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Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
The cognitive, emotional and neural correlates of creativity View all 11 Articles
Front. Hum. Neurosci., 22 April 2014 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00214
The effects of a single night of sleep deprivation on fluency and prefrontal cortex function during divergent thinking
Oshin Vartanian1,2*, Fethi Bouak1, J. L. Caldwell3, Bob Cheung1, Gerald Cupchik2, Marie-Eve Jobidon1, Quan Lam1, Ann Nakashima1, Michel Paul1, Henry Peng1, Paul J. Silvia4 and Ingrid Smith1
1Defence Research and Development Canada, Toronto Research Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada
2Department of Psychology, University of Toronto - Scarborough, Toronto, ON, Canada
3Naval Medical Research Unit - Dayton, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, OH, USA
4Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA
The dorsal and ventral aspects of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) are the two regions most consistently recruited in divergent thinking tasks. Given that frontal tasks have been shown to be vulnerable to sleep loss, we explored the impact of a single night of sleep deprivation on fluency (i.e., number of generated responses) and PFC function during divergent thinking. Participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning twice while engaged in the Alternate Uses Task (AUT) – once following a single night of sleep deprivation and once following a night of normal sleep. They also wore wrist activity monitors, which enabled us to quantify daily sleep and model cognitive effectiveness. The intervention was effective, producing greater levels of fatigue and sleepiness. Modeled cognitive effectiveness and fluency were impaired following sleep deprivation, and sleep deprivation was associated with greater activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) during AUT. The results suggest that an intervention known to temporarily compromise frontal function can impair fluency, and that this effect is instantiated in the form of an increased hemodynamic response in the left IFG.
Divergent thinking includes the cluster of "abilities concerned with the ready flow of ideas and with readiness to change direction or to modify information" (Guilford, 1967, p. 139). Researchers have long been interested in how divergent thinking ability is impaired by short-term sleep deprivation, defined as sleep deprivation under 48 h. In a pioneering study on this topic, Horne (1988) found that going 32 h without sleep impaired most aspects of divergent thinking (i.e., fluency, originality, elaboration, and flexibility). Furthermore, this effect was driven not by the participants' loss of motivation or interest in the tasks, but rather "sleep loss made them fixate on previously successful strategies when attempting solutions to the next problem" (Horne, 1988, p. 535). In other words, sleep deprivation affected cognitive performance in the form of perseveration – defined as "difficulty in changing strategies" (Horne, 1988, p. 530). A subsequent study assessed divergent thinking performance following a single night of sleep deprivation and also demonstrated that it impaired flexibility in divergent thinking – a measure of the conceptual diversity of generated solutions (Wimmer et al., 1992). These early studies converged to demonstrate that short-term sleep deprivation is detrimental for divergent thinking performance.
However, what are the neuroanatomical underpinnings of the impact of short-term sleep deprivation on divergent thinking performance? Much evidence suggests that tasks loading on the prefrontal cortex (PFC) are particularly vulnerable to the impact of sleep loss (Harrison and Horne, 2000; Jones and Harrison, 2001). In this sense, sleep deprivation can be viewed as producing "a reversible functional lesion in the PFC" (Lim and Dinges, 2010, p. 376). Although engagement in divergent thinking activates a distributed network in the brain, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of divergent thinking have most consistently activated the ventral and dorsal aspects of PFC (Goel and Vartanian, 2005; Fink et al., 2009; Kröger et al., 2012). Activation in these regions has been frequently linked to two processes. First, dorsal and ventral PFC form key regions in the working memory (WM) and executive function systems – necessary for the maintenance and manipulation of information in the focus of attention as well as minimizing distraction during divergent thinking (Gilhooly et al., 2007; Vartanian, 2011; Beaty and Silvia, 2012; De Dreu et al., 2012). This suggests that functional impairment in ventral and/or dorsal PFC due to short-term sleep deprivation could impair divergent thinking by negatively impacting WM and executive function.
Second, consistent with neuropsychological evidence from patient populations (Miller and Tippett, 1996; see also Goel et al., 2013), activation in ventral lateral PFC has been linked to the reduction of constraints that define concepts, thereby facilitating the ways in which they can be manipulated flexibly into new products (Vartanian and Goel, 2005; see also Abraham et al., 2012b). For example, Vartanian and Goel (2005) instructed participants to solve three types of anagrams in the fMRI scanner. On unconstrained trials, they rearranged letters to generate solutions (e.g., Can you make a "Word with ZJAZ"?). On semantically constrained trials, they rearranged letters to generate solutions within particular semantic categories (e.g., Can you make a type of "Music with ZJAZ"?). On baseline trials, they rearranged letters to make specific words (e.g., Can you make the word "JAZZ with ZJAZ"?). The critical comparison of unconstrained vs. semantically constrained trials revealed significant activation in a network including right ventral lateral PFC. Furthermore, a parametric analysis revealed that activation in this region increased as the constraints placed on the anagram search space were reduced across the three trial types. Because optimal performance on divergent thinking tasks necessitates reducing the constraints that define concepts so that they can be manipulated flexibly, functional impairment of ventral lateral PFC because of short-term sleep deprivation could impair divergent thinking by negatively impacting cognitive flexibility.
