools into strategic planning-SEA of the GMS North-South Economic Corridor Strategy and Action Plan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ramachandran, Pavit; Linde, Lothar

2011-01-01

The GMS countries, supported by the Asian Development Bank, have adopted a holistic, multidimensional approach to strengthen infrastructural linkages and facilitate cross border trade through (i) the establishment of a trans-boundary road connecting two economic nodes across marginalised areas, followed by 2) facilitation of environmentally and socially sound investments in these newly connected areas as a means to develop livelihoods. The North-South Economic Corridor is currently in its second phase of development, with investment opportunities to be laid out in the NSEC Strategy and Action Plan (SAP). It targets the ecologically and culturally sensitive border area between PR China's Yunnan Province, Northern Lao PDR, and Thailand. A trans-boundary, cross-sectoral Strategic Environmental Assessment was conducted to support the respective governments in assessing potential environmental and social impacts, developing alternatives and mitigation options, and feeding the findings back into the SAP writing process. Given the spatial dimension of corridor development-both with regard to opportunities and risks-particular emphasis was put in the application of spatial modelling tools to help geographically locate and quantify impacts as a means to guide interventions and set priorities.

Technical Paper on Physical Planning and Monitoring Tools

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vagnby, Bo Hellisen

and maintenance of such buildings.    Further, the paper outlines a number of physical planning and building tools to guide future planning and design development, and it suggests a range of action-oriented operational evaluation studies in order to improve the physical learning environment....

Simon and Garner effects with color and location: Evidence for two independent routes by which irrelevant location influences performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Fitousi, Daniel

2016-11-01

Classic theories of attention assume that the processing of a target's featural dimension (e.g., color) is contingent on the processing of its spatial location. The present study challenges this maxim. Three experiments evaluated the dimensional independence of spatial location and color using a combined Simon (Simon & Rudell Journal of Applied Psychology: 51, 300-304, 1967) and Garner (Garner, 1974) design. The results showed that when the stimulus's spatial location was rendered more discriminable than its color (Experiment 1 and 2), both Simon and Garner effects were obtained, and location interfered with color judgments to a larger extent than color intruded on location. However, when baseline discriminabilities of location and color were matched (Experiment 3), no Garner interference was obtained from location to color, yet Simon effects still emerged, proving resilient to manipulations of discriminability. Further correlational and distributional analyses showed that Garner and Simon effects have dissociable effects. A triple-route model is proposed to account for the results, according to which irrelevant location can influence performance via two independent location routes/codes.

"My Heart Die in Me": Idioms of Distress and the Development of a Screening Tool for Mental Suffering in Southeast Liberia.

Science.gov (United States)

Fabian, Katrin; Fannoh, Josiah; Washington, George G; Geninyan, Wilfred B; Nyachienga, Bethuel; Cyrus, Garmai; Hallowanger, Joyce N; Beste, Jason; Rao, Deepa; Wagenaar, Bradley H

2018-05-04

The integration of culturally salient idioms of distress into mental healthcare delivery is essential for effective screening, diagnosis, and treatment. This study systematically explored idioms, explanatory models, and conceptualizations in Maryland County, Liberia to develop a culturally-resonant screening tool for mental distress. We employed a sequential mixed-methods process of: (1) free-lists and semi-structured interviews (n = 20); patient chart reviews (n = 315); (2) pile-sort exercises, (n = 31); and (3) confirmatory focus group discussions (FGDs); (n = 3) from June to December 2017. Free-lists identified 64 idioms of distress, 36 of which were eliminated because they were poorly understood, stigmatizing, irrelevant, or redundant. The remaining 28 terms were used in pile-sort exercises to visualize the interrelatedness of idioms. Confirmatory FDGs occurred before and after the pile-sort exercise to explain findings. Four categories of idioms resulted, the most substantial of which included terms related to the heart and to the brain/mind. The final screening tool took into account 11 idioms and 6 physical symptoms extracted from patient chart reviews. This study provides the framework for culturally resonant mental healthcare by cataloguing language around mental distress and designing an emic screening tool for validation in a clinical setting.

National action plan 2011-2015 for the management of the radon-related risk. Assessment of the National action plan 2011-2015 for the management of the radon-related risk

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grall, Jean-Yves; Crepon, Etienne; Combrexelle, Jean-Denis; Niel, Jean-Christophe

2011-01-01

After a presentation of the context, and a brief assessment of the previous national action plan (2005-2008), a first report presents the second national action plan for 2011-2015 with its 8 main axes (implementation of a policy for the management of radon-related risk in existing dwellings, implementation of a regulation for new dwellings, follow-up of the regulation for buildings open to public and of the regulations applied to workers, development of new management tools and of a new operational device to perform building diagnosis and to perform works by building professionals, coordination of the study and research policy) and its 8 main measures. After a synthetic presentation of actions, 30 sheets present the different actions associated with each axis. A second report proposes an assessment of these 30 actions

Automated knowledge acquisition - an aid to understanding the actions of a skilled operator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wright, R.M.

1990-01-01

The operator of an accelerator experiment often appears to be a highly skilled magician. The diagnostics used, such as oscilloscope traces, may be only indirectly related to the state of the accelerator. The operator adjusts the knobs so that the experiment runs well, but is not always able to describe in words exactly what is happening. The tool described in this paper, acc-plot-tool, was developed as a supplement to note-taking while attempting to develop an expert system that might function as an apprentice operator. During an experiment, a historical record is made of all operator actions and the resulting changes in the state of the equipment, including digitized records of the oscilloscope traces used to make decisions. These records are transformed into a set of graphical objects in the knowledge engineering environment (KEE). A flexible set of KEE functions has been developed, allowing both graphical and numerical manipulation of the data. The acc-plot-tool is not only useful in helping to understand the operator's actions, but also in discovering correlations between operator actions and system-parameter changes, in detecting equipment failures and in the mathematical modeling of the system. Examples will be given from ion-source operation. (orig.)

Using action research to design bereavement software: engaging people with intellectual disabilities for effective development.

Science.gov (United States)

Read, Sue; Nte, Sol; Corcoran, Patsy; Stephens, Richard

2013-05-01

 Loss is a universal experience and death is perceived as the ultimate loss. The overarching aim of this research is to produce a qualitative, flexible, interactive, computerised tool to support the facilitation of emotional expressions around loss for people with intellectual disabilities. This paper explores the process of using Participatory Action Research (PAR) to develop this tool.  Participator Action Research provided the indicative framework for the process of developing a software tool that is likely to be used in practice. People with intellectual disability worked alongside researchers to produce an accessible, flexible piece of software that can facilitate storytelling around loss and bereavement and promote spontaneous expression that can be shared with others. This tool has the capacity to enable individuals to capture experiences in a storyboard format; that can be stored; is easily retrievable; can be printed out; and could feasibly be personalised by the insertion of photographs. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Decision-support tools for climate change mitigation planning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Puig, Daniel; Aparcana Robles, Sandra Roxana

. For example, in the case of life-cycle analysis, the evaluation criterion entails that the impacts of interest are examined across the entire life-cycle of the product under study, from extraction of raw materials, to product disposal. Effectively, then, the choice of decision-support tool directs......This document describes three decision-support tools that can aid the process of planning climate change mitigation actions. The phrase ‘decision-support tools’ refers to science-based analytical procedures that facilitate the evaluation of planning options (individually or compared to alternative...... options) against a particular evaluation criterion or set of criteria. Most often decision-support tools are applied with the help of purpose-designed software packages and drawing on specialised databases.The evaluation criteria alluded to above define and characterise each decision-support tool...

Developmental screening tools: feasibility of use at primary healthcare level in low- and middle-income settings.

Science.gov (United States)

Fischer, Vinicius Jobim; Morris, Jodi; Martines, José

2014-06-01

An estimated 150 million children have a disability. Early identification of developmental disabilities is a high priority for the World Health Organization to allow action to reduce impairments through Gap Action Program on mental health. The study identified the feasibility of using the developmental screening and monitoring tools for children aged 0-3 year(s) by non-specialist primary healthcare providers in low-resource settings. A systematic review of the literature was conducted to identify the tools, assess their psychometric properties, and feasibility of use in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Key indicators to examine feasibility in LMICs were derived from a consultation with 23 international experts. We identified 426 studies from which 14 tools used in LMICs were extracted for further examination. Three tools reported adequate psychometric properties and met most of the feasibility criteria. Three tools appear promising for use in identifying and monitoring young children with disabilities at primary healthcare level in LMICs. Further research and development are needed to optimize these tools.

Captured by Motion: Dance, Action Understanding, and Social Cognition

Science.gov (United States)

Sevdalis, Vassilis; Keller, Peter E.

2011-01-01

In this review article, we summarize the main findings from empirical studies that used dance-related forms of rhythmical full body movement as a research tool for investigating action understanding and social cognition. This work has proven to be informative about behavioral and brain mechanisms that mediate links between perceptual and motor…

Blinded by Irrelevance: Pure Irrelevance Induced "Blindness"

Science.gov (United States)

Eitam, Baruch; Yeshurun, Yaffa; Hassan, Kinneret

2013-01-01

To what degree does our representation of the immediate world depend solely on its relevance to what we are currently doing? We examined whether relevance per se can cause "blindness," even when there is no resource limitation. In a novel paradigm, people looked at a colored circle surrounded by a differently colored ring--the task relevance of…

Practical aspects of the use of FMEA tool in clinical laboratory risk management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Elizabete Mendes

2013-06-01

Full Text Available INTRODUCTION: This paper presents the failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA tool in a clinical laboratory through the introduction of new technology for blood gas and serum ionized calcium in multi-parameter analyzers such as Point of Care Testing (POCT. OBJECTIVE: To present FMEA as a tool for risk managing and improvement with the introduction of new technologies in a public laboratory. METHODS: The change of multiparameter gas analyzer type POCT was defined and described as a process. Subsequently, the criteria were presented to the risk assessment and its quantification. We studied the failure modes that might occur in this process. We established three action plans involving improvements to be made in the technological change. FMEA was applied in two stages: at the beginning of the project and after the implementation of the proposed measures. RESULTS: The first plan involved administrative measures related to the bidding process; the second preventive action involved the possibility of which supplier would win the bid by studying the efficiency of the analyzer and its impact on productivity; the third set of actions was directed to improvements in the relationship with the clinical staff in order to minimize occasional complaints. The last actions referred to employing new employees to meet the growing demand. CONCLUSION: FMEA proved to be a reliable tool for performance improvement, which proactively identifies, prioritizes and mitigates patient risks.

Energy conservation 1999-2002. Programme of action; Energiebesparing 1999-2002. Actieprogramma

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1999-07-01

In this programme of action it is described what contribution the Dutch government expects from different sectors and target groups in the Dutch society. Also an overview is given of the tools that can be used to realize energy conservation targets. Activities for energy efficiency improvements concern a goal-oriented approach of final consumers, a clear division of responsibilities within the Dutch government, and an important role for the intermediary organizations. In the programme of action eight different groups of final consumers are distinguished: the energy-intensive industry, the medium-sized businesses, the profit sector, medium and small businesses, the agricultural sector, the non-profit sector, governmental bodies, and households. The tools that can be applied are bench-marking and long-range agreements on energy efficiency improvements for the energy-intensive industry, and taxes and levies, counselling and regulations for the other sectors. It is stressed that the programme of action can only be successful if every party involved (governmental departments, intermediaries, such as municipalities, energy suppliers and societal organizations) are willing to cooperate actively. Special attention is paid to the subject of monitoring to control the progress and quality of the activities and measures to be taken

Young Children's Imitative and Innovative Behaviour on the Floating Object Task

Science.gov (United States)

Nielsen, Mark

2013-01-01

Past research has shown that children will copy the actions of adults with high fidelity, even actions that are obviously causally irrelevant to the modelled outcome. However, this phenomenon has always been documented in cases where a clear functional outcome has been brought about (e.g. getting a box open to retrieve a toy). Here, we demonstrate…

A Path to Actionable Climate Science: Perspectives from the Field

Science.gov (United States)

DeCrappeo, Nicole M.; Bisbal, Gustavo A.; Meadow, Alison M.

2018-02-01

The U.S. Department of the Interior Climate Science Centers (CSCs) work with natural and cultural resource managers and scientists to gather information and build tools needed to help fish, wildlife, and ecosystems adapt to the impacts of climate change. The CSCs prioritize the delivery of actionable science products (e.g., synthesized scientific information, maps, decision support tools, etc.) that are focused on key management priorities and co-produced by teams of scientists and managers. In the specific case of the Northwest CSC, we have been successful at promoting and supporting the co-production of actionable climate science at the individual project level, but it has been more difficult to replicate this success at the regional program level. Here we identify the most significant challenges in satisfying this mandate and propose the creation of a Science Advisory Panel to provide improved interface between resource managers and scientists engaged with the Northwest CSC.

The first toxicological study of the antiozonant and research tool ethylene diurea (EDU) using a Lemna minor L. bioassay: Hints to its mode of action.

Science.gov (United States)

Agathokleous, Eugenios; Mouzaki-Paxinou, Akrivi-Chara; Saitanis, Costas J; Paoletti, Elena; Manning, William J

2016-06-01

The antiozonant and research tool ethylene diurea (EDU) is widely studied as a phytoprotectant against the widespread pollutant ground-surface ozone. Although it has been extensively used, its potential toxicity in the absence of ozone is unknown and its mode of action is unclear. The purpose of this research was to toxicologically assess EDU and to further investigate its mode of action using Lemna minor L. as a model organism. Application of EDU concentrations greater than 593 mg L(-1) (practically 600 mg L(-1)) resulted in adverse inhibition of colony growth. As no-observed-toxic-effects concentration (NOEL) we recommend a concentration of 296 mg L(-1) (practically 300 mg L(-1)). A hormetic response was detected, i.e. stimulatory effects of low EDU concentrations, which may indicate overcompensation in response to disruption in homeostasis. Growth inhibition and suppressed biomass were associated with impacted chlorophyll a fluorescence (ΦPSII, qP and ETR). Furthermore, EDU increased mesophyll thickness, as indicated by frond succulence index. Applications of concentrations ≥593 mg L(-1) to uncontrolled environments should be avoided due to potential toxicity to sensitive organisms and the environment. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

AN ANALYSIS OF THE CAUSES OF PRODUCT DEFECTS USING QUALITY MANAGEMENT TOOLS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katarzyna MIDOR

2014-10-01

Full Text Available To stay or strengthen its position on the market, a modern business needs to follow the principles of quality control in its actions. Especially important is the Zero Defects concept developed by Philip Crosby, which means flawless production. The concept consists in preventing the occurrence of defects and flaws in all production stages. To achieve that, we must, among other things, make use of quality management tools. This article presents an analysis of the reasons for the return of damaged or faulty goods in the automotive industry by means of quality management tools such as the Ishikawa diagram and Pareto analysis, which allow us to identify the causes of product defectiveness. Based on the results, preventive measures have been proposed. The actions presented in this article and the results of the analysis prove the effectiveness of the aforementioned quality management tools.

English for Business: Student Responses to Language Learning through Social Networking Tools

Science.gov (United States)

García Laborda, Jesús; Litzler, Mary Frances

2017-01-01

This action research based case study addresses the situation of a first year class of Business English students at Universidad de Alcalá and their attitudes towards using Web 2.0 tools and social media for language learning. During the semester, the students were asked to collaborate in the creation and use of some tools such as blogs, video…

Near-Term Actions to Address Long-Term Climate Risk

Science.gov (United States)

Lempert, R. J.

2014-12-01

Addressing climate change requires effective long-term policy making, which occurs when reflecting on potential events decades or more in the future causes policy makers to choose near-term actions different than those they would otherwise pursue. Contrary to some expectations, policy makers do sometimes make such long-term decisions, but not as commonly and successfully as climate change may require. In recent years however, the new capabilities of analytic decision support tools, combined with improved understanding of cognitive and organizational behaviors, has significantly improved the methods available for organizations to manage longer-term climate risks. In particular, these tools allow decision makers to understand what near-term actions consistently contribute to achieving both short- and long-term societal goals, even in the face of deep uncertainty regarding the long-term future. This talk will describe applications of these approaches for infrastructure, water, and flood risk management planning, as well as studies of how near-term choices about policy architectures can affect long-term greenhouse gas emission reduction pathways.

Claire, a simulation and testing tool for critical softwares

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gassino, J.; Henry, J.Y.

1996-01-01

The CEA and IPSN (Institute of Nuclear Protection and Safety) needs concerning the testing of critical softwares, have led to the development of the CLAIRE tool which is able to test the softwares without modification. This tool allows to graphically model the system and its environment and to include components into the model which observe and do not modify the behaviour of the system to be tested. The executable codes are integrated in the model. The tool uses target machine simulators (microprocessors). The technique used (the event simulation) allows to associate actions with events such as the execution of an instruction, the access to a variable etc.. The simulation results are exploited using graphic, states research and test cover measurement tools. In particular, this tool can give help to the evaluation of critical softwares with pre-existing components. (J.S.)

When your arm becomes mine: pathological embodiment of alien limbs using tools modulates own body representation.

