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Variable pitch low pressure ratio fans could enable higher propulsive efficiency and eliminate the need for heavy thrust reversers. In this paper, the effects of the fan rotor design on reverse thrust capability have been explored by varying key parameters of NASA’s Advanced Ducted Propulsor (ADP) while maintaining cruise point performance. Reverse thrust performance has been assessed using RANS single passage CFD of the variable pitch fan system with an extended domain. This computational approach has been validated using NASA Stage 51B, an experimental variable pitch fan test case. Predicted total pressure and total pressure ratios for this case were found to agree with test data within experimental error, except where large tip region separations occurred at high incidence. Applying individual variations to rotor pitch-to-chord, radial loading distribution, and chordwise camber distribution generated changes to rotor incidence, blockage, and peak surface Mach numbers in reverse operation. An increase in gross reverse thrust of up to 8% was achieved through reductions in rotor pitch-to-chord due to improved loading and lower shock Mach numbers. Controlling section camber distributions was used to move the rotor shock downstream and was found to increase reverse thrust by up to 3%. Increasing rotor loading at the mid span relative to the tip resulted in high tip incidence and a 50% reduction in gross reverse thrust across all rotor speeds. This suggests that tip loaded designs are required for high levels of reverse thrust.

The form of the Greek temple responded to multiple purposes, influences and concepts, although one of these, that of offering, deserves more attention than it has received to date. The fundamental status of offering for Greek religion and its societal expression resulted in sanctuaries being choc-a-bloc with all manner of dedications, some of which represented the finest displays of artistic merit, workmanship, materials and cost that could be afforded. Indeed, as is well known, much of the Greek art on view in modern museums originally had the status of offerings made for dedication in sanctuaries. While it is true that some scholars of religion have noted that temples too were offerings, amongst other things, the implications have generally gone unnoticed. After reviewing the various functions of temples, this essay identifies nuances of offering in their plan, size, elevation, architectural elements, ornamentation and quality. This helps us to appreciate temples as cultural manifestations akin to everything else in the sanctuaries. As works of architecture the form of the Greeks’ temples responded to multiple issues (construction, precedent, influences and so on), but now we can see how their visual treatment subtly and yet eloquently reflected their very nature.

ObjectivesTo determine the incidence, demographics and injury patterns involved in E-Scooter-related hospital admissions due to significant trauma compared with bicycle-related trauma within England and Wales. To compare morbidity and mortality between groups.DesignA retrospective cohort study based on data which has been prospectively collected and submitted to the UK Trauma Audit and Research Network (TARN) registry.SettingMajor trauma centres and trauma units within England and Wales.ParticipantsPatients of any age who were admitted to hospitals in England and Wales with injuries following E-Scooter or bicycle incidents between the dates 1 January 2021–31 December 2021. All patients must have met TARN database inclusion criteria.OutcomesIn-hospital mortality, critical care admission and length of stay (LoS), hospital LoS and discharge destination.ResultsThere were 293 E-Scooter trauma incidents compared with 2538 bicycle incidents. E-Scooter users were more likely to be admitted to a major trauma centre (p=0.019) or a critical care unit (p2) occurred more frequently among the E-Scooter cohort (35.2% vs 19.7%, pConclusionsThese early results suggest a greater relative incidence of serious trauma and an alternative pattern of injury among E-Scooter users compared with bicycles.Trial registration numberTARN210101.

Ultra-high bypass ratio turbofans offer significant reductions in fuel and pollution due to their higher propulsive efficiency. Short intakes might lead to a stronger fan-intake interaction, which creates uncertainty in stability at off-design conditions. Due to the prohibitive cost of full-scale experimental testing, subscale testing in wind tunnels is used to understand this behaviour. The low Reynolds number of subscale models results in unrepresentative laminar shock-boundary layer interactions. The boundary layer state thus needs to be conditioned to better represent full-scale transonic fans. This paper proposes the use of an inexpensive and robust flow control method for the suction side of a fan blade. Design guidelines are given for the location and height of the discrete roughness elements used to control the boundary layer state. This paper also presents a rapid experimental validation methodology to ensure and de-risk the application of the boundary layer trip to 3D rig blades. The experimental methodology is applied to a generic aerofoil representative of a fan tip section. The experimental method proves that it is possible to reproduce boundary layers and pressure distributions of a full-scale fan blade on a 1/10 subscale model. The results obtained confirm that the boundary layer trip method successfully promotes transition at the location representative of full-scale blades, avoiding unrepresentative laminar shock wave boundary layer interactions. This highlights the importance of conditioning boundary layers in low Reynolds number fan rig testing.