Consistent with this picture, the results of Gonen-Yaacovi et al.'s (2013) recent large-scale meta-analysis of functional imaging studies of creativity revealed that PFC regions were involved across all task types. The core creativity network was shown to consist of left lateral PFC, associated with various executive processes related to creativity (e.g., fluency, flexibility, inhibition, cognitive control, etc.). Gonen-Yaacovi et al. (2013) noted that these executive processes likely represent components of creative cognition. In addition, the core network included regions involved in the retrieval or formation of remote semantic associations, including the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), as well as the left angular gyrus and the superior temporal gyrus. These activations were attributed to mechanisms that contribute to both the combination and generation of ideas during creative cognition.
An important recent contribution to this literature was made by Kleibeuker et al. (2013), who examined neural activity in relation to generating alternative uses or ordinary characteristics for common objects. Their results demonstrated that generating alternative uses vs. ordinary characteristics was associated with greater activity in the left angular gyrus, left supramarginal gyrus, and bilateral middle temporal gyrus. However, when they directly compared alternative uses trials in which subjects had generated two or more solutions with trials with zero or one solution, activation was observed in left middle and IFG (pars triangularis). This dissociation suggests that whereas creative idea generation is linked to a primarily left-lateralized parietal and temporal network, the generation of multiple (vs. fewer) creative ideas is associated with activation in left lateral PFC. In other words, engagement in creative cognition per se activates a different set of structures than those that are activated when subjects generate multiple ideas. This dissociation is particularly germane to the present study, the focus of which is not creative idea generation but rather fluency – defined as the number of generated responses.
Although the aforementioned evidence highlights PFC as key target region where the impact of short-term sleep deprivation on divergent thinking performance might be localized, it is unclear how this effect would manifest itself. In part, this is because the neural effects of sleep loss have been shown to be varied and context-dependent. On the one hand, researchers have observed an elevated hemodynamic response profile [based on the blood-oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal] in relation to verbal learning and logical reasoning following sleep deprivation (Drummond et al., 2000, 2004, 2005; Jonelis et al., 2012). This effect has been interpreted as demonstrating the brain's compensatory ability to counteract the impairment of normal brain function in the form of increased activity. Furthermore, this compensatory response has been observed most consistently throughout PFC. On the other hand, there is evidence from WM tasks demonstrating that sleep deprivation can in fact lead to a reduction in the BOLD response in PFC (for reviews, see Dang-Vu et al., 2007; Chee and Chuah, 2008). The variability observed in the direction of the effect (i.e., increase or decrease) may be a function of task difficulty. Specifically, the cerebral compensatory response is more likely to be observed in relation to more difficult tasks (Drummond et al., 2004). For the present purposes, we hypothesized that impairment in fluency following short-term sleep deprivation would be accompanied by variation in brain activity in ventral or dorsal PFC, although we did not have an a priori prediction regarding the direction of the effect.
Furthermore, research on the neuroscience of sleep loss has demonstrated that large individual differences exist in vulnerability to its effects (Caldwell et al., 2005; Chee and Chuah, 2008). For a number of reasons, an individual-differences measure of particular interest to us was fluid intelligence. First, individual differences in fluid intelligence have been shown to predict performance on divergent thinking (and creativity) tasks (Sligh et al., 2005; Nusbaum and Silvia, 2011; Silvia and Beaty, 2012). Second, individual differences in fluid intelligence have been shown to be related to variation in brain activation in ventral and dorsal PFC (Neubauer et al., 2002, 2005; Gray et al., 2003; Lee et al., 2006; Jung and Haier, 2007; Luders et al., 2009; Neubauer and Fink, 2009; Van der Heuvel et al., 2009; Deary et al., 2010). Therefore, we explored the possibility that individual differences in fluid intelligence might influence the impact of sleep deprivation on brain activation in ventral and dorsal PFC during divergent thinking.
Complementing this individual-differences approach, we also explored the possible effects of two self-report measures on brain activation during divergent thinking. The first self-report measure was the Big Five personality factor of openness to experience (John et al., 1991), and the second was the Creative Achievement Questionnaire (CAQ), which measures recognized creative achievements across 10 domains (Carson et al., 2005). They were included because scores on both measures have been shown to be related to performance on divergent thinking tasks (McCrae, 1987; Carson et al., 2005), and could influence the extent to which a participant might be vulnerable to sleep deprivation effects on divergent thinking.
