Fourth Experiment Research Articles

Induction of nitric oxide via humming does not improve short-term cognitive performance or influence emotional processing.

Nitric oxide (NO) is involved in a variety of biological functions including blood vessel dilation and neurotransmitter release. In animals, NO has been demonstrated to affect multiple behavioral outcomes, such as memory performance and arousal, whereas this link is less explored in humans. NO is created in the paranasal sinuses and studies show that humming releases paranasal NO to the nasal tract and that NO can then cross the blood brain barrier. Akin to animal models, we hypothesized that this NO may traverse into the brain and positively affect information processing. In contrast to our hypothesis, an articulatory suppression memory paradigm and a speeded detection task found deleterious effects of humming while performing the task. Likewise, we found no effect of humming on emotional processing of photos. In a fourth experiment, participants hummed before each trial in a speeded detection task, but we again found no effect on response time. In conclusion, either nasal NO does not travel to the brain, or NO in the brain does not have the expected impact on cognitive performance and emotional processing in humans. It remains possible that NO influences other cognitive processes not tested for here.

When detecting a salient target makes search more effortful.

Prior research has demonstrated two distinct modes of searching a display: singleton detection mode and feature search mode. Due to the explicit template-based attentional control involved in feature search mode, singleton detection mode is often assumed to be less mentally effortful, which can potentially explain why people search using such an inefficient and distraction-prone strategy. However, this assumption remains largely untested. In the present study, we used a hand dynamometer to relate physical effort to perceived mental effort across different search conditions. Surprisingly, across three experiments, participants exerted more effort to avoid singleton detection trials compared to feature search trials, suggesting that they found singleton detection to be the more effortful mode of searching. In a fourth experiment, we removed the physical effort component and simply asked participants to self-report how effortful they perceived each search task to be. Participants robustly indicated that singleton detection trials were more effortful. Lastly, in a fifth experiment, we removed distractor-present trials. Again, participants exerted more effort to avoid singleton detection trials. In contrast to widely held assumptions, our findings suggest that searching for a salient singleton is in fact more mentally effortful than searching for a specific feature in a heterogeneous display, which has broad implications for theories of attentional control and the influence of mental effort on cognition. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Do Performance-Contingent Incentives Help or Hinder Divergent Thinking?

ABSTRACT Toward the goal of reconciling conflicting arguments on whether performance-based incentives facilitate or impede divergent thinking, we identify a feature common to prior demonstrations of negative incentive effects: they generally involve tasks with only one correct solution. Our first experiment replicates a negative incentive effect when insight problems require “bottom-up” divergent thinking from an unexpected resource to the problem it is uniquely equipped to solve, whereas our second experiment finds a positive incentive effect in the more general case of problems that enable “top-down” divergent thinking from a problem to multiple potential solutions. We also observe a positive incentive effect in a third experiment that measures the time needed to generate a solution to problems that have multiple potential solutions and in a fourth experiment in which participants design insight problems. Overall, our findings suggest that any harmful effects of performance-based incentives are likely restricted to highly constrained settings. Data Availability: Data are available from the authors upon request. JEL Classifications: J33; M14; M41; M52.

Research on V2O3 preparation by stepwise catalysis solution-phase hydrogen reduction from shale V-rich solution

Solution-phase hydrogen reduction reaction (SpHR) was introduced to overcome the problems of ammonia nitrogen pollution, high energy consumption, and long production flow of traditional reduction roasting. From φ-pH diagram, the increase of reaction temperature, vanadium concentration and H2 partial pressure is beneficial to the preparation of V2O3. High purity V2O3 could not be prepared by single addition catalysis and synchronous catalysis in SpHR process, and the Ni + NiSO4 stepwise catalysis can effectively eliminate the problem of nickel wrapped in vanadium precipitates during the precipitation process. Under the optimal conditions of Ni + NiSO4 stepwise catalysis of nickel powder dosage 5 g/L, NiSO4 dosage 8 g/L, nickel powder catalytic time 90 min, NiSO4 catalytic time 30 min, the precipitate with nickel content 11.15 % was obtained, and Ni catalyst can be separated by magnetic separation with nickel recovery ratio of 99.52 %. Ni2+ in SpHR precipitates to Ni(OH)2 and then disintegrates and reduces to Ni, and Ni + NiSO4 stepwise catalysis includes two steps of pre-catalysis and secondary catalysis. After fourth cyclic experiment, the vanadium content of V2O3 product obtained was 67.46 % (i.e. 99.21 % V2O3 purity met the requirements of GB 40301–2021), the total recovery was 98.68 %, and the vanadium loss ratio was stable at 1.22 %. The process of SpHR has no ammonia nitrogen wastewater or waste gas discharge, and the price of V2O3 with purity more than 99 % on the market is about 260,000 ¥/t. The stepwise catalysis SpHR has remarkable environmental benefits and economic benefits.

