Comparison of three bone ultrasounds for the discrimination of subjects with and without osteoporotic fractures among 7562 elderly women

Bone ultrasound measures (QUSs) can assess fracture risk in the elderly. We compared three QUSs and their association with nonvertebral fracture history in 7562 Swiss women 70-80 years of age. The association between nonvertebral fracture was higher for heel than phalangeal QUS.

Sensory discrimination, working memory and intelligence in 9-year-old and 11-year-old children

More than a century ago, Galton and Spearman suggested that there was a functional relationship between sensory discrimination ability and intelligence. Studies have since been able to confirm a close relationship between general discrimination ability (GDA) and IQ. The aim of the present study was to assess whether this strong relationship between GDA and IQ could be due to working memory (WM) demands of GDA tasks. A sample of 140 children (seventy 9-year-olds and seventy 11-year-olds) was studied. Results showed that there was a significant overlap between WM, GDA and fluid intelligence. Furthermore, results also revealed that WM could not explain the relationship between GDA and fluid intelligence as such, but that it acted as a bottleneck of information processing, limiting the influence of GDA on the prediction of fluid intelligence. Specifically, GDA's influence on the prediction of intelligence was only visible when WM capacity was above a certain level.

European Union Meets South Korea: Bureaucratic Interests, Exporter Discrimination and the Negotiations of Trade Agreements

Who in the European Union drives the process of pursuing bilateral trade negotiations? In contrast to societal explanations, this article develops a novel argument as to how the European Commission manages the process and uses its position in strategic ways to pursue its interests. Rooted in principal–agent theory, the article discusses agent preferences and theorizes the conditions under which the agent sets specific focal points and interacts strategically with principals and third parties. The argument is discussed with case study evidence drawn from the first trade agreement concluded and ratified since the EU Commission announced its new strategy in 2006: the EU–South Korea trade agreement

Perceptual learning of motion discrimination by mental imagery.

Perceptual learning can occur when stimuli are only imagined, i.e., without proper stimulus presentation. For example, perceptual learning improved bisection discrimination when only the two outer lines of the bisection stimulus were presented and the central line had to be imagined. Performance improved also with other static stimuli. In non-learning imagery experiments, imagining static stimuli is different from imagining motion stimuli. We hypothesized that those differences also affect imagery perceptual learning. Here, we show that imagery training also improves motion direction discrimination. Learning occurs when no stimulus at all is presented during training, whereas no learning occurs when only noise is presented. The interference between noise and mental imagery possibly hinders learning. For static bisection stimuli, the pattern is just the opposite. Learning occurs when presented with the two outer lines of the bisection stimulus, i.e., with only a part of the visual stimulus, while no learning occurs when no stimulus at all is presented.

Intergroup bias in third-party punishment stems from both ingroup favoritism and outgroup discrimination

Social norms pervade almost every aspect of social interaction. If they are violated, not only legal institutions, but other members of society as well, punish, i.e., inflict costs on the wrongdoer. Sanctioning occurs even when the punishers themselves were not harmed directly and even when it is costly for them. There is evidence for intergroup bias in this third-party punishment: third-parties, who share group membership with victims, punish outgroup perpetrators more harshly than ingroup perpetrators. However, it is unknown whether a discriminatory treatment of outgroup perpetrators (outgroup discrimination) or a preferential treatment of ingroup perpetrators (ingroup favoritism) drives this bias. To answer this question, the punishment of outgroup and ingroup perpetrators must be compared to a baseline, i.e., unaffiliated perpetrators. By applying a costly punishment game, we found stronger punishment of outgroup versus unaffiliated perpetrators and weaker punishment of ingroup versus unaffiliated perpetrators. This demonstrates that both ingroup favoritism and outgroup discrimination drive intergroup bias in third-party punishment of perpetrators that belong to distinct social groups.

Simultaneous detection and discrimination of virulent and benign Dichelobacter nodosus in sheep of flocks affected by foot rot and in clinically healthy flocks by competitive real-time PCR.