Finally, we were also interested in modeling cognitive effectiveness as a function of daily sleep. To model cognitive effectiveness, each participant in our experiment wore a wrist activity monitor for 7 days (i.e., six nights) prior to each of the fMRI scan sessions. Based on a reduction algorithm, a wrist activity monitor can discriminate a sleeping state from a waking state and thus quantify daily sleep to the nearest minute around the clock, demonstrating significant correlation with polysomnography based on electroencephalography (Dawson and Reid, 1997; Lamond and Dawson, 1999; Arnedt et al., 2001). Actigraphic data were fed into the Fatigue Avoidance Scheduling Tool (FASTTM), enabling us to model cognitive effectiveness when scanning for the divergent thinking task was initiated in the scanner. Note that the modeled data do not represent a direct measure of cognitive effectiveness, but rather a derived metric. They are meant to complement our self-report measures of fatigue and sleepiness.
We conducted an fMRI study to test the following four hypotheses: First, we predicted impairment in fluency following a single night of sleep deprivation compared to a night of normal sleep. Second, we predicted a reduction in modeled cognitive effectiveness following sleep deprivation compared to a night of normal sleep. Third, we predicted that sleep deprivation would impact PFC function in the ventral and/or dorsal regions during divergent thinking, although we had no a priori prediction regarding the direction of this effect. Fourth, we predicted that the impact of sleep deprivation on PFC function during divergent thinking would be influenced by individual differences in fluid intelligence, openness to experience, and scores on CAQ.
This study was approved by Defence Research and Development Canada's Human Research Ethics Committee (DRDC HREC) and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre's Research Ethics Board. The participants were 13 neurologically healthy right-handed volunteers (3 females, 10 males) with normal or corrected-to-normal vision (all determined by medical questionnaire). Average age was 32.23 years (SD = 8.45). The participants received stress remuneration in accordance with DRDC HREC guidelines.
Materials and Procedure
After volunteering to participate in this experiment, participants were asked to report to our laboratory 1 week prior to the first fMRI session to be equipped with a wrist activity monitor (www.ambulatory-monitoring.com/motionlogger.html). They were instructed to wear the wrist activity monitor continuously thereafter until arrival at the fMRI facility for the first scan session. Additionally, during this initial session, participants completed paper-and-pencil measures. Our measure of fluid intelligence was Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (RAPM; Raven et al., 1998). All participants were tested individually. We used a shortened form of the RAPM with 12 problems (Bors and Stokes, 1998). Each participant was given 10 min to complete as many problems as possible (see Vartanian et al., 2013). They also completed the Big Five Inventory (BFI) and the CAQ.
The two fMRI assessments occurred 1 week apart – once following one night of sleep deprivation and once following a night of normal sleep. The order of scans was counterbalanced across participants such that for six participants sleep deprivation occurred prior to the first fMRI scan, whereas for seven participants sleep deprivation occurred prior to the second fMRI scan1. Each participant reported to our laboratory for the sleep deprivation session, instructed to arrive at 8 p.m. on the evening prior to the scan. They were instructed not to consume any caffeine, nicotine, or alcohol for 24 h prior to the scan session, were not allowed to leave the laboratory during the sleep deprivation session, and were monitored by staff at all times to ensure that they did not fall asleep2. Participants were allowed to read, watch TV, use the telephone, and engage in conversation with research staff. They were provided with two items of food and two beverages during their stay in the laboratory, and could also bring their own snacks and drinks as long as they contained no caffeine, nicotine, or alcohol. They completed the Stanford Sleepiness Scale (SSS) and the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) hourly between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. (Hoddes et al., 1973; Dinges and Powell, 1985). On each trial of PVT, participants were instructed to press the spacebar as quickly as possible following the detection of a single target appearing at the center of the computer screen. Participants were brought to the cafeteria for a light breakfast (excluding coffee) prior to departure to the scanning facility (Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada). In contrast, for scanning following a normal night of sleep, participants were instructed to arrive at our laboratory at 7 a.m. on the day of the scan. They were also instructed not to consume any caffeine, nicotine, or alcohol for 24 h prior to the scan session. All participants were transported by a designated driver, and accompanied by research staff to the scanning facility in order to arrive onsite at 7:30 a.m. All fMRI scans were collected between 8 and 10 a.m.
Upon arrival at the scanning facility, the participants completed the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI; Smets et al., 1995) and a brief questionnaire about caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol consumption during the previous 24 h. They were then given instructions about, and examples from, the Alternate Uses Task (AUT). The AUT is a classic and perhaps the most commonly used measure of divergent thinking ability (Guilford, 1967). It instructs participants to generate as many uses as possible for common objects (e.g., brick). In the present study, we only measured fluency, operationalized as the number of generated uses to each prompt. The scanner version of the AUT was modeled after Fink et al. (2009), an identical version of which was administered by our group in a recent fMRI study on divergent thinking (Vartanian et al., 2013). The task was presented in two blocks (i.e., uses and characteristics), the order of which was counterbalanced across participants. Each of the 20 trials in the uses block had the same structure. During the generation phase, participants were presented with the name of a common object (e.g., knife) and instructed to think of as many uses for it as possible for 12 s. In this phase, the name of the object appeared in black ink. The response phase followed immediately afterward during which participants were given 3 s to enter the number of generated uses (using an MRI-compatible response pad). In this phase the name of the object appeared in green. Note that in the response phase participants were not instructed to enter the actual uses they had generated, but rather the digit on the keypad corresponding to the number of uses generated in response to the prompt. This color change acted as a prompt to enter the response as quickly as possible3. This was followed by an ITI (inter-trial interval) which consisted of three adjacent plus signs (+ + +) varying randomly between 4 and 6 s. Each trial in the characteristics block had an identical structure, except that participants were instructed to recall, from long-term memory, physical features characteristic of the object. For example, possible physical features for "knife" could be solid, sharp, metallic, etc.4 Note that in the response phase participants were not instructed to enter the actual physical features they had recalled from long-term memory, but rather the digit on the keypad corresponding to the total number of features recalled in response to the prompt.