A Kinetic Model of Furfural Hydrogenation to 2-Methylfuran on Nanoparticles of Nickel Supported on Sulfuric Acid-Modified Biochar Catalyst

Lignocellulosic biomass can uptake CO2 during growth, which can then be pyrolysed into three major products, biochar (BC), syngas, and bio-oil. Due to the presence of oxygenated organic compounds, the produced bio-oil is not suitable for direct use as a fuel and requires upgrading via hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) and hydrogenation. This is typically carried out over a supported metal catalyst. Regarding circular economy and sustainability, the BC from the pyrolysis step can potentially be activated and used as a novel catalyst support, as reported here. A 15 wt% Ni/BC catalyst was developed by chemically modifying BC with sulfuric acid to improve mesoporous structure and surface area. When compared to the pristine Ni/BC catalyst, sulfuric activated Ni/BC catalyst has excellent mesopores and a high surface area, which increases the dispersion of Ni nanoparticles and hence improves the adsorptive effect and thus catalytic performance. A liquid phase hydrogenation of furfural to 2-methylfuran was performed over the developed 15 wt% Ni/BC catalyst. Langmuir–Hinshelwood–Hougen–Watson (LHHW) kinetic type models for adsorption of dissociative H2 were screened based on an R2 value greater than 99%, demonstrating that the experimental data satisfactorily fit to three plausible models: competitive (Model I), competitive at only one type of adsorption site (Model II), and non-competitive with two types of adsorption sites (Model III). With a correlation coefficient greater than 99% between the experimental rates and the predicted rate, Model III, which is a dual-site adsorption mechanism involving furfural adsorption and hydrogen dissociative adsorption and surface reaction, is the best fit. The Ni/BC catalyst demonstrated comparative performance and significant cost savings over previous catalysts; a value of 24.39 kJ mol−1 was estimated for activation energy, −11.43 kJ mol−1 for the enthalpy of adsorption for H2, and −5.86 kJ mol−1 for furfural. The developed Ni/BC catalyst demonstrated excellent stability in terms of conversion of furfural (96%) and yield of 2-methylfuran (54%) at the fourth successive experiments. Based on furfural conversion and yield of products, it appears that pores are constructed slowly during sulfuric acid activation of the biochar.

Chunker Based Sentiment Analysis and Tense Classification for Nepali Text

The article represents the Sentiment Analysis (SA) and Tense Classification using Skip gram model for the word to vector encoding on Nepali language. The experiment on SA for positive-negative classification is carried out in two ways. In the first experiment the vector representation of each sentence is generated by using Skip-gram model followed by the Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) classification and it is observed that the F1 score of 0.6486 is achieved for positive-negative classification with overall accuracy of 68%. Whereas in the second experiment the verb chunks are extracted using Nepali parser and carried out the similar experiment on the verb chunks. F1 scores of 0.6779 is observed for positive -negative classification with overall accuracy of 85%. Hence, Chunker based sentiment analysis is proven to be better than sentiment analysis using sentences. This paper also proposes using a skip-gram model to identify the tenses of Nepali sentences and verbs. In the third experiment, the vector representation of each sentence is generated by using Skip-gram model followed by the Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP)classification and it is observed that verb chunks had very low overall accuracy of 53%. In the fourth experiment, conducted for Tense Classification using Sentences resulted in improved efficiency with overall accuracy of 89%. Past tenses were identified and classified more accurately than other tenses. Hence, sentence based tense classification is proven to be better than verb Chunker based sentiment analysis.

