Misaligned and Polarity-Reversed Faces Determine Face-specific Capacity Limits

Previous research using flanker paradigms suggests that peripheral distracter faces are automatically processed when participants have to classify a single central familiar target face. These distracter interference effects disappear when the central task contains additional anonymous (non-target) faces that load the search for the face target, but not when the central task contains additional non-face stimuli, suggesting there are face-specific capacity limits in visual processing. Here we tested whether manipulating the format of non-target faces in the search task affected face-specific capacity limits. Experiment 1 replicated earlier findings that a distracter face is processed even in high load conditions when participants looked for a target name of a famous person among additional names (non-targets) in a central search array. Two further experiments show that when targets and non-targets were faces (instead of names), however, distracter interference was eliminated under high load—adding non-target faces to the search array exhausted processing capacity for peripheral faces. The novel finding was that replacing non-target faces with images that consisted of two horizontally misaligned face-parts reduced distracter processing. Similar results were found when the polarity of a non-target face image was reversed. These results indicate that face-specific capacity limits are not determined by the configural properties of face processing, but by face parts.

Attachment Style, Therapeutic Alliance and Recovery in forensic mental health: the A-STAR study and clinical research portfolio

Background: Research suggests that forensic mental health services and staff can play an important role in the recognition and intervention with attachment-related behaviours to promote engagement and recovery. There is a lack of literature exploring whether the attachment needs of forensic service-users are recognised and, associations between attachment style and factors predictive of recovery. Aims: This study aimed to examine the extent to which service-users and keyworkers agree about service-users’ attachment and to identify whether attachment was associated with service attachment, working alliance, ward climate and recovery. Methods: Twenty-two service-users from low and medium secure forensic services, completed questionnaire measures of their attachment style, service attachment, working alliance, ward climate and experiences of recovery. Nineteen keyworkers completed measures of the service-users attachment style and working alliance. Results: There was strong agreement between service-users and staff for attachment anxiety (ICC=0.71) but poor agreement for attachment avoidance (ICC=0.39). Service attachment was associated with more positive perceptions of staff support (r=0.49) and avoidant attachment was associated with lower ratings of recovery (r=-0.51). Correlations between attachment style and service attachment, working alliance and ward climate were small and non-significant. Conclusions: A focus on staff training to support recognition of the nature and impact of avoidant attachment styles is indicated. The findings suggest that interventions to enhance staff - service-user relationships may be important for service attachment and indeed promotion of a recovery focused orientation amongst service-users high in avoidant attachment may improve wellbeing and outcomes.

Forecasting daily patient outflow from a ward having no real-time clinical data

OBJECTIVE: Our study investigates different models to forecast the total number of next-day discharges from an open ward having no real-time clinical data.

METHODS: We compared 5 popular regression algorithms to model total next-day discharges: (1) autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), (2) the autoregressive moving average with exogenous variables (ARMAX), (3) k-nearest neighbor regression, (4) random forest regression, and (5) support vector regression. Although the autoregressive integrated moving average model relied on past 3-month discharges, nearest neighbor forecasting used median of similar discharges in the past in estimating next-day discharge. In addition, the ARMAX model used the day of the week and number of patients currently in ward as exogenous variables. For the random forest and support vector regression models, we designed a predictor set of 20 patient features and 88 ward-level features.

RESULTS: Our data consisted of 12,141 patient visits over 1826 days. Forecasting quality was measured using mean forecast error, mean absolute error, symmetric mean absolute percentage error, and root mean square error. When compared with a moving average prediction model, all 5 models demonstrated superior performance with the random forests achieving 22.7% improvement in mean absolute error, for all days in the year 2014.

CONCLUSIONS: In the absence of clinical information, our study recommends using patient-level and ward-level data in predicting next-day discharges. Random forest and support vector regression models are able to use all available features from such data, resulting in superior performance over traditional autoregressive methods. An intelligent estimate of available beds in wards plays a crucial role in relieving access block in emergency departments.

