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A number of studies have shown human subjects’ impressive ability to detect faces in individual images, with saccade reaction times starting as fast as 100 ms after stimulus onset. Here, we report evidence that humans can rapidly and continuously saccade towards single faces embedded in different scenes at rates approaching 6 faces/scenes each second (including blinks and eye movement times). These observations are impressive, given that humans usually make no more than 2 to 5 saccades per second when searching a single scene with eye movements. Surprisingly, attempts to hide the faces by blending them into a large background scene had little effect on targeting rates, saccade reaction times, or targeting accuracy. Upright faces were found more quickly and more accurately than inverted faces; both with and without a cluttered background scene, and over a large range of eccentricities (4°–16°). The fastest subject in our study made continuous saccades to 500 small 3° upright faces at 4° eccentricities in only 96 seconds. The maximum face targeting rate ever achieved by any subject during any sequence of 7 faces during Experiment 3 for the no scene and upright face condition was 6.5 faces targeted/second. Our data provide evidence that the human visual system includes an ultra-rapid and continuous object localization system for upright faces. Furthermore, these observations indicate that continuous paradigms such as the one we have used can push humans to make remarkably fast reaction times that impose strong constraints and challenges on models of how, where, and when visual processing occurs in the human brain.

While several studies have shown human subjects' impressive ability to detect faces in individual images in paced settings (Crouzet et al., 2010), we here report the details of an eye movement dataset in which subjects rapidly and continuously targeted single faces embedded in different scenes at rates approaching six face targets each second (including blinks and eye movement times). In this paper, we describe details of a large publicly available eye movement dataset of this new psychophysical paradigm (Martin et al., 2018). The paradigm produced high-resolution eye-tracking data from an experiment on continuous upright and inverted 3° sized face detection in both background and no-background conditions. The new \"Zapping\" paradigm allowed large amounts of trials to be completed in a short amount of time. For example, our three studies encompassed a total of 288,000 trials done in 72 separate experiments, and yet only took approximately 40 hours of recording for the three experimental cohorts. Each subject did 4000 trials split into eight blocks of 500 consecutive trials in one of the four different experimental conditions: {upright, inverted} × {scene, no scene}. For each condition, there are several covariates of interest, including: temporal eye positions sampled at 1250 hz, saccades, saccade reaction times, microsaccades, pupil dynamics, target luminances, and global contrasts.

Accurate stimulus onset timing is critical to almost all behavioral research. Auditory, visual, or manual response time stimulus onsets are typically sent through wires to various machines that record data such as: eye gaze positions, electroencephalography, stereo electroencephalography, and electrocorticography. These stimulus onsets are collated and analyzed according to experimental condition. If there is variability in the temporal accuracy of the delivery of these onsets to external systems, the quality of the resulting data and scientific analyses will degrade. Here, we describe an approximately 200 dollar Arduino based system and associated open-source codebase that achieved a maximum of 4 microseconds of delay from the inputs to the outputs while electrically opto-isolating the connected external systems. Using an oscilloscope, the device is configurable for the different environmental conditions particular to each laboratory (e.g., light sensor type, screen type, speaker type, stimulus type, temperature, etc). This low-cost open-source project delivered electrically isolated digital stimulus onset Transistor-Transistor Logic triggers with an input/output delay of 4 μs, and was successfully tested with seven different external systems that record eye and neurological data.