This article presents the theoretical analysis of composite electrical insulation, formed from layered dielectric materials and subjected to impulsive energization. One-dimensional planar and cylindrical geometries were considered, consisting of an arbitrary number of layers with arbitrary relative permittivity and electrical conductivity. Analytical solutions have been succesfully derived for the time-dependent electric field inside the i-th layer. To demonstrate the usage of the model under complex multilayer topologies where analytical solutions are nontrivial, the characteristics of a 20–layer graded composite under microsecond and sub-microsecond impulses were analyzed and validated against a finite-element solver. Results indicate that the transient electric field response under impulsive energization is strongly dependent on the interplay between the composite relaxation time constants and the characteristic timescales associated with the applied impulse. The model is a further development for the design and coordination of functionally graded materials (FGMs) and composite insulation for high voltage system design. This is particularly relevant under fast-rising impulsive conditions as often encountered in many pulsed power applications.

Previous research has shown that injuries to the head and neck were prevalent in 73% of all mounted fatalities of underbody blast. The mechanisms that cause such injuries to the central nervous system (CNS) are not yet known. The aim of this study was to identify the head and spinal injuries in fatalities due to underbody blast (UBB) and then develop hypotheses on the causative mechanisms. All U.K. military fatalities from UBB with an associated head injury that occurred during 2007-2013 in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts were identified retrospectively. Computed tomography post-mortems (CTPMs) were interrogated for injuries to the head, neck, and spine. All injuries were documented and classified using a radiology classification. Pearson's chi-square and Fisher's exact tests were used to show a relationship between variables and form a hypothesis for injury mechanisms. There were 50 fatalities from UBB with an associated head injury. Of these, 46 had complete CTPMs available for analysis. Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests showed a relationship between lateral ventricle blood and injuries to the abdomen and thorax. Five partially overlapping injury constellations were identified: 1.multiple-level spinal injury with skull fracture and brainstem injury, 2.peri-mesencephalic hemorrhage, 3.spinal and brainstem injury, 4.parenchymal contusions with injury to C0-C1, and 5.an "eggshell" pattern of fractures from direct impact. These injury constellations can now be used to propose injury mechanisms to develop mitigation strategies or clinical treatments.

Background Bacterial central nervous system (CNS) infection is challenging to treat and carries high risk of recurrence, morbidity, and mortality. Low CNS penetration of antibiotics may contribute to poor clinical outcomes from bacterial CNS infections. The current application of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) to management of bacterial CNS infection was reviewed. Methods Studies were included if they described adults treated for a suspected/confirmed bacterial CNS infection and had antibiotic drug concentration(s) determined that affected individual treatment. Results One-hundred-and-thirty-six citations were retrieved. Seventeen manuscripts were included describing management of 68 patients. TDM for vancomycin (58/68) and the beta-lactams (29/68) was most common. Timing of clinical sampling varied widely between studies and across different antibiotics. Methods for setting individual PK-PD targets, determining parameters and making treatment changes varied widely and were sometimes unclear. Discussion Despite increasing observational data showing low CNS penetration of various antibiotics, there are few clinical studies describing practical implementation of TDM in management of CNS infection. Lack of consensus around clinically relevant CSF PK-PD targets and protocols for dose-adjustment may contribute. Standardised investigation of TDM as a tool to improve treatment is required, especially as innovative drug concentration-sensing and PK-PD modelling technologies are emerging. Data generated at different centres offering TDM should be open access and aggregated to enrich understanding and optimize application.

