Stereotype priming in face recognition: interactions between semantic and visual information in face encoding

The accuracy with which previously unfamiliar faces are recognised is increased by the presentation of a stereotype-congruent occupation label (Klatzky, Martin, & Kane, 1982a, b). For example, providing the label ‘criminal’ both during encoding and test improves recognition for previously unfamiliar faces that look like the stereotypical criminal. Experiments 1 and 2 both replicate this effect and show that the label exerts its influence during the encoding of stereotypical faces and has little influence at test. These findings indicate that semantic information that is congruent with novel stereotypical faces facilitates their encoding

Is There an Association between Advanced Paternal Age and Endophenotype Deficit Levels in Schizophrenia?

The children of older fathers have increased risks of developing schizophrenia spectrum disorders, and among those who develop these disorders, those with older fathers present with more severe clinical symptoms. However, the influence of advanced paternal age on other important domains related to schizophrenia, such as quantitative endophenotype deficit levels, remains unknown. This study investigated the associations between paternal age and level of endophenotypic impairment in a well-characterized family-based sample from the Consortium on the Genetics of Schizophrenia (COGS). All families included at least one affected subject and one unaffected sibling. Subjects met criteria for schizophrenia (probands; n = 293) or were unaffected first-degree siblings of those probands (n = 382). Paternal age at the time of subjects’ birth was documented. Subjects completed a comprehensive clinical assessment and a battery of tests that measured 16 endophenotypes. After controlling for covariates, potential paternal age–endophenotype associations were analyzed using one model that included probands alone and a second model that included both probands and unaffected siblings. Endophenotype deficits in the Identical Pairs version of the 4-digit Continuous Performance Test and in the Penn Computerized Neurocognitive Battery verbal memory test showed significant associations with paternal age. However, after correcting for multiple comparisons, no endophenotype was significantly associated with paternal age. These findings suggest that factors other than advanced paternal age at birth may account for endophenotypic deficit levels in schizophrenia

Cognitive and psychological science insights to improve climate change data visualization

Visualization of climate data plays an integral role in the communication of climate change findings to both expert and non-expert audiences. The cognitive and psychological sciences can provide valuable insights into how to improve visualization of climate data based on knowledge of how the human brain processes visual and linguistic information. We review four key research areas to demonstrate their potential to make data more accessible to diverse audiences: directing visual attention, visual complexity, making inferences from visuals, and the mapping between visuals and language. We present evidence-informed guidelines to help climate scientists increase the accessibility of graphics to non-experts, and illustrate how the guidelines can work in practice in the context of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change graphics

Fortifying or fragmenting the state? The political economy of the drug trade in Shan State, Myanmar, 1988-2012

Over the past twenty-five years, the government of Myanmar (Burma) has consolidated control over large parts of Shan State, neutralizing much of the threat posed by armed groups and strengthening its hold over revenue extraction. During this period Myanmar has retained its position as the world's second largest producer of illicit opium, much of which is converted into heroin within the country's borders. This article explores the relationship between state-building processes and the illicit opium/heroin economy in Shan State since 1988. The author has four aims. First, to reassess the theoretical assumptions that equate illicit economies with state fragility and demonstrate instead why illicit drug economies can become embedded in processes of conflict reduction and state consolidation. Second, to explain why establishing control over Shan State has become so important to the Myanmar government's state-building ambitions. Third, to analyze how the state's engagement with the drug trade has become a vital part of its attempts to consolidate control, in terms of financing military expansion and brokering deals with strongmen who are able to govern local populations. Finally, to assess how these strategies embody a form of “negotiated statehood” in which the state's growing control has been defined by attempts to manage, rather than monopolize, the means of coercion and extraction

Recognition of unfamiliar faces

People are excellent at identifying faces familiar to them, even from very low quality images, but are bad at recognising, or even matching, faces that are unfamiliar. In this review we shall consider some of the factors which affect our abilities to match unfamiliar faces. Major differences in orientation (e.g. inversion) or greyscale information (e.g. negation) affect face processing dramatically, and such effects are informative about the nature of the representations derived from unfamiliar faces, suggesting that these are based on relatively low-level image descriptions. Consistent with this, even relatively minor differences in lighting and viewpoint create problems for human face matching, leading to potentially important problems over the use of images from security video images. The relationships between different parts of the face (its "configuration") are as important to the impression created of an upright face as local features themselves, suggesting further constraints on the representations derived from faces. The review then turns to consider what computer face recognition systems may contribute to understanding both the theory and the practical problems of face identification. Computer systems can be used as an aid to person identification, but also in an attempt to model human perceptual processes. There are many approaches to computer recognition of faces, including ones based on low-level image analysis of whole face images, which have potential as models of human performance. Some systems show significant correlations with human perceptions of the same faces, for example recognising distinctive faces more easily. In some circumstances, some systems may exceed human abilities on unfamiliar faces. Finally, we look to the future of work in this area, that will incorporate motion and three-dimensional shape information

Mathematical Modeling of Resonant Processes in Confined Geometry of Atomic and Atom-Ion Traps

We discuss computational aspects of the developed mathematical models for resonant processes in confined geometry of atomic and atom-ion traps. The main attention is paid to formulation in the nondirect product discrete-variable representation (npDVR) of the multichannel scattering problem with nonseparable angular part in confining traps as the boundary-value problem. Computational efficiency of this approach is demonstrated in application to atomic and atom-ion confinement-induced resonances we predicted recently

Guidance on patient Identification and Administration of Recombinant Human Activated protein C for the Treatment of Severe Sepsis

Approximately one-third of cases of severe sepsis result in death. Endogenous activated protein C (ApC) plays a key role in the regulation of the inflammation, fibrinolysis and coagulation associated with severe sepsis. In a recently published phase III trial, protein C Worldwide Evaluation in Severe Sepsis (pROWESS), intravenous administration of recombinant human ApC (rhApC) 24 µg/kg/h for 96 h to patients with severe sepsis resulted in a 6.1% reduction in absolute mortality and a 19.4% reduction in the relative risk of death from any cause within 28 days (number needed to treat = 16). This dose is now being applied in clinical practice

Risk Factors for Acquisition of Endemic Blastomycosis

BACKGROUND: Blastomycosis is potentially fatal, but environmental risk factors for acquiring blastomycosis are not well established.METHOD: Matched cross-sectional questionnaire of 112 patients with history of blastomycosis and 118 control subjects in Manitoba and northwestern Ontario.RESULTS: The most common tissues involved with blastomycosis were pulmonary, skin and soft tissues, and bone. A significantly greater proportion of patients with blastomycosis than control subjects were involved in outdoor occupations. A significantly greater percentage of patients with blastomycosis were immunosuppressed either from collagen vascular disease or immunosuppressive therapy, or had hypothyroidism. A significant association between canine and human blastomycosis was not observed.CONCLUSIONS: Independent risk factors for development of blastomycosis included immunosuppression for any reason (including drugs or disease), collagen vascular disease, being an outdoor worker, and having a coworker with blastomycosis. Canine blastomycosis was not a risk factor for human disease in dog owners.Peer Reviewe

Transformational Principles for NEON Sampling of Mammalian Parasites and Pathogens: A Response to Springer and Colleagues

Seen as an opportunity to establish a nationwide web of environmental monitoring sites (Kao et al. 2012), the National Environmental Observatory Network (NEON) is now releasing a series of protocols presented with apparently broad community support. Springer and colleagues (2016) outlined sampling designs aimed at understanding how changing environmental conditions will affect mammals and associated parasites