Science.gov (United States)

Garbarini, Francesca; Fossataro, Carlotta; Berti, Anna; Gindri, Patrizia; Romano, Daniele; Pia, Lorenzo; della Gatta, Francesco; Maravita, Angelo; Neppi-Modona, Marco

2015-04-01

Previous evidence has shown that active tool-use can reshape one's own body schema, extend peripersonal space and modulate the representation of related body parts. Here we investigate the effect of tool-use training on length representation of the contralesional forearm in brain-damaged hemiplegic patients who manifested a pathological embodiment of other people body parts. Four patients and 20 aged-matched healthy-controls were asked to estimate the mid-point of their contralesional forearm before and after 15 min of tool-use training (i.e. retrieving targets with a garbage plier). In the case of patients, training was always performed by the examiner's (alien) arm acting in two different positions, aligned (where the pathological embodiment occurs; E+ condition) or misaligned (where the pathological embodiment does not occur; E- condition) relative to the patients' shoulder. Healthy controls performed tool-use training either with their own arm (action condition) or observing the examiner's arm performing the task (observation condition), handling (observation with-tool condition) or not (observation without-tool condition) a similar tool. Crucially, in the E+ condition, when patients were convinced to perform the tool-use training with their own paralyzed arm, a significant overestimation effect was found (as in the Action condition with normal subjects): patients mislocated their forearm midpoint more proximally to the hand in the post- than in the pre-training phase. Conversely, in the E- condition, they did not show any overestimation effect, similarly to healthy subjects in the observation condition (neither in the with-tool nor in the without-tool condition significant overestimation effects were found). These findings show the existence of a tight link between spatial, motor and bodily representations and provide strong evidence that a pathological sense of body ownership can extend to intentional motor processes and modulate the sensory map of action

State-Based Curriculum-Making, Part 2, the Tool-Kit for the State's Curriculum-Making

Science.gov (United States)

Westbury, Ian; Sivesind, Kirsten

2016-01-01

The paper identifies three tools that support the administrative instrument of a state-based curriculum commission: compartmentalization, licensing, and segmentation. These tools channel the state's curriculum-making towards forms of symbolic rather than regulatory action. The state curriculum becomes a framework for the ideological governance of…

Collaborative Action Research on Technology Integration for Science Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Chien-hsing; Ke, Yi-Ting; Wu, Jin-Tong; Hsu, Wen-Hua

2012-01-01

This paper briefly reports the outcomes of an action research inquiry on the use of blogs, MS PowerPoint [PPT], and the Internet as learning tools with a science class of sixth graders for project-based learning. Multiple sources of data were essential to triangulate the key findings articulated in this paper. Corresponding to previous studies,…

Action Learning: Avoiding Conflict or Enabling Action

Science.gov (United States)

Corley, Aileen; Thorne, Ann

2006-01-01

Action learning is based on the premise that action and learning are inextricably entwined and it is this potential, to enable action, which has contributed to the growth of action learning within education and management development programmes. However has this growth in action learning lead to an evolution or a dilution of Revan's classical…

The Humanitarian Action Qualifications Framework: a quality assurance tool for the Humanitarian Sector

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bastiaan L. Aardema

2014-07-01

Full Text Available The article presents the European Universities on Professionalisation on Humanitarian Action (EUPRHA Project as an initiative that seeks to contribute to the professionalisation and quality assurance of the humanitarian sector. Its purpose is to explain the approach and the process leading to the development of the Humanitarian Action Qualifications Framework as an example of good practice for other sectors aiming at improving the recognition of qualifications as a precondition of academic and professional mobility. With this aim, it introduces the educational and humanitarian trends that led to this project: the move from transnational qualifications frameworks of which the European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning (EQF is the best example to sectoral qualifications frameworks and the increasing demand from the sector seeking to determine the competencies and required skills of a professional humanitarian aid worker. Based on the EQF and the Tuning methodology the framework will act as a translating device to make national and sectoral qualifications more readable and promote humanitarian workers’ and learners’ mobility between countries and organisations. It will facilitate inter-system transparency and recognition of (non-formal and informal learning by linking occupations, skills, competences, and qualifications, thus benefiting the Humanitarian Sector as a whole.

Enforcement actions: Significant actions resolved

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1990-05-01

This compilation summarizes significant enforcement actions that have been resolved during one quarterly period (January--March 1990) and includes copies of letters, Notices, and Orders sent by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to licensees with respect to these enforcement actions. Also included are a number of enforcement actions that had been previously resolved but not published in this NUREG. It is anticipated that the information in this publication will be widely disseminated to managers and employees engaged in activities licensed by the NRC, so that actions can be taken to improve safety by avoiding future violations similar to those described in this publication

Enforcement actions: Significant actions resolved

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1989-06-01

This compilation summarizes significant enforcement actions that have been resolved during one quarterly period (January--March 1989) and includes copies of letters, Notices, and Orders sent by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to licensees with respect to these enforcement actions. Also included are a number of enforcement actions that had been previously resolved but not published in this NUREG. It is anticipated that the information in this publication will be widely disseminated to managers and employees engaged in activities licensed by the NRC, so that actions can be taken to improve safety by avoiding future violations similar to those described in this publication

Instruments of Inquiry: Understanding the Nature and Role of Design Tools

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dalsgaard, Peter

2017-01-01

Designers employ a range of tools in most design projects, yet there are few frameworks for understanding how and why they work. On the basis of a well-established school of thought, pragmatism, this paper contributes with a coherent conceptualisation of tools in design, which I label instruments...... of inquiry. This perspective underscores the crucial role that instruments play in design, and the ways in which they scaffold design creativity and exploration. In particular, it highlights that instruments not only augment our capabilities for carrying out intended actions, they also guide our perception...... and understanding of design problems and solutions. I present and discuss a framework consisting of five qualities of instruments of inquiry, which make them valuable in designerly inquiry: perception, conception, externalisation, knowing-through-action, and mediation....

Corrective Action Plan for Corrective Action Unit 254: Area 25 R-MAD Decontamination Facility Nevada Test Site, Nevada

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Obi, C.M.

2000-01-01

The Area 25 Reactor Maintenance, Assembly, and Disassembly Decontamination Facility is identified in the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order (FFACO) as Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 254. CAU 254 is located in Area 25 of the Nevada Test Site and consists of a single Corrective Action Site CAS 25-23-06. CAU 254 will be closed, in accordance with the FFACO of 1996. CAU 254 was used primarily to perform radiological decontamination and consists of Building 3126, two outdoor decontamination pads, and surrounding soil within an existing perimeter fence. The site was used to decontaminate nuclear rocket test-car hardware and tooling from the early 1960s through the early 1970s, and to decontaminate a military tank in the early 1980s. The site characterization results indicate that, in places, the surficial soil and building materials exceed clean-up criteria for organic compounds, metals, and radionuclides. Closure activities are expected to generate waste streams consisting of nonhazardous construction waste. petroleum hydrocarbon waste, hazardous waste, low-level radioactive waste, and mixed waste. Some of the wastes exceed land disposal restriction limits and will require off-site treatment before disposal. The recommended corrective action was revised to Alternative 3- ''Unrestricted Release Decontamination, Verification Survey, and Dismantle Building 3126,'' in an addendum to the Correction Action Decision Document

Care management actions in the Family Health Strategy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcelo Costa Fernandes

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Objective: to identify, from nurses’ speeches, the actions that enable care management in the Family Health Strategy.Methods: descriptive study with a qualitative approach conducted with 32 nurses of primary care. It was used a semistructuredinterview as the data collection technique. The methodological process of the collective subject discourse wasused to organize the data Results: from the nurses’ speeches one identified the categories: complementary relationshipbetween care and management; meeting with community health agents, a care management strategy in nurses’ work;health education activities such as a care management action and a health information system as an essential tool forcare Conclusion: it was possible to observe that nurses understood the importance of coordination and complementaritybetween the activities of the working process of care and management.

DWFS: A Wrapper Feature Selection Tool Based on a Parallel Genetic Algorithm

KAUST Repository

Soufan, Othman

2015-02-26

Many scientific problems can be formulated as classification tasks. Data that harbor relevant information are usually described by a large number of features. Frequently, many of these features are irrelevant for the class prediction. The efficient implementation of classification models requires identification of suitable combinations of features. The smaller number of features reduces the problem\\'s dimensionality and may result in higher classification performance. We developed DWFS, a web-based tool that allows for efficient selection of features for a variety of problems. DWFS follows the wrapper paradigm and applies a search strategy based on Genetic Algorithms (GAs). A parallel GA implementation examines and evaluates simultaneously large number of candidate collections of features. DWFS also integrates various filteringmethods thatmay be applied as a pre-processing step in the feature selection process. Furthermore, weights and parameters in the fitness function of GA can be adjusted according to the application requirements. Experiments using heterogeneous datasets from different biomedical applications demonstrate that DWFS is fast and leads to a significant reduction of the number of features without sacrificing performance as compared to several widely used existing methods. DWFS can be accessed online at www.cbrc.kaust.edu.sa/dwfs.

DWFS: A Wrapper Feature Selection Tool Based on a Parallel Genetic Algorithm

KAUST Repository

Soufan, Othman; Kleftogiannis, Dimitrios A.; Kalnis, Panos; Bajic, Vladimir B.

2015-01-01

Many scientific problems can be formulated as classification tasks. Data that harbor relevant information are usually described by a large number of features. Frequently, many of these features are irrelevant for the class prediction. The efficient implementation of classification models requires identification of suitable combinations of features. The smaller number of features reduces the problem's dimensionality and may result in higher classification performance. We developed DWFS, a web-based tool that allows for efficient selection of features for a variety of problems. DWFS follows the wrapper paradigm and applies a search strategy based on Genetic Algorithms (GAs). A parallel GA implementation examines and evaluates simultaneously large number of candidate collections of features. DWFS also integrates various filteringmethods thatmay be applied as a pre-processing step in the feature selection process. Furthermore, weights and parameters in the fitness function of GA can be adjusted according to the application requirements. Experiments using heterogeneous datasets from different biomedical applications demonstrate that DWFS is fast and leads to a significant reduction of the number of features without sacrificing performance as compared to several widely used existing methods. DWFS can be accessed online at www.cbrc.kaust.edu.sa/dwfs.

Review Essay: From Local Practices to Public Knowledge: Action Research as Scientific Contribution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joel Martí

2008-07-01

Full Text Available In recent years action research has been gradually introduced into academic thought, giving impetus to contributions such as The Action Research Dissertation, specifically aimed at doing and reporting doctoral research based on this methodology. Beyond purely instrumental aspects (contributing criteria and tools for the execution of dissertations through action research, the book raises some issues that play a fundamental role in assessing action research at the university level: its epistemological bases, researchers' positionality, quality criteria, and the ways in which the process is narrated. This review essay introduces the debate (Section 1, reviews the chapters of the book (Section 2, and notes its contributions to this ongoing discussion and where it falls short, and, more generally, on the relation between universities, action research, and social practices (Section 3. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs080320

Feeder replacement tooling and processes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mallozzi, R.; Goslin, R.; Pink, D.; Askari, A.

2008-01-01

Primary heat transport system feeder integrity has become a concern at some CANDU nuclear plants as a result of thinning caused by flow accelerated corrosion (FAC). Feeder inspections are indicating that life-limiting wall thinning can occur in the region between the Grayloc hub weld and second elbow of some outlet feeders. In some cases it has become necessary to replace thinned sections of affected feeders to restore feeder integrity to planned end of life. Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) and Babcock and Wilcox Canada Ltd. (B and W) have developed a new capability for replacement of single feeders at any location on the reactor face without impacting or interrupting operation of neighbouring feeders. This new capability consists of deploying trained crews with specialized tools and procedures for feeder replacements during planned outages. As may be expected, performing single feeder replacement in the congested working environment of an operational CANDU reactor face involves overcoming many challenges with respect to access to feeders, available clearances for tooling, and tooling operation and performance. This paper describes some of the challenges encountered during single feeder replacements and actions being taken by AECL and B and W to promote continuous improvement of feeder replacement tooling and processes and ensure well-executed outages. (author)

Neural basis of superior performance of action videogame players in an attention-demanding task.

Science.gov (United States)

Mishra, Jyoti; Zinni, Marla; Bavelier, Daphne; Hillyard, Steven A

2011-01-19

Steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) were recorded from action videogame players (VGPs) and from non-videogame players (NVGPs) during an attention-demanding task. Participants were presented with a multi-stimulus display consisting of rapid sequences of alphanumeric stimuli presented at rates of 8.6/12 Hz in the left/right peripheral visual fields, along with a central square at fixation flashing at 5.5 Hz and a letter sequence flashing at 15 Hz at an upper central location. Subjects were cued to attend to one of the peripheral or central stimulus sequences and detect occasional targets. Consistent with previous behavioral studies, VGPs detected targets with greater speed and accuracy than NVGPs. This behavioral advantage was associated with an increased suppression of SSVEP amplitudes to unattended peripheral sequences in VGPs relative to NVGPs, whereas the magnitude of the attended SSVEPs was equivalent in the two groups. Group differences were also observed in the event-related potentials to targets in the alphanumeric sequences, with the target-elicited P300 component being of larger amplitude in VGPS than NVGPs. These electrophysiological findings suggest that the superior target detection capabilities of the VGPs are attributable, at least in part, to enhanced suppression of distracting irrelevant information and more effective perceptual decision processes.

Controlling Attention through Action: Observing Actions Primes Action-Related Stimulus Dimensions

Science.gov (United States)

Fagioli, Sabrina; Ferlazzo, Fabio; Hommel, Bernhard

2007-01-01

Previous findings suggest that planning an action "backward-primes" perceptual dimension related to this action: planning a grasp facilitates the processing of visual size information, while planning a reach facilitates the processing of location information. Here we show that dimensional priming of perception through action occurs even in the…

AIR Tools II: algebraic iterative reconstruction methods, improved implementation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Per Christian; Jørgensen, Jakob Sauer

2017-01-01

with algebraic iterative methods and their convergence properties. The present software is a much expanded and improved version of the package AIR Tools from 2012, based on a new modular design. In addition to improved performance and memory use, we provide more flexible iterative methods, a column-action method...

The tools of cooperation and change.

Science.gov (United States)

Christensen, Clayton M; Marx, Matt; Stevenson, Howard H

2006-10-01

Employers can choose from lots of tools when they want to encourage employees to work together toward a new corporate goal. One of the rarest managerial skills is the ability to understand which tools will work in a given situation and which will misfire. Cooperation tools fall into four major categories: power, management, leadership, and culture. Choosing the right tool, say the authors, requires assessing the organization along two critical dimensions: the extent to which people agree on what they want and the extent to which they agree on cause and effect, or how to get what they want. The authors plot on a matrix where various organizations fall along these two dimensions. Employees represented in the lower-left quadrant of the model, for example, disagree strongly both about what they want and on what actions will produce which results. Those in the upper-right quadrant agree on both dimensions. Different quadrants call for different tools. When employees share little consensus on either dimension, for instance, the only methods that will elicit cooperation are "power tools" such as fiat, force, and threats. Yugoslavia's Josip Broz Tito wielded such devices effectively. So did Jamie Dimon, current CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase, during the bank's integration with Bank One. For employees who agree on what they want but not on how to get it--think of Microsoft in 1995--leadership tools, such as vision statements, are more appropriate. Some leaders are blessed with an instinct for choosing the right tools--Continental Airlines' Gordon Bethune, General Electric's Jack Welch, and IBM's Lou Gerstner are all examples. Others can use this framework to help select the most appropriate tools for their circumstances.

Corrective Action Decision Document/Closure Report for Corrective Action Unit 504: 16a-Tunnel Muckpile, Nevada Test Site

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NSTec Environmental Restoration

2010-03-15

This Corrective Action Decision Document (CADD)/Closure Report (CR) was prepared by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) for Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 504, 16a-Tunnel Muckpile. This CADD/CR is consistent with the requirements of the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order (FFACO) agreed to by the State of Nevada; U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Environmental Management; U.S. Department of Defense; and DOE, Legacy Management. Corrective Action Unit 504 is comprised of four Corrective Action Sites (CASs): • 16-06-01, Muckpile • 16-23-01, Contaminated Burial Pit • 16-23-02, Contaminated Area • 16-99-01, Concrete Construction Waste Corrective Action Site 16-23-01 is not a burial pit; it is part of CAS 16-06-01. Therefore, there is not a separate data analysis and assessment for CAS 16-23-01; it is included as part of the assessment for CAS 16-06-01. In addition to these CASs, the channel between CAS 16-23-02 (Contaminated Area) and Mid Valley Road was investigated with walk-over radiological surveys and soil sampling using hand tools. The purpose of this CADD/CR is to provide justification and documentation supporting the recommendation for closure in place with use restrictions for CAU 504. A CADD was originally submitted for CAU 504 and approved by the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP). However, following an agreement between NDEP, DTRA, and the DOE, National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Site Office to change to a risk-based approach for assessing the corrective action investigation (CAI) data, NDEP agreed that the CAU could be re-evaluated using the risk-based approach and a CADD/CR prepared to close the site.

EEG alpha activity reflects motor preparation rather than the mode of action selection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marie-Pierre eDeiber

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Alpha-band activity (8-13 Hz is suppressed by sensory stimulation and movements, modulated by attention, working memory and mental tasks and may be sensitive to higher motor control functions. The aim of the present study was to examine alpha oscillatory activity during the preparation of simple left or right finger movements, contrasting the external and internal mode of action selection. Three preparation conditions were examined using a precueing paradigm with S1 as the preparatory and S2 as the imperative cue: Full, laterality instructed by S1; Free, laterality freely selected and None, laterality instructed by S2. Time-frequency analysis was performed in the alpha frequency range during the S1-S2 interval, and alpha motor-related amplitude asymmetries (MRAA were also calculated. The significant MRAA during the Full and Free conditions indicated effective external and internal motor response preparation. In the absence of specific motor preparation (None, a posterior alpha power decrease (event-related desynchronization, ERD dominated, reflecting the main engagement of attentional resources. In Full and Free motor preparation, posterior alpha ERD was accompanied by a midparietal alpha power increase (event-related synchronization, ERS, suggesting a concomitant inhibition of task-irrelevant visual activity. In both Full and Free motor preparation, analysis of alpha power according to MRAA amplitude revealed two types of functional activation patterns: 1 a motor alpha pattern, with predominantly midparietal alpha ERS and large MRAA corresponding to lateralized motor activation/visual inhibition and 2 an attentional alpha pattern, with dominating right posterior alpha ERD and small MRAA reflecting visuospatial attention. The present results suggest that alpha oscillatory patterns do not resolve the selection mode of action, but rather distinguish separate functional strategies of motor preparation. 

Student Engagement in Pharmacology Courses Using Online Learning Tools

Science.gov (United States)

Karaksha, Abdullah; Grant, Gary; Anoopkumar-Dukie, Shailendra; Nirthanan, S. Niru

2013-01-01

Objective. To assess factors influencing student engagement with e-tools used as a learning supplement to the standard curriculum in pharmacology courses. Design. A suite of 148 e-tools (interactive online teaching materials encompassing the basic mechanisms of action for different drug classes) were designed and implemented across 2 semesters for third-year pharmacy students. Assessment. Student engagement and use of this new teaching strategy were assessed using a survey instrument and usage statistics for the material. Use of e-tools during semester 1 was low, a finding attributable to a majority (75%) of students either being unaware of or forgetting about the embedded e-tools and a few (20%) lacking interest in accessing additional learning materials. In contrast to semester 1, e-tool use significantly increased in semester 2 with the use of frequent reminders and announcements (pstudent engagement after the implementation of a “marketing strategy” that included e-mail reminders and motivation. PMID:23966728

Student engagement in pharmacology courses using online learning tools.