Adding salt to a material lowers its melting point and removes heat. New work describes how to make that process reversible and cyclic.

Human observers are known to frequently act like Bayes-optimal decision makers and there is growing evidence that the deployment of the visual system may similarly be driven by probabilistic mental models of the environment. We tested whether eye movements during a dynamic interception task were indeed optimised according to Bayesian inference principles. Forty-one participants intercepted oncoming balls in a virtual reality racquetball task across five counterbalanced conditions in which the relative probability of the onset location was manipulated. Analysis of pre-onset gaze positions indicated that eye position tracked the true distribution of onset location, indicating that the gaze system spontaneously adhered to environmental statistics. Eye position did not, however, minimise the distance between the target and foveal vision in a fully probabilistic way, and instead often reflected a ‘best guess’ about onset location. Trial-to-trial changes in gaze position were found to be better explained by Bayesian learning models (Hierarchical Gaussian Filter) than associative learning models. Additionally, parameters relating to the precision of beliefs and prediction errors extracted from the participant-wise models were related to both task-evoked pupil dilations and variability in gaze positions, providing further evidence that probabilistic context was reflected in spontaneous gaze dynamics.

Background Virtual reality (VR) offers an immersive and practical method for training medical skills, especially in emergency healthcare settings. However, it is unclear whether learning in VR will translate into real-world performance benefits. To explore these potential transfer effects, we examined the validity and fidelity of a bespoke VR environment for Basic Life Support (BLS) training, a generic skill in medical training programmes. Methods Twenty-two medical trainees performed standardised BLS procedures within two simulation conditions: one in VR, using a Pico Neo 3 standalone system; the other in a real-world synthetic environment, which included a physical mannequin and resuscitation equipment. Patterns of task behaviour, workload, sense of presence, and visual attention were derived from user self-report questionnaires, video recordings, and eye-tracking data. Results Data showed that the VR training environment was sufficiently high in face validity to immerse the participants, and that trainees were displaying realistic task behaviours and procedural actions. However, the fidelity of user interactions and movements in VR proved atypical, which seemed to disrupt participants’ attentional and motor responses. Conclusions Results suggest that VR may have limitations for improving physical skills in the context of BLS training, yet be potentially valuable for developing task procedures and/or perceptual abilities.

Funding Information: We are especially thankful to Rob G. Bijlsma who generously shared with us his extensive dataset from the Sahel region. We are also thankful to Afan Ajang, Linn M. Bjørvik, Tamuka Chapata, Wouter van Dongen, Patrick Guay, Lenka Harmáčková, Lukasz Jankowiak, Jan van der Kamp, Lennox Kirao, Jakub Kosicki, Philista Malaki, Pretty Maoko, John Mchetto, Grayson Mwakalebe, Organisation for Tropical Studies (South Africa), Diogo Samia, Trine Hay Setsaas, Libor Vaicenbacher and Leo Zwarts for their help with data collection. MW is thankful to Allison Piper, and a Deakin University Faculty of Science, Engineering and the Built Environment National and International Research Collaboration Grant in Kenya and BEACH (Beach Ecology and Conservation Hub; Venus Bay) in Australia. In Kenya, field data collection was approved by National Commission for Science Technology and Innovation no. NACOSTI/P14/4653/660 to M.W. and P.M. and no. NACOSTI/P18/52438/25493 to MW, Kenya Wildlife Service no KWS/BRP/5001 to M.W. A Rocha Kenya and the National Museum of Kenya supported and helped conduct fieldwork in Kenya. In South Africa, the University of Cape Town Science Faculty Animal Ethics Committee (2015/V11/SC) to S.J.C., Northern Cape Department of Environment and Nature Conservation (FAUNA 1489/2015) to P.P. In Brazil, we worked on private lands where no permits were required. In Australia, research was approved by the Deakin University (B32/2012, B11/2015, B10/2018), the Charles Darwin University Animal Ethics (A11013), the Macquarie University Animal Research Committee (99021), the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (#FA/000379/00/SA), and the Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife (41035 and 55233). This study was financially supported by the DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence at the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town (grant to S.J.C.), The Leventis Foundation through the A.P. Leventis Ornithological Research Institute, Jos Nigeria (grant to B.D.A.B.), by a fellowship of the Fulbright (Slovakia) programme to P.M. for a visit to the University of California, Los Angeles. Animal tolerance towards humans can be a key factor facilitating wildlife–human coexistence, yet traits predicting its direction and magnitude across tropical animals are poorly known. Using 10,249 observations for 842 bird species inhabiting open tropical ecosystems in Africa, South America, and Australia, we find that avian tolerance towards humans was lower (i.e., escape distance was longer) in rural rather than urban populations and in populations exposed to lower human disturbance (measured as human footprint index). In addition, larger species and species with larger clutches and enhanced flight ability are less tolerant to human approaches and escape distances increase when birds were approached during the wet season compared to the dry season and from longer starting distances. Identification of key factors affecting animal tolerance towards humans across large spatial and taxonomic scales may help us to better understand and predict the patterns of species distributions in the Anthropocene.