fMRI Acquisition and Analysis
A 3-Tesla MR scanner with an eight-channel head coil (Discovery MR750, 22.0 software, GE Healthcare, Waukesha, WI, USA) was used to acquire T1 anatomical volume images (0.86 mm × 0.86 mm × 1.0 mm voxels). For functional imaging, T2*-weighted gradient echo spiral-in/out acquisitions were used to produce 26 contiguous 5 mm thick axial slices [repetition time (TR) = 2 s; echo time (TE) = 30 ms; flip angle (FA) = 70°; field of view (FOV) = 200 mm; 64 × 64 matrix; voxel dimensions = 3.1 mm × 3.1 mm × 5.0 mm], positioned to cover the whole brain. The first five volumes were discarded to allow for T1 equilibration effects. The number of volumes acquired was 418 (per session).
Data were analyzed using Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM8). Head movement was less than 2 mm in all cases. We implemented five preprocessing steps in the following order. We began by slice timing, used to correct for temporal differences between slices within the same volume, using the first slice within each volume as the reference slice. This was followed by realignment and coregistration to ensure that all volumes from the two sessions were realigned to the first volume from the first session. A mean image created from realigned volumes was spatially normalized to the Montreal Neurological Institute echo planar imaging (MNI EPI) brain template using non-linear basis functions. Voxel size after normalization was the SPM8 default, namely 2 mm × 2 mm × 2 mm. The derived spatial transformation was applied to the realigned T2* volumes, and spatially smoothed with an 8 mm full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) isotropic Gaussian kernel. Time series across each voxel were high-pass filtered with a cut-off of 128 s, using cosine functions to remove section-specific low frequency drifts in the BOLD signal. Condition effects at each voxel were estimated according to the general linear model (GLM) and regionally specific effects compared using linear contrasts. The BOLD signal was modeled as a box-car, convolved with a canonical hemodynamic response function. Each contrast produced a statistical parametric map consisting of voxels where the z-statistic was significant at p < 0.001. Using a random-effects analysis, reported activations survived a voxel-level intensity threshold of p < 0.001 (uncorrected for multiple comparisons), and a minimum cluster size of 40 contiguous voxels (Lieberman and Cunningham, 2009; see also Forman et al., 1995).
Using an event-related design, for each session we specified the following regressors corresponding to (1) the generation phase (i.e., uses), (2) the number of uses varying parametrically with the generation phase (first-order polynomial expansion exploring their linear relationship), and (3) the recollection phase (i.e., characteristics), (4) the number of characteristics varying parametrically with the recollection phase (first-order polynomial expansion exploring their linear relationship). Although incorporated into the design, (5) response phase, (6) motor response, and (7) ITI were modeled out of the analyses by assigning null weights to their respective regressors.
Manipulation Checks
We first ascertained the effectiveness of our sleep deprivation procedure by analyzing hourly reaction time (RT) data from PVT (for fatigue) and SSS scores (for sleepiness). For PVT, there was a linear increase in RT throughout the night, F(1,11) = 23.07, p = 0.001, ηp2 = 0.68. Similarly, for SSS, there was a linear increase in ratings throughout the night, F(1,10) = 20.20, p = 0.001, ηp2 = 0.67.5 Next, we compared MFI data collected immediately prior to entry into the fMRI scanner on both days. The results demonstrated that self-rated fatigue was higher following a night of sleep deprivation than following a night of normal sleep on all subscales of MFI: general [t(12) = 4.90, p = 0.001, d = 1.81], physical [t(12) = 2.46, p = 0.030, d = 0.81], activity [t(12) = 3.15, p = 0.008, d = 0.62], motivation [t(12) = 2.58, p = 0.024, d = 0.73], and mental [t(12) = 2.38, p = 0.035, d = 0.81]6. There was no difference in self-reported consumption of caffeine [t(8) = -1.98, p = 0.083, d = -0.79], nicotine [t(8) = -1.00, p = 0.347], or alcohol [t(8) = -1.00, p = 0.347] in the 24 h prior to two scan sessions7.
