Striatal activity is associated with deficits of cognitive control and aberrant salience for patients with schizophrenia

A recent meta-analysis has shown that a large dopamine abnormality exists in the striatum when comparing patients with schizophrenia and controls, and this abnormality is thought to contribute to aberrant salience assignment (or a misattribution of relevance to irrelevant stimuli). This abnormality may also disrupt striatal contributions to cognitive control processing. We examined the relationship between striatal involvement in cognition and aberrant salience symptoms using a task of cognitive control that involves updating, interference control, and simple maintenance. The current study included a sample of 22 patients with schizophrenia and 20 healthy controls and used a slow event-related fMRI design. We predicted that (1) aberrant salience symptoms would be greater for patient's, (2) patients would demonstrate increased errors during interference control trials, given that patients may be inappropriately assigning salience to distracters, and (3) striatal activity during those errors would be correlated with aberrant salience symptoms. We found a trend toward a significant difference between patients and controls on aberrant salience symptoms, and a significant difference between groups on select task conditions. During interference control trials, patients were more likely to inappropriately encode distracters. For patients, both prefrontal and striatal activity was significantly greater when patients inappropriately identified the distracter as correct compared to activity during distracter rejection. During updating, patient prefrontal and striatal activity was significantly lower for incorrect than correct updating trials. Finally, as predicted, for patients the increase of activity during incorrect distracter trials was positively correlated with aberrant salience symptoms, but only for the striatal region. These relationships may have implications for treatments that improve cognitive function and reduce symptom expression

Alien Registration- Ceaser, Zaker (Bangor, Penobscot County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/14079/thumbnail.jp

Gratitude: Does it have a place within media-practice education?

Gratitude may be an important yet largely untapped aspect of media-practice education. This research uses an exploratory approach with media-practice academics and students in order to examine the evidence and nature of gratitude within media-practice education. Given the exploratory nature of the study, interim findings are reported. The research finds media-practice students to be open to gratitude having a place within their educational experiences, indeed students exclusively speak about situations in which they feel grateful, as positive aspects of their student experience. However academics see gratitude in a more varied way. For some, gratitude and its cyclical nature resonate; for others, gratitude is inappropriate and loaded with notions of power. These different perspectives may be partially explained by the different ways in which students and academics perceive gratitude. Whereas initial student voices suggest that gratitude is a positive emotion associated with a desire to reciprocate, academics’ interpretation seems to emphasise obligation. This mismatch may inhibit the current impact of gratitude within the media-practice learning context. The research suggests that gratitude may be a defining aspect of a functional, productive student experience which those working within media-practice education might usefully aim to generate

Opportunities and challenges for distributed generation with rooftop photovoltaic (PV) for Uganda: a case study crusader house, Kampala

