scholarly journals Human spatial memory implicitly prioritizes high-calorie foods

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachelle de Vries ◽  
Paulina Morquecho-Campos ◽  
Emely de Vet ◽  
Marielle de Rijk ◽  
Elbrich Postma ◽  
...  

Abstract All species face the important adaptive problem of efficiently locating high-quality nutritional resources. We explored whether human spatial cognition is enhanced for high-calorie foods, in a large multisensory experiment that covertly tested the location memory of people who navigated a maze-like food setting. We found that individuals incidentally learned and more accurately recalled locations of high-calorie foods – regardless of explicit hedonic valuations or personal familiarity with foods. In addition, the high-calorie bias in human spatial memory already became evident within a limited sensory environment, where solely odor information was available. These results suggest that human minds continue to house a cognitive system optimized for energy-efficient foraging within erratic food habitats of the past, and highlight the often underestimated capabilities of the human olfactory sense.

2018 ◽  
pp. 113-119
Author(s):  
Gennady Ya. Vagin ◽  
Eugene B. Solntsev ◽  
Oleg Yu. Malafeev

The article analyses critera applying to the choice of energy efficient high quality light sources and luminaires, which are used in Russian domestic and international practice. It is found that national standards GOST P 54993–2012 and GOST P 54992– 2012 contain outdated criteria for determining indices and classes of energy efficiency of light sources and luminaires. They are taken from the 1998 EU Directive #98/11/EU “Electric lamps”, in which LED light sources and discharge lamps of high intensity were not included. A new Regulation of the European Union #874/2012/EU on energy labelling of electric lamps and luminaires, in which these light sources are taken into consideration, contains a new technique of determining classes of energy efficiency and new, higher classes are added. The article has carried out a comparison of calculations of the energy efficiency classes in accordance with GOST P 54993 and with Regulation #874/2012/EU, and it is found out that a calculation using GOST P 54993 gives underrated energy efficiency classes. This can lead to interdiction of export for certain light sources and luminaires, can discredit Russian domestic manufacturer light sources and does not correspond to the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO).


Electricity is critical to enabling India’s economic growth and providing a better future for its citizens. In spite of several decades of reform, the Indian electricity sector is unable to provide high-quality and affordable electricity for all, and grapples with the challenge of poor financial and operational performance. To understand why, Mapping Power provides the most comprehensive analysis of the political economy of electricity in India’s states. With chapters on fifteen states by scholars of state politics and electricity, this volume maps the political and economic forces that constrain and shape decisions in electricity distribute on. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it concludes that attempts to depoliticize the sector are misplaced and could worsen outcomes. Instead, it suggests that a historically grounded political economy analysis helps understand the past and devise reforms to simultaneously improve sectoral outcomes and generate political rewards. These arguments have implications for the challenges facing India’s electricity future, including providing electricity to all, implementing government reform schemes, and successfully managing the rise of renewable energy.


2021 ◽  
pp. 019459982098713
Author(s):  
Jennifer A. Silver ◽  
Marco Mascarella ◽  
George Tali ◽  
Rickul Varshney ◽  
Marc A. Tewfik ◽  
...  

Objective The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of evidence of rhinology and rhinologic skull base surgery (RSBS) research and its evolution over the past decade. Study Design Review article. Setting We reviewed articles from 2007 to 2019 in 4 leading peer-reviewed otolaryngology journals and 3 rhinology-specific journals. Methods The articles were reviewed and levels of evidence were assigned using the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine 2011 guidelines. High quality was defined as level of evidence 1 or 2. Results In total, 1835 articles were reviewed in this study spanning a 13-year period. Overall, the absolute number of RSBS publications increased significantly 22.6% per year, from 108 articles in 2007 to 481 in 2019 ( P < .001; 95% CI, 7.9-37.2). In 2007, only 13 articles, or 15%, were high quality, and this grew to 146 articles, or 39%, in 2019. A 14.0% per year exponential increase in the number of high-quality publications was found to be statistically significant ( P < .001; 95% CI, 7.2, 20.7). Overall, high-quality publications represented just 25.8% of RSBS articles overall. There was no significant difference in quality between rhinology-specific journals and general otolaryngology journals (χ2 = 3.1, P = .077). Conclusion The number of overall publications and of high-quality RSBS publications has significantly increased over the past decade. However, the proportion of high-quality studies continues to represent a minority of total RSBS research.


