Do you remember where sounds, pictures and words came from? The role of the stimulus format in object location memory.

Contrasting results in visual and auditory spatial memory stimulate the debate over the role of sensory modality and attention in identity-to-location binding. We investigated the role of sensory modality in the incidental/deliberate encoding of the location of a sequence of items. In 4 separated blocks, 88 participants memorised sequences of environmental sounds, spoken words, pictures and written words, respectively.

Did I see your hand moving? The effect of movement-related information on the Corsi block tapping task.

The Corsi Block Tapping Task is a widespread test used to assess spatial working memory. Previous research hypothesized that the discrepancy found in some cases between the traditional and the digital (touchscreen) version of the Corsi block tapping task may be due to a direct motor resonance between the experimenter's and the participant's hand movements. However, we hypothesize that this discrepancy might be due to extra movement-related information included in the traditional version, lacking in the digital one.

Changing Sagittal-Plane Landing Styles to Modulate Impact and Tibiofemoral Force Magnitude and Directions Relative to the Tibia.

Context: Ground reaction force (GRF) and tibiofemoral force magnitudes and directions have been shown to affect anterior cruciate ligament loading during landing. However, the kinematic and kinetic factors modifying these 2 forces during landing are unknown.

Objective: To clarify the intersegmental kinematic and kinetic links underlying the alteration of the GRF and tibiofemoral force vectors secondary to changes in the sagittal-plane body position during single-legged landing.

Contrast-enhanced μCT of the intervertebral disc: A comparison of anionic and cationic contrast agents for biochemical and morphological characterization.

The objective of this study was to quantify and compare the contrast-enhancing properties of the anionic contrast agent ioxaglate/Hexabrix, and cationic contrast agent CA for biochemical and morphological characterization of the intervertebral disc (IVD) via μCT. Optimal contrast agent concentrations were determined by incubating rat lumbar IVDs in dilutions of Hexabrix-320 (20%, 30%, 40%, and 50%) and CA (10, 20, 30, and 40 mg I/ml). μCT imaging was performed at 70 kVp, 114 μA, and 250 ms integration time, 12 μm voxel size.

Historical antecedents to the philosophy of Paul Feyerabend.

Paul Feyerabend has been considered a very radical philosopher of science for proposing that we may advance hypotheses contrary to well-confirmed experimental results, that observations make theoretical assumptions, that all methodological rules have exceptions, that ordinary citizens may challenge the judgment of experts, and that human happiness should be a key value for science. As radical as these theses may sound, they all have historical antecedents. In defending the Copernican view, Galileo exemplified the first two; Mill, Aristotle and Machiavelli all argued for pluralism; Aristotle gave commonsense reasons for why ordinary citizens may be able to judge the work of experts; and a combination of Plato's and Aristotle's views can offer strong support for the connection between science and happiness.

Quantitative Machine Learning Analysis of Brain MRI Morphology throughout Aging.

Background: While cognition is clearly affected by aging, it is unclear whether the process of brain aging is driven solely by accumulation of environmental damage, or involves biological pathways.

Methods: We applied quantitative image analysis to profile the alteration of brain tissues during aging. A dataset of 463 brain MRI images taken from a cohort of 416 subjects was analyzed using a large set of low-level numerical image content descriptors computed from the entire brain MRI images.

A Dissociation Between Recognition and Hedonic Value in Caloric and Non-caloric Carbonated Soft Drinks.

Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) is considered to be a contributor to diabetes and the epidemic of obesity in many countries. The popularity of non-caloric carbonated soft drinks as an alternative to SSBs may be a factor in reducing the health risks associated with SSBs consumption. This study focuses on the perceptual discrimination of SSBs from artificially sweetened beverages (ASBs).

Expression, purification, and characterization of a carbohydrate-active enzyme: A research-inspired methods optimization experiment for the biochemistry laboratory.

The development and implementation of research-inspired, discovery-based experiences into science laboratory curricula is a proven strategy for increasing student engagement and ownership of experiments. In the novel laboratory module described herein, students learn to express, purify, and characterize a carbohydrate-active enzyme using modern techniques and instrumentation commonly found in a research laboratory. Unlike in a traditional cookbook-style experiment, students generate their own hypotheses regarding expression conditions and quantify the amount of protein isolated using their selected variables.