As predicted, the results demonstrated that participants generated fewer uses for objects (averaged across the uses generated for each of the 20 prompts) following a night of sleep deprivation (M = 4.59, SD = 1.70) than following a night of normal sleep (M = 5.53, SD = 1.35), t(12) = 3.09, p = 0.009, d = 0.61. Similarly, they recalled fewer characteristics (averaged across the characteristics recalled for each of the 20 prompts) following a night of sleep deprivation (M = 4.98, SD = 1.32) than following a night of normal sleep (M = 5.86, SD = 1.42), t(12) = 2.46, p = 0.030, d = 0.64. RT was calculated from the beginning of the response phase when the name of the object appeared in green. There was no difference in RT for generating uses for objects after sleep deprivation (M = 978 ms, SD = 312) and a night of normal sleep (M = 892 ms, SD = 311), t(12) = -0.735, p = 0.989, d = 0.28. Similarly, there were no difference in RT for recalling characteristics following a night of sleep deprivation (M = 918 ms, SD = 283) and a night of normal sleep (M = 904 ms, SD = 310), t(12) = -0.26, p = 0.802, d = 0.07.
Modeled Cognitive Effectiveness
Modeled cognitive effectiveness (at time of initiating fMRI scanning) was derived by analyzing the FASTTM models which are based on the actigraphically measured sleep data8. The FASTTM algorithm is based on variations in time of day, biological rhythms, time spent awake, and amount of sleep. Fitted and transformed FASTTM graphs from a representative participant are illustrated in Figure 1. Three participants failed to provide complete actigraph data. Therefore, modeled cognitive effectiveness was computed for the remaining 10 participants. As predicted, modeled cognitive effectiveness was lower at time of fMRI data acquisition following a night of sleep deprivation (M = 68.98%, SD = 3.38) than following a night of normal sleep (M = 91.36%, SD = 4.72), t(9) = 11.58, p = 0.000001, d = 3.70.
FIGURE 1. Impairment in modeled cognitive effectiveness as a function of sleep deprivation. The vertical axis on the left side of the FASTTM graphs represents fitted and transformed modeled cognitive effectiveness as a percentage of optimal performance (100%). The oscillating line in the diagram represents average modeled cognitive effectiveness as determined by time of day, biological rhythms, time spent awake, and amount of sleep. The vertical axis on the right side of FASTTM graphs represents the Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) equivalency throughout the spectrum of modeled cognitive effectiveness. A value of 77% modeled cognitive effectiveness corresponds to a blood alcohol content of 0.05% (legally impaired in some jurisdictions). A value of 70% modeled cognitive effectiveness corresponds to a blood alcohol content of 0.08% (legally impaired in most jurisdictions). The dotted line represents the lower 10th percentile of modeled cognitive effectiveness. The green band (from 90 to 100%) represents acceptable modeled cognitive performance effectiveness for workers conducting safety sensitive jobs (e.g., flying, driving, weapons operation, command and control, etc.). The yellow band (from 65 to 90% modeled cognitive effectiveness) indicates caution. Personnel engaged in skilled performance activities such as aviation are recommended not to operate in this bandwidth. The area from the dotted line to the pink area represents the modeled cognitive effectiveness equivalent to the circadian nadir and a second day without sleep. The pink band (below 65%) represents performance effectiveness after two days and one night of sleep deprivation. The abscissa (x-axis) illustrates a single 15-min period (red bar) during the fMRI scans for each of the baseline and sleep deprivation conditions as well as sleep timing/duration (blue bars), darkness (gray bars), and time of day in hours. The red bar shows a thickening of the modeled cognitive effectiveness line (immediately above the red bar), reflecting cognitive effectiveness during the fMRI scans.
Covariates
Average RAPM score was 8.46 (SD = 1.45). For BFI, the average score for openness to experience was 3.50 (SD = 0.40)9. For CAQ, average score was 8.77 (SD = 10.80). There was no correlation between RAPM and openness to experience [r(11) = 0.38, p = 0.195], RAPM and CAQ [r(11) = 0.42, p = 0.151], and CAQ and openness to experience [r(11) = 0.11, p = 0.719]. There were no differences between males and females in RAPM [t(11) = 1.09, p = 0.299, d = 0.87], openness to experience [t(11) = 0, p = 1, d = 0], or CAQ [t(11) = 0.10, p = 0.923, d = 0.08] scores, although our small sample size limits an exploration of sex differences. Although there is evidence to suggest that openness to experience is correlated positively with general intelligence (Ackerman and Heggestad, 1997; Gignac et al., 2004), as well as CAQ (Silvia et al., 2009), the absence of significant correlations among the three variables in the present sample meant that we opted to explore the role of each variable independently on the effect of sleep deprivation on brain function.
fMRI Data
We began our target analyses of interest by first examining the uses–rest (ITI) and recalling characteristics–rest (ITI) contrasts following a night of normal sleep. As can be seen in Table 1 and Figure 2, the uses–rest and recalling characteristics–rest contrasts activated two dissociable networks. Most noticeably, whereas the recalling characteristics–rest contrast activated a bilateral network centered largely in the parietal and temporal lobes, the uses–rest contrast activated a network including the left IFG. We then examined the uses–recalling characteristics contrast following a night of normal sleep. This contrast revealed activations in the right middle temporal gyrus, cingulate gyrus, and left precuneus (Table 1).