PalZ ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolin Haug ◽  
Joachim T. Haug

AbstractWhip spiders (Amblypygi), as their name suggests, resemble spiders (Araneae) in some aspects, but differ from them by their heart-shaped (prosomal) dorsal shield, their prominent grasping pedipalps, and their subsequent elongate pair of feeler appendages. The oldest possible occurrences of whip spiders, represented by cuticle fragments, date back to the Devonian (c. 385 mya), but (almost) complete fossils are known from the Carboniferous (c. 300 mya) onwards. The fossils include specimens preserved on slabs or in nodules (Carboniferous, Cretaceous) as well as specimens preserved in amber (Cretaceous, Eocene, Miocene). We review here all fossil whip spider specimens, figure most of them as interpretative drawings or with high-quality photographs including 3D imaging (stereo images) to make the three-dimensional relief of the specimens visible. Furthermore, we amend the list by two new specimens (resulting in 37 in total). The fossil specimens as well as modern whip spiders were measured to analyse possible changes in morphology over time. In general, the shield appears to have become relatively broader and the pedipalps and walking appendages have become more elongate over geological time. The morphological details are discussed in an evolutionary framework and in comparison with results from earlier studies.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan-Chi Yang ◽  
Ping-Chun Wu ◽  
Chia-Chun Wei ◽  
Qilan Zhong ◽  
Sheng-Zhu Ho ◽  
...  

Abstract Epitaxial growth is of significant importance over the past decades, given it has been the key process of modern technology for delivering high-quality thin films. For conventional heteroepitaxy, the selection of proper single crystal substrates not only facilitates the integration of different materials but also fulfills interface and strain engineering upon a wide spectrum of functionalities. Nevertheless, the lattice structures, regularity and crystalline orientation are determined once a specific substrate is chosen. In this work, we reveal the growth of twisted oxide lateral homostructures with multiple conjunction degree of freedom. The twisted lateral homostructures with atomically sharp interfaces can be composed of epitaxial “blocks” with different crystalline orientations, ferroic orders and phases. We further demonstrate that this approach is universal for fabricating various complex systems. Our results establish an efficient pathway towards twisted lateral homostructures, allowing epitaxial films to be arbitrarily tailored at designated positions with unbounded in-plane conjunction tunability.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 694-708 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuan Qin ◽  
Baogang He

AbstractAuthoritarian deliberation has been used widely to describe the specific form of deliberation developed in China. However, whether its practice will strengthen authoritarianism or lead to democratization remains unknown. In this study, we examine this question from the perspective of participants in public deliberation. Surveying the participants in participatory pricings held in Shanghai over the past 5 years, we find that participants’ perception of deliberative quality has a statistically significant negative impact on their level of political activism, while their level of empowerment has a moderating effect on this negative relationship. In this light, Chinese deliberative practices characterized by high-quality deliberation and low-level empowerment are likely to have a demobilization effect; thus, they reinforce the authoritarian rules.


2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 2719-2739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Okazaki ◽  
T. Sagawa ◽  
H. Asahi ◽  
K. Horikawa ◽  
J. Onodera

Abstract. We reconstructed the ventilation record of deep water at 2100 m depth in the mid-latitude western North Pacific over the past 25 kyr from radiocarbon measurements of coexisting planktic and benthic foraminiferal shells in sediment with a high sedimentation rate. The 14C data on fragile and robust planktic foraminiferal shells were concordant with each other, ensuring high quality of the reconstructed ventilation record. The radiocarbon activity changes were consistent with the atmospheric record, suggesting that no massive mixing of old carbon from the abyssal reservoir occurred throughout the glacial to deglacial periods.


Author(s):  
Teiko M. Johnson

The growing interest in citrus pulp, or frozen, stabilized juice sacs, stems from the rapid influx of high quality citrus juices and juice added beverages into the market. Juice sacs have been recovered for many years and it has not been until the past few years that this practice evolved into a sophisticated technology. Paper published with permission.


2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald E. Welch ◽  
Lee M. Hively ◽  
Ray F. Holdaway

Abstract Structures subject to crack growth spend 90–95% of their lifetime in nucleation of very tiny flaws into measurable crack sizes. Due to the large variation in initial flaw sizes and the mathematics of flaw growth, the fatigue lifetimes, even of high-quality structures, can vary by a factor of as much as 10 to 20 even in a small fleet. This large variation in fatigue lifetimes leads to conservative statistics, which often prompts the premature retirement or overhaul of structures, since they focus on the weakest members of the fleet, while the remainder of the fleet is sound. In the past two years, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has developed a new Griffith energy-based technique that can provide useful warning of the impending failure of a structure due to end-of-life crack propagation. This technique has been demonstrated by test and analysis in fiberglass composite for tension-tension fatigue.


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