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The cognitive processes underlying the ability of human performers to trade speed for accuracy is often conceptualized within evidence accumulation models, but it is not yet clear whether and how these models can account for decision-making in the presence of various sources of conflicting information. In the present study, we provide evidence that speed-accuracy tradeoffs (SATs) can have opposing effects on performance across two different conflict tasks. Specifically, in a single preregistered experiment, the mean reaction time (RT) congruency effect in the Simon task increased, whereas the mean RT congruency effect in the Eriksen task decreased, when the focus was put on response speed versus accuracy. Critically, distributional RT analyses revealed distinct delta plot patterns across tasks, thus indicating that the unfolding of distractor-based response activation in time is sufficient to explain the opposing pattern of congruency effects. In addition, a recent evidence accumulation model with the notion of time-varying conflicting information was successfully fitted to the experimental data. These fits revealed task-specific time-courses of distractor-based activation and suggested that time pressure substantially decreases decision boundaries in addition to reducing the duration of non-decision processes and the rate of evidence accumulation. Overall, the present results suggest that time pressure can have multiple effects in decision-making under conflict, but that strategic adjustments of decision boundaries in conjunction with different time-courses of distractor-based activation can produce counteracting effects on task performance with different types of distracting sources of information.

Computational atomic physics continues to play a crucial role in both increasing the understanding of fundamental physics (e.g., quantum electrodynamics and correlation) and producing atomic data for interpreting observations from large-scale research facilities ranging from fusion reactors to high-power laser systems, space-based telescopes and isotope separators. A number of different computational methods, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, is available to meet these tasks. Here, we review the relativistic multiconfiguration method as it applies to the General Relativistic Atomic Structure Package [grasp2018, C. Froese Fischer, G. Gaigalas, P. Jönsson, J. Bieroń, Comput. Phys. Commun. (2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.cpc.2018.10.032]. To illustrate the capacity of the package, examples of calculations of relevance for nuclear physics and astrophysics are presented.

Fighting and dying, or what Whitehouse calls “out-group hostility” and “extreme self-sacrifice,” are not conceptually overlapping, but in fact are highly distinguishable, both theoretically and empirically. I present empirical evidence from a reanalysis of Ginges et al. (2009, Study 4), demonstrating the potentially inverse relationship between “parochial hostility” – fighting and “sacrificial altruism” – “and” dying.

grasp is a software package in Fortran 95, adapted to run in parallel under MPI, for research in atomic physics. The basic premise is that, given a wave function, any observed atomic property can be computed. Thus, the first step is always to determine a wave function. Different properties challenge the accuracy of the wave function in different ways. This software is distributed under the MIT Licence.

The theoretical foundations of relativistic electronic structure theory within quantum electrodynamics (QED) and the computational basis of the atomic structure code GRASP are briefly surveyed. A class of four-component basis set is introduced, which we denote the CKG-spinor set, that enforces the charge-conjugation symmetry of the Dirac equation. This formalism has been implemented using the Gaussian function technology that is routinely used in computational quantum chemistry, including in our relativistic molecular structure code, BERTHA. We demonstrate that, unlike the kinetically matched two-component basis sets that are widely employed in relativistic quantum chemistry, the CKG-spinor basis is able to reproduce the well-known eigenvalue spectrum of point-nuclear hydrogenic systems to high accuracy for all atomic symmetry types. Calculations are reported of third- and higher-order vacuum polarization effects in hydrogenic systems using the CKG-spinor set. These results reveal that Gaussian basis set expansions are able to calculate accurately these QED effects without recourse to the apparatus of regularization and in agreement with existing methods. An approach to the evaluation of the electron self-energy is outlined that extends our earlier work using partial-wave expansions in QED. Combined with the treatment of vacuum polarization effects described in this article, these basis set methods suggest the development of a comprehensive ab initio approach to the calculation of radiative and QED effects in future versions of the GRASP code.