Layered Information Modeling and a Knowledge Organization Paradigm: Inherent Classification and the Design of Interoperable Systems

In knowledge technology work, as expressed by the scope of this conference, there are a number of communities, each uncovering new methods, theories, and practices. The Library and Information Science (LIS) community is one such community. This community, through tradition and innovation, theories and practice, organizes knowledge and develops knowledge technologies formed by iterative research hewn to the values of equal access and discovery for all. The Information Modeling community is another contributor to knowledge technologies. It concerns itself with the construction of symbolic models that capture the meaning of information and organize it in ways that are computer-based, but human understandable. A recent paper that examines certain assumptions in information modeling builds a bridge between these two communities, offering a forum for a discussion on common aims from a common perspective. In a June 2000 article, Parsons and Wand separate classes from instances in information modeling in order to free instances from what they call the “tyranny” of classes. They attribute a number of problems in information modeling to inherent classification – or the disregard for the fact that instances can be conceptualized independent of any class assignment. By faceting instances from classes, Parsons and Wand strike a sonorous chord with classification theory as understood in LIS. In the practice community and in the publications of LIS, faceted classification has shifted the paradigm of knowledge organization theory in the twentieth century. Here, with the proposal of inherent classification and the resulting layered information modeling, a clear line joins both the LIS classification theory community and the information modeling community. Both communities have their eyes turned toward networked resource discovery, and with this conceptual conjunction a new paradigmatic conversation can take place. Parsons and Wand propose that the layered information model can facilitate schema integration, schema evolution, and interoperability. These three spheres in information modeling have their own connotation, but are not distant from the aims of classification research in LIS. In this new conceptual conjunction, established by Parsons and Ward, information modeling through the layered information model, can expand the horizons of classification theory beyond LIS, promoting a cross-fertilization of ideas on the interoperability of subject access tools like classification schemes, thesauri, taxonomies, and ontologies. This paper examines the common ground between the layered information model and faceted classification, establishing a vocabulary and outlining some common principles. It then turns to the issue of schema and the horizons of conventional classification and the differences between Information Modeling and Library and Information Science. Finally, a framework is proposed that deploys an interpretation of the layered information modeling approach in a knowledge technologies context. In order to design subject access systems that will integrate, evolve and interoperate in a networked environment, knowledge organization specialists must consider a semantic class independence like Parsons and Wand propose for information modeling.

Towards better end-of-life care : a major opportunity for nurses to contribute to the debate

Integrated care pathways are documents which outline the essential steps of multidisciplinary care in addressing a specific clinical problem (Rotter et al., 2010). They can be used to introduce clinical guidelines and systematic audits of clinical practice, and to ensure that the most appropriate management occurs at the most appropriate time and that it is provided by the most appropriate health professional. The Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) is an example of an integrated care pathway, designed in the 1990s to guide care for people who are in their last days of life (Ellershaw et al., 1997, Ellershaw and Ward, 2003)...

Overview of the ShARe/CLEF eHealth Evaluation Lab 2013

Discharge summaries and other free-text reports in healthcare transfer information between working shifts and geographic locations. Patients are likely to have difficulties in understanding their content, because of their medical jargon, non-standard abbreviations,and ward-specific idioms. This paper reports on an evaluation lab with an aim to support the continuum of care by developing methods and resources that make clinical reports in English easier to understand for patients, and which helps them in finding information related to their condition.

Experience has no shadow

This research is situated in the field of practice-led research investigating embodied perspectives on the performance of dance making. In the stock of choreographic literature, the celebrated ‘creativity’ label is associated predominantly with the choreographer and is discussed in terms of product rather than process (Lussier-Ley and Durand-Bush 2009; Hennessey 2003). A reliance on the mystery of inspiration or choreographic genius (Penty 1998) for the production of ‘great’ dance works does not acknowledge the complex and timely process common in the creation of dance (Mace and Ward 2002) nor provide a true representation of the creative contributors (Farrer 2014). The failure to attribute creative impulses and skills to dancers is reminiscent of a time when they were thought of only as instruments in the creative process not active participants and collaborators (Jowitt 2001a; H’Doubler 1957). This project asked the question, to what end do dancers contribute to choreography and how is this contribution valued and recognised? Dancers are integral to the creative process. The research found that the scope of a dancers’ creative involvement in the development of a new work is dependent on: the individual choreographers approach to creating movement; the relationship between dancer and choreographer, and dancer and fellow company members; and the dancers collaborative skills and interpretive skills, versatility, and initiative. Recognition and attribution of dancers’ creative input is dependent on a choreographer’s viewpoint, generosity, and prior creative experiences. The work was created as a part of the Ausdance Queensland 2010 Bell Tower III Choreographic Residency program. Applicants were peer reviewed and vetted by a panel of local and national dance producers. The creative work was presented at the Judith Wright Centre for Live Arts. The project was funded by Ausdance Queensland and Arts Queensland. https://es-es.facebook.com/events/106661226023025/?hc_location=stream

