Intermittently-visual tracking experiments reveal the roles of error-correction and predictive mechanisms in the human visual-motor control system

Prediction mechanism is necessary for human visual motion to compensate a delay of sensory-motor system. In a previous study, “proactive control” was discussed as one example of predictive function of human beings, in which motion of hands preceded the virtual moving target in visual tracking experiments. To study the roles of the positional-error correction mechanism and the prediction mechanism, we carried out an intermittently-visual tracking experiment where a circular orbit is segmented into the target-visible regions and the target-invisible regions. Main results found in this research were following. A rhythmic component appeared in the tracer velocity when the target velocity was relatively high. The period of the rhythm in the brain obtained from environmental stimuli is shortened more than 10%. The shortening of the period of rhythm in the brain accelerates the hand motion as soon as the visual information is cut-off, and causes the precedence of hand motion to the target motion. Although the precedence of the hand in the blind region is reset by the environmental information when the target enters the visible region, the hand motion precedes the target in average when the predictive mechanism dominates the error-corrective mechanism.

Numbers of antral follicles during follicular waves in cattle: Evidence for high variation among animals, very high repeatability in individuals, and an inverse association with serum follicle-stimulating hormone concentrations

The extent, causes, and physiological significance of the variation in number of follicles growing during ovarian follicular waves in human beings and cattle are unknown. Therefore, the present study examined the variability and repeatability in numbers of follicles 3 mm or greater in diameter during the follicular waves in bovine estrous cycles, and we determined if the variation in number of follicles during waves was associated with alterations in secretion of FSH, estradiol, inhibin, and insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I). Dairy cattle were subjected to twice-daily ultrasound analysis to count total number of antral follicles 3 mm or greater in diameter throughout 138 different follicular waves. In another study, blood samples were taken at frequent intervals from cows that consistently had low or very high numbers of follicles during waves and were subjected to immunoassays. Results indicate the following: First, despite an approximately sevenfold variation in number of follicles during waves among animals and marked differences in age, stage of lactation, and season of the year, a very highly repeatable (0.95) number of follicles 3 mm or greater in diameter is maintained during the ovulatory and nonovulatory follicular waves of individuals. Second, variation in number of follicles 3 mm or greater in diameter during waves and the inverse association of number of follicles during waves with FSH are not directly explained by alterations in the patterns of secretion of estradiol, inhibin, or IGF-I. Third, ovarian ultrasound analysis can be used reliably by investigators to identify cattle that consistently have low or high numbers of follicles during waves, thus providing a novel experimental model to determine the causes and physiological significance of the high variation in antral follicle number during follicular waves among single-ovulating species, such as cattle or humans.

The music instinct: the evolutionary basis of musicality

Why does music pervade our lives and those of all known human beings living today and in the recent past? Why do we feel compelled to engage in musical activity, or at least simply enjoy listening to music even if we choose not to actively participate? I argue that this is because musicality—communication using variations in pitch, rhythm, dynamics and timbre, by a combination of the voice, body (as in dance), and material culture—was essential to the lives of our pre-linguistic hominin ancestors. As a consequence we have inherited a desire to engage with music, even if this has no adaptive benefit for us today as a species whose communication system is dominated by spoken language. In this article I provide a summary of the arguments to support this view.

Attaching-effacing bacteria in animals

Enteric bacteria with a demonstrable or potential ability to form attaching-effacing lesions, so-called attaching-effacing (AE) bacteria, have been found in the intestinal tracts of a wide variety of warm-blooded animal species, including man. In some host species, for example cattle, pigs, rabbits and human beings, attaching-effacing Escherichia coli (AEEC) have an established role as enteropathogens. In other host species, AE bacteria are of less certain significance. With continuing advances in the detection and typing of AE strains, the importance of these bacteria for many hosts is likely to become clearer. The pathogenic effects of AE bacteria result from adhesion to the intestinal mucosa by a variety of mechanisms, culminating in the formation of the characteristic intimate adhesion of the AE lesion. The ability to induce AE lesions is mediated by the co-ordinated expression of some 40 bacterial genes organized within a so-called pathogenicity island, known as the "Locus for Enterocyte Effacement". It is also believed that the production of bacterial toxins, principally Vero toxins, is a significant virulence factor for some A-EEC strains. Recent areas of research into AE bacteria include: the use of Citrobacter rodentium to model human AEEC disease; quorum-sensing mechanisms used by AEEC to modulate virulence gene expression; and the potential role of adhesion in the persistent colonization of the intestine by AE bacteria. This review of AE bacteria covers their molecular biology, their occurrence in various animal species, and the diagnosis, pathology and clinical aspects of animal diseases with which they are associated. Reference is made to human pathogens where appropriate. The focus is mainly on natural colonization and disease, but complementary experimental data are also included. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mutual dependency grid for stakeholder mapping: a component-based approach to supply chain participant analysis

Stakeholder analysis plays a critical role in business analysis. However, the majority of the stakeholder identification and analysis methods focus on the activities and processes and ignore the artefacts being processed by human beings. By focusing on the outputs of the organisation, an artefact-centric view helps create a network of artefacts, and a component-based structure of the organisation and its supply chain participants. Since the relationship is based on the components, i.e. after the stakeholders are identified, the interdependency between stakeholders and the focal organisation can be measured. Each stakeholder is associated with two types of dependency, namely the stakeholder’s dependency on the focal organisation and the focal organisation’s dependency on the stakeholder. We identify three factors for each type of dependency and propose the equations that calculate the dependency indexes. Once both types of the dependency indexes are calculated, each stakeholder can be placed and categorised into one of the four groups, namely critical stakeholder, mutual benefits stakeholder, replaceable stakeholder, and easy care stakeholder. The mutual dependency grid and the dependency gap analysis, which further investigates the priority of each stakeholder by calculating the weighted dependency gap between the focal organisation and the stakeholder, subsequently help the focal organisation to better understand its stakeholders and manage its stakeholder relationships.