Hybrid Model for Motor Imagery Biometric Identification

Biometric systems are a continuously evolving and promising technological domain that can be used in automatic systems for the unique and efficient identification and authentication of individuals without necessitating users to carry or remember any physical tokens or passwords, in contrast to traditional methods such as password IDs. Biometrics are biological measurements or physical characteristics that can be used to ascertain and validate the identity of individuals. Recently, considerable interest has emerged in exploiting brain activity as a biometric identifier in automatic recognition systems, particularly focusing on data acquired through electroencephalography (EEG). Multiple research endeavors have indeed confirmed the presence of discriminative characteristics within brain signals recorded while performing specific cognitive tasks. However, EEG signals are inherently complex due to their nonstationary and high-dimensional properties, thus demanding careful consideration during both the feature extraction and classification processes. This study applied a hybridization technique integrating a pre-trained convolutional neural network (CNN) with a classical classifier and the short-time Fourier transform (STFT) spectrum. We used a hybrid model to decode two-class motor imagery (MI) signals for mobile biometric authentication tasks, which include subject identification and lock and unlock classification. To this purpose, nine potential classifiers (mostly classification algorithms) were utilized to build nine distinct hybrid models, with the ultimate goal of selecting the most effective one. Practically, six experiments were conducted in the experimental part of this study. The first experiment aims to develop a hybrid model for biometric authentication tasks. To do this, nine possible classifiers (mostly classification algorithms) were used to build nine hybrid models. It can be seen that the RF-VGG model achieved better performance compared with other models. Therefore, it was chosen to be utilized for mobile biometric authentication. The fourth experiment is to apply the RF-VGG model for doing the lock and unlock classification process, and their mean accuracy is 97.50%. Consequently, the fifth experiment was conducted to validate the RF-VGG model for the lock and unlock task, and their mean accuracy was 97.40%. Practically, the sixth experiment was to verify the RF-VGG model for the lock and unlock task over another dataset (unseen data), and their accuracy is 94.4%. It can be deduced that the hybrid model appraises the capability of decoding the MI signal for the left and right hand. Therefore, the RF-VGG model can contribute to the BCI-MI community by facilitating the deployment of the mobile biometric authentication task for (the subject identification and the lock and unlock classification).

Innovation of Red Bean Flour as A Substitution for Wheat Flour in Making Noodle

Red bean flour is a type of legume that has many benefits for the body, it's just that its use is not optimal. In this experiment, the researchers innovated noodles by changing the main ingredient with red bean flour. This study aims to find out, 1) How to properly process red bean flour in processed red bean noodles. 2) Can red bean flour be used as a substitute for wheat flour in making noodles. 3) How is the consumer response to aspects of taste, color, texture and aroma of red bean flour noodles. Data collection methods used by researchers are questionnaires, literature studies, and interviews. The test method in this study uses organoleptic testing and the data obtained will have problems in the frequency distribution of the data. The results showed that the cooking methods and procedures for red bean flour noodles and wheat flour noodles had differences. This difference is based on processing methods and processing procedures. The first experiment required an additional ingredient as an adhesive, the second experiment had good results but required an adhesive other than wheat flour, the third experiment required an unsuitable adhesive material, the fourth experiment required the addition of the composition of the ingredients, changes in cooking methods and procedures. The fifth experiment of noodles produced was good and fulfilled standard noodles in general. Based on the results of organoleptic testing of noodles in this study, the taste assessment of wheat flour noodles has a rating of 3.1. while the taste assessment of red bean flour noodles was 3. The assessment of the color aspect of wheat flour noodles had a rating of 2.9. while the color assessment of red bean flour noodles was 2.6. Assessment of the texture aspect of wheat flour noodles has a rating of 2.9. while the texture assessment of red bean flour noodles was 2.8. Assessment of the aroma aspect of wheat flour noodles has a rating of 2.9. while the aroma rating of red bean flour noodles is 3. From the assessment above, in terms of quality, the aspects of taste, color, aroma, texture of red flour noodles are the same as wheat flour noodles.

Influences of Supplementing Selective Members of the Interleukin-6 Cytokine Family on Bovine Oocyte Competency.