Background Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fastest increasing cause of cancer death in Australia. A recent Australian consensus guidelines recommended HCC surveillance for cirrhotic patients and non-cirrhotic chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients at gender and age specific cut-offs. A cost-effectiveness model was then developed to assess surveillance strategies in Australia. Methods A microsimulation model was used to evaluate three strategies: biannual ultrasound, biannual ultrasound with alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and no formal surveillance for patients having one of the conditions: non-cirrhotic CHB, compensated cirrhosis or decompensated cirrhosis. One-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses as well as scenario and threshold analyses were conducted to account for uncertainties: including exclusive surveillance of CHB, compensated cirrhosis or decompensated cirrhosis populations; impact of obesity on ultrasound sensitivity; real-world adherence rate; and different cohort’s ranges of ages. Results Sixty HCC surveillance scenarios were considered for the baseline population. The ultrasound + AFP strategy was the most cost-effective with incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICER) compared to no surveillance falling below the willingness-to-pay threshold of A$50,000 per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) at all age ranges. Ultrasound alone was also cost-effective, but the strategy was dominated by ultrasound + AFP. Surveillance was cost-effective in the compensated and decompensated cirrhosis populations alone (ICERs < $30,000), but not cost-effective in the CHB population (ICERs > $100,000). Obesity could decrease the diagnostic performance of ultrasound, which in turn, reduce the cost-effectiveness of ultrasound ± AFP, but the strategies remained cost-effective. Conclusions HCC surveillance based on Australian recommendations using biannual ultrasound ± AFP was cost-effective.

© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 licenseBackground: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is increasingly recognised as being responsible for a substantial proportion of the global burden of disease. Neurosurgical interventions are an important aspect of care for patients with TBI, but there is little epidemiological data available on this patient population. We aimed to characterise differences in casemix, management, and mortality of patients receiving emergency neurosurgery for TBI across different levels of human development. Methods: We did a prospective observational cohort study of consecutive patients with TBI undergoing emergency neurosurgery, in a convenience sample of hospitals identified by open invitation, through international and regional scientific societies and meetings, individual contacts, and social media. Patients receiving emergency neurosurgery for TBI in each hospital's 30-day study period were all eligible for inclusion, with the exception of patients undergoing insertion of an intracranial pressure monitor only, ventriculostomy placement only, or a procedure for drainage of a chronic subdural haematoma. The primary outcome was mortality at 14 days postoperatively (or last point of observation if the patient was discharged before this time point). Countries were stratified according to their Human Development Index (HDI)—a composite of life expectancy, education, and income measures—into very high HDI, high HDI, medium HDI, and low HDI tiers. Mixed effects logistic regression was used to examine the effect of HDI on mortality while accounting for and quantifying between-hospital and between-country variation. Findings: Our study included 1635 records from 159 hospitals in 57 countries, collected between Nov 1, 2018, and Jan 31, 2020. 328 (20%) records were from countries in the very high HDI tier, 539 (33%) from countries in the high HDI tier, 614 (38%) from countries in the medium HDI tier, and 154 (9%) from countries in the low HDI tier. The median age was 35 years (IQR 24–51), with the oldest patients in the very high HDI tier (median 54 years, IQR 34–69) and the youngest in the low HDI tier (median 28 years, IQR 20–38). The most common procedures were elevation of a depressed skull fracture in the low HDI tier (69 [45%]), evacuation of a supratentorial extradural haematoma in the medium HDI tier (189 [31%]) and high HDI tier (173 [32%]), and evacuation of a supratentorial acute subdural haematoma in the very high HDI tier (155 [47%]). Median time from injury to surgery was 13 h (IQR 6–32). Overall mortality was 18% (299 of 1635). After adjustment for casemix, the odds of mortality were greater in the medium HDI tier (odds ratio [OR] 2·84, 95% CI 1·55–5·2) and high HDI tier (2·26, 1·23–4·15), but not the low HDI tier (1·66, 0·61–4·46), relative to the very high HDI tier. There was significant between-hospital variation in mortality (median OR 2·04, 95% CI 1·17–2·49). Interpretation: Patients receiving emergency neurosurgery for TBI differed considerably in their admission characteristics and management across human development settings. Level of human development was associated with mortality. Substantial opportunities to improve care globally were identified, including reducing delays to surgery. Between-hospital variation in mortality suggests changes at an institutional level could influence outcome and comparative effectiveness research could identify best practices. Funding: National Institute for Health Research Global Health Research Group.

IntroductionWhilst the disruptive effects of anxiety on attention and performance have been well documented, the antecedents to anxiety in motivated performance scenarios are less well understood. We therefore sought to understand the cognitive appraisals that mediate the relationship between pressurised performance situations and the onset of anxiety. MethodsWe tested the effects of performance pressure and error feedback on appraisals of the probability and cost of failure, the experience of anxiety, and subsequent impacts on visual attention, movement kinematics, and task performance during a virtual reality interception task.ResultsA series of linear mixed effects models indicated that failure feedback and situational pressure influenced appraisals of the probability and cost of failure, which subsequently predicted the onset of anxious states. We did not, however, observe downstream effects on performance and attention.Discussion The findings support the predictions of Attentional Control Theory Sport, that (i) momentary errors lead to negative appraisals of the probability of future failure; and (ii) that appraisals of both the cost and probability of future failure are important predictors of anxiety. The results contribute to a better understanding of the precursors to anxiety and the feedback loops that may maintain anxious states.

We make a detailed analysis in a special case of the Boston algorithm, which is widely used around the world to assign students to schools. We compute the limiting distribution in large random markets of both the utilitarian welfare and the order bias, a recently introduced average-case fairness measure. Our results show that the differences in utilitarian welfare between the Boston algorithms and the serial dictatorship (SD) algorithm are small and positive, whereas the differences in terms of order bias are large and positive. The naive implementation of the Boston algorithm beats its adaptive implementation on both utilitarian welfare and order bias, and both apparently beat SD on both criteria. In order to establish our results, we derive several basic results on the time evolution of the assignments made by the algorithms, which we expect to be useful for other applications. For example, we compute limiting distributions as a function of [Formula: see text] of the exit time and preference rank obtained for an arbitrary agent whose initial relative position in the tiebreak order is θ.

