Novel objects with causal schemas elicit selective responses in tool- and hand-selective lateral occipito-temporal cortex

Tool-selective lateral occipito-temporal cortex (LOTC) responds preferentially to images of tools (hammers, brushes) relative to non-tool objects (clocks, shoes). What drives these responses? Tools have elongated shapes and are more likely to have motor associations, but another essential property is that they exert causal effects on the environment. We tested whether LOTC would respond to novel objects associated with a tool-canonical schema in which their actions cause other events. To do so, we taught male and female human participants about novel objects embedded in animated event sequences, which varied in the temporal order of their events. Causer objects moved prior to the appearance of an environmental event (e.g., stars) while Reactor objects moved after an identical event; objects were matched on shape and motor association. During fMRI, participants viewed still images of these novel objects. We localized tool-selective LOTC and non-tool-selective parahippocampal cortex (PHC) by contrasting neural responses to images of familiar tools and non-tools. We found that LOTC responded more to Causers than Reactors; this effect was absent and weaker in right PHC. We also localized responses to images of hands, which elicit overlapping responses with tools. Across inferior temporal cortex, voxels’ tool and hand selectivity positively predicted a preferential response to Causers, and non-tool selectivity negatively so. We conclude that a causal schema typical of tools is sufficient to drive LOTC, and more generally, that preferential responses to domains across the temporal lobe may reflect the relational event structures typical of those domains.

Maternal nutrition and meat quality of progeny

The concept of fetal programming is based on the idea that nutritional status and environmental conditions encountered by the dam during pregnancy can have lifetime impacts on her offspring.  These changes in the gestational environment have been shown to influence fetal development and subsequent growth performance, carcass composition, and meat quality characteristics. Beef fetuses can be particularly prone to experiencing variations in the maternal environment during development due to a relatively long duration of pregnancy that can expose the dam to environmental temperature stress and seasonal conditions that compromise feed quality or quantity.  If feed is limited or forage conditions are poor a maternal deficiency in protein and/or energy can occur as well as fluctuations in body condition of the dam.  As a result, the fetus may receive inadequate levels of nutrients, potentially altering fetal development.  There are critical windows of development during each stage of gestation in which various tissues, organs and metabolic systems may be impacted.  Skeletal muscle and adipose tissue are particularly vulnerable to alterations in the gestational environment due to their low priority for nutrients relative to vital organs and systems during development.  The timing and severity of the environmental event or stressor as well as the ability of the dam to buffer negative effects to the fetus will dictate the developmental response.  Much of the current research is focused on the influence of specific nutrients and timing of nutritional treatments on offspring carcass composition and meat quality, with the goal of informing strategies that will ultimately allow for the use of maternal nutritional management as a tool to optimize performance and meat quality of offspring.

Acoustic based Scene Event Identification Using Deep Learning CNN

Deep learning is becoming popular nowadays on solving the classification problems when compared with conventional classifiers. Large number of researchers are exploiting deep learning regarding sound event detection for environmental scene analysis. In this research, deep learning convolutional neural network (CNN) classifier is modelled using the extracted MFCC features for classifying the environmental event sounds. The experiment results clearly show that proposed MFCC-CNN outperform other existing methods with a high classification accuracy of 90.65%.

Uncanny Drought: On Apichaya Wanthiang’s Evil Spirits Only Travel in Straight Lines

Apichaya Wanthiang’s art installation Evil Spirits Only Travel in Straight Lines (2018) recreated a drought in Thailand by filling the gallery space in Oslo with soothing heat emanating from huge, dry, dirt sculptures. Visitors to the exhibition were encouraged to both touch and sit down on the dried clay sculptures. They were bone dry and felt warm on the skin. The recreated environmental event was contrasted with the freezing Oslo winter outside the gallery space, but the inside and the outside of the gallery were also connected through a synchronisation of the dim light in the exhibition space and the ongoing dusk outside—opening up for the sensorial aspect of climatic change. By describing a subjective experience of Wanthiang’s environmental event, this chapter shows how an uncanny drought in an exhibition space can activate a mode of habituation when faced with the overwhelming consequences of the age of humans.

Modeling and research of the development of teenage subjectivity in interaction with the natural environment in a health camp