This work explored whether supplementing selective members of the interleukin-6 (IL6) cytokine family during in vitro bovine oocyte maturation affects maturation success, cumulus-oocyte complex (COC) gene expression, fertilization success, and embryo development potential. Human recombinant proteins for IL6, IL11, and leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) were supplemented to COCs during the maturation period, then fertilization and embryo culture commenced without further cytokine supplementation. The first study determined that none of these cytokines influenced the rate that oocytes achieved arrest at meiosis II. The second study identified that LIF and IL11 supplementation increases AREG transcript abundance. Supplementation with IL6 supplementation did not affect AREG abundance but reduced HAS2 transcript abundance. Several other transcriptional markers of oocyte competency were not affected by any of the cytokines. The third study determined that supplementing these cytokines during maturation did not influence fertilization success, but either LIF or IL11 supplementation increased blastocyst development. No effect of IL6 supplementation on subsequent blastocyst development was detected. The fourth experiment explored whether each cytokine treatment affects the post-thaw survivability of cryopreserved IVP blastocysts. None of the cytokines supplemented during oocyte maturation produced any positive effects on post-thaw blastocyst re-expansion and hatching. In conclusion, these outcomes implicate IL11 and LIF as potentially useful supplements for improving bovine oocyte competency.

Effect of pH and medium composition on chain elongation with Megasphaera hexanoica producing C4-C8 fatty acids.

Chain elongation technology, which involves fermentation with anaerobic bacteria, has gained attention for converting short and medium chain substrates into valuable and longer-chain products like medium chain fatty acids (MCFAs). In the recent past, the focus of studies with pure chain elongating cultures was on species of other genera, mainly Clostridium kluyveri. Recently, other chain elongators have been isolated that deserve further research, such as Megasphaera hexanoica. In this study, batch studies were performed in bottles with two different media to establish the optimal conditions for growth of M. hexanoica: (a) a medium rich in different sources of nitrogen and (b) a medium whose only source of nitrogen is yeast extract. Also, batch bioreactor studies at pH values of 5.8, 6.5 and 7.2 were set up to study the fermentation of lactate (i.e., electron donor) and acetate (i.e., electron acceptor) by M. hexanoica. Batch bottle studies revealed the yeast extract (YE) containing medium as the most promising in terms of production/cost ratio, producing n-caproate rapidly up to 2.62 ± 0.24 g/L. Subsequent bioreactor experiments at pH 5.8, 6.5, and 7.2 confirmed consistent production profiles, yielding C4-C8 fatty acids. A fourth bioreactor experiment at pH 6.5 and doubling both lactate and acetate concentrations enhanced MCFA production, resulting in 3.7 g/L n-caproate and 1.5 g/L n-caprylate. H2 and CO2 production was observed in all fermentations, being especially high under the increased substrate conditions. Overall, this study provides insights into M. hexanoica's behavior in lactate-based chain elongation and highlights optimization potential for improved productivity.

Hemorrhage Evaluation and Detector System for Underserved Populations: HEADS-UP

ObjectiveTo create a rapid, cloud-based, and deployable machine learning (ML) method named hemorrhage evaluation and detector system for underserved populations, potentially across the Mayo Clinic enterprise, then expand to involve underserved areas and detect the 5 subtypes of intracranial hemorrhage (IH). MethodsWe used Radiological Society of North America dataset for IH detection. We made 4 total iterations using Google Cloud Vertex AutoML. We trained an AutoML model with 2000 images, followed by 6000 images from both IH positive and negative classes. Pixel values were measured by the Hounsfield units, presenting a width of 80 Hounsfield and a level of 40 Hounsfield as the bone window. This was followed by a more detailed image preprocessing approach by combining the pixel values from each of the brain, subdural, and soft tissue window-based gray-scale images into R(red)-channel, G(green)-channel, and B(blue)-channel images to boost the binary IH classification performance. Four experiments with AutoML were applied to study the effects of training sample size and image preprocessing on model performance. ResultsOut of the 4 AutoML experiments, the best-performing model was the fourth experiment, where 95.80% average precision, 91.40% precision, and 91.40% recall were achieved. On the basis of this analysis, our binary IH classifier hemorrhage evaluation and detector system for underserved populations appeared both accurate and performed well. ConclusionHemorrhage evaluation and detector system for underserved populations is a rapid, cloud-based, deployable ML method to detect IH. This tool can help expedite the care of patients with IH in resource-limited hospitals.