This book proposes a conceptual framework for understanding measurement across a broad range of scientific fields and areas of application, such as physics, engineering, education, and psychology. The authors, who themselves span these disciplines, argue that the justification of the public trust attributed to measurement results can in principle apply identically to both physical and psychosocial properties. They further argue that the lack of a common conceptualization of measurement hampers interdisciplinary communication and limits the ability to share knowledge. They advance their views by first surveying the conceptual history of the philosophy of measurement and arguing that classical, operationalist and representational perspectives on measurement each make important contributions but also each have important shortcomings. A synthesis is then offered as the foundation for a new conceptual framework. The authors describe how the framework, which operates as a shared concept system, supports understanding measurement’s work in different domains, using examples in the physical and human sciences. They consider connections and consequences with respect to causality, objectivity, and intersubjectivity, among other topics, and how measurement science concepts and issues are construed across these disciplines and settings. They also address contemporary issues and controversies within measurement in the light of the framework, including operationalism, definitional uncertainty, and the relations between measurement and computation. The book concludes with a justification for the basic claim that measurement is an empirical and informational process that produces explicitly justifiable information. Researchers and academics across a wide range of disciplines including biological, physical, social and behavioral scientists, as well as specialists in measurement and philosophy will appreciate the work’s fresh and provocative approach to the field at a time when sound measurements of complex scientific systems are increasingly essential to solving critical global problems. This is an open access book.

This chapter aims to explore some key components of an ontology and an epistemology of properties. What is evaluated, and more specifically, measured, are properties of objects, such as lengths of rigid bodies and reading comprehension abilities of individuals, and the results of evaluations, and thus of measurements, are values of properties. Hence, a study of the nature of properties and of our ways of securing knowledge of them is a pivotal component of measurement science. We start from the hypothesis that properties of objects are associated with modes of empirical interaction of the objects with their environment. Consistently with the model-dependent realism introduced in Chap. 4, the Basic Evaluation Equation$${\text{property}}\,{\text{of}}\,{\text{a}}\,{\text{given}}\,{\text{object}} = {\text{value}}\,{\text{of}}\,{\text{a}}\,{\text{property}}$$of which the relation$${\text{measurand}} = {\text{measured}}\,{\text{value}}\,{\text{of}}\,{\text{a}}\,{\text{property}}$$is a specific case, is interpreted as a claim of an actual referential equality, which conveys information on the measurand because the measurand and the measured value remain conceptually distinct entities.

This chapter aims to justify the importance of the subject of the book and to frame it in a broad structural perspective that leads to a transdisciplinary understanding of measurement of physical and of psychosocial properties, exemplified by the measurement of temperature and of reading comprehension ability respectively. As a first sketch of the feasibility of this integrated framework, a typical method of psychosocial measurement is applied to a case of physical measurement.

This chapter aims to conclude the book by providing a high-level interpretation of measurement and its characterizing features. We first develop a semiotic perspective on the information gained via measurement, specifically, how, in any measurement process, syntactic information (i.e., data, in the form of indication values) grounds semantic information (in the form of measurement results), which in turn grounds pragmatic information (in the form of measurement results together with the contextual information that enables decision making). We then briefly retread the path followed in this book, describing how we began with a minimal set of necessary conditions for measurement and then progressively explored issues critical to the development of complementary sufficient conditions, related in particular to the ontology and epistemology of measured properties, the nature of scales, measurability, and measured values, and the roles of empirical and informational processes in measurement. This culminates in a general model of a measurement process that emphasizes the importance of evaluating the quality of the information produced by measurement in terms of object-relatedness (“objectivity”) and subject-independence (“intersubjectivity”). We conclude with an argument that, despite differences in subject matter and application, any measurement process can be characterized as an empirical and informational process that is designed on purpose, whose input is an empirical property of an object, and that produces explicitly justifiable information in the form of values of that property.