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfillment for the degree of Master of Architecture (Sustainable Energy Efficient Cities). Johannesburg, 2018Distributed generation with rooftop PV technology is increasingly attracting attention as a strategy to enhance energy security for cities and as a critical climate-change mitigation intervention globally. In order to interrogate the strategy for a developing country context, the study applies a case study approach to explore responsive business models as well as related opportunities and challenges of DGRTPV deployment in Uganda, given the country’s advantage of abundant solar radiation as a result of favourable location across the equator. The study substantiates on the research question which focuses on rooftop PV business models, policy and legislation environment, energy efficiency interventions and financial mechanisms for expedited adoption of the technological innovation for commercial buildings in Uganda. In order to substantiate on the working hypothesis, interviews were conducted with key informants from the case study building-occupants and property manager, MEMD, ERA, KCCA, and UMEME. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews as well as energy audits and energy performance simulations of the case study building based on Excel and Design-Builder Energy-Plus software in order to ascertain performance under alternative intervention scenarios. The case study building consists of two blocks (the main block which is 5 storeys and the annex which is 4 storeys) and is grid-connected, but has standby generator with diesel consumption of up to 4,800 litres/year. The building was built in 1988 for the main block and 1993 for the annex and no energy efficiency interventions have been implemented so far. Overall, the baseline energy consumption is at 191,127.5kWh/year excluding diesel generation at 100,000kWh/year (2010 blackouts were 8 hours per day but at present, the generator is used for only 2 hours per day). Simulations, manual calculations, and economic feasibility appraisals were applied to guide on the viable energy efficiency and photovoltaic (PV) interventions. This resulted into viable energy reduction of 90,404.5kWh/year with a payback period of 0.6 months for lighting systems and additional energy efficiency interventions. Rooftop PV generation evaluation indicated an output of approximately 124,328.75kWh per year with the payback period of 7.6 years. Overall the study finds that the roof space area (610m2 ) of the building offers potential for generating surplus electricity which can be fed to the grid when responsive policy/regulatory environment is effected. The solar service business model is prioritised as the most viable given the current policy/regulatory landscape for Uganda as well as envisaged policy changes in the short term. Given Uganda’s low-carbon electricity generation mix, the study finds that opportunity for carbon emission reduction for the building would mainly arise from the displacement of the standby diesel generator whose current emission is estimated at 4,000kg/year. The study therefore concludes that DGRTPV deployment is now mature for scale-up in commercial buildings for Uganda.MT 201

The Estimation of Caloric Expenditure Using Three Triaxial Accelerometers

Accelerometer-based activity monitors are commonly used to measure physical activity energy expenditure (PAEE). Newly designed wrist and hip-worn triaxial accelerometers claim to accurately predict PAEE across a range of activities. Purpose: To determine if the Nike FuelBand (NFB), Fitbit (FB) and ActiGraph GT3X+ (AG) estimate PAEE in various activities. Methods: 21 healthy, college-aged adults wore a NFB on the right wrist, a FB on the left hip, and AG on the right hip, while performing 17 activities. AG data were analyzed using Freedson’s kcal regression equation. PAEE was measured using the Cosmed K4b2 (K4). Repeated measures ANOVAs were used to compare mean differences in PAEE (kcal/min). Paired sample t-tests with Bonferroni adjustments were used to locate significant differences. Results: For each device, the mean difference in PAEE was significantly different from the K4 (NFB, -0.45 + 2.8, FB, 0.48 + 2.27, AG, 0.64 + 2.59 kcal/min, p = 0.01). The NFB significantly overestimated most walking activities (e.g., regular walking; K4, 3.1 + 0.2 vs. NFB, 4.6 + 0.2 kcal/min) and activities with arm movements (e.g., sweeping; K4, 3.0 + 0.8 vs. NFB, 4.7 + 0.4 kcal/min, p \u3c 0.05). The NFB trended towards overestimating sport activities (basketball; K4, 10.8 + 0.8 vs. NFB, 12.2 + 0.5 kcal/min) (racquetball; K4, 9.6 + 0.8 vs. NFB 11.1 + 0.5 kcal/min). The FB and the AG significantly overestimated walking (K4, 3.1 + 0.2; FB, 5.4 + 0.3, AG, 5.8 + 0.4 kcal/min, p = 0.01) and underestimated PAEE of most activities with arm movements (e.g., Air Dyne, K4 5.6 + 0.2; Fitbit, 0.3 + 0.2; AG, 0.2 + 0.1 kcal/min, p \u3c 0.05) (racquetball, K4, 9.6 + 0.8 kcal/minute vs. FB, 7.4 + 0.6 kcal/minute, vs. AG, 6.5 + 0.4 kcal/minute, p \u3c 0.05). Conclusion: The NFB overestimated PAEE during most activities with arm movements and tended to overestimate sport activities, while the AG and FB overestimated walking and underestimated activities with arm movements. Overall, the wrist-worn NFB had similar accuracy to the waist-worn triaxial accelerometers; however, none of the devices were able to estimate PAEE across a range of activities

Striatal Activity is Associated with Deficits of Cognitive Control and Aberrant Salience for Patients with Schizophrenia