TABLE 1. Coordinates for the activations reported in the text.
FIGURE 2. Patterns of brain activation for divergent thinking (fluency) and recalling characteristics following a night of normal sleep and sleep deprivation. Glass brains representing activations in relation to (A) uses–rest following a night of normal sleep (arrow points to the left inferior frontal gyrus), (B) recalling characteristics–rest following a night of normal sleep (arrow points to the left hippocampus), (C) uses–rest following sleep deprivation (arrow points to the left inferior frontal gyrus), (D) recalling characteristics–rest following sleep deprivation (arrow points to the left medial frontal gyrus). The complete list of activations appears in Table 1.
Next, we examined the uses–rest (ITI) and recalling characteristics–rest (ITI) contrasts, following sleep deprivation. Again, these contrasts demonstrated dissociable patterns of activation for generating uses vs. recalling characteristics (Table 1; Figure 2). Specifically, generating uses was associated with a primarily left-lateralized pattern of activation, with the largest cluster centered within the left IFG. In contrast, recalling characteristics was associated with a distributed bilateral pattern of activation involving the frontal, parietal, and temporal lobes. Then, we examined the uses–recalling characteristics contrast following sleep deprivation. This contrast revealed exclusive activation in the left IFG (Table 1; Figure 3).
FIGURE 3. Following sleep deprivation the left inferior frontal gyrus was activated more when generating uses (fluency) in the divergent thinking task. Following sleep deprivation, there was greater activation in left inferior frontal gyrus when generating uses (compared to recalling characteristics) in the Alternate Uses Task. SPM rendered into standard stereotactic space and superimposed on to transverse MRI in standard space.
To further isolate specific task-related activations underlying fluency and recalling characteristics under sleep deprivation vs. a night of normal sleep, we carried out three additional contrasts (of contrasts). The first involved uses–rest (sleep deprivation)–uses–rest (normal sleep), revealing activations in left superior temporal gyrus and IFG (Table 1). The second contrast involved recalling characteristics–rest (sleep deprivation)–recalling characteristics–rest (normal sleep), revealing no suprathreshold activation. Similarly, the third contrast involving uses–recalling characteristics (sleep deprivation)–uses–recalling characteristics (normal sleep) did not reveal any suprathreshold activation.
Finally, we examined whether RAPM, openness to experience, or CAQ had a significant effect on the activation patterns (when entered as covariates into the analysis). In each case, the results remained largely identical.
The results demonstrated that our sleep deprivation intervention was effective in producing greater levels of fatigue and sleepiness in our participants compared to a night of normal sleep. Specifically, RT on PVT and ratings on SSS were progressively higher between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. on the night of sleep deprivation, as were fatigue ratings on all five dimensions of MFI immediately prior to entry into the fMRI scanner in the morning following sleep deprivation. Furthermore, modeled cognitive effectiveness also exhibited significant reduction following sleep deprivation, suggesting that the participants' capacity for engagement in cognitive tasks was diminished compared to a night of normal sleep. These results are necessary manipulation checks for interpreting our measures of interest.
Following a night of normal sleep, the uses–rest contrast revealed activation in a small network of regions shown previously to be activated in divergent thinking tasks (Chávez-Eakle et al., 2007; Fink et al., 2009; Abraham et al., 2012a; Kröger et al., 2012). Notable among the activated regions is left IFG, which was also shown to be activated in Fink et al.'s (2009) uses–fixation contrast using a similar paradigm. In turn, the recalling characteristics–rest contrast activated a bilateral network centered largely in the parietal and temporal lobes. Many of the activated regions in the temporal lobes – specifically those located in the medial temporal lobe (e.g., hippocampus and parahippocampus) – have been historically implicated in long-term memory (e.g., Squire and Zola-Morgan, 1991). Furthermore, the fusiform gyrus has been shown to contribute to the representation of object concepts in the brain (Martin, 2007). As such, their activation here is consistent with the requirements of the task (i.e., recollection of object characteristics). The uses–recalling characteristics contrast revealed activations in the right middle temporal gyrus, cingulate cortex, and left precuneus. Gonen-Yaacovi et al.'s (2013) recent large-scale meta-analysis demonstrated the reliable contributions of the middle temporal gyrus, the precuneus, and the cingulate gyrus across creativity tasks (see also Kleibeuker et al., 2013).
However, our focal interest in the present study consisted of examining patterns of activation in relation to fluency following sleep deprivation. The results demonstrated that following sleep deprivation, generating uses (compared to rest) was associated with a primarily left-lateralized pattern of activation, with the largest cluster centered within the left IFG. Much like the picture that emerged following a night of normal sleep, the pattern of brain activation in relation to generating uses was clearly dissociable from the pattern of brain activation in relation to recalling characteristics. Critically for testing our focal hypothesis, the uses–recalling characteristics contrast following sleep deprivation revealed exclusive activation in the left IFG. Our results suggest that the greater recruitment of PFC following short-term sleep deprivation – consistently observed in studies of verbal learning and logical reasoning – can be extended to fluency in divergent thinking. In other words, the elevated BOLD response in the left IFG might signal compensation due to sleep deprivation (Drummond et al., 2000, 2004, 2005; Jonelis et al., 2012).