Background & aims A unique model of care was adopted in Australia following introduction of universal subsidised direct-acting antiviral (DAA) access in 2016 in order to encourage rapid scale-up of treatment. Community-based medical practitioners and integrated hepatitis nurses initiated DAA treatment with remote hepatitis specialist approval of the planned treatment without physical review. We aimed to evaluate outcomes of community-based treatment of hepatitis C (HCV) through this remote consultation process in the first 12 months of this model of care. Methods A retrospective chart review of patients undergoing community-based HCV treatment from general practitioners and integrated hepatitis nurse consultants through the remote consultation model in three state jurisdictions in Australia from 1 March 2016 to 28 February 2017. Results SVR12 was confirmed in 383/588 (65.1%) subjects intended for treatment with a median follow-up time of 12 months (IQR 9-14 months). The SVR12 test was not performed in 159/588 (27.0%) and 307/588 (52.2%) did not have liver biochemistry rechecked following treatment. Subjects who completed follow-up exhibited high SVR12 rates (383/392,97.7%). Nurse-led treatment was associated with higher confirmation of SVR12 (73.7% v 62.4%, p = 0.01) and liver biochemistry testing post treatment (57.5% v 45.0%, p = 0.01). Conclusions Community-based management of HCV through remote specialist consultation may be an effective model of care. Failure to check SVR12, recheck liver biochemistry and appropriate surveillance in patients with cirrhosis may emerge as significant issues requiring further support, education and refinement of the model to maximise effectiveness of future elimination efforts. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

We study an individual’s propensity for rational thinking; the avoidance of cognitive biases (unconscious errors generated by our mental simplification methods) using a novel augmented reality (AR) platform. Specifically, we developed an odd-one-out (OOO) game-like task in AR designed to try to induce and assess confirmatory biases. Forty students completed the AR task in the laboratory, and the short form of the comprehensive assessment of rational thinking (CART) online via the Qualtrics platform. We demonstrate that behavioural markers (based on eye, hand and head movements) can be associated (linear regression) with the short CART score – more rational thinkers have slower head and hand movements and faster gaze movements in the second more ambiguous round of the OOO task. Furthermore, short CART scores can be associated with the change in behaviour between two rounds of the OOO task (one less and one more ambiguous) – hand-eye-head coordination patterns of the more rational thinkers are more consistent in the two rounds. Overall, we demonstrate the benefits of augmenting eye-tracking recordings with additional data modalities when trying to understand complicated behaviours.

Using a large sample of longitudinal assessment data from children in publicly funded infant/toddler care, preschool, and kindergarten (analytic N = 453,468), this study modeled language and literacy trajectories from early infancy through kindergarten for dual language learners (DLLs) from homes representing many different languages and their peers from monolingual English-speaking homes. DLLs and their monolingual peers showed common developmental trajectories, including an initial period of rapid growth that slowed between 10 and 30 months, plateaued between 30 and 45 months, and then accelerated from 45 to 60 months of age. Although the general developmental patterns were similar, differences emerged between children in English-speaking versus non-English speaking homes: DLLs’ growth rates slowed more than their monolingual peers’ between 10 and 30 months but then grew more sharply after 45 months. A linguistic distance hypothesis helped to explain the magnitude of the differences between groups of DLLs and their monolingual peers. The differences occurred as children passed through specific developmental levels of the Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP) assessment’s learning progressions. The current study adds new quantitative information about language and literacy trajectories from early infancy through kindergarten among children from different language backgrounds and demonstrates how the findings may be applied to support effective instruction with culturally and linguistically diverse children.

A new species, Andinia peruviana, from Amazonas department, Peru, is described and illustrated. Updated phylogenetic analyses of nuclear internal transcribed spacer (nrITS) sequences in this study re-affirm the monophyletic nature of Andinia sensu lato and further support the previously proposed circumscription which incorporated genera Lueranthos, Masdevalliantha, Neooreophilus, and Xenosia. Andinia subgenus Aenigma was strongly supported in all analyses. The new species was determined phylogenetically to belong to subgenus Aenigma, along with A. barbata, A. dalstroemii, A. hirtzii, A. pogonion, A. schizopogon and A. uchucayensis. The phylogenetically-confirmed representatives of subgenus Aenigma are illustrated with drawings and photographs, and their geographic distribution is discussed. The updated phylogenetic analyses also show the corrected phylogenetic positions of A. vestigipetala, as the sole representative of the clade corresponding to subgenus Minuscula, and A. trimytera, as a member of the clade corresponding to subgenus Andinia.