Herbaceous isolated wetlands in the North American Southeastern Coastal Plain are important breeding sites for many imperiled amphibians. However, most are degraded from alterations to historic fire disturbance and hydrologic regimes. Without fire, encroaching woody vegetation can transition wetlands to more terrestrial conditions and negatively impact amphibian breeding habitat, yet few studies have experimentally tested the efficacy, cost, or temporal requirement of current methods to restore herbaceous wetland vegetation. Here, we tested the interaction of manipulating wetland canopy and leaf litter/duff to promote herbaceous vegetation within one year (i.e., one breeding season) in degraded herbaceous wetlands in South Carolina. We assessed plant response via herbaceous cover, composition, and species similarity to the wetland seed bank and then related treatment performance to treatment cost. Removing trees combined with burning, disturbing, or removing duff significantly increased herbaceous cover and proportions of wetland plants and graminoids. Removing trees alone did not improve herbaceous cover compared to closed-canopy controls, and manipulating duff alone had limited positive effects on plant cover and composition. The most expensive yet effective treatment was Tree Removal-Duff Removal, while Tree Removal-Duff Disturbance was the most cost-effective. At a minimum, we recommend removing trees and burning to kickstart herbaceous recovery. Promisingly, comparisons of our data with previous seed bank studies from these same wetlands indicate there was limited seed bank attrition during 30 years of woody encroachment. Results from this study should aid practitioners in choosing wetland restoration techniques to better conserve at-risk species in the Southeastern Coastal Plain.

This article presents an overview of research focusing on how state and local governments have regulated oil and gas over the past decade following the expanded industry use of new technologies like hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and horizontal drilling. A consequence of fracking was a substantial increase in energy production accompanied by the emergence of policy concerns about how resource development and jobs could be balanced with efforts to maintain environmental quality. Researchers have dealt with three key concerns in the following sections: (1) determining whether state and local officials can each play an important role in developing policies affecting oil and gas drilling activities, (2) examining how state regulators deal with environmental and health impacts associated with fracking, and (3) looking at how state policy decisions have been shaped taking into account both state-level political and economic characteristics and agency resources and political will.

To the Editor: The scholarly review of globalization and climate change by McMichael (April 4 issue) 1 emphasizes the associated economic, social, demographic, and environmental threats to human health and suggests steps to mitigate these changes on a global scale. Although McMichael also mentions the effects of climate change and globalization on the geographic range of vectorborne infections, he does not alert readers to sobering examples of the emergence of tropical infections in the temperate zone (Table 1). Globalization and climate change promote the emergence of these infections synergistically. Globalization increases the number of infected travelers and the accidental importation of . . .

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection alters the function and repertoire of peripheral blood γδ T cells expressing the Vγ2/Vδ2 T cell receptor (TCR). A cross-sectional comparison of the Vγ2 TCR repertoire was performed for 56 HIV-infected subjects, 51 of whom were receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), to measure changes in the Vγ2 TCR repertoire. Longer durations of HAART were associated with partial recovery of the normal TCR repertoire, and recovery was greatest in subjects with complete virus suppression. Changes in the Vγ2 TCR repertoire are sensitive measures for the effects of HAART and of residual HIV replication.

Background. Targeting host-cell pathways to increase the potency of nudeoside/nucleotide analog reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) is an important strategy for clinical investigation. Resveratrol is a natural product that inhibits cellular ribonucleotide reductase, prolonging the S phase of the cell cycle and preferentially lowering dATP levels. Methods. We performed in vitro evaluation of resveratrol on the antiviral activity of adenosine analog tenofovir (TFV) against sensitive and drug-resistant human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), from subtypes B and C, in primary cells. Results. Resveratrol enhanced the antiviral activity of TFV by up to 10-fold and restored susceptibility of TFVresistant viruses. Resveratrol prevented wild-type HIV-1 from developing phenotypic resistance to TFV. Notably, resveratrol enhanced TFV activity against sensitive and resistant HIV-1 from both subtypes B and C. Conclusions. Prolonged wide-scale use of thymidine analogs in the setting of viral failure has limited the efficacy of second-line NRTI-based regimens in Africa. Moreover, the extensive use of ddl and d4T has led to high frequencies of the K65R mutation, further compromising TFV efficacy. In light of increasing resistance to commonly used NRTIs in global HIV treatment programs, targeting nucleoside biosynthesis with resveratrol, or derivatives with improved bioavailabilities, is a potential strategy to maintain, enhance, and restore susceptibility of commonly used NRTIs.