Science.gov (United States)

Karaksha, Abdullah; Grant, Gary; Anoopkumar-Dukie, Shailendra; Nirthanan, S Niru; Davey, Andrew K

2013-08-12

To assess factors influencing student engagement with e-tools used as a learning supplement to the standard curriculum in pharmacology courses. A suite of 148 e-tools (interactive online teaching materials encompassing the basic mechanisms of action for different drug classes) were designed and implemented across 2 semesters for third-year pharmacy students. Student engagement and use of this new teaching strategy were assessed using a survey instrument and usage statistics for the material. Use of e-tools during semester 1 was low, a finding attributable to a majority (75%) of students either being unaware of or forgetting about the embedded e-tools and a few (20%) lacking interest in accessing additional learning materials. In contrast to semester 1, e-tool use significantly increased in semester 2 with the use of frequent reminders and announcements (ponline teaching and learning resources were only effective in increasing student engagement after the implementation of a "marketing strategy" that included e-mail reminders and motivation.

Problem Based Learning as a Cultural Tool for Health and Safety Learning in a Multi-national Company

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Adam, Henrik; Petersson, Eva

2013-01-01

The general background of this study is an interest in how cultural tools contribute to structuring learning activities. The specific interest is to explore how such tools co-determine employees’ problem solving actions in health, safety and environment (HSE) training activities in a multi...... learn to organise HSE actions in the context of using Problem Based Learning (PBL) applied as a cultural tool. More specifically, our interest is in how PBL promotes adult learning by drawing on learners’ experience and involving them in reflective and social processes in the given context......-national company context. Theoretically, the research takes its point of departure in a socio-cultural perspective on the role of cultural tools in learning, and in a complementary interest in the role of communicative framing of learning activities. In the research reported here, the focus is on how employees...

Using XFRACAS as a PVROM database tool.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hamman, Colin Joseph [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2014-04-01

ReliaSofts XFRACAS is a tool chosen by Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) for the purpose of collecting and organizing photovoltaic (PV) system field data that is to be used in assessing PV system reliability. It is a Web-based, closed-loop, incident (failure) reporting, analysis, and corrective action system software package designed for the acquisition, management and analysis of quality and reliability data from multiple sources. The ability to export PV system times-to-failure and times-to-suspension for ready analysis by ReliaSofts Weibull++ and RGA was a primary consideration in choosing XFRACAS as a reliability data collection tool.

Gaining a Competitive Edge through Action Design Research

Science.gov (United States)

Alexa, L.; Alexa, M.; Avasilcăi, S.

2016-08-01

The current business environment is characterized by increased competition and highly innovative approach, in order to create products and services to better respond to the costumers’ needs and expectations. In this specific context, the research approaches need to be more flexible and business oriented and so, throughout the paper we have used a research method that combines design research and action research, named Action Design Research which is a research method used for generating prescriptive design knowledge through building and evaluating IT artifacts in an organizational setting [1]. Following the Action Design Research stages and principles: problem identification, building, intervention and evaluation, reflection and learning and formalization of learning, the research team has developed an online instrument used to actively involve the consumer in the product development process, in order to generate a better consumers insight regarding their needs and desires and to design and/or adjust the product accordingly. The customer engagement IT tool created and tested by using Action Design Research, E-PICUS, has been developed within the framework of the research project „E-solutions for innovation through customer pro-active involvement in value creation to increase organisational competitiveness (E-PICUS)”, PN- II-PT-PCCA-2013-4-1811, currently undergoing.

Alternative Observation Tools for the Scope of Contemporary Education Supervision: An Action Research

Science.gov (United States)

Kuru Cetin, Saadet

2018-01-01

In this study, in-class lesson observations were made with volunteer teachers working in primary and secondary schools using alternative observation tools regarding the scope of contemporary educational supervision. The study took place during the fall and spring semesters of the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 academic years and the class observations…

Survey of advanced practice registered nurses disciplinary action.

Science.gov (United States)

Hudspeth, Randall

2007-04-02

The nursing profession continues to struggle to find the most appropriate approach to credentialing Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs). One early step in addressing this struggle is determining the incidence of APRN disciplinary actions by boards of nursing. This article presents data from 2003 and 2004 describing the incidence of APRN disciplinary actions by United States boards of nursing. Fifty-one boards of nursing, all members of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, were asked to report the numbers of APRN discipline cases for 2003 and 2004 which had been resolved, using a tool that differentiated disciplinary cases into four data categories: chemical impairment, exceeding scope of practice, unprofessional conduct, and safety or abuse of patients. Thirty-eight (74.5%) of 51 boards of nursing reported discipline data for a total of 125,882 APRNs showing 688 disciplinary actions were taken during 2003 and 2004. This indicates that APRNs experience a low incidence of discipline related to chemical impairment, exceeding scope of practice, unprofessional conduct, and safety or abuse of patients.

HiRITER - An evaluation tool to reduce the adverse effect of inappropriate human actions in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, J.; Jung, W.; Kim, J.; Kim, S.; Heo, G.

2012-01-01

From end-users to regulatory bodies, it is widely recognized that human-induced events including inappropriate human actions are one of the most crucial sources degrading the overall safety of nuclear power plants (NPPs). This means that a systematic framework through which inappropriate human actions can be effectively identified is necessary to enhance the safety of NPPs. For this reason, HiRITER (High Risk Inducible Task Evaluator) has been developed, which is able to evaluate the effect of inappropriate human actions on risk as well as performance. To this end, HiRITER integrates three modules that have distinctive roles: human error prediction module that is able to determine the types of failure modes resulting from inappropriate human actions with the associated daily task, performance evaluation module that computes the loss of electric power due to the change of component configurations caused by human error and risk evaluation module that clarifies whether or not the propagation of human error can trigger an unexpected shutdown of NPPs. In addition, a couple of real events that had occurred in domestic NPPs are simulated in order to validate the feasibility of HiRITER. As a result, it is observed that the results of HiRITER are largely congruent with those of real events. Therefore, although a huge amount of additional effort is indispensable to enhance the overall accuracy of estimated results, it is expected that HiRITER could be a good starting point to reduce the adverse effect of inappropriate human actions in NPPs

Cultural differences in the imitation and transmission of inefficient actions.

Science.gov (United States)

Corriveau, Kathleen H; DiYanni, Cara J; Clegg, Jennifer M; Min, Grace; Chin, Jason; Nasrini, Jad

2017-09-01

Across two studies, we explored cultural differences in children's imitation and transmission of inefficient actions. Chinese American and Caucasian American preschoolers (N=115) viewed either one or three models using two inefficient tools to perform two different tasks. In the video, when the model(s) performed the task, only the inefficient tool was available; thus, their choice to use that tool could be considered rational. Next, children were invited to complete the task with either the inefficient tool or an efficient alternative. Whereas the two cultural groups imitated a single model at similar rates, Chinese American children imitated significantly more than Caucasian American children after viewing a consensus. Similar results were found when exploring differences in information transmission. The Chinese American children were significantly more likely than their Caucasian American peers to instruct using an inefficient tool when they had initially viewed a consensus demonstrate it. We discuss these findings with respect to differences in children's use of social versus task-specific cues for learning and teaching. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Development of the Remedial Action Priority System: an improved risk assessment tool for prioritizing hazardous and radioactive-mixed waste disposal sites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Whelan, G.; Strenge, D.L.; Steelman, B.L.; Hawley, K.A.

1985-08-01

The Remedial Action Priority System (RAPS) represents a methodology that prioritizes inactive hazardous and radioactive mixed-waste disposal sites in a scientific and objective manner based on limited site information. This methodology is intended to bridge the technology gap that exists between the initial site evaluation using the Hazard Ranking System (HRS) and the time-consuming process of actual field site characterization, assessment, and remediation efforts. The HRS was designed as an initial screening tool to discriminate between hazardous waste sites that do not and those that are likely to pose significant problems to human health, safety, and/or the environment. The HRS is used by the US Environmental Protection Agency to identify sites for nomination to the National Priorites List (NPL). Because the HRS is not designed to evaluate sites containing radionuclides, a modified Hazard Ranking System (mHRS) addressing both hazardous and radioactive mixed wastes was developed by Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) for the US Department of Energy (DOE). Neither the HRS nor the mHRS was designed to prioritize sites that are nominated to the NPL according to their potential risks. 15 refs., 6 figs., 3 tabs

Enforcement actions: Significant actions resolved

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1990-09-01

This compilation summarizes significant enforcement actions that have been resolved during one quarterly period (April--June 1990) and includes copies of letters, notices, and orders sent by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to licensees with respect to these enforcement actions. It is anticipated that the information in this publication will be widely disseminated to managers and employees engaged in activities licensed by the NRC, so that actions can be taken to improve safety by avoiding future violations similar to those described in this publication

Enforcement actions: Significant actions resolved

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1994-03-01

This compilation summarizes significant enforcement actions that have been resolved during one quarterly period (October - December 1993) and includes copies of letters, Notices, and Orders sent by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to licensees with respect to these enforcement actions. It is anticipated that the information in this publication will be widely disseminated to managers and employees engaged in activities licensed by the NRC, so that actions can be taken to improve safety by avoiding future violations similar to those described in this publication

Enforcement actions: Significant actions resolved

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-05-01

This compilation summarizes significant enforcement actions that have been resolved during one quarterly period (January--March 1991) and includes copies of letters, Notices, and Orders sent by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to licensees with respect to these enforcement actions. It is anticipated that the information in this publication will be widely disseminated to managers and employees engaged in activities licensed by the NRC, so that actions can be taken to improve safety by avoiding future violations similar to those described in this publication

Enforcement actions: Significant actions resolved

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1993-09-01

This compilation summarizes significant enforcement actions that have been resolved during one quarterly period (April--June 1993) and includes copies of letters, Notices, and Orders sent by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to licensees with respect to these enforcement actions. It is anticipated that the information in this publication will be widely disseminated to managers and employees engaged in activities licensed by the NRC, so that actions can be taken to improve safety by avoiding future violations similar to those described in this publication

Enforcement actions: Significant actions resolved

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1990-11-01

This compilation summarizes significant enforcement actions that have been resolved during one quarterly period (July--September 1990) and includes copies of letters, notices, and orders sent by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to licensees with respect to these enforcement actions. It is anticipated that the information in this publication will be widely disseminated to managers and employees engaged in activities licensed by the NRC, so that actions can be taken to improve safety by avoiding future violations similar to those described in this publication

Enforcement actions: Significant actions resolved

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1992-08-01

This compilation summarizes significant enforcement actions that have been resolved during one quarterly period (April--June 1992) and includes copies of letters, Notices, and Orders sent by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to licensees with respect to these enforcement actions. It is anticipated that the information in this publication will be widely disseminated to managers and employees engaged in activities licensed by the NRC, so that actions can be taken to improve safety by avoiding future violations similar to those described in this publication

Enforcement actions: Significant actions resolved

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-02-01

This compilation summarizes significant enforcement actions that have been resolved during one quarterly period (October--December 1990) and includes copies of letters, Notices, and Orders sent by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to licensees with respect to these enforcement actions. It is anticipated that the information in this publication will be widely disseminated to managers and employees engaged in activities licensed by the NRC, so that actions can be taken to improve safety by avoiding future violations similar to those described in this publication

Enforcement actions: Significant actions resolved

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1993-06-01

This compilation summarizes significant enforcement actions that have been resolved during one quarterly period (January--March 1993) and includes copies of letters, Notices, and Orders sent by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to licensees with respect to these enforcement actions. It is anticipated that the information in this publication will be widely disseminated to managers and employees engaged in activities licensed by the NRC, so that actions can be taken to improve safety by avoiding future violations similar to those described in this publication

Enforcement actions: Significant actions resolved

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1990-03-01

This compilation summarizes significant enforcement actions that have been resolved during one quarterly period (October--December 1989) and includes copies of letters, Notices, and Orders sent by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to licensees with respect to these enforcement actions. It is anticipated that the information in this publication will be widely disseminated to managers and employees engaged in activities licensed by the NRC, so that actions can be taken to improve safety by avoiding future violations similar to those described in this publication

Enforcement actions: Significant actions resolved

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-07-01

This compilation summarizes significant enforcement actions that have been resolved during one quarterly period (April-June 1991) and includes copies of letters, Notices, and Orders sent by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to licensees with respect to these enforcement actions. It is anticipated that the information in this publication will be widely disseminated to managers and employees engaged in activities licensed by the NRC, so that actions can be taken to improve safety by avoiding future violations similar to those described in this publication

Enforcement actions: Significant actions resolved

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1992-05-01

This compilation summarizes significant enforcement actions that have been resolved during one quarterly period (January--March 1992) and includes copies of letters, Notices, and Orders sent by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to licensees with respect to these enforcement actions. It is anticipated that the information in this publication will be widely disseminated to managers and employees engaged in activities licensed by the NRC, so that actions can be taken to improve safety by avoiding future violations similar to those described in this publication

Enforcement actions: Significant actions resolved

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1993-12-01

This compilation summarizes significant enforcement actions that have been resolved during one quarterly period (July--September 1993) and includes copies of letters, Notices, and Orders sent by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to licensees with respect to these enforcement actions. It is anticipated that the information in this publication will be widely disseminated to managers and employees engaged in activities licensed by the NRC, so that actions can be taken to improve safety by avoiding future violations similar to those described in this publication

Enforcement actions: Significant actions resolved

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1993-03-01

This compilation summarizes significant enforcement actions that have been resolved during one quarterly period (October--December 1992) and includes copies of letters, Notices, and Orders sent by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to licensees with respect to these enforcement actions. It is anticipated that the information in this publication will be widely disseminated to managers and employees engaged in activities licensed by the NRC, so that actions can be taken to improve safety by avoiding future violations similar to those described in this publication

Enforcement actions: Significant actions resolved

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-11-01

This compilation summarizes significant enforcement actions that have been resolved during one quarterly period (July--September 1991) and includes copies of letters, Notices, and Orders sent by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to licensees with respect to these enforcement actions. It is anticipated that the information in this publication will be widely disseminated to managers and employees engaged in activities licensed by the NRC, so that actions can be taken to improve safety by avoiding future violations similar to those described in this publication

Enforcement actions: Significant actions resolved

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1992-03-01

This compilation summarizes significant enforcement actions that have been resolved during one quarterly period (October--December 1991) and includes copies of letters, Notices, and Orders sent by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to licensees with respect to these enforcement actions. It is anticipated that the information in this publication will be widely disseminated to managers and employees engaged in activities licensed by the NRC, so that actions can be taken to improve safety by avoiding future violations similar to those described in this publication

Enforcement actions: Significant actions resolved

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1992-11-01

This compilation summarizes significant enforcement actions that have been resolved during one quarterly period (July - September 1992) and includes copies of letters, Notices, and Orders sent by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to licensees with respect to these enforcement actions. It is anticipated that the information in this publication will be widely disseminated to managers and employees engaged in activities licensed by the NRC, so that actions can be taken to improve safety by avoiding future violations similar to those described in this publication

Enforcement actions: Significant actions resolved

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1989-12-01

This compilation summarizes significant enforcement actions that have been resolved during one quarterly period (July--September 1989) and includes copies of letters, Notices, and Orders sent by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to licensees with respect to these enforcement actions. It is anticipated that the information in this publication will be widely disseminated to managers and employees engaged in activities licensed by the NRC, so that actions can be taken to improve safety by avoiding future violations similar to those described in this publication

Developing and Validating a New Classroom Climate Observation Assessment Tool.

Science.gov (United States)

Leff, Stephen S; Thomas, Duane E; Shapiro, Edward S; Paskewich, Brooke; Wilson, Kim; Necowitz-Hoffman, Beth; Jawad, Abbas F

2011-01-01

The climate of school classrooms, shaped by a combination of teacher practices and peer processes, is an important determinant for children's psychosocial functioning and is a primary factor affecting bullying and victimization. Given that there are relatively few theoretically-grounded and validated assessment tools designed to measure the social climate of classrooms, our research team developed an observation tool through participatory action research (PAR). This article details how the assessment tool was designed and preliminarily validated in 18 third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade classrooms in a large urban public school district. The goals of this study are to illustrate the feasibility of a PAR paradigm in measurement development, ascertain the psychometric properties of the assessment tool, and determine associations with different indices of classroom levels of relational and physical aggression.

Priority actions for addressing the obesity epidemic in England.

Science.gov (United States)

Watson, Fiona; Taylor, Anna; Rayner, Mike; Lobstein, Tim; Hinks, Robin

2018-04-01

To prioritise policy actions for government to improve the food environment and contribute to reduced obesity and related diseases. Cross-sectional study applying the Food Environment Policy Index (Food EPI) in two stages. First, the evidence on all relevant policies was compiled, through an Internet search of government documents, and reviewed for accuracy and completeness by government officials. Second, independent experts were brought together to identify critical gaps and prioritise actions to fill those gaps, through a two-stage rating process. England. A total of seventy-three independent experts from forty-one organisations were involved in the exercise. The top priority policy actions for government identified were: (i) control the advertising of unhealthy foods to children; (ii) implement the levy on sugary drinks; (iii) reduce the sugar, fat and salt content in processed foods (leading to an energy reduction); (iv) monitor school and nursery food standards; (v) prioritise health and the environment in the 25-year Food and Farming Plan; (vi) adopt a national food action plan; (vii) monitor the food environment; (viii) apply buying standards to all public institutions; (ix) strengthen planning laws to discourage less healthy food offers; and (x) evaluate food-related programmes and policies. Applying the Food EPI resulted in agreement on the ten priority actions required to improve the food environment. The Food EPI has proved to be a useful tool in developing consensus for action to address the obesity epidemic among a broad group of experts in a complex legislative environment.

Development of a New Measurement Tool for Individualism and Collectivism

Science.gov (United States)

Shulruf, Boaz; Hattie, John; Dixon, Robyn

2007-01-01

A new measurement tool for individualism and collectivism has been developed to address critical methodological issues in this field of social psychology. This new measure, the Auckland Individualism and Collectivism Scale (AICS), defines three dimensions of individualism: (a) responsibility (acknowledging one's responsibility for one's actions),…

Mutagenesis Objective Search and Selection Tool (MOSST: an algorithm to predict structure-function related mutations in proteins

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Asenjo Juan A

2011-04-01

's primary sequence into a group of functionally non-disruptive amino acids and a second group of functionally deleterious amino acids. Conclusions With this approach, not only conserved amino acid positions in a protein family can be labeled as functionally relevant, but also non-conserved amino acid positions can be identified to have a physicochemically meaningful functional effect. These results become a discriminative tool in the selection and elaboration of rational mutagenesis strategies for the protein. They can also be used to predict if a given nsSNP, identified, for instance, in a genomic-scale analysis, can have a functional implication for a particular protein and which nsSNPs are most likely to be functionally silent for a protein. This analytical tool could be used to rapidly and automatically discard any irrelevant nsSNP and guide the research focus toward functionally significant mutations. Based on preliminary results and applications, this technique shows promising performance as a valuable bioinformatics tool to aid in the development of new protein variants and in the understanding of function-structure relationships in proteins.