The notable commonality across verbal learning, logical reasoning and divergent thinking tasks is that they all draw on WM and executive function, well known to engage lateral and inferior PFC. Perhaps not surprisingly, several recent studies have shown that divergent thinking ability (and creativity more broadly) draws heavily on executive function and WM (Sligh et al., 2005; Gilhooly et al., 2007; Nusbaum and Silvia, 2011; Beaty and Silvia, 2012; Benedek et al., 2012; De Dreu et al., 2012). Greater executive function and WM capacity have been shown to aid creative production in at least two ways. First, mechanistically, they increase one's capacity to maintain and manipulate information in the focus of attention in the service of product generation. Second, motivationally, executive function and WM capacity enhance persistence, thereby minimizing undesirable mind wandering that would otherwise lead to premature cessation of problem solving (De Dreu et al., 2012). Evidence showing that impairment in fluency following sleep deprivation is accompanied by greater activation in left IFG is consistent with the account that executive function and WM likely play a role in response generation.
Our interpretation is also consistent with evidence regarding the role of IFG in controlled selection and retrieval of semantic information (e.g., Fink et al., 2009; Abraham et al., 2012a; Kröger et al., 2012). Strong evidence for this link was provided by Gonen-Yaacovi et al.'s (2013) meta-analysis which revealed that activation in a set of areas consisting of the left inferior frontal junction (BA 44/46) extending to dorsolateral PFC, left IFG (BA 45/47), and left angular gyrus (BA 39) was associated with generation as well as combination of remote ideas – both of which require the controlled selection and retrieval of semantic information. Those processes likely also draw on WM and executive function, such that the activation of IFG in the present study may reflect WM and executive function involvement in the service of selection and retrieval of semantic information.
Notably, the joint results of the three contrasts (of contrasts) conducted to isolate specific task-related activations support the conclusion that the activations observed in left IFG and superior temporal gyrus in relation to fluency under sleep deprivation are more likely due to general WM and executive function processes – including controlled selection and retrieval of semantic information – rather than more specific processes that distinguish fluency from recalling characteristics. Specifically, whereas the contrast of uses–rest (sleep deprivation)–uses–rest (normal sleep) revealed activations in left superior temporal gyrus and IFG, the contrast of uses–recalling characteristics (sleep deprivation)–uses–recalling characteristics (normal sleep) revealed no suprathreshold activation.
It is important to note that divergent thinking ability is not defined exclusively by executive function and WM capacity, despite the fact that they are necessary for establishing attentional control. In fact, evidence suggests that divergent thinking thrives as a function of flexible switching between focused and defocused modes of cognition as a function of task demands (Vartanian, 2009; Zabelina and Robinson, 2010; Wiley and Jarosz, 2012). The data presented here suggest that by disrupting sleep, one impairs fluency likely by disrupting the neural networks necessary for establishing attentional control. It will require additional experimentation to determine whether disrupting the neural networks that underlie defocused modes of cognition (e.g., the default network) will result in similar impairments in divergent thinking.
Interestingly, accounting for individual differences in fluid intelligence, openness to experience, and creative achievement did not change the magnitude of the response in PFC in fluency following short-term sleep deprivation. This result must be viewed with caution because our small sample size was not optimal for fully exploring the impact of individual differences on brain activation.
Related to this issue, the small sample size used in the present study represents a methodological limitation of our design. Although we used a liberal voxel-level criterion for reporting our results, all reported activations also survived a cluster-level correction of 40 contiguous voxels – four times the recommended minimum cluster size (i.e., 10) for selecting reliable activations (Lieberman and Cunningham, 2009; see also Forman et al., 1995). Because of our small sample size, the robustness of our findings must be determined in future replications.
Furthermore, we assessed performance on AUT only using fluency, represented by the total number of generated responses to a prompt. Although fluency accounts for a significant portion of the variance in divergent thinking tasks (Plucker and Renzulli, 1999), it is not itself a measure of creative cognition. In this sense, the results of the recent study by Kleibeuker et al. (2013) are particularly germane for interpreting our data. Their results demonstrated that the act of divergent thinking – when measured as a function of the production of multiple responses – recruits left PFC. In contrast, creative cognition in the context of a divergent thinking task recruits a more distributed network, including bilateral PFC. Because our participants were instructed to generate as many solutions as possible to prompts and we focused fully on fluency, the involvement of the left PFC exclusively in the contrast of interest (Figure 3) should be attributed to the demand to generate multiple responses rather than the demand to generate creative responses.
