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Episodic memory may essentially be memory for one's place within a temporally unfolding scene from a first-person perspective. Given this, pervasively used static stimuli may only capture one small part of episodic memory. A promising approach for advancing the study of episodic memory is immersing participants within varying scenes from a first-person perspective. We present a pool of distinct scene stimuli for use in virtual environments and a paradigm that is implementable across varying levels of immersion on multiple virtual reality (VR) platforms and adaptable to studying various aspects of scene and episodic memory. In our task, participants are placed within a series of virtual environments from a first-person perspective and guided through a virtual tour of scenes during a study phase and a test phase. In the test phase, some scenes share a spatial layout with studied scenes; others are completely novel. In three experiments with varying degrees of immersion, we measure scene recall, scene familiarity-detection during recall failure, the subjective experience of déjà vu, the ability to predict the next turn on a tour, the subjective sense of being able to predict the next turn on a tour, and the factors that influence memory search and the inclination to generate candidate recollective information. The level of first-person immersion mattered to multiple facets of episodic memory. The paradigm presents a useful means of advancing mechanistic understanding of how memory operates in realistic dynamic scene environments, including in combination with cognitive neuroscience methods such as functional magnetic resonance imaging and electrophysiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accelerated approval pathway has been criticized recently for employing lower regulatory standards than traditional drug approval, undue delays in withdrawing approvals of drugs for which studies have not confirmed clinical benefit, and confirmatory trials not being pursued with due diligence. This article examines the status of confirmatory studies of drugs approved under the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) accelerated approval program between December 1992 and December 2021. It includes background on the program and provides broader context about the program's performance to date over its 30-year history. Our analysis demonstrates that the accelerated approval program has been largely successful, with half of accelerated approvals converted to traditional approval in a median time of 3.2 years. Furthermore, recent FDA actions show that the agency is appropriately managing the program when a drug approved under accelerated approval fails to confirm a clinical benefit. Any proposed changes to the program should be based on cumulative experience with the program, rather than outliers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Affluence and vulnerability are often seen as opposite sides of a coin—with affluence generally understood as reducing forms of vulnerability through increased resilience and adaptive capacity. However, in the context of climate change and an increase in associated hazards and disasters, we suggest the need to re-examine this dynamic relationship—a complex association we define here as the Affluence–Vulnerability Interface (AVI). We review research in different national contexts to show how a more nuanced understanding of the AVI can (a) problematize the notion that increasing material affluence necessarily has a mitigating influence on social vulnerability, (b) extend our analysis of social vulnerability beyond low-income regions to include affluent contexts and (c) improve our understanding of how psychosocial characteristics influence people's vulnerability. Finally, we briefly outline three methodological approaches that we believe will assist future engagement with the AVI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An influential thesis in contemporary philosophy of mind is that subjectivity is best conceived as inner awareness of qualia. (Purple Haze: The Puzzle of Consciousness. Oxford University Press, London, 2001) has argued that this unique subjective awareness generates a paradox which resists empirical explanation. On account of this 'paradox of subjective duality,' Levine concludes that the hardest part of the hard problem of consciousness is to explain how anything like a subjective point of view could arise in the world. Against this, I argue that the nature of subjective thought is not correctly characterized as inner awareness, that a non-paradoxical approach to the first-person perspective is available, and that the problem about subjectivity should be distinguished from the perennial problem of qualia or phenomenal properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purinergic receptor P2X7 represents an ATP-gated ionotropic receptor with a selective localization in alveolar epithelial type I cells of the lung. Despite the involvement of the receptor in inflammatory processes of the lung, it is not established whether this receptor plays a specific role in the alveolar epithelial cell biology. There is evidence that P2X7 receptor influences Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathways in alveolar epithelial cells under conditions of injury. Here, we investigated the expression of GSK-3β, a potent protein kinase involved in alveolar epithelial barrier functions, and of tight junction molecules occludin, claudin-4 and claudin-18 in wild-type and P2X7 mice. Western blot analysis, immunohistochemistry and quantitative real-time RT-PCR revealed a remarkable increase in claudin-18 mRNA and protein in lungs of P2X7 mice animals. Furthermore, alveolar epithelial cells from P2X7 animals showed decreased levels of GSK-3β protein and its inactive form GSK-3β (pS9). Conversely, claudin-18 knockout mice exhibited decreased P2X7 mRNA transcript abundance as measured by mRNA expression microarray and quantitative PCR. Our data are consistent with the hypothesis that P2X7R contributes to alveolar epithelial barrier function through effects on GSK-3β. Furthermore, these data suggest a potential reciprocal regulation of claudin-18 and P2X7R in the alveolar