Sequential modulation of distractor-interference produced by semantic generalization of stimulus features.

Sequential modulations of distractor-related interference (i.e., reduced congruency effect after incongruent as compared to congruent predecessor trials, a.

Domain specificity and mental chronometry in empirical aesthetics.

This article is a commentary on 'Ten years of a model of aesthetic appreciation and aesthetic judgments: The aesthetic episode - developments and challenges in empirical aesthetics' (Leder & Nadal, 2014, this issue). It focuses on domain specificity and mental chronometry in empirical aesthetics.

Attentional adjustment to conflict strength: evidence from the effects of manipulating flanker-target SOA on response times and prestimulus pupil size.

Current models of cognitive control assume gradual adjustment of processing selectivity to the strength of conflict evoked by distractor stimuli. Using a flanker task, we varied conflict strength by manipulating target and distractor onset. Replicating previous findings, flanker interference effects were larger on trials associated with advance presentation of the flankers compared to simultaneous presentation.

Exploring conflict- and target-related movement of visual attention.

Intermixing trials of a visual search task with trials of a modified flanker task, the authors investigated whether the presentation of conflicting distractors at only one side (left or right) of a target stimulus triggers shifts of visual attention towards the contralateral side. Search time patterns provided evidence for lateral attention shifts only when participants performed the flanker task under an instruction assumed to widen the focus of attention, demonstrating that instruction-based control settings of an otherwise identical task can impact performance in an unrelated task. Contrasting conditions with response-related and response-unrelated distractors showed that shifting attention does not depend on response conflict and may be explained as stimulus-conflict-related withdrawal or target-related deployment of attention.

On the electrophysiology of aesthetic processing.

One important method that can be applied for gaining an understanding of the underpinning of aesthetics in the brain is that of electrophysiology. Cognitive electrophysiology, in particular, allows the identification of components in a mental processing architecture. The present chapter reviews findings in the neurocognitive psychology of aesthetics, or neuroaesthetics, that have been obtained with the method of event-related brain potentials, as derived from the human electroencephalogram.

Conflict adjustment devoid of perceptual selection.

Task performance suffers when an aspect of a stimulus is associated with an incorrect response, thereby evoking cognitive conflict. Such impairment is reduced after recent or frequent conflict occurrence, suggesting attentional adjustment. We examined adjustment to conflict evoked by a temporarily irrelevant S-R rule when participants frequently switched between two semantic classification tasks by manipulating the proportion of conflict trials in one of them.

Mismatch negativity (MMN) to successive deviants within one hierarchically structured auditory object.

The Mismatch Negativity (MMN), a component of the event-related potential (ERP), is elicited by a deviant following a series of standard stimuli. The present study addressed the question whether two deviants occurring successively in one hierarchically organized auditory object would elicit separate MMN responses. An example of such an object is a VC syllable (vowel+consonant).

Sequential modulation of cue use in the task switching paradigm.

In task switching studies, pre-cuing of the upcoming task improves performance, indicating preparatory activation of the upcoming task-set, and/or inhibition of the previous task-set. To further investigate cue-based task preparation, the authors presented both valid and invalid task cues in a task switching experiment involving three tasks. Consistent with previous findings, a validity effect in terms of higher reaction times on invalidly compared to validly cued tasks was obtained.

Determining quantitative road safety targets by applying statistical prediction techniques and a multi-stage adjustment procedure.

Due to substantial progress made in road safety in the last ten years, the European Union (EU) renewed the ambitious agreement of halving the number of persons killed on the roads within the next decade. In this paper we develop a method that aims at finding an optimal target for each nation, in terms of being as achievable as possible, and with the cumulative EU target being reached. Targets as an important component in road safety policy are given as reduction rate or as absolute number of road traffic deaths.

Personality influences quality-of-life assessments in adult patients after allogeneic hematopoietic SCT: results from a joint evaluation of the prospective German Multicenter Validation Trial and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

The influence of personality on health related quality of life (QoL) and physical functioning in the setting of allogeneic hematopoietic SCT (alloHSCT) is unknown. We conducted a joint evaluation within two independent cohorts of alloHSCT recipients to investigate the impact of personality on reported QoL and physical functioning. Two-hundred-eight patients (median age 44 years, range 18-72) of cohort 1 and 93 patients (median age 55 years, range 19-79) of cohort 2 after alloHSCT were evaluated.

Conflict adaptation in time: foreperiods as contextual cues for attentional adjustment.

Interference evoked by distractor stimulus information, such as flankers in the Eriksen task, is reduced when the proportion of conflicting stimuli is increased. This modulation is sensitive to contextual cues such as stimulus location or color, suggesting attentional adjustment to conflict contingencies on the basis of context information. In the present study, we explored whether conflict adjustment is modulated by temporal variation of conflict likelihood.

Beauty and the brain: culture, history and individual differences in aesthetic appreciation.

Human aesthetic processing entails the sensation-based evaluation of an entity with respect to concepts like beauty, harmony or well-formedness. Aesthetic appreciation has many determinants ranging from evolutionary, anatomical or physiological constraints to influences of culture, history and individual differences. There are a vast number of dynamically configured neural networks underlying these multifaceted processes of aesthetic appreciation.

Conflict-frequency affects flanker interference: role of stimulus-ensemble-specific practiceand flanker-response contingencies.

Performance in choice reaction time tasks deteriorates when an irrelevant stimulus feature is associated with an incorrect response (conflict condition). Such interference effects are reduced under conditions of increased conflict-frequency. Although models of cognitive control account for this modulation in terms of conflict-related attentional focusing on the target stimulus dimension, it is possible that the effect reflects practice with specific stimulus ensembles or stimulus feature-response contingencies.