HC StratoMineR: A web-based tool for the rapid analysis of high content datasets

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Omta, W.; Heesbeen, R. van; Pagliero, R.; Velden, L. van der; Lelieveld, D.; Nellen, M.; Kramer, M.; Yeong, M.; Saeidi, A.; Medema, R.; Spruit, M.; Brinkkemper, S.; Klumperman, J.; Egan, D.

2016-01-01

High-content screening (HCS) can generate large multidimensional datasets and when aligned with the appropriate data mining tools, it can yield valuable insights into the mechanism of action of bioactive molecules. However, easy-to-use data mining tools are not widely available, with the result that

HC StratoMineR : A Web-Based Tool for the Rapid Analysis of High-Content Datasets

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Omta, Wienand A; van Heesbeen, Roy G; Pagliero, Romina J; van der Velden, Lieke M; Lelieveld, Daphne; Nellen, Mehdi; Kramer, Maik; Yeong, Marley; Saeidi, Amir M; Medema, Rene H; Spruit, Marco; Brinkkemper, Sjaak; Klumperman, Judith; Egan, David A

2016-01-01

High-content screening (HCS) can generate large multidimensional datasets and when aligned with the appropriate data mining tools, it can yield valuable insights into the mechanism of action of bioactive molecules. However, easy-to-use data mining tools are not widely available, with the result that

Action preferences and the anticipation of action outcomes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mann, D.L.; Schaefers, T.; Canal Bruland, R.

2014-01-01

Skilled performers of time-constrained motor actions acquire information about the action preferences of their opponents in an effort to better anticipate the outcome of that opponent's actions. However, there is reason to doubt that knowledge of an opponent's action preferences would unequivocally

Forum Guide to Taking Action with Education Data. NFES 2013-801

Science.gov (United States)

National Forum on Education Statistics, 2012

2012-01-01

Education data are growing in quantity, quality, and value. When appropriately used to guide action, data can be a powerful tool for improving school operations, teaching, and learning. Education stakeholders who possess the knowledge, skills, and abilities to appropriately access, analyze, and interpret data will be able to use data to take…

Transition towards energy efficient machine tools

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zein, Andre [Technische Univ. Braunschweig (Germany). Inst. fuer Werkzeugmaschinen und Fertigungstechnik

2012-07-01

Provides unique data about industrial trends affecting the energy demand of machine tools. Presents a comprehensive methodology to assess the energy efficiency of machining processes. Contains an integrated management concept to implement energy performance measures into existing industrial systems. Includes an industrial case study with two exemplary applications. Energy efficiency represents a cost-effective and immediate strategy of a sustainable development. Due to substantial environmental and economic implications, a strong emphasis is put on the electrical energy requirements of machine tools for metalworking processes. The improvement of energy efficiency is however confronted with diverse barriers, which sustain an energy efficiency gap of unexploited potential. The deficiencies lie in the lack of information about the actual energy requirements of machine tools, a minimum energy reference to quantify improvement potential and the possible actions to improve the energy demand. Therefore, a comprehensive concept for energy performance management of machine tools is developed which guides the transition towards energy efficient machine tools. It is structured in four innovative concept modules, which are embedded into step-by-step workflow models. The capability of the performance management concept is demonstrated in an automotive manufacturing environment. The target audience primarily comprises researchers and practitioners challenged to enhance energy efficiency in manufacturing. The book may also be beneficial for graduate students who want to specialize in this field.

A case study for sustainable development action using financial gradients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bose, Arnab; Ramji, Aditya; Singh, Jarnail; Dholakia, Dhairya

2012-01-01

Energy access is critical for sustainable development and therefore financing energy access is a necessity. The key is whether to focus on grants or public finance for sustainable development projects or move to a more diffused financing mechanism, involving investment grade financing sources like debt and equity. In other words, financing sustainable development action via grants is becoming a constraint. To address this constraint, it is important to consider the relationship between the nature and sources of financial flows. The concept of ‘financial gradients’ emerged while analysing the financial and business strategy developed for Lighting a Billion Lives (LaBL) campaign. This paper espouses the idea of ‘financial gradients’ which is a potential financial mechanism for sustainable development action. Financial gradients, can contribute in three different ways—first, as an approach to analyse financial flows in projects; second, as a tool to generate a single, long term and stable inflow of finance; third, as a financial mechanism to help in creating long term strategies to sustain projects. This paper will concentrate on financial gradients as a potential approach to analyse financial flows in a sustainable development programme. - Highlights: ► Financial stability is a key challenge for sustainable development programmes. ► Development action via public funds is limited, need for investment grade finance. ► Need to understand financial flows with relation to nature and sources of finance. ► Financial gradients is an innovative tool for ensuring health of programmes.

[Unconnected, possibly irrelevant for the nursing profession, but mandatory readings not to lose the focus in 2015, and beyond].

Science.gov (United States)

Tognoni, Gianni

2015-01-01

Unconnected, possibly irrelevant for the nursing profession, but mandatory readings not to lose the focus in 2015, and beyond. The recent, and chronologically concomitant publication of two reports - on the specific and dramatic violence against women in war situations; on the experience and results of resilience of cultural, health, academic palestinian institutions under Israeli State repression - has suggested their joint, very synthetic presentation, which explains the somehow henigmatic formulation of the title, and provides the opportunity for possibly relevant comments for the nursing profession and research. Two main points are underlined: a) beyond their clear heterogeneity, in terms of content and format, the two publications have a common, reciprocally complementary objective and message: the importance, and the concrete rarity, of visibility for scenarios which are most of the time left to the fragmentation of the chronicle, though they touch the roots of the interests of those who are working in fields which are close to the rights to life and dignity. b) The specific relevance of becoming aware of strategies contrasting massive violations of fundamental rights could and should be tested by the nursing profession with cultural and field projects targeted to the populations who in many scenarios of care and life are threatened by the violence of marginalization.

Decision support tool for diagnosing the source of variation

Science.gov (United States)

Masood, Ibrahim; Azrul Azhad Haizan, Mohamad; Norbaya Jumali, Siti; Ghazali, Farah Najihah Mohd; Razali, Hazlin Syafinaz Md; Shahir Yahya, Mohd; Azlan, Mohd Azwir bin

2017-08-01

Identifying the source of unnatural variation (SOV) in manufacturing process is essential for quality control. The Shewhart control chart patterns (CCPs) are commonly used to monitor the SOV. However, a proper interpretation of CCPs associated to its SOV requires a high skill industrial practitioner. Lack of knowledge in process engineering will lead to erroneous corrective action. The objective of this study is to design the operating procedures of computerized decision support tool (DST) for process diagnosis. The DST is an embedded tool in CCPs recognition scheme. Design methodology involves analysis of relationship between geometrical features, manufacturing process and CCPs. The DST contents information about CCPs and its possible root cause error and description on SOV phenomenon such as process deterioration in tool bluntness, offsetting tool, loading error, and changes in materials hardness. The DST will be useful for an industrial practitioner in making effective troubleshooting.

FLIC-overlap fermions and topology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kamleh, W.; Kusterer, D.J.; Leinweber, D.B.; Williams, A.G.

2003-01-01

APE smearing the links in the irrelevant operators of clover fermions (Fat-Link Irrelevant Clover (FLIC) fermions) provides significant improvement in the condition number of the Hermitian-Dirac operator and gives rise to a factor of two savings in computing the overlap operator. This report investigates the effects of using a highly-improved definition of the lattice field-strength tensor F μν in the fermion action, made possible through the use of APE-smeared fat links in the construction of the irrelevant operators. Spurious double-zero crossings in the spectral flow of the Hermitian-Wilson Dirac operator associated with lattice artifacts at the scale of the lattice spacing are removed with FLIC fermions composed with an O(α 4 )-improved lattice field strength tensor. Hence, FLIC-Overlap fermions provide an additional benefit to the overlap formalism: a correct realization of topology in the fermion sector on the lattice

Oscillatory mechanisms of response conflict elicited by color and motion direction: : an individual differences approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vissers, M.E.; Ridderinkhof, K.R.; Cohen, M.X.; Slagter, H.A.

Goal-directed behavior requires control over automatic behavior, for example, when goal-irrelevant information from the environment captures an inappropriate response and conflicts with the correct, goal-relevant action. Neural oscillations in the theta band (∼6 Hz) measured at midfrontal electrodes

Appreciative Inquiry: An Experiential Exercise and Course Feedback Tool

Science.gov (United States)

Scandura, Terri A.

2017-01-01

The action research method of appreciative inquiry (AI) was employed to develop a teaching tool. This exercise involves students' reflections on a course, noting when they learned the most. The AI process of appreciating, envisioning, dialoging, and innovating is used to help students reflect on how they learn. Instructors of all types of courses…

Parameter calculation tool for the application of radiological dose projection codes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Galindo G, I. F.; Vergara del C, J. A.; Galvan A, S. J.; Tijerina S, F.

2016-09-01

The use of specialized codes to estimate the radiation dose projection to an emergency postulated event at a nuclear power plant requires that certain plant data be available according to the event being simulated. The calculation of the possible radiological release is the critical activity to carry out the emergency actions. However, not all of the plant data required are obtained directly from the plant but need to be calculated. In this paper we present a computational tool that calculates the plant data required to use the radiological dose estimation codes. The tool provides the required information when there is a gas emergency venting event in the primary containment atmosphere, whether well or dry well and also calculates the time in which the spent fuel pool would be discovered in the event of a leak of water on some of the walls or floor of the pool. The tool developed has mathematical models for the processes involved such as: compressible flow in pipes considering area change and for constant area, taking into account the effects of friction and for the case of the spent fuel pool hydraulic models to calculate the time in which a container is emptied. The models implemented in the tool are validated with data from the literature for simulated cases. The results with the tool are very similar to those of reference. This tool will also be very supportive so that in postulated emergency cases can use the radiological dose estimation codes to adequately and efficiently determine the actions to be taken in a way that affects as little as possible. (Author)

Performance indicators: A tool for continuous quality improvement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nidhi M Bhatnagar

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Performance monitoring is an important tool which can be used for setting priorities for process improvement. At our centre, we have been monitoring every step in the processes, right from inventory of consumables (both critical and routine to number of donors reactive for TTI. We conducted a study to measure the impact of monitoring Performance Indicators and how it could be used as a tool for Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI. Materials and Methods: The present study was a retrospective study where the performance indicator (PI data of blood bank was analyzed for over four years. For certain parameters, benchmarks or thresholds were set that represented warning limits or action limits. The yearly data were collated from monthly data. "Shifts" or "Trends", if any, were identified and Corrective and Preventive Action (CAPA taken accordingly. At the end, outcomes of the analysis were charted. Results: After the yearly data evaluation, outcomes obtained were used to plan, correct and amend processes and systems in the blood center. It was observed that the workload of the center showed an upward trend. This helped us to plan for the purchase of consumables and management of manpower. The monitoring of usage and discard of blood helped in the efficient management of blood stocks. The need for any new equipment could also be judged by the trends in workload. Conclusion: Performance indicators are indispensible tools which various stakeholders in the Blood Transfusion centres should implement to improve on quality performance.

Performance indicators: A tool for continuous quality improvement.

Science.gov (United States)

Bhatnagar, Nidhi M; Soni, Shital; Gajjar, Maitrey; Shah, Mamta; Shah, Sangita; Patel, Vaidehi

2016-01-01

Performance monitoring is an important tool which can be used for setting priorities for process improvement. At our centre, we have been monitoring every step in the processes, right from inventory of consumables (both critical and routine) to number of donors reactive for TTI. We conducted a study to measure the impact of monitoring Performance Indicators and how it could be used as a tool for Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI). The present study was a retrospective study where the performance indicator (PI) data of blood bank was analyzed for over four years. For certain parameters, benchmarks or thresholds were set that represented warning limits or action limits. The yearly data were collated from monthly data. Shifts or Trends, if any, were identified and Corrective and Preventive Action (CAPA) taken accordingly. At the end, outcomes of the analysis were charted. After the yearly data evaluation, outcomes obtained were used to plan, correct and amend processes and systems in the blood center. It was observed that the workload of the center showed an upward trend. This helped us to plan for the purchase of consumables and management of manpower. The monitoring of usage and discard of blood helped in the efficient management of blood stocks. The need for any new equipment could also be judged by the trends in workload. Performance indicators are indispensible tools which various stakeholders in the Blood Transfusion centres should implement to improve on quality performance.

Territory and energy: policies, scales and tools for mobilization, knowledge and local action

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chanard, Camille

2011-01-01

The thesis is about French local authorities' energy policies, and more particularly about regional policies. In a context of reassessment of fossil fuel-based energy systems, local authorities have a key role to play. Indeed, energy systems are complex and require to act locally, in order to keep fair access for consumers and to adapt supply to needs and uses. In the same way, environmental constraints and sustainable exploitation of local resources involve to have a good knowledge of territory and of local energy potential. But, local authorities do not know much about boundaries and about components of territorial energy systems. The main purpose of the thesis is to determine structure and behaviour of these energy systems in order to identify public policy incentive levers at local scale. The first part of the thesis deals with the links between land uses, actors' behaviours, political choices and energy consumptions. Here, we point out the specific interest of geography and territorial approach to treat energy issue, both for land planning and for actors' mobilization. In the second part, we identify policy instruments which local authorities should dispose and actions they should implement in order to develop energy saving and renewables. Then, the third part is more specific to regional level. The analysis of two French planning instruments (Regional Plans for Climate, Air and Energy and Regional Energy Observatories), shows the interest of this scale which could, with its position between national and local levels, contribute to improve knowledge of territories, to coordinate local actions and to develop energy policies adapted to local specificities [fr

DAPs: Deep Action Proposals for Action Understanding

KAUST Repository

Escorcia, Victor

2016-09-17

Object proposals have contributed significantly to recent advances in object understanding in images. Inspired by the success of this approach, we introduce Deep Action Proposals (DAPs), an effective and efficient algorithm for generating temporal action proposals from long videos. We show how to take advantage of the vast capacity of deep learning models and memory cells to retrieve from untrimmed videos temporal segments, which are likely to contain actions. A comprehensive evaluation indicates that our approach outperforms previous work on a large scale action benchmark, runs at 134 FPS making it practical for large-scale scenarios, and exhibits an appealing ability to generalize, i.e. to retrieve good quality temporal proposals of actions unseen in training.

PREP: Production and Reprocessing management tool for CMS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cossutti, F; Lenzi, P; Naziridis, N; Samyn, D; Stöckli, F

2012-01-01

The production of simulated samples for physics analysis at LHC represents a noticeable organization challenge, because it requires the management of several thousands different workflows. The submission of a workflow to the grid based computing infrastructure starts with the definition of the general characteristics of a given set of coherent samples (called a ‘campaign'), up to the definition of the physics settings to be used for each sample corresponding to a specific process to be simulated, both at hard event generation and detector simulation level. In order to have an organized control of the of the definition of the large number of MC samples needed by CMS, a dedicated management tool, called PREP, has been built. Its basic component is a database storing all the relevant information about the sample and the actions implied by the workflow definition, approval and production. A web based interface allows the database to be used from experts involved in production to trigger all the different actions needed, as well as by normal physicists involved in analyses to retrieve the relevant information. The tool is integrated through a set of dedicated APIs with the production agent and information storage utilities of CMS.

76 FR 13665 - Cambridge Tool & Die, Including On-Site Leased Workers From Action Total Staffing, Cambridge, OH...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-03-14

... DEPARTMENT OF LABOR Employment and Training Administration [TA-W-74,605] Cambridge Tool & Die... Eligibility To Apply for Worker Adjustment Assistance In accordance with Section 223 of the Trade Act of 1974... of Cambridge Tool & Die, Cambridge, Ohio. The workers are engaged in the production of plastic...

On the Commons and Climate Change: Collective Action and GHG Mitigation - Working Paper No. 2012-13

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cochran, Ian

2012-07-01

Reducing greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions from anthropogenic activity may be one of the greatest collective-action problems faced by humanity. This poses challenges not only in terms of the institutional configurations to support coordinated governance processes, but equally the information tools and expertise necessary to link GHG mitigation with other policy priorities. This paper theoretically explores how the adoption of a modified theory of collective action based upon a behavioral theory of the individual allows for a re-framing of the climate-change policy challenge. As such, it appears important to develop a context within which collective action becomes possible where success is no longer solely tied to incentives, but equally to the provision of information, learning, and interaction between stakeholders while simultaneously fostering trust and reciprocity among actors. At all levels of government, information plays a key role to both inform and to facilitate communication, as well as to identify and develop the necessary actions and investments and to track changes in conditions. In the case of climate change, greenhouse-gas inventories and other informational tools are necessary components to track an a priori intangible emission. As such, it is key to analyze the legitimacy, credibility and saliency of information and expertise integrated into the decision-making process. Further, it is important to recognize that the construction of indicators and other information tools is not apolitical, but rather the product of a number of assumptions, interests and decisions concerning what is included and what is excluded shaped by the involved actors. (author)

Youth Participatory Action Research and Educational Transformation: The Potential of Intertextuality as a Methodological Tool

Science.gov (United States)

Bertrand, Melanie

2016-01-01

In this article, Melanie Bertrand explores the potential of using the concept of intertextuality--which captures the way snippets of written or spoken text from one source become incorporated into other sources--in the study and practice of youth participatory action research (YPAR). Though this collective and youth-centered form of research…

Givental action and trivialisation of circle action

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dotsenko, V.; Shadrin, S.; Vallette, B.