A recent study has shown that the locus of the largest known dopamine abnormality between patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls is in the associative striatum (Kegeles et al., 2010). This dopamine abnormality in the associative striatum is thought to bring about aberrant salience assignment for patients, which may underlie symptoms of psychosis like delusions and hallucinations (Howes & Kapur, 2009). Interestingly, the associative striatum has segregated, looped, connectivity with cortical regions including the prefrontal and parietal cortices (Draganski et al., 2008; Redgrave, Vautrelle, & Reynolds, 2011) and computational models have suggested that it may function as an information gate during cognitive control (Frank, Loughry, & O\u27Reilly, 2001; Gruber, Dayan, Gutkin, & Solla, 2006), much the way that posterior portions of the striatum gate motor control (Chevalier & Deniau, 1990). The current study sought to explore the relationship between striatal involvement in cognition and aberrant salience symptom expression using a novel task of cognitive control. We examined aberrant salience using a self-report measure (Cicero et al., 2010) and core components of cognitive control (updating, interference control, and simple maintenance), that are critically reliant on intact information gating, in a sample of 22 patients with schizophrenia and 20 healthy controls using a slow event-related fMRI design. We predicted that 1) aberrant salience symptoms would be greater for patients than controls, 2) that patients would demonstrate increased errors during interference controls trials, given that patients may be inappropriately assigning salience to distracters, and 3) that striatal activity during those errors could be positively correlated with aberrant salience symptoms. We found a trend toward significant differences between patients and controls on aberrant salience symptom presence, and a significant difference between groups during updating performance. During interference control trials, although we found no difference between groups when participants were tasked with maintaining targets during distracter presentation, patients were more likely to make errors when probed with those distracters, suggesting inappropriate distracter updating. When examining the brain activity during correct and incorrect updating and interference control trials, for patients update trial activity in the prefrontal cortex and striatum was significantly lower for incorrect updating trials when compared to correct updating trials, and significantly greater when patients inappropriately identified the distracter as correct compared with trials when they correctly rejected the distracter. Activity did not differ between correct and incorrect updating or interference control trials for controls. Further, we found that for patients, as predicted, the increase of activity during incorrect distracter trials was positively correlated with aberrant salience symptoms, but only for the associative striatal region and not the prefrontal region. We found no relationship between aberrant salience and patient brain activity during correct distracter trials, nor did we find significant relationships between aberrant salience and brain activity during either updating or interference control trials for controls. These results demonstrate that cognitive control deficits of patients demonstrate some domain selectivity, given that we found some evidence for preserved simple maintenance and maintenance in the face of task relevant distracter performance, but impaired performance at updating and ignoring distracters. Finally, we found evidence demonstrating a relationship between aberrant salience symptom expression for patients, cognitive deficits, and associative striatal activity. This relationship may have implications for treatments that improve cognitive function and reduce symptom expression

Educating for environmental justice : social/environmental marginality and the significance of experiences for environmental activism and proenvironmental behavior

Encouraging environmental action and greater proenvironmental behavior has been a main focus of environmental education since its inception. However, many scholars feel that environmental education has largely been unsuccessful at achieving these goals. To invigorate the potential of environmental education, researchers have become more socially critical and started questioning old stances such as addressing the role of action within environmental education and embraced new techniques like examining the role of personal experiences in shaping people sense of identification with the environment. This dissertation is four separate studies that examine how a socially critical environmental education can help produces students who are prepared to tackle social and environmental problems. Using data collected from six months of participant observation at an environmental justice youth program in New Orleans, LA and a review of the environmental justice literature, I examine the role of critical environmental education in shaping youth proenvironmental behavior, the power dynamics between youth and adults in such a program, and the role of significant life experiences in shaping youth environmentalism. I also use the data to generate theory on the significance of negative significant life experiences in shaping one’s social/environmental identity- a theory that can be used as a pedagogical tool for understanding how to generate future activists who will be able to genuinely tackle the world’s social/environmental problems