Artefact-oriented business process modelling: an ontological dependency approach

Business process modelling can help an organisation better understand and improve its business processes. Most business process modelling methods adopt a task- or activity-based approach to identifying business processes. Within our work, we use activity theory to categorise elements within organisations as being either human beings, activities or artefacts. Due to the direct relationship between these three elements, an artefact-oriented approach to organisation analysis emerges. Organisational semiotics highlights the ontological dependency between affordances within an organisation. We analyse the ontological dependency between organisational elements, and therefore produce the ontology chart for artefact-oriented business process modelling in order to clarify the relationship between the elements of an organisation. Furthermore, we adopt the techniques from semantic analysis and norm analysis, of organisational semiotics, to develop the artefact-oriented method for business process modelling. The proposed method provides a novel perspective for identifying and analysing business processes, as well as agents and artefacts, as the artefact-oriented perspective demonstrates the fundamental flow of an organisation. The modelling results enable an organisation to understand and model its processes from an artefact perspective, viewing an organisation as a network of artefacts. The information and practice captured and stored in artefact can also be shared and reused between organisations that produce similar artefacts.

When bookkeepers become beekeepers: why bee accountability

Accounting for biodiversity has received increasing attention from the academic accounting community in recent years. Despite a stream of research investigating the quality and quantity of biodiversity reporting in general, no academic research has focused on reporting related to one specific species. This paper explores the quality and quantity of corporate disclosures relating to bees. Society is becoming increasingly concerned about the accelerating fall in bee populations around the world. Colony Collapse Disorder has been spreading through global bee populations since 2006, decimating commercial hives. Concerns are fuelled by fears that pollinators may become extinct which would have dire consequences for the majority of world food production, leaving human pollination, at immense cost, the only alternative. On the basis of these fears, companies as well as other organisations, have started to establish programmes aimed at rejuvenating global bee populations. In this paper we explore the bee-related disclosures provided by a large selection of UK listed companies. We assess the extent to which companies believe they have a role to play in enhancing and protecting bee populations. Further we consider whether corporate accountability in this area derives solely from a business case or whether there is a deeper societal connection with bees as a species which is encouraging companies to protect their survival. The paper investigates the historical and philosophical connection between bees and human beings, for example the ways industrial production has been likened to honey production. We draw parallels between bees and human industrial organisation as well as between the role and responsibilities of the bookkeeper and the beekeeper.

Acarología forense [Forensic acarology]

Mites are a highly diversified group of chelicerates (arthropods) adapted to a broad spectrum of habitats and diets, presenting extreme specificity to habitats. They are considered to be important indicators of environmental conditions including those modified by human beings. Therefore, they can inform about the environment where a corpse has been exposed to, about the route of specific merchandises, as well as about other applied aspects of forensic entomology. It is not rare the presence of species adapted to cadaveric environments. Jean Pierre Mégnin, forensic veterinarian considered pioneer in the development of forensic entomology, conscious about the importance of mites as forensic indicators, was the first including mites in the decomposition process. For Mégnin, wave six was formed by mites only. Due to the increasing interest of forensic experts in including these organisms in their analysis of trace evidence, as mites are one of the most ubiquitous organisms, we have developed standards for the sampling, conservation and custody of mite evidence of forensic interest.

Mediated action and sexual risk: Searching for 'culture' in discourses of homosexuality and AIDS prevention in China

This paper examines the concept of ‘culture’ and its relationship to HIV prevention. Culture is here seen as the interaction between human beings and the various ‘cultural tools’ they appropriate when taking action. Among these tools are ways of speaking which encode certain meanings, ideologies and social practices. When individuals take action with regard to AIDS, what they do is mediated through voices which they borrow strategically from their environ- ment. The textual tools that are available and the ways individuals adapt and combine them work to either limit or amplify their participation in HIV prevention. What are traditionally seen as ‘cultures’ or ‘sub-cultures’, or worse, ‘risk groups’, are, in this perspective, viewed as ‘communities of practice’, groups of individuals who share particular cultural tools and ways of using them. This conceptual framework is applied to recent discourses of homosexuality and AIDS prevention in China. An instance of ‘of� cial’ discourse in the form of an AIDS education pamphlet for ‘gays’ is analysed for the voices it contains and how these voices are strategically marshalled by the authors and mixed with other voices in ways which amplify participation in AIDS prevention for some and limit it for others. This ‘offical’ discourse is then compared to the discourse of homosexually active Chinese men recently interviewed in Beijing and Fuzhou to examine which of these of� cial voices and other voices they appropriate, and how they adapt these voices in responding to HIV.