2015-01-01

In this paper, we show that the Givental group action on genus zero cohomological field theories, also known as formal Frobenius manifolds or hypercommutative algebras, naturally arises in the deformation theory of Batalin-Vilkovisky algebras. We prove that the Givental action is equal to an action

Application of a Software tool for Evaluating Human Factors in Accident Sequences

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Queral, Cesar; Exposito, Antonio; Gonzalez, Isaac; Quiroga, Juan Antonio; Ibarra, Aitor; Hortal, Javier; Hulsund, John-Einar; Nilsen, Svein

2006-01-01

The Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) includes the actions of the operator like elements in the set of the considered protection performances during accident sequences. Nevertheless, its impact throughout a sequence is not analyzed in a dynamic way. In this sense, it is convenient to make more detailed studies about its importance in the dynamics of the sequences, letting make studies of sensitivity respect to the human reliability and the response times. For this reason, the CSN is involved in several activities oriented to develop a new safety analysis methodology, the Integrated Safety Assessment (ISA), which must be able to incorporate operator actions in conventional thermo-hydraulic (TH) simulations. One of them is the collaboration project between CSN, HRP and the DSE-UPM that started in 2003. In the framework of this project, a software tool has been developed to incorporate operator actions in TH simulations. As a part of the ISA, this tool permits to quantify human error probabilities (HEP) and to evaluate its impact in the final state of the plant. Independently, it can be used for evaluating the impact of the execution by operators of procedures and guidelines in the final state of the plant and the evaluation of the allowable response times for the manual actions of the operator. The results obtained in the first pilot case are included in this paper. (authors)

The effect of Parkinson's disease on the dynamics of on-line and proactive cognitive control during action selection

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wylie, S.A.; Ridderinkhof, K.R.; Bashore, T.R.; van den Wildenberg, W.P.M.

2010-01-01

Processing irrelevant visual information sometimes activates incorrect response impulses. The engagement of cognitive control mechanisms to suppress these impulses and make proactive adjustments to reduce the future impact of incorrect impulses may rely on the integrity of frontal-basal ganglia

Molecular mechanisms of action of bacterial exotoxins.

Science.gov (United States)

Balfanz, J; Rautenberg, P; Ullmann, U

1996-07-01

Toxins are one of the inventive strategies that bacteria have developed in order to survive. As virulence factors, they play a major role in the pathogenesis of infectious diseases. Recent discoveries have once more highlighted the effectiveness of these precisely adjusted bacterial weapons. Furthermore, toxins have become an invaluable tool in the investigation of fundamental cell processes, including regulation of cellular functions by various G proteins, cytoskeletal dynamics and neural transmission. In this review, the bacterial toxins are presented in a rational classification based on the molecular mechanisms of action.

Teacher collaboration and elementary science teaching: Using action research as a tool for instructional leadership

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, Sara Hayes

The primary purpose of this action research study was to explore an elementary science program and find ways to support science education as an administrator of an elementary school. The study took place in a large suburban school system in the southeastern United States. Seven teachers at a small rural school volunteered to participate in the study. Each participant became an active member of the research by determining what changes needed to take place and implementing the lessons in science. The study was also focused on teacher collaboration and how it influenced the science instruction. The data collected included two interviews, ten observations of science lessons, the implementation of four science units, and informal notes from planning sessions over a five month period. The questions that guided this study focused on how teachers prepare to teach science through active learning and how instruction shifts due to teacher collaboration. Teachers were interviewed at the beginning of the study to gain the perceptions of the participants in the areas of (a) planning, (b) active learning, (c) collaboration, and (d) teaching science lessons. The teachers and principal then formed a research team that determined the barriers to teaching science according to the Standards, designed units of study using active learning strategies, and worked collaboratively to implement the units of study. The action research project reviewed the National Science Education Standards, the theory of constructivism, active learning and teacher collaboration as they relate to the actions taken by a group of teachers in an elementary school. The evidence from this study showed that by working together collaboratively and overcoming the barriers to teaching science actively, teachers feel more confident and knowledgeable about teaching the concepts.

Decision support frameworks and tools for conservation

Science.gov (United States)

Schwartz, Mark W.; Cook, Carly N.; Pressey, Robert L.; Pullin, Andrew S.; Runge, Michael C.; Salafsky, Nick; Sutherland, William J.; Williamson, Matthew A.

2018-01-01

The practice of conservation occurs within complex socioecological systems fraught with challenges that require transparent, defensible, and often socially engaged project planning and management. Planning and decision support frameworks are designed to help conservation practitioners increase planning rigor, project accountability, stakeholder participation, transparency in decisions, and learning. We describe and contrast five common frameworks within the context of six fundamental questions (why, who, what, where, when, how) at each of three planning stages of adaptive management (project scoping, operational planning, learning). We demonstrate that decision support frameworks provide varied and extensive tools for conservation planning and management. However, using any framework in isolation risks diminishing potential benefits since no one framework covers the full spectrum of potential conservation planning and decision challenges. We describe two case studies that have effectively deployed tools from across conservation frameworks to improve conservation actions and outcomes. Attention to the critical questions for conservation project planning should allow practitioners to operate within any framework and adapt tools to suit their specific management context. We call on conservation researchers and practitioners to regularly use decision support tools as standard practice for framing both practice and research.

A method for studying knife tool marks on bone.

Science.gov (United States)

Shaw, Kai-Ping; Chung, Ju-Hui; Chung, Fang-Chun; Tseng, Bo-Yuan; Pan, Chih-Hsin; Yang, Kai-Ting; Yang, Chun-Pang

2011-07-01

The characteristics of knife tool marks retained on hard tissues can be used to outline the shape and angle of a knife. The purpose of this study was to describe such marks on bone tissues that had been chopped with knives. A chopping stage with a gravity accelerator and a fixed bone platform was designed to reconstruct the chopping action. A digital microscope was also used to measure the knife angle (θ) and retained V-shape tool mark angle (ψ) in a pig skull. The κ value (elasticity coefficient; θ/ψ) was derived and recorded after the knife angle (θ) and the accompanied velocity were compared with the proportional impulsive force of the knife and ψ on the bone. The constant impulsive force revealed a correlation between the V-shape tool mark angle (ψ) and the elasticity coefficient (κ). These results describe the tool marks--crucial in the medicolegal investigation--of a knife on hard tissues. © 2011 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Integrated environmental decision support tool based on GIS technology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doctor, P.G.; O'Neil, T.K.; Sackschewsky, M.R.; Becker, J.M.; Rykiel, E.J.; Walters, T.B.; Brandt, C.A.; Hall, J.A.

1995-01-01

Environmental restoration and management decisions facing the US Department of Energy require balancing trade-offs between diverse land uses and impacts over multiple spatial and temporal scales. Many types of environmental data have been collected for the Hanford Site and the Columbia River in Washington State over the past fifty years. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is integrating these data into a Geographic Information System (GIS) based computer decision support tool. This tool provides a comprehensive and concise description of the current environmental landscape that can be used to evaluate the ecological and monetary trade-offs between future land use, restoration and remediation options before action is taken. Ecological impacts evaluated include effects to individual species of concern and habitat loss and fragmentation. Monetary impacts include those associated with habitat mitigation. The tool is organized as both a browsing tool for educational purposes, and as a framework that leads a project manager through the steps needed to be in compliance with environmental requirements

NutriLive: An Integrated Nutritional Approach as a Sustainable Tool to Prevent Malnutrition in Older People and Promote Active and Healthy Ageing—The EIP-AHA Nutrition Action Group

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maddalena Illario

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The present document describes a nutritional approach that is nested in the European Innovation Partnership for Active and Healthy Aging (EIP-AHA and aims to provide the first common European program translating an integrated approach to nutritional frailty in terms of a multidimensional and transnational methodology. The document has been developed by the A3 Nutrition Action Area of the EIP-AHA and aims at providing a stepwise approach to malnutrition in older citizens, identifying adequate interventions based on a unified assessment and ICT-supported solutions. “NutriLive” is an integrated nutritional approach, represented by a structured Screening-Assessment-Monitoring-Action-Pyramid-Model (SAM-AP. Its core concept is the stratification of the nutritional needs, considered by the working group as the key for targeted, effective, and sustainable interventions. “NutriLive” tries to close gaps in epidemiological data within an aging population, creating a unified language to deal with the topic of nutrition and malnutrition in Europe. By assembling all the validated screening, assessment, and monitoring tools on malnutrition in a first pyramid, which is interrelated to a second intervention pyramid, the A3 Nutrition WG identifies a common, integrated vision on the nutritional approach to frailty, which applies to the various health care settings.

2011-2015 National action plan for the management of radon-related risk

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2011-01-01

After an assessment of the 2005-2008 action plan, this report presents the 2011-2015 plan. It comprises five main axis: the implementation of a policy regarding the management of the radon-related risk in existing dwellings, the implementation of a regulation for new dwellings, the follow-up of the regulation regarding public places and that applicable to workers, the development and the implementation of new management tools for the diagnosis of buildings and works performed by professionals, and the coordination of policy regarding investigation and research. Each axis comprises several actions which are defined and presented. Eight key measures are also defined

Reliability Modeling of Electromechanical System with Meta-Action Chain Methodology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Genbao Zhang

2018-01-01

Full Text Available To establish a more flexible and accurate reliability model, the reliability modeling and solving algorithm based on the meta-action chain thought are used in this thesis. Instead of estimating the reliability of the whole system only in the standard operating mode, this dissertation adopts the structure chain and the operating action chain for the system reliability modeling. The failure information and structure information for each component are integrated into the model to overcome the given factors applied in the traditional modeling. In the industrial application, there may be different operating modes for a multicomponent system. The meta-action chain methodology can estimate the system reliability under different operating modes by modeling the components with varieties of failure sensitivities. This approach has been identified by computing some electromechanical system cases. The results indicate that the process could improve the system reliability estimation. It is an effective tool to solve the reliability estimation problem in the system under various operating modes.

Elucidating antimalarial drug targets/mode-of-action by application of system biology technologies

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Becker, J

2008-11-01

Full Text Available targets/mode-of-action by application of systems biology technologies J BECKER, L MTWISHA, B CRAMPTON AND D MANCAMA CSIR Biosciences, PO Box 395, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa Email: JBecker@csir.co.za – www.csir.co.za INTRODUCTION Malaria is one... The objective of this study was to use systems biology tools to unravel the drug target/mode-of-action (MoA) of an antimalarial drug (cyclohexylamine) with a known drug target/MoA, by analysing differential expression profiles of drug treated vs untreated...

Action-based flood forecasting for triggering humanitarian action

Science.gov (United States)

Coughlan de Perez, Erin; van den Hurk, Bart; van Aalst, Maarten K.; Amuron, Irene; Bamanya, Deus; Hauser, Tristan; Jongma, Brenden; Lopez, Ana; Mason, Simon; Mendler de Suarez, Janot; Pappenberger, Florian; Rueth, Alexandra; Stephens, Elisabeth; Suarez, Pablo; Wagemaker, Jurjen; Zsoter, Ervin

2016-09-01

Too often, credible scientific early warning information of increased disaster risk does not result in humanitarian action. With financial resources tilted heavily towards response after a disaster, disaster managers have limited incentive and ability to process complex scientific data, including uncertainties. These incentives are beginning to change, with the advent of several new forecast-based financing systems that provide funding based on a forecast of an extreme event. Given the changing landscape, here we demonstrate a method to select and use appropriate forecasts for specific humanitarian disaster prevention actions, even in a data-scarce location. This action-based forecasting methodology takes into account the parameters of each action, such as action lifetime, when verifying a forecast. Forecasts are linked with action based on an understanding of (1) the magnitude of previous flooding events and (2) the willingness to act "in vain" for specific actions. This is applied in the context of the Uganda Red Cross Society forecast-based financing pilot project, with forecasts from the Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS). Using this method, we define the "danger level" of flooding, and we select the probabilistic forecast triggers that are appropriate for specific actions. Results from this methodology can be applied globally across hazards and fed into a financing system that ensures that automatic, pre-funded early action will be triggered by forecasts.

Handbook for value-impact assessments of NRC regulatory actions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mullen, M.F.; DiPalo, A.J.

1985-01-01

According to current Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) procedures, value-impact (cost-benefit) assessments must be prepared for all rulemaking actions and for a broad range of other regulatory requirements and guidance. Probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) methods furnish an important part of the information base for these assessments. PRA methods are frequently the principal quantitative tool for estimating the benefits (e.g., public risk reduction) of proposed regulatory actions. In December 1983, the NRC published A Handbook for Value-Impact Assessment, NUREG/CR-3568, which provides a set of systematic procedures for performing value-impact assessments. The Handbook contains methods, data, and sources of information that can assist the regulatory analyst in conducting such assessments. The use of probabilistic risk analysis to estimate the benefits of proposed regulatory actions is described. Procedures and methods are also given for evaluating the costs and other consequences associated with regulatory actions. The Handbook has been adopted by the NRC as the recommended guideline for value impact assessments. This paper presents the background, objectives, and scope of the Handbook, describes the value-impact assessment methods (including the use of probabilistic risk assessment to estimate benefits), and discusses a selection of current and planned applications, with examples to illustrate how the methods are used

An Evaluation Framework and Instrument for Evaluating e-Assessment Tools

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Upasana Gitanjali; de Villiers, Mary Ruth

2017-01-01

e-Assessment, in the form of tools and systems that deliver and administer multiple choice questions (MCQs), is used increasingly, raising the need for evaluation and validation of such systems. This research uses literature and a series of six empirical action research studies to develop an evaluation framework of categories and criteria called…

Shared Action Spaces: a basis function framework for social re-calibration of sensorimotor representations supporting joint action

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giovanni ePezzulo

2013-11-01

Full Text Available The article explores the possibilities of formalizing and explaining the mechanisms that support spatial and social perspective alignment sustained over the duration of a social interaction. The basic proposed principle is that in social contexts the mechanisms for sensorimotor transformations and multisensory integration (learn to incorporate information relative to the other actor(s, similar to the "re-calibration" of visual receptive fields in response to repeated tool use. This process aligns or merges the co-actors' spatial representations and creates a "Shared Action Space" supporting key computations of social interactions and joint actions; for example, the remapping between the coordinate systems and frames of reference of the co-actors, including perspective taking, the sensorimotor transformations required for lifting jointly an object, and the predictions of the sensory effects of such joint action. The social re-calibration is proposed to be based on common basis function maps and could constitute an optimal solution to sensorimotor transformation and multisensory integration in joint action or more in general social interaction contexts. However, certain situations such as discrepant postural and viewpoint alignment and associated differences in perspectives between the co-actors could constrain the process quite differently. We discuss how alignment is achieved in the first place, and how it is maintained over time, providing a taxonomy of various forms and mechanisms of space alignment and overlap based, for instance, on automaticity vs. control of the transformations between the two agents. Finally, we discuss the link between low-level mechanisms for the sharing of space and high-level mechanisms for the sharing of cognitive representations.

Everyday robotic action: Lessons from human action control

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roy eDe Kleijn

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Robots are increasingly capable of performing everyday human activities such as cooking, cleaning, and doing the laundry. This requires the real-time planning and execution of complex, temporally-extended sequential actions under high degrees of uncertainty, which provides many challenges to traditional approaches to robot action control. We argue that important lessons in this respect can be learned from research on human action control. We provide a brief overview of available psychological insights into this issue and focus on four principles that we think could be particularly beneficial for robot control: the integration of symbolic and subsymbolic planning of action sequences, the integration of feedforward and feedback control, the clustering of complex actions into subcomponents, and the contextualization of action-control structures through goal representations.

Experience feedback committee in emergency medicine: a tool for security management.

Science.gov (United States)

Lecoanet, André; Sellier, Elodie; Carpentier, Françoise; Maignan, Maxime; Seigneurin, Arnaud; François, Patrice

2014-11-01

Emergency departments are high-risk structures. The objective was to analyse the functioning of an experience feedback committee (EFC), a security management tool for the analysis of incidents in a medical department. We conducted a descriptive study based on the analysis of the written documents produced by the EFC between November 2009 and May 2012. We performed a double analysis of all incident reports, meeting minutes and analysis reports. During the study period, there were 22 meetings attended by 15 professionals. 471 reported incidents were transmitted to the EFC. Most of them (95%) had no consequence for the patients. Only one reported incident led to the patient's death. 12 incidents were analysed thoroughly and the committee decided to set up 14 corrective actions, including eight guideline writing actions, two staff trainings, two resource materials provisions and two organisational changes. The staff took part actively in the EFC. Following the analysis of incidents, the EFC was able to set up actions at the departmental level. Thus, an EFC seems to be an appropriate security management tool for an emergency department. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Ubuntu and Capabilities Approach: Basic Doctrines for Calibrating Humanitarian Action

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rapatsa Mashele

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This article explores prospects of using Ubuntu and Capabilities Approach to expand the scope of humanitarian action, to design one which serves humanity better even in the absence of disaster to essentially fulfil human development needs. It is considerate of the fact that humanitarian works contributes immensely in determining the extent to which humanity thrives. The traditional view on humanitarianism presupposes action-driven initiatives geared towards devising interventions to restore or reinforce human social order, improve livelihoods and quality of life. In sociological terms, human development is dependent on realizing and safeguarding, amongst others, human well-being, civil liberties and social security. The article utilizes core values enshrined in Ubuntu, Africa’s historic philosophy of life, and Amartya Sen’s Capabilities Approach as tools of analysis, with the view to expressing how to operationalize what should be considered stable humanitarian conditions and human well-being. Owing to persistent socio-economic challenges, especially the poverty problem, it is asserted that humanitarian action ought to depart from being a post-disaster intervention strategy, to being a pro-active and preventative pre-disaster orientated action, intended to nurture well-being and resultantly enable human development.

Proceedings of the Atlantic climate change 2008 conference : risk, responses and tools for action

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2008-01-01

This conference provided a forum for members of the private and public sector, as well as researchers and industry leaders to discuss methods of preventing and adapting to climate change in the Maritime provinces. Presentations at the conference evaluated a range of options, opportunities, and potential outcomes from strategies for reducing environmental impacts and improving energy efficiency in the region. Topics discussed at the conference included adaptation tools; carbon markets; resource management; corporate and public policy; and risk assessment and decision-making processes. The conference was divided into the following 5 sessions: (1) land use planning and adaptation, (2) fish, farms and forests, (3) climate science and modelling, (4) energy policy for mitigation and sustainability, and (5) tools for adaptation and infrastructure. A workshop discussing the use of LIDAR in decision-making processes was also held. The conference featured 11 presentations, of which 3 have been catalogued separately for inclusion in this database. tabs., figs.

From action to abstraction: Gesture as a mechanism of change.