Amorphous Ultrathin SnO2 Films by Atomic Layer Deposition on Graphene Network as Highly Stable Anodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries.

Amorphous SnO2 (a-SnO2) thin films were conformally coated onto the surface of reduced graphene oxide (G) using atomic layer deposition (ALD). The electrochemical characteristics of the a-SnO2/G nanocomposites were then determined using cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge/discharge curves. Because the SnO2 ALD films were ultrathin and amorphous, the impact of the large volume expansion of SnO2 upon cycling was greatly reduced.

Composite Aging Markers Can Be Used for Quantitative Profiling of Aging.

In the absence of a single marker that reliably reflects biological aging, or even an exact definition of biological age, compound aging scores that combine multiple aging biomarkers into a single composite aging score can quantitatively reflect the age-related changes over time. If aging is viewed as the broad accumulation of alterations over time, a composite score that reflects numerous diverse aspects of these alterations can be used as a quantitative approximation of aging. Profiling the changes of the composite aging score over time shows variations in the pace of aging at different chronological ages, such that the changes over time show distinct stages separated by a short period of rapid aging.

Comprehensive Analysis of Large Sets of Age-Related Physiological Indicators Reveals Rapid Aging around the Age of 55 Years.

Background: While many studies show a correlation between chronological age and physiological indicators, the nature of this correlation is not fully understood.

Objective: To perform a comprehensive analysis of the correlation between chronological age and age-related physiological indicators.

Method: Physiological aging scores were deduced using principal component analysis from a large dataset of 1,227 variables measured in a cohort of 4,796 human subjects, and the correlation between the physiological aging scores and chronological age was assessed.

Cross-modal and intra-modal binding between identity and location in spatial working memory: The identity of objects does not help recalling their locations.

In this study we tested incidental feature-to-location binding in a spatial task, both in unimodal and cross-modal conditions. In Experiment 1 we administered a computerised version of the Corsi Block-Tapping Task (CBTT) in three different conditions: the first one analogous to the original CBTT test; the second one in which locations were associated with unfamiliar images; the third one in which locations were associated with non-verbal sounds. Results showed no effect on performance by the addition of identity information.

A Mathematical Model of a Midbrain Dopamine Neuron Identifies Two Slow Variables Likely Responsible for Bursts Evoked by SK Channel Antagonists and Terminated by Depolarization Block.

Midbrain dopamine neurons exhibit a novel type of bursting that we call "inverted square wave bursting" when exposed to Ca(2+)-activated small conductance (SK) K(+) channel blockers in vitro. This type of bursting has three phases: hyperpolarized silence, spiking, and depolarization block. We find that two slow variables are required for this type of bursting, and we show that the three-dimensional bifurcation diagram for inverted square wave bursting is a folded surface with upper (depolarized) and lower (hyperpolarized) branches.

Classification of large acoustic datasets using machine learning and crowdsourcing: application to whale calls.

Vocal communication is a primary communication method of killer and pilot whales, and is used for transmitting a broad range of messages and information for short and long distance. The large variation in call types of these species makes it challenging to categorize them. In this study, sounds recorded by audio sensors carried by ten killer whales and eight pilot whales close to the coasts of Norway, Iceland, and the Bahamas were analyzed using computer methods and citizen scientists as part of the Whale FM project.

eCorsi: implementation and testing of the Corsi block-tapping task for digital tablets.

The Corsi block-tapping task is a widely used test to assess visuo-spatial working memory. The test is traditionally administered using nine square blocks positioned on a wooden board, but numerous digital versions have been developed. In this study, we tested one-hundred and seven participants divided into two age groups (18-30 and over 50) in forward, backward and supraspan-forward conditions with eCorsi, a tablet version of the Corsi task.

Use of fluorescence microscopy to probe intracellular lipolysis.

