Intercepting the First Pass:Rapid Categorization is Suppressed for Unseen Stimuli

The operations and processes that the human brain employs to achieve fast visual categorization remain a matter of debate. A first issue concerns the timing and place of rapid visual categorization and to what extent it can be performed with an early feed-forward pass of information through the visual system. A second issue involves the categorization of stimuli that do not reach visual awareness. There is disagreement over the degree to which these stimuli activate the same early mechanisms as stimuli that are consciously perceived. We employed continuous flash suppression (CFS), EEG recordings, and machine learning techniques to study visual categorization of seen and unseen stimuli. Our classifiers were able to predict from the EEG recordings the category of stimuli on seen trials but not on unseen trials. Rapid categorization of conscious images could be detected around 100?ms on the occipital electrodes, consistent with a fast, feed-forward mechanism of target detection. For the invisible stimuli, however, CFS eliminated all traces of early processing. Our results support the idea of a fast mechanism of categorization and suggest that this early categorization process plays an important role in later, more subtle categorizations, and perceptual processes.

Switching between molecular switch types by module rearrangement:Ca -enabled, H-driven 'off-on-off', H-driven YES and PASS 0 as well as H, Ca-driven AND logic operations

Several logic gates and switches can be accessed from two different combinations of a single set of fluorophore, receptor and spacer components.

Donegall Pass: Towards a sustainable community:Chapter 5, Health and Wellbeing

Key Points

International research has long since established a gradient between health and socio-economic status and it is now clear that the social and physical context in which people live can have a negative influence on health.

Recent research has established an adverse effect on the health of people who remained in an area that had become more deprived over time

The mechanisms thought to influence health in declining communities include stress, loss of self-esteem, stigma, powerlessness, a lack of hope and fatalism.

These mechanisms are related to the concept of social capital, a resource produced when people co-operate for mutual benefit

Residents’ key concerns relating to the decline in the community are housing shortages which are perceived to be contributing to the breakdown of the family-based community, along with traffic; pollution; non-resident parking problems; a lack of youth facilities; and the influx of ethnic minorities who are less inclined to become involved with the community

In the Donegall Pass a dual process of outward migration and business development has resulted in a decline in social capital within the community which was particularly evident amongst the younger generations

People living in deprived areas, such as the Donegall Pass, that are adjacent to affluent areas, such as the new apartment developments surrounding the area, can often feel relatively more deprived due to such direct comparisons. Although relative deprivation was evident, peer comparisons with the Donegal Road/Sandy Row community were more commonly expressed

The area can be described as a ‘food desert’ as no affordable fresh grocery supplies are available within walking distance

Residents expressed mixed opinions about the future of the Donegall Pass including a common sense of resignation towards the decline in the core community

Many residents recognise the need for people to work together and gain empowerment in order to work with the authorities (i.e., the Housing Executive and the Council) towards progressive re-development that is in keeping with the aims of the community members, however, equally many were impervious towards these suggestions feeling that previous efforts had gone unrewarded.

Vichy, un passé qui ne passe pas ?

La Seconde Guerre mondiale demeure très présente dans les mémoires des Français qui seraient plongés dans une « phase obsessionnelle » depuis le début des années 1970 selon l’historien Henry Rousso. Notre étude se propose de vérifier dans quelle mesure cela reste vrai de nos jours. Elle entend le faire non pas en se basant sur ses occurrences dans la presse ou dans les médias – ce qui, paradoxalement, pourrait ne faire ressortir que ce qui est du domaine de l’épidermique – mais indirectement, à travers les romans et, plus précisément, les best-sellers qui sont, selon de nombreux critiques, des miroirs privilégiés de l’inconscient collectif ou de l’imaginaire d’une époque que, en retour, ils contribuent à façonner. Nous distinguerons quatre phases depuis 1945. Or, les best-sellers contemporains, ceux de la quatrième et dernière phase, présentent nombre de caractéristiques communes qui suggèrent que ce passé difficile est bel et bien en train de passer.

Large scale test of a novel back-pass non-perforated unglazed solar air collector

This paper describes large scale tests conducted on a novel unglazed solar air collector system. The proposed system, referred to as a back-pass solar collector (BPSC), has on-site installation and aesthetic advantages over conventional unglazed transpired solar collectors (UTSC) as it is fully integrated within a standard insulated wall panel. This paper presents the results obtained from monitoring a BPSC wall panel over one year. Measurements of temperature, wind velocity and solar irradiance were taken at multiple air mass flow rates. It is shown that the length of the collector cavities has a direct impact on the efficiency of the system. It is also shown that beyond a height-to-flow ratio of 0.023m/m³/hr/m², no additional heat output is obtained by increasing the collector height for the experimental setup in this study, but these numbers would obviously be different if the experimental setup or test environment (e.g. location and climate) change. An equation for predicting the temperature rise of the BPSC is proposed.

Sorting out mix-ups. The provenance of tissue sections may be confirmed by PCR using microsatellite markers

Standard identification systems usually ensure that biopsy material is correctly associated with a given patient. Sometimes, as when a tumor is unexpectedly found, the provenance (proof of origin) of a tissue sample may be questioned; the tissue may have been mislabelled or contaminated with tissue from another patient. Techniques used to confirm tissue provenance include comparing either tissue markers of gender or ABO blood groups; however, these methods have weak confirmatory power. Recently, the use of DNA-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques has been reported. Paired, formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded, 10 microns tissue sections were selected from 17 patients, 8 of whom had carcinoma, either by dividing a biopsy section, using sequential biopsies, or sequential biopsy and autopsy tissue. The resulting 36 samples were coded before analysis. In two additional cases, 1-mm fragments of tumor from one patient were included in the tissue block of benign tissue from another patient, the tumor fragments were identified on hematoxylin-and-eosin-stained sections, separately scraped off the glass slide, and analyzed. Tissue from two clinical cases, one of suspected mislabelling and one with a suspected carry-over of malignant tissue were also investigated. Short tandem repeat sequences (STR) or microsatellites, are 2-5 base pair repeats that vary in their repeat number between individuals. This variation (polymorphism) can be assessed using a PCR. A panel of markers of 3 STRs; ACPP, INT 2, and CYP 19 (on chromosomes 3, 11, and 15, respectively) were used. DNA was isolated from the samples after xylene deparaffinization and proteinase digestion, and was then amplified in a radioactive PCR using primers selected to give a product size ranging from 136-178 bases. Amplified products were electrophoresed on denaturing polyacrylamide gels, dried, and autoradiographed. DNA segments were successfully extracted from all samples but one, which was fixed in Bouin's fluid. By comparing allele sizes from the panel, all tissue pairs (other than the Bouin's pair) were successfully matched, the 1-mm tumor fragments were correctly assigned, and the two clinical problems were solved. STRs are highly informative and robust markers, well suited to PCR of small portions of tissue sections, and are an effective method to confirm the provenance of benign and malignant biopsy and autopsy material.