Cellulose-fueled microbial fuel cells equipped with a bipolar membrane using hydrogen phosphate as the final electron acceptor.

A bipolar membrane microbial fuel cell (bMFC) is used to generate electricity using cellulose in phosphate buffer solution as fuel, and the mechanism of electricity generation is elucidated from five reference experiments. The bMFC was operated for 20 days using cellulose as fuel and Cellulomonas fimi. In the first reference experiment, no microorganism was used. In the second experiment, a cation-exchange membrane was used instead of a bipolar membrane. In the third experiment, the bipolar membrane was used in the opposite orientation as in the main experiment. In the fourth experiment, D2O was used instead of H2O in the cathode chamber. In the final experiment, the tris-maleate buffer was used instead of a phosphate buffer. Sufficient power generation did not occur in either reference experiment. The bMFC continuously generated electricity for 20days, and elucidated H+ and OH- react in bipolar membrane, where the counter cation of dihydrogen phosphate served as the final electron acceptor.

Multi-Tiered CNN Model for Motor Imagery Analysis: Enhancing UAV Control in Smart City Infrastructure for Industry 5.0

The concept of brain-controlled UAVs, pioneered by researchers at the University of Minnesota, initiated a series of investigations. These early efforts laid the foundation for more advanced prototypes of brain-controlled UAVs. However, BCI signals are inherently complex due to their nonstationary and high-dimensionality nature. Therefore, it is crucial to carefully consider both feature extraction and the classification process. This study introduces a novel approach, combining a pretrained CNN with a classical neural network classifier and STFT spectrum, into a Multi-Tiered CNN model (MTCNN). The MTCNN model is applied to decode two-class Motor Imagery (MI) signals, enabling the control of UAV up/down movement. The experimental phase of this study involved four key experiments. The first assessed the MTCNN model's performance using a substantial dataset, resulting in an impressive classification accuracy of 99.1%. The second and third experiments evaluated the model on two different datasets for the same subjects, successfully addressing challenges associated with inter-subject and intra-subject variability. The MTCNN model achieved a remarkable classification accuracy of 99.7% on both datasets. In a fourth experiment, the model was validated on an additional dataset, achieving classification accuracies of 100% and 99.6%. Remarkably, the MTCNN model surpassed the accuracy of existing literature on two BCI competition datasets. In conclusion, the MTCNN model demonstrates its potential to decode MI signals associated with left- and right-hand movements, offering promising applications in the field of brain-controlled UAVs, particularly in controlling up/down movements. Furthermore, the MTCNN model holds the potential to contribute significantly to the BCI-MI community by facilitating the integration of this model into MI-based UAV control systems.

A test of the universality principle: The solubility of metal salts and oxides in isobutyric acid + water near its consolute point

A mixture of isobutyric acid + water has a critical point of solution at a composition of 38.8 mass % isobutyric acid and a temperature near 300 K. Under these conditions, the pH = 2, which makes the mixture a ready solvent for metal salts and basic/amphoteric oxides. Measurements of the temperature dependence of the solubility of a solid in the critical region of such a mixture can be used as a test of the Principle of Critical Point Universality. This inductive generalization, which is thought to govern all critical phenomena, predicts that there will be a critical effect in the solubility of a solid when at constant temperature and pressure the position of equilibrium is specified by no more than three fixed variables. We report herein a determination of the temperature dependence of the solubility of gallium (III) oxide in a mixture of isobutyric acid + water, and in a separate experiment the determination of the temperature dependence of the solubility of titanium dioxide in this solvent. In a third experiment, we report the effects of the critical point of this mixture on the simultaneous dissolution of calcium sulfate and barium sulfate. In each of these experiments, there are three fixed variables. We carry out a fourth experiment involving the solubility of solid lead (II) iodide in isobutyric acid + water doped with completely dissolved sodium sulfate. In this case, four variables are fixed. Independent of the chemical details, and consistent with the universality principle, we find a critical solubility effect in each of the first three experiments but none in the fourth.

The psychophysics of bouncing: Perceptual constraints, physical constraints, animacy, and phenomenal causality.