Science.gov (United States)

Goldin-Meadow, Susan

2015-12-01

Piaget was a master at observing the routine behaviors children produce as they go from knowing less to knowing more about at a task, and making inferences not only about how the children understood the task at each point, but also about how they progressed from one point to the next. In this paper, I examine a routine behavior that Piaget overlooked-the spontaneous gestures speakers produce as they explain their solutions to a problem. These gestures are not mere hand waving. They reflect ideas that the speaker has about the problem, often ideas that are not found in that speaker's talk. But gesture can do more than reflect ideas-it can also change them. In this sense, gesture behaves like any other action; both gesture and action on objects facilitate learning problems on which training was given. However, only gesture promotes transferring the knowledge gained to problems that require generalization. Gesture is, in fact, a special kind of action in that it represents the world rather than directly manipulating the world (gesture does not move objects around). The mechanisms by which gesture and action promote learning may therefore differ-gesture is able to highlight components of an action that promote abstract learning while leaving out details that could tie learning to a specific context. Because it is both an action and a representation, gesture can serve as a bridge between the two and thus be a powerful tool for learning abstract ideas.

Alternative Observation Tools for the Scope of Contemporary Education Supervision: An Action Research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saadet Kuru Cetin

2018-04-01

Full Text Available In this study, in-class lesson observations were made with volunteer teachers working in primary and secondary schools using alternative observation tools regarding the scope of contemporary educational supervision. The study took place during the fall and spring semesters of the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 academic years and the class observations were made with six alternative volunteer teachers in the primary and secondary schools in the provincial and district centers using alternative observation tools. In the classroom observations, the teacher's verbal flow scheme, teacher's movement scheme and student behaviors both during tasks and not, were analyzed. Observations were made during the two classes with teacher's permission. After the first observation, an information meeting was held and then the second observation was made. Following the observations, interviews were held with the teachers. In interviews, the information about the class observations was shared with teachers and their opinions about research were asked. It has been found that alternative observations, in general, have a positive effect on the professional development of teachers. It is concluded that this type of observation approach positively affects teachers' in-class activities, helps in classroom management and teaching arrangements and positively affects student's unwanted behaviors.

Teaching Ethics in Higher Education Using the Values – Issues – Action (VIA Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Crystal R Chambers

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Ethics content within higher education graduate programs can help higher education students as emerging leaders become more thoughtful about the decision making process. The purpose of the present manuscript is to explore one vehicle through which current and future higher education leaders can actively contemplate their values and how their values influence their actions when faced with an ethical challenge. The Values – Issue – Action (VIA Model for Ethical Decision Making is a tool for both classroom use and professional reflection through which one can reflect on their values (V and how those values shape how they perceive issues (I, and in turn shape their actions (A. Implications for teaching, learning, and practice are discussed.

Hearing sounds, understanding actions: action representation in mirror neurons.

Science.gov (United States)

Kohler, Evelyne; Keysers, Christian; Umiltà, M Alessandra; Fogassi, Leonardo; Gallese, Vittorio; Rizzolatti, Giacomo

2002-08-02

Many object-related actions can be recognized by their sound. We found neurons in monkey premotor cortex that discharge when the animal performs a specific action and when it hears the related sound. Most of the neurons also discharge when the monkey observes the same action. These audiovisual mirror neurons code actions independently of whether these actions are performed, heard, or seen. This discovery in the monkey homolog of Broca's area might shed light on the origin of language: audiovisual mirror neurons code abstract contents-the meaning of actions-and have the auditory access typical of human language to these contents.

Representing tools as hand movements: early and somatotopic visuomotor transformations.

Science.gov (United States)

Bartoli, Eleonora; Maffongelli, Laura; Jacono, Marco; D'Ausilio, Alessandro

2014-08-01

The term affordance defines a property of objects, which relates to the possible interactions that an agent can carry out on that object. In monkeys, canonical neurons encode both the visual and the motor properties of objects with high specificity. However, it is not clear if in humans exists a similarly fine-grained description of these visuomotor transformations. In particular, it has not yet been proven that the processing of visual features related to specific affordances induces both specific and early visuomotor transformations, given that complete specificity has been reported to emerge quite late (300-450ms). In this study, we applied an adaptation-stimulation paradigm to investigate early cortico-spinal facilitation and hand movements׳ synergies evoked by the observation of tools. We adapted, through passive observation of finger movements, neuronal populations coding either for precision or power grip actions. We then presented the picture of one tool affording one of the two grasps types and applied single-pulse Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to the hand primary motor cortex, 150ms after image onset. Cortico-spinal excitability of the Abductor Digiti Minimi and Abductor Pollicis Brevis showed a detailed pattern of modulations, matching tools׳ affordances. Similarly, TMS-induced hand movements showed a pattern of grip-specific whole hand synergies. These results offer a direct proof of the emergence of an early visuomotor transformation when tools are observed, that maintains the same amount of synergistic motor details as the actions we can perform on them. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Stone tools, language and the brain in human evolution

Science.gov (United States)

Stout, Dietrich; Chaminade, Thierry

2012-01-01

Long-standing speculations and more recent hypotheses propose a variety of possible evolutionary connections between language, gesture and tool use. These arguments have received important new support from neuroscientific research on praxis, observational action understanding and vocal language demonstrating substantial functional/anatomical overlap between these behaviours. However, valid reasons for scepticism remain as well as substantial differences in detail between alternative evolutionary hypotheses. Here, we review the current status of alternative ‘gestural’ and ‘technological’ hypotheses of language origins, drawing on current evidence of the neural bases of speech and tool use generally, and on recent studies of the neural correlates of Palaeolithic technology specifically. PMID:22106428

Application of mass spectrometric techniques to delineate the modes-of-action of anticancer metallodrugs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hartinger, Christian G.; Groessl, Michael; Meier, Samuel M.; Casini, Angela; Dyson, Paul J.

2013-01-01

Mass spectrometry (MS) has emerged as an important tool for studying anticancer metallodrugs in complex biological samples and for characterising their interactions with biomolecules and potential targets on a molecular level. The exact modes-of-action of these coordination compounds and especially

Shielding voices: The modulation of binding processes between voice features and response features by task representations.

Science.gov (United States)

Bogon, Johanna; Eisenbarth, Hedwig; Landgraf, Steffen; Dreisbach, Gesine

2017-09-01

Vocal events offer not only semantic-linguistic content but also information about the identity and the emotional-motivational state of the speaker. Furthermore, most vocal events have implications for our actions and therefore include action-related features. But the relevance and irrelevance of vocal features varies from task to task. The present study investigates binding processes for perceptual and action-related features of spoken words and their modulation by the task representation of the listener. Participants reacted with two response keys to eight different words spoken by a male or a female voice (Experiment 1) or spoken by an angry or neutral male voice (Experiment 2). There were two instruction conditions: half of participants learned eight stimulus-response mappings by rote (SR), and half of participants applied a binary task rule (TR). In both experiments, SR instructed participants showed clear evidence for binding processes between voice and response features indicated by an interaction between the irrelevant voice feature and the response. By contrast, as indicated by a three-way interaction with instruction, no such binding was found in the TR instructed group. These results are suggestive of binding and shielding as two adaptive mechanisms that ensure successful communication and action in a dynamic social environment.

The Global Hidden Hunger Indices and Maps: An Advocacy Tool for Action

Science.gov (United States)

Muthayya, Sumithra; Rah, Jee Hyun; Sugimoto, Jonathan D.; Roos, Franz F.; Kraemer, Klaus; Black, Robert E.

2013-01-01

The unified global efforts to mitigate the high burden of vitamin and mineral deficiency, known as hidden hunger, in populations around the world are crucial to the achievement of most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). We developed indices and maps of global hidden hunger to help prioritize program assistance, and to serve as an evidence-based global advocacy tool. Two types of hidden hunger indices and maps were created based on i) national prevalence data on stunting, anemia due to iron deficiency, and low serum retinol levels among preschool-aged children in 149 countries; and ii) estimates of Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) attributed to micronutrient deficiencies in 136 countries. A number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as India and Afghanistan, had an alarmingly high level of hidden hunger, with stunting, iron deficiency anemia, and vitamin A deficiency all being highly prevalent. The total DALY rates per 100,000 population, attributed to micronutrient deficiencies, were generally the highest in sub-Saharan African countries. In 36 countries, home to 90% of the world’s stunted children, deficiencies of micronutrients were responsible for 1.5-12% of the total DALYs. The pattern and magnitude of iodine deficiency did not conform to that of other micronutrients. The greatest proportions of children with iodine deficiency were in the Eastern Mediterranean (46.6%), European (44.2%), and African (40.4%) regions. The current indices and maps provide crucial data to optimize the prioritization of program assistance addressing global multiple micronutrient deficiencies. Moreover, the indices and maps serve as a useful advocacy tool in the call for increased commitments to scale up effective nutrition interventions. PMID:23776712

The global hidden hunger indices and maps: an advocacy tool for action.

Science.gov (United States)

Muthayya, Sumithra; Rah, Jee Hyun; Sugimoto, Jonathan D; Roos, Franz F; Kraemer, Klaus; Black, Robert E

2013-01-01

The unified global efforts to mitigate the high burden of vitamin and mineral deficiency, known as hidden hunger, in populations around the world are crucial to the achievement of most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). We developed indices and maps of global hidden hunger to help prioritize program assistance, and to serve as an evidence-based global advocacy tool. Two types of hidden hunger indices and maps were created based on i) national prevalence data on stunting, anemia due to iron deficiency, and low serum retinol levels among preschool-aged children in 149 countries; and ii) estimates of Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) attributed to micronutrient deficiencies in 136 countries. A number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as India and Afghanistan, had an alarmingly high level of hidden hunger, with stunting, iron deficiency anemia, and vitamin A deficiency all being highly prevalent. The total DALY rates per 100,000 population, attributed to micronutrient deficiencies, were generally the highest in sub-Saharan African countries. In 36 countries, home to 90% of the world's stunted children, deficiencies of micronutrients were responsible for 1.5-12% of the total DALYs. The pattern and magnitude of iodine deficiency did not conform to that of other micronutrients. The greatest proportions of children with iodine deficiency were in the Eastern Mediterranean (46.6%), European (44.2%), and African (40.4%) regions. The current indices and maps provide crucial data to optimize the prioritization of program assistance addressing global multiple micronutrient deficiencies. Moreover, the indices and maps serve as a useful advocacy tool in the call for increased commitments to scale up effective nutrition interventions.

Automatic Imitation

Science.gov (United States)

Heyes, Cecilia

2011-01-01

"Automatic imitation" is a type of stimulus-response compatibility effect in which the topographical features of task-irrelevant action stimuli facilitate similar, and interfere with dissimilar, responses. This article reviews behavioral, neurophysiological, and neuroimaging research on automatic imitation, asking in what sense it is "automatic"…

Interactive soundscapes of the futures everyday life

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Eggen, J.H.; Bakker, S.; Hausen, D.; Selker, T.

2016-01-01

This chapter reviews the inherent qualities of the human hearing system to focus on sounds that are relevant and ignore sounds that are irrelevant and do not require immediate action. Currently, auditory interaction styles that have been proposed and studied in human–computer interaction fail to

Education as a tool for addressing the extinction crisis: moving students from understanding to action.

Science.gov (United States)

Moyer-Horner, Lucas; Kirby, Rebecca; Vaughan, Christopher

2010-12-01

Human activity is leading to mass species extinctions worldwide. Conservation biology (CB) courses, taught worldwide at universities, typically focus on the proximal causes of extinction without teaching students how to respond to this crisis. The Extinction of Species 360 course has been taught yearly each fall semester to several hundred students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for over two decades. In 2007 the instructor and five teaching assistants combined principles driving extinctions, based on traditional lectures and discussion sections, with action-oriented education targeting individual consumer habits, to a group of 285 students. Students learn the science underpinning conservation efforts, as evidenced by highly significant learning (crisis and c) facilitated activities to reduce our impact and help alleviate the crisis. The results suggested students learned CB concepts and understood biodiversity's value, increased their awareness of the connection between personal consumption and extinction, and reduced their collective ecological footprints. Furthermore, students complemented their learning and multiplied the potential for consumption reduction, by participating in action-based activities. Such academic courses can provide a rigorous treatment of the direct and indirect causes of extinction while developing a student's sense of personal empowerment to help slow the extinction crisis.

Frontal subregions mediating Elevator Counting task performance.

Science.gov (United States)

MacPherson, Sarah E; Turner, Martha S; Bozzali, Marco; Cipolotti, Lisa; Shallice, Tim

2010-10-01

Deficits in sustained attention may lead to action slips in everyday life as irrelevant action sequences are inappropriately triggered internally or by the environment. While deficits in sustained attention have been associated with damage to the frontal lobes of the brain, little is known about the role of the frontal lobes in the Elevator Counting subtest of the Test of Everyday Attention. In the current study, 55 frontal patients subdivided into medial, orbital and lateral subgroups, 18 patients with posterior lesions and 82 healthy controls performed the Elevator Counting task. The results revealed that patients with medial and left lateral prefrontal lesions were significantly impaired on the task compared to healthy controls. Research suggests that patients with medial lesions are susceptible to competition from task irrelevant schema; whereas the left lateral group in the current study may fail to keep track of the tones already presented. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Finding minimal action sequences with a simple evaluation of actions

Science.gov (United States)

Shah, Ashvin; Gurney, Kevin N.

2014-01-01

Animals are able to discover the minimal number of actions that achieves an outcome (the minimal action sequence). In most accounts of this, actions are associated with a measure of behavior that is higher for actions that lead to the outcome with a shorter action sequence, and learning mechanisms find the actions associated with the highest measure. In this sense, previous accounts focus on more than the simple binary signal of “was the outcome achieved?”; they focus on “how well was the outcome achieved?” However, such mechanisms may not govern all types of behavioral development. In particular, in the process of action discovery (Redgrave and Gurney, 2006), actions are reinforced if they simply lead to a salient outcome because biological reinforcement signals occur too quickly to evaluate the consequences of an action beyond an indication of the outcome's occurrence. Thus, action discovery mechanisms focus on the simple evaluation of “was the outcome achieved?” and not “how well was the outcome achieved?” Notwithstanding this impoverishment of information, can the process of action discovery find the minimal action sequence? We address this question by implementing computational mechanisms, referred to in this paper as no-cost learning rules, in which each action that leads to the outcome is associated with the same measure of behavior. No-cost rules focus on “was the outcome achieved?” and are consistent with action discovery. No-cost rules discover the minimal action sequence in simulated tasks and execute it for a substantial amount of time. Extensive training, however, results in extraneous actions, suggesting that a separate process (which has been proposed in action discovery) must attenuate learning if no-cost rules participate in behavioral development. We describe how no-cost rules develop behavior, what happens when attenuation is disrupted, and relate the new mechanisms to wider computational and biological context. PMID:25506326

Hybrid Action Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rönnkö, M.; Ravn, Anders Peter; Sere, K.

2003-01-01

In this paper we investigate the use of action systems with differential actions in the specifcation of hybrid systems. As the main contribution we generalize the definition of a differential action, allowing the use of arbitrary relations over model variables and their time......-derivatives in modelling continuous-time dynamics. The generalized differential action has an intuitively appealing predicate transformer semantics, which we show to be both conjunctive and monotonic. In addition, we show that differential actions blend smoothly with conventional actions in action systems, even under...... parallel composition. Moreover, as the strength of the action system formalism is the support for stepwise development by refinement, we investigate refinement involving a differential action. We show that, due to the predicate transformer semantics, standard action refinement techniques apply also...

Equipment Management for Sensor Networks: Linking Physical Infrastructure and Actions to Observational Data

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, A. S.; Horsburgh, J. S.; Matos, M.; Caraballo, J.

2015-12-01

Networks conducting long term monitoring using in situ sensors need the functionality to track physical equipment as well as deployments, calibrations, and other actions related to site and equipment maintenance. The observational data being generated by sensors are enhanced if direct linkages to equipment details and actions can be made. This type of information is typically recorded in field notebooks or in static files, which are rarely linked to observations in a way that could be used to interpret results. However, the record of field activities is often relevant to analysis or post-processing of the observational data. We have developed an underlying database schema and deployed a web interface for recording and retrieving information on physical infrastructure and related actions for observational networks. The database schema for equipment was designed as an extension to the Observations Data Model 2 (ODM2), a community-developed information model for spatially discrete, feature based earth observations. The core entities of ODM2 describe location, observed variable, and timing of observations, and the equipment extension contains entities to provide additional metadata specific to the inventory of physical infrastructure and associated actions. The schema is implemented in a relational database system for storage and management with an associated web interface. We designed the web-based tools for technicians to enter and query information on the physical equipment and actions such as site visits, equipment deployments, maintenance, and calibrations. These tools were implemented for the iUTAH (innovative Urban Transitions and Aridregion Hydrosustainability) ecohydrologic observatory, and we anticipate that they will be useful for similar large-scale monitoring networks desiring to link observing infrastructure to observational data to increase the quality of sensor-based data products.

Macroeconomic Activity and Monetary Policy Actions: Some Preliminary Evidence.

OpenAIRE

Haslag, Joseph H; Hein, Scott E

1992-01-01

Monetary policy is conducted through open market operations, loans at the discount window, and changes in the reserve requirement structure. The purpose of this paper is to formally investigate the notion that the effect of changes in reserve requirement ratios is different from the effect of other policy tools. This is accomplished by decomposing the monetary base into those changes caused by changes in reserve requirement ratios and those caused by other monetary policy actions. Some prelim...

Internet-based tools for behaviour change

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bottrill, Catherine [Environmental Change Inst., Oxford Unversity Centre for the Environment (United Kingdom)

2007-07-01

Internet-based carbon calculators have the potential to be powerful tools for helping people to understand their personal energy use derived from fossil fuels and to take action to reduce the related carbon emissions. This paper reviews twenty-three calculators concluding that in most cases this environmental learning tool is falling short of giving people the ability to accurately monitor their energy use; to receive meaningful feedback and guidance for altering their energy use; or to connect with others also going through the same learning process of saving energy and conserving carbon. This paper presents the findings of research into the accuracy and effectiveness of carbon calculators. Based on the assessment of the calculators the paper discusses the opportunities Internet technology could be offering for engagement, communication, encouragement and guidance on low-carbon lifestyle choices. Finally, recommendations are made for the development of accurate, informative and social Internet-based carbon calculators.