epithelium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I contrast Bickle's new wave reductionismwith other relevant views about explanation across intertheoretic contexts. I then assess Bickle's empirical argument for psychoneural reduction. Bickle shows that psychology is not autonomous from neuroscience, and concludes that at least some versions of nonreductive physicalism are false. I argue this is not sufficient to establish his further claim that psychology reduces to neuroscience. Examination of Bickle's explanations reveals that they do not meet his own reductive standard. Furthermore, there are good empirical reasons to doubt that the cognitive approach to mind should be abandoned. I suggest that the near future will not see a reduction of psychology to neuroscience, so much as a replacement of both sciences by an improved form of neuropsychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precision-cut rat lung slices have been employed in combination with an extensive immunohistochemistry of paraffin-embedded slices for monitoring of early pathohistological changes after exposure to CdCl2/TGF-β1. Three days of CdCl2 exposure in combination with TGF-β1 seem to be sufficient to induce lung injury with alterations similar to changes observed in early lung fibrogenesis: (1) extracellular matrix accumulation and myofibroblast transdifferentiation (Sirius red staining, collagen type IV, α-smooth muscle actin), (2) type I cell injury with loss of type I cell antigens (T1α antigen, aquaporin-5, RAGE), (3) increased apoptosis of pulmonary cells (active caspase-3, vimentin cleavage product V1 of caspase-9), and (4) activation of microvascular endothelial cells (podocalyxin, caveolin-1). Western blot analysis confirmed the increasing amount of α-smooth muscle actin, the loss of T1α antigen, and the increase in caveolin-1 immunoreactivity. The explant culture using CdCl2/TGF-β1 provides a suitable tool for the study of other factors involved in pulmonary pathology including transcription factors, cytokines, and other metabolites involved in early stages of fibrogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How is it that metaphors are meaningful, yet we have so much trouble saying exactly what they mean? I argue that metaphoric thought is an act of imagination, mediated by the contingent form of human embodiment. Metaphoric cognition is an example of the productive interplay between intentional imagery and the body scheme, a process of imaginal modeling. The case of metaphor marks the intersection of linguistic and psychological processes and demonstrates the need for a multi-disciplinary approach not only in philosophy of language, but in cognitive science and consciousness studies as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At a special measuring site for boundary-layer studies as well as land-surface processes the Meteorological Observatory Lindenberg of the German Weather Service (DWD) has recently put into operation a newly-desi gned phased-array SODAR/RASS, which has been developed by METEK on behalf of the DWD. This system provides the vertical profiles of the three-di mensional wind vector in the boundary layer on an operational basis and is furthermore suitable for getting information on the profile of virtual temperature up to about 400 m in height based on the addition of RASS components. The following paper describes both the technique of this SODAR/RASS and the various modes of operation as well as the different options in managing the system. First evaluations on the data availability concerning the maximum height coverage will give an impression on the system’s capabilities. Finally, the accuracy of the derived profiles of winds and temperature will be investigated by means of comparisons of the SODAR/RASS data with measurements of a six-sonde tethered-balloon system as well as meteorological data of a 99 m tower in the vicinity of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationships among various measures of mental imagery and childhood memory were examined using factor analysis and other correlational procedures. Forty-six subjects completed nine mental imagery measures (Marks's VVIQ, Gordon's Vividness Scale Forms 1 and 2, Space Relations Form of the Differential Aptitude Test, Barratt's Visualization Forms A and B, Betts's QMI, Cut the Cube Task, and Richardson's VVQ), a number of memory measures, and two measures of the observer/field 'point-of-view' distinction. Analysis revealed three distinct imagery factors, 'vividness and control,' 'spatial manipulation,' and 'spontaneous elaboration,' as well as a fourth 'childhood memory' factor. Childhood memory was not significantly correlated with any imagery variables, but observer perspectives were associated more often with childhood memories than with recent memories. In addition, the tendency to recall events from the field perspective was correlated with the spatial manipulation factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ss were given extended practice in card sorting. Each card was inscribed with nine letters; on half the cards one letter was a 'target.' With practice, the Ss could sort as fast for eight targets at once as for a single difficult target, while maintaining the same overall error rates. However, they did miss the difficult target itself more often when it occurred in the multiple-target condition than when they were searching for it alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the introductory part the paper presents some SODAR results on diurnal variations of different boundary layer structures from measurements during the KOPEX-experiment at a city station and a suburban station. In Sect. 1 the investigations about wave processes in the planetary boundary layer are discussed. The SODAR measurements were carried out in different international cooperations at the Kopisty Atmospheric Observatory of the Institute of Physics of the Atmosphere Prague (northern Czechoslovakia) in the year 1986 (KOPEX-86), at the Observatory Juliusruh of the Heinrich-Hertz-Institut Berlin at the island of Rügen (JULEX-87) and at the Meteorological Observatory of the nuclear power plant Jaslovske Bohunice in Slovakia, about 60 km north-east of Bratislava (JABEX-88). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]