Model-related factor score predictors for confirmatory factor analysis.

The present paper introduces model-related (MR) factor score predictors, which reflect specific aspects of confirmatory factor models. The development is mainly based on Schönemann and Steiger's regression score components, but it can also be applied to the factor score coefficients. It is shown that the rotation of factor score predictors has no impact on the covariance matrix reproduced from the corresponding regression component patterns.

Context specificity of conflict frequency-dependent control.

Interference in the Eriksen flanker task has been shown to be reduced when the (relative) frequency of conflicting stimuli is increased, a modulation thought to reflect a higher degree of processing selectivity under conditions of frequent conflict (Botvinick, Braver, Barch, Carter, & Cohen, 2001). Previous studies suggest that stimulus location acts as a contextual cue, resulting in location-specific adjustment of processing selectivity when different locations are associated with differential conflict frequencies (Corballis & Gratton, 2003; Wendt, Kluwe, & Vietze, 2008). In the current study we extend these findings by showing that not only stimulus location but also stimulus colour can be used for context-specific adjustments.

The impact of stimulus-specific practice and task instructions on response congruency effects between tasks.

In task switching experiments participants have to respond to the same set of stimuli while task instructions vary (e.g., digit stimuli are assigned to left- or right-sided key presses by means of magnitude vs.

Molecular dynamics simulations of pea (Pisum sativum) lectin structure with octyl glucoside detergents: the ligand interactions and dynamics.

The mitogenic pea (Pisum sativum) lectin is a legume protein of non-immunoglobulin nature capable of specific recognition of glucose derivatives without altering its structure. Molecular dynamics simulations were performed in a realistic environment to investigate the structure and interaction properties of pea lectin with various concentrations of n-octyl-beta-d-glucopyranoside (OG) detergent monomers distributed inside explicit solvent cell. In addition, the diffusion coefficients of the ligands (OG, Ca2+, Mn2+, and Cl-) and the water molecules were also reported.

Chemical indices and methods of multivariate statistics as a tool for odor classification.

Industrial and agricultural off-gas streams are comprised of numerous volatile compounds, many of which have substantially different odorous properties. State-of-the-art waste-gas treatment includes the characterization of these molecules and is directed at, if possible, either the avoidance of such odorants during processing or the use of existing standardized air purification techniques like bioscrubbing or afterburning, which however, often show low efficiency under ecological and economical regards. Selective odor separation from the off-gas streams could ease many of these disadvantages but is not yet widely applicable.

Visual field x response hand interactions and level priming in the processing of laterally presented hierarchical stimuli.

Hemisphere-specific processing of laterally presented global and local stimulus levels was investigated by (a) examining interactions between the visual field of stimulus presentation and the response hand and (b) comparing intra- with inter-hemispheric effects of level priming (i.e. faster and more accurate performance when the target level repeats).

Sequential modulations of interference evoked by processing task-irrelevant stimulus features.

Compatibility level repetition benefits in interference paradigms have been taken to reflect enhanced processing selectivity in response to cognitive conflict elicited by a task-irrelevant stimulus feature. The authors demonstrate such sequential effects in the Simon task which (a) occur independent of previous behavioral conflict effects and (b) cannot be accounted for by selectivity enhancement. Furthermore, when presenting more than one type of irrelevant stimulus features, compatibility level repetition effects occurred in a type-specific manner.

Glycolipids from a colloid chemical point of view.

Glycolipids are a group of compounds with a broad range of applications. Two types of glycolipids (alkylpolyglycosides and gangliosides) were examined with regard to their physicochemical properties. Despite their structural differences, they have in common that they are amphiphilic molecules and able to aggregate to form monolayers, bilayers, micelles, lyothropic mesophases or vesicles.

Molecular dynamics characterization of n-octyl-beta-D-glucopyranoside micelle structure in aqueous solution.

n-Octyl-beta-D-glucopyranoside (OG) is a non-ionic glycolipid, which is used widely in biotechnical and biochemical applications. All-atom molecular dynamics simulations from two different initial coordinates and velocities in explicit solvent have been performed to characterize the structural behaviour of an OG aggregate at equilibrium conditions. Geometric packing properties determined from the simulations and small angle neutron scattering experiment state that OG micelles are more likely to exist in a non-spherical shape, even at the concentration range near to the critical micelle concentration (0.

Development of a basic procedure to design sorption processes.

The intention of this work is to offer, within the shortest time, an appropriate sorption separation process for almost any odour problem. The development is based on the preparation and characterisation of new adsorbents, the strategy for the selection of the best adsorbent, the process engineering and the choice of a suitable regeneration procedure. In this context a new method for the characterisation of the adsorbents - the adsorption profile analysis - was developed.

Decontamination of polyaromatic hydrocarbons from soil by steam stripping: mathematical modeling of the mass transfer and energy requirement.

For cleaning of contaminated soil from polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), a thermal separation process is applied. The process uses superheated steam that is supplied through a nozzle together with a suspension (approximately 40% soil content) of the contaminated soil into a tube reactor. In the reactor, the soil suspension is vaporized, and the PAH are stripped from the soil at temperatures of 140-300 degrees C.

An Analysis and Comparison of Convergence and Uniqueness of Time-Independent Bone Adaptation Models.

Several stimuli are proposed in the bone remodeling theory. It is not clear, if a unique solution exists and if the result is convergent using a certain stimulus. In this study, the strain stimulus, strain energy stimulus and the von Mises stress stimulus for bone remodeling are compared and applied to a square plate model using the finite element method.