Development and Trialling of a Graduated Descriptors Tool for Australian Pharmacy Students

Science.gov (United States)

Stupans, Ieva; Owen, Susanne; McKauge, Leigh; Pont, Lisa; Ryan, Greg; Woulfe, Jim

2012-01-01

Profession-derived competency standards are key determinants for curriculum and assessment in many professional university programmes. An Australian Learning and Teaching Council funded project used a participatory action research approach to enable the collaborative development of a graduated (or incremental) descriptors tool related to…

The Individual-Practice Framework as a design tool to understand consumer behaviour

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Piscicelli, L.; Moreno, Mariale; Cooper, Tim; Fisher, Tom

2016-01-01

Design for behaviour change is a growing research field which aims at providing methods and tools to foster pro-environmental and pro-social action through the application of diverse theories, models and approaches from the social sciences. This chapter presents the Individual-Practice Framework,

Advancing marine conservation in European and contiguous seas with the MarCons Action

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stelios Katsanevakis

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Cumulative human impacts have led to the degradation of marine ecosystems and the decline of biodiversity in the European and contiguous seas. Effective conservation measures are urgently needed to reverse these trends. Conservation must entail societal choices, underpinned by human values and worldviews that differ between the countries bordering these seas. Social, economic and political heterogeneity adds to the challenge of balancing conservation with sustainable use of the seas. Comprehensive macro-regional coordination is needed to ensure effective conservation of marine ecosystems and biodiversity of this region. Under the European Union Horizon 2020 framework programme, the MarCons COST action aims to promote collaborative research to support marine management, conservation planning and policy development. This will be achieved by developing novel methods and tools to close knowledge gaps and advance marine conservation science. This action will provide support for the development of macro-regional and national policies through six key actions: to develop tools to analyse cumulative human impacts; to identify critical scientific and technical gaps in conservation efforts; to improve the resilience of the marine environment to global change and biological invasions; to develop frameworks for integrated conservation planning across terrestrial, freshwater, and marine environments; to coordinate marine conservation policy across national boundaries; and to identify effective governance approaches for marine protected area management. Achieving the objectives of these actions will facilitate the integration of marine conservation policy into macro-regional maritime spatial planning agendas for the European and contiguous seas, thereby offsetting the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services in this region.

ReACT!: An Interactive Educational Tool for AI Planning for Robotics

Science.gov (United States)

Dogmus, Zeynep; Erdem, Esra; Patogulu, Volkan

2015-01-01

This paper presents ReAct!, an interactive educational tool for artificial intelligence (AI) planning for robotics. ReAct! enables students to describe robots' actions and change in dynamic domains without first having to know about the syntactic and semantic details of the underlying formalism, and to solve planning problems using…

A Multi-Criteria Methodology to Support Public Administration Decision Making Concerning Sustainable Energy Action Plans

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chiara Novello

2013-08-01

Full Text Available For municipalities that have joined the Covenant of Mayors promoted by the European Commission, the Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP represents a strategic tool for achieving the greenhouse gas reductions required by 2020. So far as the energy retrofit actions in their residential building stock are concerned, which in the small-to-medium municipalities are responsible for more than 60% of CO2 emissions, the scenarios for intervening are normally decided on the basis of an economic (cost/performance analysis. This type of analysis, however, does not take into account important aspects for small and medium-sized communities such as social aspects, environmental impacts, local economic development and employment. A more comprehensive and effective tool to support the choices of public administrators is the multi-criteria analysis. This study proposes a methodology that integrates multi-criteria analysis in order to support Public Administration/Local Authorities in programming Sustainable Energy Action Plans with a more targeted approach to sustainability. The methodology, based on the ELECTRE III method, was applied to a medium-size municipality in the Lombardy region of Italy. The results obtained with this approach are discussed in this paper.

Psychometric Properties of a Standardized Observation Protocol to Quantify Pediatric Physical Therapy Actions.

Science.gov (United States)

Sonderer, Patrizia; Akhbari Ziegler, Schirin; Gressbach Oertle, Barbara; Meichtry, André; Hadders-Algra, Mijna

2017-07-01

Pediatric physical therapy (PPT) is characterized by heterogeneity. This blurs the evaluation of effective components of PPT. The Groningen Observation Protocol (GOP) was developed to quantify contents of PPT. This study assesses the reliability and completeness of the GOP. Sixty infant PPT sessions were video-taped. Two random samples of 10 videos were used to determine interrater and intrarater reliability using interclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) with 95% confidence intervals. Completeness of GOP 2.0 was based on 60 videos. Interrater reliability of quantifying PPT actions was excellent (ICC, 0.75-1.0) in 71% and sufficient to good (ICC, 0.4-0.74) in 24% of PPT actions. Intrarater reliability was excellent in 94% and sufficient to good in 6% of PPT actions. Completeness was good for greater than 90% of PPT actions. GOP 2.0 has good reliability and completeness. After appropriate training, it is a useful tool to quantify PPT for children with developmental disorders.

Knowledge to Action - Understanding Natural Hazards-Induced Power Outage Scenarios for Actionable Disaster Responses

Science.gov (United States)

Kar, B.; Robinson, C.; Koch, D. B.; Omitaomu, O.

2017-12-01

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 identified the following four priorities to prevent and reduce disaster risks: i) understanding disaster risk; ii) strengthening governance to manage disaster risk; iii) investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience and; iv) enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response, and to "Build Back Better" in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction. While forecasting and decision making tools are in place to predict and understand future impacts of natural hazards, the knowledge to action approach that currently exists fails to provide updated information needed by decision makers to undertake response and recovery efforts following a hazard event. For instance, during a tropical storm event advisories are released every two to three hours, but manual analysis of geospatial data to determine potential impacts of the event tends to be time-consuming and a post-event process. Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a Spatial Decision Support System that enables real-time analysis of storm impact based on updated advisory. A prototype of the tool that focuses on determining projected power outage areas and projected duration of outages demonstrates the feasibility of integrating science with decision making for emergency management personnel to act in real time to protect communities and reduce risk.

Indoor air quality : Tools for schools action kits for Canadian schools

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2003-03-01

Few people realize that indoor air pollution can contribute to health effects like asthma. Several agencies, notably the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), have indicated that levels of indoor pollutants can be significantly higher than those found outside. As such, poor indoor air quality (IAQ) could impact the health of students and staff, as well as the educational process and costs. Many factors can influence IAQ, including building materials, furnishings, cleaning agents, pesticides, printing and copying devices, and more. Reduction in IAQ can also result from tighter buildings and reduced ventilation. This kit was developed by Health Canada in collaboration with the Indoor Air Quality Working Group of the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Committee on Environmental and Occupational Health (CEOH) to provide school officials with the tools to prevent, identify, assess, and address most indoor air problems while minimizing cost and involvement. It was suggested that trained professionals should perform the limited and well-defined set of operations and maintenance activities described in the kit.

The Department of Energy's Remedial Action Assessment System (RAAS): Decision support tools for performing streamlined feasibility studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

White, M.K.

1994-06-01

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) faces the major task of cleaning up hundreds of waste sites across the nation, which will require completion of a large number of remedial investigation/feasibility studies (RI/FSs). The intent of each RI/FS is to characterize the waste problems and environmental conditions at the operable unit level, segment the remediation problem into manageable medium-specific and contaminant-specific pieces, define corresponding remediation objectives, and identify remedial response actions to satisfy those objectives. The RI/FS team can then identify combinations of remediation technologies that will meet the remediation objectives. Finally, the team must evaluate these remedial alternatives in terms of effectiveness, implementability, cost, and acceptability. The Remedial Action Assessment System (RAAS) is being developed by Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) to support DOE in this effort

Our actions in my mind: Motor imagery of joint action

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vesper, Cordula; Knoblich, Günther; Sebanz, Natalie

2014-01-01

How do people imagine performing actions together? The present study investigated motor imagery of joint actions that requires integrating one's own and another's part of an action. In two experiments, individual participants imagined jumping alone or jointly next to an imagined partner. The joint...... condition required coordinating one's own imagined actions with an imagined partner's actions to synchronize landing times. We investigated whether the timing of participants' own imagined jumps would reflect the difference in jump distance to their imagined partner's jumps. The results showed...... of joint jumping. These findings link research on motor imagery and joint action, demonstrating that individuals are able to integrate simulations of different parts of a joint action....

Disk Rock Cutting Tool for the Implementation of Resource-Saving Technologies of Mining of Solid Minerals

Science.gov (United States)

Manietyev, Leonid; Khoreshok, Aleksey; Tsekhin, Alexander; Borisov, Andrey

2017-11-01

The directions of a resource and energy saving when creating a boom-type effectors of roadheaders of selective action with disc rock cutting tools on a multi-faceted prisms for the destruction of formation of minerals and rocks pricemax are presented. Justified reversing the modes of the crowns and booms to improve the efficiency of mining works. Parameters of destruction of coal and rock faces by the disk tool of a biconical design with the unified fastening knots to many-sided prisms on effectors of extraction mining machines are determined. Parameters of tension of the interfaced elements of knots of fastening of the disk tool at static interaction with the destroyed face of rocks are set. The technical solutions containing the constructive and kinematic communications realizing counter and reverse mode of rotation of two radial crowns with the disk tool on trihedral prisms and cases of booms with the disk tool on tetrahedral prisms in internal space between two axial crowns with the cutter are proposed. Reserves of expansion of the front of loading outside a table of a feeder of the roadheader of selective action, including side zones in which loading corridors by blades of trihedral prisms in internal space between two radial crowns are created are revealed.

An fMRI study of the neural basis hand postures specific to tool use. Presidential award proceedings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ohgami, Yuko; Uchida, Nobuko; Matsuo, Kayako; Nakai, Toshiharu

2007-01-01

Patients with apraxia are often unable to mimic the use of a tool, even when it is presented visually. Such mimicking involves various cognitive and motor processes, including the visual perception of a tool and the manipulation of imagined tools. Although previous studies reported the involvement of several brain areas, including the left inferior parietal lobule, in such tool-use action, the details of each process have not been well understood. To clarify the neural basis of the process involved in forming hand postures for using tools, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in normal volunteers to investigate brain activation while they formed hand postures for tool manipulation. Three conditions were evaluated in separate block-designed fMRI series, formation of hand posture (A) using a tool, (B) imitating such a hand posture, and (C) to imitate the shape of a tool. Subjects formed their right hand in a manner specified according to the task conditions. Hand posturing for condition (A) induced activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus (BA 45), left inferior parietal lobule (BA 40), and the premotor area compared with the imitative posturing of condition (B). Activation in these areas might be related to processes shared by tool-use pantomime. On the other hand, comparison between conditions (A) and (C) demonstrated activation in the right superior parietal lobule (BA 7). This activation may reflect spatial regulation, in which the subject was prepared to hold and manipulate the tool. Formation of static hand postures to prepare for tool use may employ a neural network shared by various tool-use actions, such as pantomime. In addition, forming hand postures may require close coordination between the tool and hand. (author)

Action Categories in Lateral Occipitotemporal Cortex Are Organized Along Sociality and Transitivity.

Science.gov (United States)

Wurm, Moritz F; Caramazza, Alfonso; Lingnau, Angelika

2017-01-18

: dorsal LOTC represents actions based on sociality (how much an action is directed to another person) in proximity to person knowledge. In contrast, ventral LOTC represents actions based on transitivity (how much an action involves the interaction with inanimate objects) in proximity to tools/artifacts in ventral LOTC, suggesting a mutually dependent organization of actions and objects. In addition, we found a posterior-to-anterior organization of the LOTC for concrete and abstract representations, respectively. Our findings provide important insights about the organization of actions in LOTC. Copyright © 2017 the authors 0270-6474/17/370562-14$15.00/0.

The rise of E-learning and opportunities for Indian family physicians

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chayan Datta

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The IT (information technology revolution is sweeping across the globe. Distance, location and costs have become irrelevant. With availability of newer communication tools, medical education and practice are bound to be transformed. Rapid advancement of science requires medical professionals to update their knowledge constantly. Online interface for CME (Continued Medical Education presents an exciting opportunity as an E learning tool.

Lebanon's 2011 ICT Education Reform Strategy and Action Plan: Curriculum Success or Abeyance

Science.gov (United States)

Awada, Ghada; Diab, Hassan

2016-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of Lebanon's Education Reform Strategy and Action Plan (LERSAP) set in 2011 as a form of the educational reform the curriculum underwent through focusing on promoting and employing the information communication technology (ICT) tools. The LERSAP was launched to equip teachers…

The embodied mind extended: Using words as social tools

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna M Borghi

2013-05-01

Full Text Available The extended mind view and the embodied-grounded view of cognition and language are typically considered as rather independent perspectives. In this paper we propose a possible integration of the two views and support it proposing the idea of ''Words As social Tools' (WAT'. In this respect, we will propose that words, also due to their social and public character, can be conceived as quasi-external devices that extend our cognition. Moreover, words function like tools in that they enlarge the bodily space of action thus modifying our sense of body. To support our proposal, we review the relevant literature on tool use and on words as tools and report recent evidence indicating that word use leads to an extension of space close to the body. In addition, we outline a model of the neural processes that may underpin bodily space extension via word use and may reflect possible effects on cognition of the use of words as external means. We also discuss how reconciling the two perspectives can help to overcome the limitations they encounter if considered independently.

Development of the major trauma case review tool.

Science.gov (United States)

Curtis, Kate; Mitchell, Rebecca; McCarthy, Amy; Wilson, Kellie; Van, Connie; Kennedy, Belinda; Tall, Gary; Holland, Andrew; Foster, Kim; Dickinson, Stuart; Stelfox, Henry T

2017-02-28

As many as half of all patients with major traumatic injuries do not receive the recommended care, with variance in preventable mortality reported across the globe. This variance highlights the need for a comprehensive process for monitoring and reviewing patient care, central to which is a consistent peer-review process that includes trauma system safety and human factors. There is no published, evidence-informed standardised tool that considers these factors for use in adult or paediatric trauma case peer-review. The aim of this research was to develop and validate a trauma case review tool to facilitate clinical review of paediatric trauma patient care in extracting information to facilitate monitoring, inform change and enable loop closure. Development of the trauma case review tool was multi-faceted, beginning with a review of the trauma audit tool literature. Data were extracted from the literature to inform iterative tool development using a consensus approach. Inter-rater agreement was assessed for both the pilot and finalised versions of the tool. The final trauma case review tool contained ten sections, including patient factors (such as pre-existing conditions), presenting problem, a timeline of events, factors contributing to the care delivery problem (including equipment, work environment, staff action, organizational factors), positive aspects of care and the outcome of panel discussion. After refinement, the inter-rater reliability of the human factors and outcome components of the tool improved with an average 86% agreement between raters. This research developed an evidence-informed tool for use in paediatric trauma case review that considers both system safety and human factors to facilitate clinical review of trauma patient care. This tool can be used to identify opportunities for improvement in trauma care and guide quality assurance activities. Validation is required in the adult population.

Evaluating remote control and robotics actions in NPPs in an ALARA perspective: lessons from the evolution of steam generator tube plugging technique in France

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lefaure, C.; Lochard, J.; Blain, A.

1989-01-01

Introducing remote tooling and robotics in NPPs raises many questions. Is it better to develop specific robotic tools for each type of operation, or to conceive more generic multipurpose tool carriers. Does the introduction of remote control and robotics always reduce human involvement and collective doses. What are the impacts on individual doses distribution for the most exposed operators. Under what conditions is robotics justified from an economical point of view. Even if robotics and remote tooling actions can reduce significantly individual and collective exposures, because of their high costs of development, they will be adopted only if simultaneously the potential for operational cost savings is also clearly demonstrated. Integrating operational cost savings in the cost evaluation of the ALARA procedure is important to compare and select among different robotics and remote control actions. This paper presents how to evaluate in a systematic way dose reductions, operational costs savings as well as the conditions under which robotics and remote control actions can effectively improve occupational radiation protection in NPPs. The demonstration is based on an analysis of the evolution of the steam generator tube plugging technique developed in French PWRs

The adaptation of cities to climate change: appropriating the tools and accessing financing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Depoues, Vivian; Leseur, Alexia

2015-12-01

Cities and urban areas are particularly affected because of their geographical location and the large share of the population and economic activities they bring together. This Climate Report provides a synthetic and problematized review of the literature on climate change adaptation at the urban scale, the tools and resources available to cities to implement strategies and adaptation actions. It is primarily intended for local officials in French-speaking cities. It provides a checkpoint of current dynamics, questions the real ownership of these resources by local stakeholders and identifies the openings for: - monitoring and evaluation adaptation to climate change; - Understand and use economic analysis as a help to the decision; - Access to funding to implement adaptation actions. This overview of the literature provides elements to understand how cities take ownership of the tools to design, select, monitor and evaluate adaptation projects. It highlights a mismatch between the maturity of the tools inventory and of the guidance available and the actual demand of cities. Except in a few well documented pioneers cases, the process of appropriation of adaptation issues is still at a relatively upstream stage

Novel dynamic Bayesian networks for facial action element recognition and understanding

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Wei; Park, Jeong-Seon; Choi, Dong-You; Lee, Sang-Woong

2011-12-01

In daily life, language is an important tool of communication between people. Besides language, facial action can also provide a great amount of information. Therefore, facial action recognition has become a popular research topic in the field of human-computer interaction (HCI). However, facial action recognition is quite a challenging task due to its complexity. In a literal sense, there are thousands of facial muscular movements, many of which have very subtle differences. Moreover, muscular movements always occur simultaneously when the pose is changed. To address this problem, we first build a fully automatic facial points detection system based on a local Gabor filter bank and principal component analysis. Then, novel dynamic Bayesian networks are proposed to perform facial action recognition using the junction tree algorithm over a limited number of feature points. In order to evaluate the proposed method, we have used the Korean face database for model training. For testing, we used the CUbiC FacePix, facial expressions and emotion database, Japanese female facial expression database, and our own database. Our experimental results clearly demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach.

Implementing health promotion tools in Australian Indigenous primary health care.