In the present study we broadly explored the perception of physical and animated motion in bouncing-like scenarios through four experiments. In the first experiment, participants were asked to categorize bouncing-like displays as physical bounce, animated motion, or other. Several parameters of the animations were manipulated, that is, the simulated coefficient of restitution, the value of simulated gravitational acceleration, the motion pattern (uniform acceleration/deceleration or constant speed) and the number of bouncing cycles. In the second experiment, a variable delay at the moment of the collision between the bouncing object and the bouncing surface was introduced. Main results show that, although observers appear to have realistic representations of physical constraints like energy conservation and gravitational acceleration/deceleration, the amount of visual information available in the scene has a strong modulation effect on the extent to which they rely on these representations. A coefficient of restitution >1 was a crucial cue to animacy in displays showing three bouncing cycles, but not in displays showing one bouncing cycle. Additionally, bouncing impressions appear to be driven by perceptual constraints that are unrelated to the physical realism of the scene, like preference for simulated gravitational attraction smaller than g and perceived temporal contiguity between the different phases of bouncing. In the third experiment, the visible opaque bouncing surface was removed from the scene, and the results showed that this did not have any substantial effect on the resulting impressions of physical bounce or animated motion, suggesting that the visual system can fill-in the scene with the missing element. The fourth experiment explored visual impressions of causality in bouncing scenarios. At odds with claims of current causal perception theories, results indicate that a passive object can be perceived as the direct cause of the motion behavior of an active object.

Efek Residu Biochar Sekam Padi terhadap Pertumbuhan dan Hasil Kedelai

<p>Biochar is a carbon-rich solid material derived from the pyrolysis of agricultural residue biomass, which takes longer to decompose than the raw material biomass. Biochar has been observed to have agronomic benefits. Because of its persistence in the soil, biochar has the potential to extend its agronomic benefits. The purpose of this study was to obtain evidence that biochar has a longer effect so that its residual effect can increase the growth and yield of soybean. A series of pot experiments which included 4 consecutive plantings were carried out. The treatments consisting of: control; rice husk biochar (RHB) 20 ton.ha<sup>-1</sup>; RHB 40 ton.ha<sup>-1</sup>; RHB 50 ton.ha<sup>-1</sup>; RHB 60 ton.ha<sup>-1</sup>; RHB 10 ton.ha<sup>-1</sup> + chicken manure (CM) 10 ton.ha<sup>-1</sup>; RBH 20 ton.ha<sup>-1</sup> + CM 20 ton.ha<sup>-1</sup>; RHB 30 ton.ha<sup>-1</sup> + CM 30 ton.ha<sup>-1</sup>. The treatments were applied to the first planting of the series experiment (September-December 2018). To determine the residual effect of the treatments, the second experiment was carried out in February-June 2019 with planting aerobic rice plants, third experiment in March-June 2020 with soybeans plant, and fourth experiment in July-October 2020 with soybean plants. The results showed that the effect of residual rice husk biochar did not significantly increase growth and soybean yields in the 3<sup>rd</sup> and 4<sup>th</sup> planting.</p>

Increased bulb yield following seed coating of radish (Raphanus sativus L.) with selected isolates of Trichoderma species in Rhizoctonia solani infected soil