Increasingly Burden of Disease (BOD) measures are being used to influence policy decisions because they summarise the complete effects of morbidity and mortality in an equitable manner. An important element of producing non-fatal BOD estimates are severity distributions. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study use the same severity distributions across countries due to a lack of available country-specific data. In the Scottish BOD (SBOD) study we developed national severity distributions for cancer types. The main aim of this study was to consider the extent to which the use of worldwide severity distributions in BOD studies are influencing cross-country comparisons, by comparing weighted-average disability weights (DW) based on GBD severity distributions with nationally derived severity distributions in Scotland for cancer types. We obtained individual records from the Scottish Cancer Registry for 21 cancer types and linked these to registered deaths. We estimated prevalent cancer cases for 2016 and assigned each case to sequelae using GBD 2016 study definitions. We compared the impact of using severity distributions based on GBD 2016, a Scotland-wide distribution, and distributions specific to deprivation strata in Scotland, on the weighted-average DW for each cancer type. The relative difference in point estimates of weighted-average DW based on GBD 2016 worldwide severity distributions compared with Scottish national severity distributions resulted in overestimates in the majority of cancers (17 out of 21 cancer types). The largest overestimates were for gallbladder and biliary tract cancer (70.8%), oesophageal cancer (31.6%) and pancreatic cancer (31.2%). Furthermore, the use of weighted-average DW based on Scottish national severity distributions rather than sub-national Scottish severity distributions stratified by deprivation quintile overestimated weighted-average DW in the least deprived areas (16 out of 18 cancer types), and underestimated in the most deprived areas (16 out of 18 cancer types). Our findings illustrate a bias in point estimates of weighted-average DW created using worldwide severity distributions. This bias would have led to the misrepresentation of non-fatal estimates of the burden of individual cancers, and underestimated the scale of socioeconomic inequality in this non-fatal burden. This highlights the importance of not interpreting non-fatal estimates of burden of disease too precisely, especially for sub-national estimates and those comparing populations when relying on data inputs from other countries. It is essential to ensure that any estimates are based upon country-specific data as far as possible.

Long-term follow-up of population-based prospective studies is often achieved through linkages to coded regional or national health care data. Our knowledge of the accuracy of such data is incomplete. To inform methods for identifying stroke cases in UK Biobank (a prospective study of 503,000 UK adults recruited in middle-age), we systematically evaluated the accuracy of these data for stroke and its main pathological types (ischaemic stroke, intracerebral haemorrhage, subarachnoid haemorrhage), determining the optimum codes for case identification. We sought studies published from 1990-November 2013, which compared coded data from death certificates, hospital admissions or primary care with a reference standard for stroke or its pathological types. We extracted information on a range of study characteristics and assessed study quality with the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Studies tool (QUADAS-2). To assess accuracy, we extracted data on positive predictive values (PPV) and-where available-on sensitivity, specificity, and negative predictive values (NPV). 37 of 39 eligible studies assessed accuracy of International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-coded hospital or death certificate data. They varied widely in their settings, methods, reporting, quality, and in the choice and accuracy of codes. Although PPVs for stroke and its pathological types ranged from 6-97%, appropriately selected, stroke-specific codes (rather than broad cerebrovascular codes) consistently produced PPVs >70%, and in several studies >90%. The few studies with data on sensitivity, specificity and NPV showed higher sensitivity of hospital versus death certificate data for stroke, with specificity and NPV consistently >96%. Few studies assessed either primary care data or combinations of data sources. Particular stroke-specific codes can yield high PPVs (>90%) for stroke/stroke types. Inclusion of primary care data and combining data sources should improve accuracy in large epidemiological studies, but there is limited published information about these strategies.

Previous studies have suggested that performance-contingent reward can modulate cognitive control by biasing irrelevant location-response associations in the Simon task. However, the influence of reward in the case of irrelevant words (Stroop task) or irrelevant flankers (Eriksen Flanker task) remains unclear. Across two preregistered experiments, the present study investigated the influence of reward on conflict processing with different types of distractors. Conflict effects on mean reaction time (RT) were reduced in the Simon task (Experiments  1 and 2 ) when incongruent versus congruent trials were rewarded, and this modulating effect of reward on conflict processing was also observed in the Eriksen flanker task (Experiment 2 ), but not in the Stroop task (Experiment  1 ). We propose that cognitive control adjustments to distractor-specific reward contingencies can be generalized across distractor types producing both perceptual-related (Flanker task) and motor-related (Simon task) conflict, but, if any, to a limited degree when distractors produce additional higher-level task conflict (Stroop task). In addition, distributional RT analyses (delta plots) revealed that rewarded distractor-response associations modulate cognitive control not only via biasing the strength (Simon and Eriksen tasks) but also the time-course of suppressing distractor processing (Eriksen task). Overall, the present study dissociated distractor-general and distractor-specific effects of reward on cognitive control.