Science.gov (United States)

Percival, Nikki A; McCalman, Janya; Armit, Christine; O'Donoghue, Lynette; Bainbridge, Roxanne; Rowley, Kevin; Doyle, Joyce; Tsey, Komla

2018-02-01

In Australia, significant resources have been invested in producing health promotion best practice guidelines, frameworks and tools (herein referred to as health promotion tools) as a strategy to improve Indigenous health promotion programmes. Yet, there has been very little rigorous implementation research about whether or how health promotion tools are implemented. This paper theorizes the complex processes of health promotion tool implementation in Indigenous comprehensive primary healthcare services. Data were derived from published and grey literature about the development and the implementation of four Indigenous health promotion tools. Tools were theoretically sampled to account for the key implementation types described in the literature. Data were analysed using the grounded-theory methods of coding and constant comparison with construct a theoretical implementation model. An Indigenous Health Promotion Tool Implementation Model was developed. Implementation is a social process, whereby researchers, practitioners and community members collectively interacted in creating culturally responsive health promotion to the common purpose of facilitating empowerment. The implementation of health promotion tools was influenced by the presence of change agents; a commitment to reciprocity and organizational governance and resourcing. The Indigenous Health Promotion Tool Implementation Model assists in explaining how health promotion tools are implemented and the conditions that influence these actions. Rather than simply developing more health promotion tools, our study suggests that continuous investment in developing conditions that support empowering implementation processes are required to maximize the beneficial impacts and effectiveness of health promotion tools. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com

Quark contribution to the gluon Regge trajectory at NLO from the high energy effective action

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chachamis, G.; Hentschinski, M.; Madrigal Martínez, J.D.; Sabio Vera, A.

2012-01-01

The two loop (NLO) diagrams with quark content contributing to the gluon Regge trajectory are computed within the framework of Lipatov's effective action for QCD, using the regularization procedure for longitudinal divergencies recently proposed by two of us in (M. Hentschinski and A. Sabio Vera, 2011). Perfect agreement with previous results in the literature is found, providing a robust check of the regularization prescription and showing that the high energy effective action is a very useful computational tool in the quasi-multi-Regge limit.

Opposing effects of 5,7-DHT lesions to the core and shell of the nucleus accumbens on the processing of irrelevant stimuli.

Science.gov (United States)

Nelson, Andrew J D; Thur, Karen E; Marsden, Charles A; Cassaday, Helen J

2012-05-01

There is good evidence that forebrain serotonergic systems modulate cognitive flexibility. Latent inhibition (LI) is a cross-species phenomenon which manifests as poor conditioning to a stimulus that has previously been experienced without consequence and is widely considered an index of the ability to ignore irrelevant stimuli. While much research has focused on dopaminergic mechanisms underlying LI, there is also considerable evidence of serotonergic modulation. However, the neuroanatomical locus of these effects remains poorly understood. Previous work has identified the nucleus accumbens (NAc) as a key component of the neural circuit underpinning LI and furthermore, this work has shown that the core and shell subregions of the NAc contribute differentially to the expression of LI. To examine the role of the serotonergic input to NAc in LI, we tested animals with 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine (5,7-DHT) lesions to the core and shell subregions on LI assessed under experimental conditions that produce LI in shams and subsequently with weak stimulus pre-exposure designed to prevent the emergence of LI in shams. We found that serotonergic deafferentation of the core disrupted LI whereas 5,7-DHT lesions to the shell produced the opposite effect and potentiated LI.

Scotland's knowledge network: a progress report on Knowledge into Action.

Science.gov (United States)

Wales, Ann; Boyle, Derek

2015-11-01

Launched in 2012, Knowledge into Action is the national knowledge management strategy for the health and social care workforce in Scotland. It is transforming the role of the national digital knowledge service--NHS Education for Scotlands' Knowledge Network--and the NHSS librarian role to offer more active, tailored support for translating knowledge into frontline clinical practice. This includes the development of a national evidence search and summary service, help with converting knowledge into practical and usable formats for easy use at point of care and with using digital tools to share clinicians' learning, experience and expertise. Through this practical support, Knowledge into Action is contributing to quality and safety outcomes across NHS Scotland, building clinicians' capacity and capability in applying knowledge in frontline practice and service improvement. © The Author(s) 2015.

Hook tool manufacture in New Caledonian crows: behavioural variation and the influence of raw materials.

Science.gov (United States)

Klump, Barbara C; Sugasawa, Shoko; St Clair, James J H; Rutz, Christian

2015-11-18

New Caledonian crows use a range of foraging tools, and are the only non-human species known to craft hooks. Based on a small number of observations, their manufacture of hooked stick tools has previously been described as a complex, multi-stage process. Tool behaviour is shaped by genetic predispositions, individual and social learning, and/or ecological influences, but disentangling the relative contributions of these factors remains a major research challenge. The properties of raw materials are an obvious, but largely overlooked, source of variation in tool-manufacture behaviour. We conducted experiments with wild-caught New Caledonian crows, to assess variation in their hooked stick tool making, and to investigate how raw-material properties affect the manufacture process. In Experiment 1, we showed that New Caledonian crows' manufacture of hooked stick tools can be much more variable than previously thought (85 tools by 18 subjects), and can involve two newly-discovered behaviours: 'pulling' for detaching stems and bending of the tool shaft. Crows' tool manufactures varied significantly: in the number of different action types employed; in the time spent processing the hook and bending the tool shaft; and in the structure of processing sequences. In Experiment 2, we examined the interaction of crows with raw materials of different properties, using a novel paradigm that enabled us to determine subjects' rank-ordered preferences (42 tools by 7 subjects). Plant properties influenced: the order in which crows selected stems; whether a hooked tool was manufactured; the time required to release a basic tool; and, possibly, the release technique, the number of behavioural actions, and aspects of processing behaviour. Results from Experiment 2 suggested that at least part of the natural behavioural variation observed in Experiment 1 is due to the effect of raw-material properties. Our discovery of novel manufacture behaviours indicates a plausible scenario for the

Early ERP modulation for task-irrelevant subliminal faces

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alan J Pegna

2011-05-01

Full Text Available A number of investigations have reported that emotional faces can be processed subliminally, and that they give rise to specific patterns of brain activation in the absence of awareness. Recent event-related potential (ERP studies have suggested that electrophysiological differences occur early in time (<200ms in response to backward masked emotional faces. These findings have been taken as evidence of a rapid non-conscious pathway, which would allow threatening stimuli to be processed rapidly and subsequently allow appropriate avoidance action to be taken. However, for this to be the case, subliminal processing should arise even if the threatening stimulus is not attended. This point has in fact not yet been clearly established. In this ERP study, we investigated whether subliminal processing of fearful faces occurs outside the focus of attention. Fourteen healthy participants performed a line judgement task while fearful and non-fearful (happy or neutral faces were presented both subliminally and supraliminally. ERPs were compared across the 4 experimental conditions (i.e., subliminal and supraliminal; fearful and non-fearful. The earliest differences between fearful and non fearful faces appeared as an enhanced posterior negativity for the former at 170ms (the N170 component over right temporo-occipital electrodes. This difference was observed for both subliminal (p<.05 and supraliminal presentations (p<.01. Our results confirm that subliminal processing of fearful faces occurs early in the course of visual processing, and more importantly, that this arises even when the subject’s attention is engaged in an incidental task.

From Awareness to Action: Determining the climate sensitivities that influence decision makers

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, C.

2017-12-01

Through the growth of computing power and analytical methods, a range of valuable and innovative tools allow the exhaustive exploration of a water system's response to a limitless set of scenarios. Similarly, possible adaptive actions can be evaluated across this broad set of possible futures. Finally, an ever increasing set of performance indicators is available to judge the relative value of a particular action over others. However, it's unclear whether this is improving the flow of actionable information or further cluttering it. This presentation will share lessons learned and other intuitions from a set of experiences engaging with public and private water managers and investors in the use of robustness-based climate vulnerability and adaptation analysis. Based on this background, a case for reductionism and focus on financial vulnerability will be forwarded. In addition, considerations for simpler, practical approaches for smaller water utilities will be discussed.

Practising What We Teach: Vocational Teachers Learn to Research through Applying Action Learning Techniques

Science.gov (United States)

Lasky, Barbara; Tempone, Irene

2004-01-01

Action learning techniques are well suited to the teaching of organisation behaviour students because of their flexibility, inclusiveness, openness, and respect for individuals. They are no less useful as a tool for change for vocational teachers, learning, of necessity, to become researchers. Whereas traditional universities have always had a…

The first toxicological study of the antiozonant and research tool ethylene diurea (EDU) using a Lemna minor L. bioassay: Hints to its mode of action

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Agathokleous, Eugenios; Mouzaki-Paxinou, Akrivi-Chara; Saitanis, Costas J.; Paoletti, Elena; Manning, William J.

2016-01-01

The antiozonant and research tool ethylene diurea (EDU) is widely studied as a phytoprotectant against the widespread pollutant ground-surface ozone. Although it has been extensively used, its potential toxicity in the absence of ozone is unknown and its mode of action is unclear. The purpose of this research was to toxicologically assess EDU and to further investigate its mode of action using Lemna minor L. as a model organism. Application of EDU concentrations greater than 593 mg L −1 (practically 600 mg L −1 ) resulted in adverse inhibition of colony growth. As no-observed-toxic-effects concentration (NOEL) we recommend a concentration of 296 mg L −1 (practically 300 mg L −1 ). A hormetic response was detected, i.e. stimulatory effects of low EDU concentrations, which may indicate overcompensation in response to disruption in homeostasis. Growth inhibition and suppressed biomass were associated with impacted chlorophyll a fluorescence (Φ PSII , q P and ETR). Furthermore, EDU increased mesophyll thickness, as indicated by frond succulence index. Applications of concentrations ≥593 mg L −1 to uncontrolled environments should be avoided due to potential toxicity to sensitive organisms and the environment. - Highlights: • The EDU concentration of 300 mg L −1 should be considered as NOEL. • EDU concentrations ≥600 mg L −1 should not be applied to uncontrolled environments. • Hormetic responses indicate overcompensation in response to homeostasis disruption. - Ethylene diurea is not toxic to sensitive organisms when applied at low concentrations (practically < 600 mg L −1 ).

Intranasal oxytocin impedes the ability to ignore task-irrelevant facial expressions of sadness in students with depressive symptoms.

Science.gov (United States)

Ellenbogen, Mark A; Linnen, Anne-Marie; Cardoso, Christopher; Joober, Ridha

2013-03-01

The administration of oxytocin promotes prosocial behavior in humans. The mechanism by which this occurs is unknown, but it likely involves changes in social information processing. In a randomized placebo-controlled study, we examined the influence of intranasal oxytocin and placebo on the interference control component of inhibition (i.e. ability to ignore task-irrelevant information) in 102 participants using a negative affective priming task with sad, angry, and happy faces. In this task, participants are instructed to respond to a facial expression of emotion while simultaneously ignoring another emotional face. On the subsequent trial, the previously-ignored emotional valence may become the emotional valence of the target face. Inhibition is operationalized as the differential delay between responding to a previously-ignored emotional valence and responding to an emotional valence unrelated to the previous one. Although no main effect of drug administration on inhibition was observed, a drug × depressive symptom interaction (β = -0.25; t = -2.6, p < 0.05) predicted the inhibition of sad faces. Relative to placebo, participants with high depression scores who were administered oxytocin were unable to inhibit the processing of sad faces. There was no relationship between drug administration and inhibition among those with low depression scores. These findings are consistent with increasing evidence that oxytocin alters social information processing in ways that have both positive and negative social outcomes. Because elevated depression scores are associated with an increased risk for major depressive disorder, difficulties inhibiting mood-congruent stimuli following oxytocin administration may be associated with risk for depression. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Development of a Control Banding Tool for Nanomaterials

OpenAIRE

Riediker, M.; Ostiguy, C.; Triolet, J.; Troisfontaine, P.; Vernez, D.; Bourdel, G.; Thieriet, N.; Cadène, A.

2012-01-01

Control banding (CB) can be a useful tool for managing the potential risks of nanomaterials. The here proposed CB, which should be part of an overall risk control strategy, groups materials by hazard and emission potential. The resulting decision matrix proposes control bands adapted to the risk potential levels and helps define an action plan. If this plan is not practical and financially feasible, a full risk assessment is launched. The hazard banding combines key concepts of nanomaterial t...

Top-down modulation of motor priming by belief about animacy

OpenAIRE

Liepelt, R.; Brass, M.

2010-01-01

There is recent evidence that we directly map observed actions of other agents onto our own motor repertoire, referred to as direct matching (Iacoboni et al., 1999). This was shown when we are actively engaged in joint action with others' (Sebanz et al. 2003) and also when observing irrelevant movements while executing congruent or incongruent movements ( Brass et al., 2000). However, an open question is whether direct matching in human beings is limited to the perception of intentional agent...

The time between intention and action affect the experience of action

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mikkel C. Vinding

2015-06-01

Full Text Available We present a study investigating how the delay between the intention to act and the following action, influenced the experience of action. In experiments investigating sense of agency and experience of action, the contrast is most often between voluntary and involuntary actions. It is rarely asked whether different types of intentions influence the experience of action differently. To investigate this we distinguished between proximal intentions (i.e. intentions for immediate actions and delayed intentions (i.e. intentions with a temporal delay between intention and action. The distinction was implemented in an intentional binding paradigm, by varying the delay between the time where participants formed the intention to act and the time at which they performed the action. The results showed that delayed intentions were followed by a stronger binding effect for the tone following the action compared to proximal intentions. The actions were reported to have occurred earlier for delayed intentions than for proximal intentions. This effect was independent of the binding effect usually found in intentional binding experiments. This suggests that two perceptual shifts occurred in the contrast between delayed intentions and proximal intentions: The first being the binding effect, the second a general shift in the perceived time of action. Neither the stronger binding effect for tone, nor the earlier reports of action, differed across delays for delayed intentions. The results imply that delayed intentions and proximal intentions have a different impact on the experience of action.

Effective Disclosure in the Fast-Fashion Industry: from Sustainability Reporting to Action

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sofia Garcia-Torres

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This work, set in the context of the apparel industry, proposes an action-oriented disclosure tool to help solve the sustainability challenges of complex fast-fashion supply chains (SCs. In a search for effective disclosure, it focusses on actions towards sustainability instead of the measurements and indicators of its impacts. We applied qualitative and quantitative content analysis to the sustainability reporting of the world’s two largest fast-fashion companies in three phases. First, we searched for the challenges that the organisations report they are currently facing. Second, we introduced the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs framework to overcome the voluntary reporting drawback of ‘choosing what to disclose’, and revealed orphan issues. This broadened the scope from internal corporate challenges to issues impacting the ecosystems in which companies operate. Third, we analysed the reported sustainability actions and decomposed them into topics, instruments, and actors. The results showed that fast-fashion reporting has a broadly developed analysis base, but lacks action orientation. This has led us to propose the ‘Fast-Fashion Sustainability Scorecard’ as a universal disclosure framework that shifts the focus from (i reporting towards action; (ii financial performance towards sustainable value creation; and (iii corporate boundaries towards value creation for the broader SC ecosystem.

DAPs: Deep Action Proposals for Action Understanding

KAUST Repository

Escorcia, Victor; Caba Heilbron, Fabian; Niebles, Juan Carlos; Ghanem, Bernard

2016-01-01

action proposals from long videos. We show how to take advantage of the vast capacity of deep learning models and memory cells to retrieve from untrimmed videos temporal segments, which are likely to contain actions. A comprehensive evaluation indicates

A Simple Evaluation Tool (ET-CET) Indicates Increase of Diagnostic Skills From Small Bowel Capsule Endoscopy Training Courses

Science.gov (United States)

Albert, J.G.; Humbla, O.; McAlindon, M.E.; Davison, C.; Seitz, U.; Fraser, C.; Hagenmüller, F.; Noetzel, E.; Spada, C.; Riccioni, M.E.; Barnert, J.; Filmann, N.; Keuchel, M.

2015-01-01

Abstract Small bowel capsule endoscopy (SBCE) has become a first line diagnostic tool. Several training courses with a similar format have been established in Europe; however, data on learning curve and training in SBCE remain sparse. Between 2008 and 2011, different basic SBCE training courses were organized internationally in UK (n = 2), Italy (n = 2), Germany (n = 2), Finland (n = 1), and nationally in Germany (n = 10), applying similar 8-hour curricula with 50% lectures and 50% hands-on training. The Given PillCam System was used in 12 courses, the Olympus EndoCapsule system in 5, respectively. A simple evaluation tool for capsule endoscopy training (ET-CET) was developed using 10 short SBCE videos including relevant lesions and normal or irrelevant findings. For each video, delegates were required to record a diagnosis (achievable total score from 0 to 10) and the clinical relevance (achievable total score 0 to 10). ET-CET was performed at baseline before the course and repeated, with videos in altered order, after the course. Two hundred ninety-four delegates (79.3% physicians, 16.3% nurses, 4.4% others) were included for baseline analysis, 268 completed the final evaluation. Forty percent had no previous experience in SBCE, 33% had performed 10 or less procedures. Median scores for correct diagnosis improved from 4.0 (IQR 3) to 7.0 (IQR 3) during the courses (P endoscopy may be useful before attending an SBCE course. PMID:26512623

Systematic review and meta-analysis: tools for the information age.

Science.gov (United States)

Weatherall, Mark

2017-11-01

The amount of available biomedical information is vast and growing. Natural limitations of the way clinicians and researchers approach this treasure trove of information comprise difficulties locating the information, and once located, cognitive biases may lead to inappropriate use of the information. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses represent important tools in the information age to improve knowledge and action. Systematic reviews represent a census approach to identifying literature to avoid non-response bias. They are a necessary prelude to producing combined quantitative summaries of associations or treatment effects. Meta-analysis comprises the arithmetical techniques for producing combined summaries from individual study reports. Careful, thoughtful and rigorous use of these tools is likely to enhance knowledge and action. Use of standard guidelines, such as the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, or embedding these activities within collaborative groups such as the Cochrane Collaboration, are likely to lead to more useful systematic review and meta-analysis reporting. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Partograph as a tool for team work management of spontaneous labor

African Journals Online (AJOL)

It is presently being debated whether the partograph is a useful tool for labor supervision and, if useful, where should the action line be located between 2, 3 or 4 h to improve the fetomaternal outcome. This review adduces facts to show that this debate is because there is a poor understanding of the essence and purpose of ...

Helping the Marginalised or Supporting the Elite? Affirmative Action as a Tool for Increasing Access to Higher Education for Ethnic Roma

Science.gov (United States)

Garaz, Stella

2014-01-01

Among the many arguments against affirmative action discussed in the academic literature, there is one stating that affirmative action fails to target the most marginalised members of a disadvantaged group, and instead it supports the group's most affluent members whose socio-economic position may be comparable to that of the mainstream…