Explicit attention interferes with selective emotion processing in human extrastriate cortex

Background  

Brain imaging and event-related potential studies provide strong evidence that emotional stimuli guide selective attention in visual processing. A reflection of the emotional attention capture is the increased Early Posterior Negativity (EPN) for pleasant and unpleasant compared to neutral images (~150–300 ms poststimulus). The present study explored whether this early emotion discrimination reflects an automatic phenomenon or is subject to interference by competing processing demands. Thus, emotional processing was assessed while participants performed a concurrent feature-based attention task varying in processing demands.     

Synthesis of Er5(BO3)2F9 and Properties of RE5(BO3)2F9 (RE = Er,Yb)

Er₅(BO₃)₂F₉ was synthesised under conditions of 3 GPa and 800 °C in a Walker‐type multianvil apparatus. The crystal structure was determined on the basis of single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction data, collected at room temperature. Er₅(BO₃)₂F₉ is isotypic to the recently synthesised Yb₅(BO₃)₂F₉ and crystallises in C2/c with the lattice parameters a = 2031.2(4) pm, b = 609.5(2) pm, c = 824.6(2) pm, and β = 100.29(3)°. The physical properties of RE₅(BO₃)₂F₉ (RE = Er, Yb) including high temperature behaviour and single crystal IR‐ / Raman spectroscopy were investigated.     

High-frequency modulated signals of killer whales (Orcinus orca) in the North Pacific

Killer whales in the North Pacific, similar to Atlantic populations, produce high-frequency modulated signals, based on acoustic recordings from ship-based hydrophone arrays and autonomous recorders at multiple locations. The median peak frequency of these signals ranged from 19.6-36.1 kHz and median duration ranged from 50-163 ms. Source levels were 185-193 dB peak-to-peak re: 1 μPa at 1 m. These uniform, repetitive, down-swept signals are similar to bat echolocation signals and possibly could have echolocation functionality. A large geographic range of occurrence suggests that different killer whale ecotypes may utilize these signals.     

Homogeneous free‐radical polymerization of styrene in supercritical CO2

The free‐radical polymerization of styrene has been studied in the homogeneous phase of supercritical (sc) CO₂ at 80°C and pressures between 200 and 1 500 bar. 2,2'‐Azobisisobutyronitrile is used as initiator and CBr₄ as chain‐transfer agent. The polymerization is monitored by means of online FT‐IR/NIR spectroscopy. In the presence of CO₂ a solution polymerization may be carried out up to a considerable degree of monomer conversion. At 500 bar, for example, maximum styrene conversions of 34.4 and 11.9% may be reached in homogeneous phase at CO₂ contents of 16.8 and 44.5 wt.‐%, respectively. Analysis of the measured conversion‐time profiles yields termination rate coefficients, k_t, which are by one order of magnitude larger than k_t for styrene bulk polymerizations at identical temperature and pressure. The enhanced termination rate in fluid CO₂ is assigned to the poor solvent quality of scCO₂ for polystyrene.