Intracellular lipolysis is an important cellular process in key metabolic tissues, and while much is known about the enzymatic basis of lipolysis, our understanding of how these processes are organized and regulated within cells is incomplete. Lipolysis takes place on the surface of intracellular lipid droplets, which are now recognized as bona fide organelles, and a large number of proteins have been found to change their associations with lipid droplets in response to lipolytic stimulation. Intracellular lipolysis has critical spatial and temporal domains that can be investigated using high-resolution imaging of fixed and live cells.

Robust color texture features under varying illumination conditions.

Under varying illumination, both the statistical and structural contents of color texture are modified, leading to changes in the observed texture surface. We model the effect of illumination as a perturbation on an ideal color texture and show that the spectra of the ambient light have a significant impact on the observed texture patterns in the individual color channels. Motivated by studies in human color constancy, we propose a correlation-based transformation that minimizes the effect of illumination variation in color texture analysis.

Assessing the efficacy of low-level image content descriptors for computer-based fluorescence microscopy image analysis.

The increasing prevalence of automated image acquisition systems and state-of-the-art information technology has enabled new types of microscopy experiments based on automatic processing of massive image data sets, and numerous methods of high-content screening using machine vision and pattern recognition methods have been proposed. However, as a relatively young discipline, it is important to validate these methods and ensure that the machine vision and pattern recognition techniques reliably reflect the actual morphology, and can be effectively used for finding and validating scientific discoveries. In this report we show that some of the previously reported experimental results using automatic microscopy image analysis might be biased, and discuss practices and methods that can be used to obtain objective and reliable automatic analysis of microscopy images.

A computer analysis method for correlating knee X-rays with continuous indicators.

Purpose: To develop an image analysis method that can automatically find correlations between a set of plain radiographs and continuous clinical or physiological indicators.

Methods: Knee X-rays taken from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging are used in this study. The computer analysis method is based on the WND-CHARM image feature set filtered by using the Pearson correlation of each feature with the continuous variable, and the estimated value is determined by a weighted nearest neighbor interpolation.

Pure passive hyperextension of the human cadaver knee generates simultaneous bicruciate ligament rupture.

Knee hyperextension has been described as a mechanism of isolated anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears, but clinical and experimental studies have produced contradictory results for the ligament injuries and the injury sequence caused by the hyperextension loading mechanism. The hypothesis of this study was that bicruciate ligament injuries would occur as a result of knee hyperextension by producing high tibio-femoral (TF) compressive forces that would cause anterior translation of the tibia to rupture the ACL, while joint extension would simultaneously induce rupture of the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL). Six human knees were loaded in hyperextension until gross injury, while bending moments and motions were recorded.

Marker chromosomes are a significant mechanism of high-level RUNX1 gene amplification in hematologic malignancies.

To understand the cytogenetic mechanisms responsible for multiple RUNX1 gene copy numbers in hematologic malignancies, we analyzed the chromosomal and molecular cytogenetic findings in bone marrow or peripheral blood samples of individuals who were diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), or acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Included in the analysis were 113 consecutive samples received in our laboratory between January 2005 and June 2007. Bone marrow and/or peripheral blood samples were characterized using conventional G-banding techniques and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) techniques with commercially available RUNX1/RUNX1T1 or ETV6/RUNX1 dual-color fusion probes.

Effects of gas and moisture on modeling of bioreactor landfill settlement.

This manuscript describes a model that can predict settlement at variable moisture and pressure conditions as encountered in bioreactor landfills. In this model mechanical compression of municipal solid waste (MSW) was accounted with the help of laboratory compression tests. To model biodegradation-induced settlement, biodegradation of MSW was assumed to obey a first order decay equation.

Numerical model to predict settlements coupled with landfill gas pressure in bioreactor landfills.

Landfills settle due to its weight and biodegradation of waste. Biodegradation-induced settlement is a direct result of rearrangement of waste skeleton in response to the conversion of waste mass into landfill gases. Traditionally, the compressibility index based on settlement of clays is used to explain the settlement of waste.

A review of pulse propagation in viscoelastic arteries with distributed flow leakage.

Current mathematical models for describing pulse propagation in arteries are summarized. These models include the effects of viscoelasticity, frequency dependent friction, and other factors. One factor that has not been previously considered is the effect of distributed flow leakage.