Damage potential of two Scarab species on groundnut

The damage potential of two phytophagous scarab larvae on groundnut (peanut) yield was determined. Holotrichia serrata, a root and pod feeding species from southern India, was studied in microplots while the damage potential of Heteronyx piceus, a pod feeder from Queensland, Australia, was determined by analysis of on-farm chemical-rate trials. H. serrata larva reduced groundnut yield by an average of 7.52 g/ larva. In crops yielding less and more than 1900 kg ha-1, H. piceus reduced yield by 4.20 g and 1.43 g/ larva, respectively. These damage potential estimates were used to determine provisional economic injury levels (EIL). For H. piceus, the provisional EIL is 1.67 and 4.91 larvae/ row-metre in crops yielding less and more than 1900 kg/ha, respectively. For H. serrata, the provisional EIL is one H. serrata larva in 7.1 m2. As more than 70% of southern India groundnut fields have Holotrichia populations greater than 1 larva in 1.35 m2, more widespread use of chlorpyrifos seed dressing of groundnut is likely to produce regional economic benefits.

Evidence of a latitudinal gradient in spider diversity in Australian cotton

The most common explanation for species diversity increasing towards the tropics is the corresponding increase in habitats (spatial heterogeneity). Consequently, a monoculture (like cotton in Australia) which is grown along a latitudinal gradient, should have the same degree of species diversity throughout its range. We tested to see if diversity in a dominant cotton community (spiders) changed with latitude, and if the community was structurally identical in different parts of Australia. We sampled seven sites extending over 20 degrees of latitude. At each site we sampled 1-3 fields 3-5 times during the cotton growing season using pitfall traps and beatsheets, recording all the spiders collected to family. We found that spider communities in cotton are diverse, including a large range of foraging guilds, making them suitable for a conservation biological control programme. We also found that spider diversity increased from high to low latitudes, and the communities were different, even though the spiders were in the same monocultural habitat. Spider beatsheet communities around Australia were dominated by different families, and responded differently to seasonal changes, indicating that different pest groups would be targeted at different locations. These results show that diversity can increase from high to low latitudes, even if spatial heterogeneity is held constant, and that other factors external to the cotton crop are influencing spider species composition. Other models which may account for the latitudinal gradient, such as non-equilibrium regional processes, are discussed.

Asymmetric total synthesis of erythromycin. 2. Synthesis of an erythronolide A lactone system

In reporting a total synthesis of erythromycin (la) we described in the preceding paper1 the synthesis of the erythronolide A seco acid derivative 2 in optically active form. In this paper we wish to report a successful transformation of 2 to 12 (synthetically equivalent to erythronolide A) via lactonization and also demonstrate that the proper functionalization of a substrate is critical for the successful lactonization.

Asymmetric total synthesis of erythromycin. 3. Total synthesis of erythromycin

In the preceding paper' we described the preparation of the key lactone intermediate la in optically active form. In this paper we report the synthesis of erythromycin (2) from la. In essence,this transformation involves the glycosidation of a suitable derivative of la with L-cladinose and D-desosamine and the generation of the C-9 ketone functionality.

Directly-modulated DS-DBR tunable laser for uncooled C-band WDM system

A tunable DS-DBR laser is demonstrated for uncooled WDM C-band channel generation with tight spacing (SOGHz) and low thermal drift (±2.5GHz) up to 70°C. 2.5Gb/s direct modulation with transmission over a 75km link is achieved. © 2000 Optical Society of America.

INFLUENCE OF MICROSTRUCTURE ON THE TOUGHNESS OF CARBON FIBRE/PLASTIC COMPOSITES.

A preliminary study is presented of the relationship between the microstructural aspects of failure and the fracture energy G//1//C for cracking parallel to the fibres in long-fibre/thermoplastic matrix composites. Fracture energies are measured by a new technique, and fracture surfaces generated by the test are examined by scanning electron microscopy.

INFLUENCE OF MICROSTRUCTURE ON THE TOUGHNESS OF CARBON FIBRE/PLASTIC COMPOSITES.

A preliminary study is presented of the relationship between the microstructural aspects of failure and the fracture energy G//l//C for cracking parallel to the fibres in long-fibre/thermoplastic matrix composites. Fracture energies are measured by a new technique, and fracture surfaces generated by the test are examined by scanning electron microscopy.