Ovine foot rot caused by Dichelobacter nodosus is affecting sheep worldwide. The current diagnostic methods are difficult and cumbersome. Here, we present a competitive real-time PCR based on allelic discrimination of the protease genes aprV2 and aprB2. This method allows direct detection and differentiation of virulent and benign D. nodosus from interdigital skin swabs in a single test. Clinically affected sheep harbored high loads of only virulent strains, whereas healthy sheep had lower loads of predominantly benign strains.

Individual differences in working memory capacity explain the relationship between general discrimination ability and psychometric intelligence

The close association between psychometric intelligence and general discrimination ability (GDA), conceptualized as latent variable derived from performance on different sensory discrimination tasks, is empirically well-established but theoretically widely unclear. The present study contrasted two alternative explanations for this association. The first explanation is based on what Spearman (1904) referred to as a central function underlying this relationship in the sense of the g factor of intelligence and becoming most evident in GDA. In this case, correlations between different aspects of cognitive abilities, such as working memory (WM) capacity, and psychometric intelligence should be mediated by GDA if their correlation is caused by g. Alternatively, the second explanation for the relationship between psychometric intelligence and GDA proceeds from fMRI studies which emphasize the role of WM functioning for sensory discrimination. Given the well-known relationship between WM and psychometric intelligence, the relationship between GDA and psychometric intelligence might be attributed to WM. The present study investigated these two alternative explanations at the level of latent variables. In 197 young adults, a model in which WM mediated the relationship between GDA and psychometric intelligence described the data better than a model in which GDA mediated the relationship between WM and psychometric intelligence. Moreover, GDA failed to explain portions of variance of psychometric intelligence above and beyond WM. These findings clearly support the view that the association between psychometric intelligence and GDA must be understood in terms of WM functioning.

Relations among fluid intelligence, sensory discrimination and working memory in middle to late childhood – A latent variable approach

Two factors that have been suggested as key in explaining individual differences in fluid intelligence are working memory and sensory discrimination ability. A latent variable approach was used to explore the relative contributions of these two variables to individual differences in fluid intelligence in middle to late childhood. A sample of 263 children aged 7–12 years was examined. Correlational analyses showed that general discrimination ability (GDA)and working memory (WM) were related to each other and to fluid intelligence. Structural equation modeling showed that within both younger and older age groups and the sample as a whole, the relation between GDA and fluid intelligence could be accounted for by WM. While WM was able to predict variance in fluid intelligence above and beyond GDA, GDA was not able to explain significant amounts of variance in fluid intelligence, either in the whole sample or within the younger or older age group. We concluded that compared to GDA, WM should be considered the better predictor of individual differences in fluid intelligence in childhood. WM and fluid intelligence, while not being separable in middle childhood, develop at different rates, becoming more separable with age.

Temperature dependence of postmortem MR quantification for soft tissue discrimination.

OBJECTIVES To investigate and correct the temperature dependence of postmortem MR quantification used for soft tissue characterization and differentiation in thoraco-abdominal organs. MATERIAL AND METHODS Thirty-five postmortem short axis cardiac 3-T MR examinations were quantified using a quantification sequence. Liver, spleen, left ventricular myocardium, pectoralis muscle and subcutaneous fat were analysed in cardiac short axis images to obtain mean T1, T2 and PD tissue values. The core body temperature was measured using a rectally inserted thermometer. The tissue-specific quantitative values were related to the body core temperature. Equations to correct for temperature differences were generated. RESULTS In a 3D plot comprising the combined data of T1, T2 and PD, different organs/tissues could be well differentiated from each other. The quantitative values were influenced by the temperature. T1 in particular exhibited strong temperature dependence. The correction of quantitative values to a temperature of 37 °C resulted in better tissue discrimination. CONCLUSION Postmortem MR quantification is feasible for soft tissue discrimination and characterization of thoraco-abdominal organs. This provides a base for computer-aided diagnosis and detection of tissue lesions. The temperature dependence of the T1 values challenges postmortem MR quantification. Equations to correct for the temperature dependence are provided. KEY POINTS • Postmortem MR quantification is feasible for soft tissue discrimination and characterization • Temperature dependence of the T1 values challenges the MR quantification approach • The results provide the basis for computer-aided postmortem MRI diagnosis • Diagnostic criteria may also be applied for living patients.