Abstract: Red radish (Raphanus sativus) is highly susceptible to the soil-borne fungus Rhizoctonia solani, which can cause severe crop losses. In a glasshouse experiment, untreated seeds of radish cvs. French Breakfast and Red Round were grown in potting mix where R. solani inoculated wheat-bran was added at rates of 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0 g per 100 g potting mix. Seedling emergence was reduced by one third and two thirds respectively by the two higher inoculum rates, and final plant numbers were ca. 20%, 50% and 80% less than in the uninoculated control. The ability of Trichoderma spp. to increase radish yields by limiting the damage caused by R. solani has long been known but has not been evaluated in New Zealand. Inoculum of each of four Trichoderma spp. isolates LU132 (T. atroviride), LU785 (T. hamatum), LU1437 (T. harzianum) and LU1358 (T. polysporum) was prepared in sterile wheat-bran and 0.5 g wheat-bran was added per 100 g potting mix. In a second glasshouse experiment, R. solani (0.25 g inoculated wheat-bran) was added per 100 g potting mix before untreated seeds of both radish cultivars were sown. Potting mix without either R. solani or Trichoderma served as the control. Maximum seedling emergence did not differ among the treatments for cv. French Breakfast, but was increased by the presence of either isolate LU132 (T. atroviride) or LU1358 (T. polysporum) for cv. Red Round. The presence of isolate LU1347 (T. harzianum) in the potting mix significantly increased plant survival in both cultivars. Each of the four Trichoderma isolates reduced the percentage of diseased plants with isolate LU132 (T. atroviride) providing the strongest response. In a third glasshouse experiment, Trichoderma treated seeds, thiram fungicide treated and untreated seeds of both radish cultivars were sown in naturally R. solani infected soil. The same treatments were used in a field trial at a site known to be infected by R. solani. In the third glasshouse experiment, seed treatment with Trichoderma isolates LU1347 (T. harzianum), LU1358 (T. polysporum) and LU785 (T. hamatum) significantly increased bulb fresh weight in cv. Red Round, but no treatments increased bulb fresh weight in cv. French Breakfast. In the field experiment, bulb yield for the thiram seed treatment did not differ from that of the untreated control. However, seed treatment with isolate LU785 (T. hamatum) increased subsequent bulb yield by 96% for both cultivars, and seed treatment with isolate LU132 (T. atroviride) or isolate LU1358 (T. polysporum) also significantly increased bulb yield (by 85% and 60% respectively) in cv. French Breakfast. A possible explanation for this result was sought by undertaking a fourth glasshouse experiment for radish cv. Red Round only. In this experiment, all four Trichoderma spp. isolates more than doubled bulb yield by producing not only a greater number of bulbs but also larger bulbs than the untreated control. Trichoderma seed coating may provide an alternative to fungicide seed treatment for radish production.

Large low background kTon-scale liquid argon time projection chambers

We find that it is possible to increase sensitivity to low energy physics in a third or fourth Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE)-like module with careful controls over radiopurity and targeted modifications to a detector similar to the DUNE Far Detector design. In particular, sensitivity to supernova and solar neutrinos can be enhanced with improved MeV-scale reach. A neutrinoless double beta decay search with 136Xe loading appears feasible. Furthermore, sensitivity to Weakly-Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) Dark Matter becomes competitive with the planned world program in such a detector, offering a unique seasonal variation detection that is characteristic of the nature of WIMPs.

Mixed evidence for a relationship of cognitive fatigue to political engagement

Daily cognitive fatigue is widespread, yet we are still learning about its influence on political behavior. Existing research suggests fatigue will reduce consumption of politics at the margin. Moreover, when fatigued individuals do engage with political material, they should be more likely to choose content and decision rules that require minimal effort. We find mixed empirical evidence for these claims. In observational data, we find a negative relationship between fatigue and engagement, on average, but the coefficients are typically small and statistically insignificant and we find substantial variation across different measures of fatigue. In three experiments, we find mixed evidence that manipulated fatigue reduces the demand for political content over sports and other non-political entertainment. In a fourth experiment, we find no evidence that manipulated fatigue shapes heuristic versus systematic processing. We discuss the limitations of our study, its relationship to existing work, and avenues for future research.

More direction but less freedom? How task rules affect intrinsic motivation.

Task rules restrict freedom by definition, but do they necessarily harm intrinsic motivation? We examine how task rules for an open-ended writing activity affect intrinsic motivation, or enjoyment, with one's sense of direction and psychological freedom as potential mechanisms. Results from three online experiments (Experiment 1, Experiments 3a and 3b; N = 1,176), conducted with both undergraduate student and adult (Amazon MTurk and Prolific) samples, suggest that task rules may indirectly increase enjoyment by enhancing direction (indirect effect: β's range [0.09, 0.17], p's < .05), yet at the same time, indirectly decrease enjoyment by reducing freedom (indirect effect: β's range [-0.31, -0.07], p's < .05). Results from a fourth online experiment (Experiment 2; student sample; N = 121) address a potential alternative explanation, finding that only the task rules, not mere examples, were sufficient to increase direction (rules present: d = 0.55, p = .04; examples: d = 0.25, p = .48) and reduce freedom (rules present: d = 0.78, p < .001; examples: d = 0.22, p = .31). Theoretical and empirical connections are made to self-determination theory and flow theory. Further research is needed to delineate situational and personal factors that may moderate these effects. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).