Simulation methods, including physical synthetic environments, already play a substantial role in human skills training in the military and are commonly used for developing situational awareness and judgemental skills. The rapid development of virtual reality technologies has provided a new opportunity for performing this type of training, but before VR can be adopted as part of mandatory training it should be subjected to rigorous tests of its suitability and effectiveness. In this work, we adopted established methods for testing the fidelity and validity of simulated environments to compare three different methods of judgemental training. Thirty-nine dismounted close combat troops from the UK’s Royal Air Force completed shoot/don’t-shoot judgemental tasks in: i) live-fire; ii) virtual reality; and iii) 2D video simulation conditions. A range of shooting accuracy and decision-making metrics were recorded from all three environments. The results showed that 2D video simulation posed little decision-making challenge during training. Decision-making performance across live fire and virtual reality simulations was comparable but the two may offer slightly different, and perhaps complementary, methods of training judgemental skills. Different types of simulation should, therefore, be selected carefully to address the exact training need.

This report describes the results of the design, development, and pilot testing of a virtual reality interception task. The task was designed to measure anticipatory eye movements as a way to index the evolution of probabilistic beliefs about the environment. We sought to validate the task as a way to measure predictions by manipulating statistics of the environment and determining whether eye movements tracked the changes in probability. During the task, the player was placed in a virtual squash court, where a ball was projected from one of two locations on the front wall. The player simply has to intercept the ball. We created conditions with a 90/10, 70/30, and 50/50 left/right probability split to examine whether the horizontal position of the eye just before the ball was released tracked these probabilities. Results indicated that anticipatory eye position was adjusted in response to these probabilities, but the effect was relatively weak. These results partially validate the task but also indicate that additional challenge or uncertainty may be needed to create a greater demand on correct prediction.

As an important link in the information service of Internet products, the recommendation system has become an important way for users to get information from the huge amount of Internet data. Among existing studies, collaborative filtering has become a widely used method in recommender systems due to its good performance, but it uses a shallow model that cannot learn the deep non-linear features of users and items. In addition, content-based recommendation methods make recommendations by making full use of user registration information and item profiles, but this method also requires effective feature extraction, relying on feature engineering i.e., by manually extracting or design features, which makes the effectiveness and scalability of the method very limited and limits the performance of the recommendation algorithm. In recent years, deep learning has made a great impact in natural language processing, speech recognition, and image processing. This has led to a new breakthrough in the research of recommendation systems. Graph neural network algorithms extend traditional deep learning methods, such as convolution, to the domain of graph data, and combine the idea of data propagation to form deep learning algorithms on graphs, which have achieved good results in social networks, recommendation systems, knowledge graphs, and other fields. In this paper, we focus on the shallow output of the intermediate layer output. A multi-headed attention mechanism is used to fuse the multi-layer output information, so that the shallow structural features provided by the intermediate layer can be better involved in the scoring prediction task, which makes the application of graph neural networks in recommendation systems further improved.

In this study we examined the relationship between physiological encoding of surprise and the learning of anticipatory eye movements. Active inference portrays perception and action as interconnected inference processes driven by the imperative to minimise the surprise of sensory observations. To examine this characterisation of oculomotor learning during a hand-eye coordination task, we tested whether anticipatory eye movements were updated in accordance with Bayesian principles and whether learning rates tracked pupil dilation as a marker of ‘surprise’. Forty-four participants completed an interception task in immersive virtual reality that required them to hit bouncing balls with either expected or unexpected bounce profiles. We recorded anticipatory eye movements known to index participants’ beliefs about likely ball bounce trajectories. By fitting a hierarchical Bayesian inference model to the trial-wise trajectories of these predictive eye movements, we were able to estimate each individual’s expectations about bounce trajectories, rates of belief updating, and precision-weighted prediction errors. We found that the task-evoked pupil response tracked prediction errors and learning rates but not beliefs about ball bounciness or environmental volatility. These findings are partially consistent with active inference accounts and shed light on how encoding of surprise may shape the control of action.

In that regime, fusion reactions are the plasma’s primary source of heating.