Цель статьи заключается в разработке современной модели развития субъектности подростка во взаимодействии с природной средой в детском оздоровительном лагере. Авторами описываются три блока модели: теоретический, технологический и диагностический. Проанализированы теоретические подходы к рассмотрению проблемы исследования. Раскрыта специфика методологических подходов (системно-субъектного, деятельностного, средового, со-бытийного) к развитию субъектности подростков, рассмотрены принципы и факторы (внешние и внутренние), обусловливающие развитие субъектности подростков. Показаны этапы технологического обеспечения и система педагогических средств, необходимых для его осуществления. Авторами рассматриваются педагогические условия, которые должны быть созданы в оздоровительном лагере для эффективной реализации модели. В статье приводятся результаты эмпирического исследования стадий становления субъектности подростков («Наблюдатель», «Ученик», «Подмастерье», «Мастер», «Творец») в ходе реализации модели. Статья предназначена для научных и педагогических работников, занимающихся проблемами развития и обучения детей в сфере их оздоровления и отдыха. The purpose of the article is to develop a modern model of the development of subjectivity of adolescent in interaction with the natural environment in a children's health camp. The authors describe three blocks of the model: theoretical, technological and diagnostic. Theoretical approaches to the study of the problem are analyzed. The specifics of methodological approaches (system-subjective, activity, environmental, event-related) to the development of adolescents 'subjectivity is revealed, principles and factors (external and internal) that determine the development of adolescents' subjectivity are considered. The stages of technological support and the system of pedagogical tools necessary for its implementation are shown. The authors consider the pedagogical conditions that must be created in a health camp for the effective implementation of the model. The article presents the results of an empirical study of the stages of formation of subjectivity of adolescents ("Observer", "Student", "Apprentice", "Master", "Creator") in the course of the model implementation. The article is intended for scientific and pedagogical workers dealing with the problems of development and education of children in the field of health improvement and recreation of children.

Sedimentological Characterisation Of Sea Bottom Samples Collected Offshore Muara And Tutong, Brunei Darussalam

The study aims to get some additional knowledge on the modern seafloor composition offshore Brunei Darussalam by looking at the recent stratigraphic succession of the deposited sediments and their distribution patterns. For this reason, 10 shallow cores (22 to 46 cm thick) have been collected by scuba diving along two depth transects spanning from water depth of 20 to 60 m. One of the transects has been sampled north-northwest of the Muara village, just in front of the Brunei Bay and the other one off the coast near Tutong town, away from major sedimentary inputs. The results obtained portray two different sea bottom compositions and two different depth-related sediment distributions. The Muara transect is highly rich in mud and yielded abundant biogenic component at all investigated depths. The Tutong transect has a higher sand content but display constant changes along with depth. The sediment is mostly composed by biogenic grains such as rests of sponges, foraminifera, molluscs and echinoderms; the not biogenic grains are for the vast majority made of quartz. The sandy fractions of both transects have been tested for cyclicity and all cores can be described by functions with comparable periods, thus indicating that an oscillatory environmental event such as the alternation of the monsoon seasons, has similar influence on the seafloor of both transects.

Theorizing the Effect of Smog on Public Health in Lahore, Pakistan

SMOG is a form of horrible air pollution that has recently been declared as a public health emergency in Southeast Asia. This article will talk about the drawback of smog pollution and its outcomes on human health. Smog has become the most important issue for Pakistan, from some past years. Since 2011, nearly all areas of Pakistan especially Lahore has been repeatedly affected by smog. In Many previous types of research, the focus is on Smog and, its source, alarm systems, and safeguard, when a risky Environmental event like smog, the conclusion may be riskier than the event itself will cause if people take irrational actions due to lack of relevant awareness. So, examine people's attitudes and a reaction to smog is theoretically and realistically meaningful. Recent projects of coal as a source of energy, high rates of outpouring from unmonitored industries, a large number of automobiles on roads, play a major role in trends of deforestation to construct new roads and recently the burning of crops leftovers has added fuel to the fire. Vehicles increase by 9% compared to the last five years due to a lack of public transport systems. Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh emit the most hydrocarbons in their fuel emissions compared to SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries. As a result of these problems, Pakistan is facing its relatives, losses and various dangerous human diseases.

What can lifespan variation tell us about trends in life expectancy in high income countries?

Building on the findings of presentations 1 and 2, we turn to two further measures of population health: life expectancy at birth and lifespan variation. Life expectancy at birth provides a single figure that captures the overall mortality experience of a nation, and, in the absence of data artefact, a wide-scale environmental event such as war or natural disaster, a disease epidemic or mass migration, life expectancy can be expected to continue to improve in HICs. Concurrently lifespan variation, which measures the average gap between the age at death of an individual and the remaining life expectancy at that age, should decrease as life expectancy increases. Recent analysis of life expectancy improvements in HICs by the Office for National Statistics, using Human Mortality Database data, found that while Japan continues to see improvements, the UK and the USA fell to the bottom of the rankings. Economically, both the UK and Japan have experienced 'lost decades' of poor economic growth, in 1990s and 2010s respectively. Yet, while Japan continued to see life expectancy improvements, in the UK life expectancy stalled, and both countries saw an increase in lifespan variation. In this presentation, we will present the analysis of lifespan variation of 5 HICs: the USA, where life expectancy has declined, the UK, where gains in life expectancy have trailed behind those in other industrialised countries, Japan, which has seen sustained progress, and France and Canada, neighbours of the UK and USA respectively, which lie in the middle. We will examine what can be determined from these measures over periods of poor economic growth, and the implications for achieving 'sustainable growth'.