The results of the present study should be interpreted within the context of Lim and Dinges' (2010) recent meta-analysis, which demonstrated that short-term sleep deprivation impairs a wide host of cognitive outcome variables including simple attention, complex attention, processing speed, WM, and short-term memory. Given that divergent thinking draws on many of these component processes – notably complex attention (i.e., executive function) and WM (Gilhooly et al., 2007; Beaty and Silvia, 2012; De Dreu et al., 2012) – its behavioral profile under short-term sleep deprivation demonstrates that divergent thinking performance will be affected by targeting its component processes. In addition, our results demonstrate that impairment in fluency following short-term sleep deprivation is likely to be instantiated in brain structures that underlie its component processes, in this case the left IFG.
We thank Fred Tam, Caron Murray, Tona Knight, and Karen Richards for assistance with this research. Portions of the results were presented at the Military and Veteran Health Research (MVHR) forum held in Kingston, ON, Canada (November 2012), the annual convention of the Association for Psychological Science held in Washington, DC, USA (May 2013), and at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association held in Honolulu, HI, USA (August 2013). This work was supported by an Applied Research Project under the direction of the first author. Following the first author, the order of authors is alphabetical.
^ Previous neuroscientific protocols involving data collection following nights of sleep deprivation and normal sleep have shown that when administered in counterbalanced order, a gap of 4–7 days is sufficient between sessions (e.g., Mograss et al., 2009).
^ Although dietary caffeine consumption and withdrawal are potential confounding variables in fMRI (Field et al., 2003), we opted to restrict consumption to minimize its potential mitigation of the effects of sleep deprivation on fatigue and sleepiness.
^ The dissociation between the generation phase and the response phase is implemented so that brain activation due to fluency is not confounded with brain activation due to the motor movement of pressing a button.
^ The characteristics block was included to mimic Fink et al.'s (2009) design as closely as possible. It is used as a control condition for recall from long-term memory. We did not test any hypotheses involving the effect of sleep deprivation on recall from long-term memory.
^ We were not able to collect complete SSS data from one subject.
^ Throughout the manuscript Cohen's d is used as a measure of effect size for t tests. We used the following online calculator for calculating d: www.cognitiveflexibility.org/effectsize/
^ Self-reported data on the consumption of caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol were only available from nine participants. Cohen's d for nicotine and alcohol could not be calculated because in both cases the average consumption following sleep deprivation was 0 (SD = 0).
^ The model underlying FASTTM is SAFTETM (Sleep, Activity, Fatigue, and Task Effectiveness; Hursh et al., 2004). Specifically, FASTTM is the interface for generating graphical representations of effectiveness scores, which are predictions derived from SAFTETM.
^ Although unrelated to our a priori hypotheses, for interested readers we also calculated BFI scores for extraversion (M = 3.12, SD = 0.68), agreeableness (M = 3.91, SD = 0.69), conscientiousness (M = 3.91, SD = 0.37), and neuroticism (M = 2.42, SD = 0.59).
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Keywords: sleep, fatigue, fluency, divergent thinking, executive function
Citation: Vartanian O, Bouak F, Caldwell JL, Cheung B, Cupchik G, Jobidon M-E, Lam Q, Nakashima A, Paul M, Peng H, Silvia PJ and Smith I (2014) The effects of a single night of sleep deprivation on fluency and prefrontal cortex function during divergent thinking. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 8:214. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00214
Received: 01 October 2013; Accepted: 26 March 2014;
Carsten De Dreu, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Simon van Gaal, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Copyright © 2014 Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Oshin Vartanian, Defence Research and Development Canada, Toronto Research Centre, 1133 Sheppard Avenue West, Toronto, ON M3K 2C9, Canada e-mail: oshin.vartanian@drdc-rddc.gc.ca


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Home » Former East Liberty nursing home will become below-market-rate housing with 33 apartments
Former East Liberty nursing home will become below-market-rate housing with 33 apartments
Categories: East Liberty News,News
by Michael Machosky
Next Pittsubrgh
Rendering courtesy of Rothschild Doyno Collaborative.
Rents in East Liberty have skyrocketed in recent years, but a new use of an old building will bring lower-cost options back to the neighborhood.
It's a full redevelopment of the Angelus Convalescent Center, located right behind the $50 million mixed-use project under construction on the former Penn Plaza site which will be anchored by Whole Foods Market.
"It was started around 50 years ago, built as a nursing home," says project developer Ahron Freilich, of CLS Star. The person who originally owned the building has since retired and closed the family business about a year ago, he added.
The property will now be converted into 33 below-market-rate apartments.
"As I got to know people here (in East Liberty), the common theme is where new development comes in, and now people have to take a bus 40 minutes to work, and rents that were $600 are now $1,400."
This project — which does not have a name yet — will include at least 90% of its units priced below $1,000, with some as low as $500.
"We looked for ways to put it on the market for rents that people used to see, under $1,000," says Freilich, "with the goal of letting people continue to live in the neighborhood, or to come back here if they've left.
"We're doing that without public funding," he notes.
According to Apartments.com, average rents in East Liberty are $1,393 for a studio, $1,327 for a one-bedroom unit and $1,534 for two bedrooms.
Dan Rothschild, of Rothschild Doyno Collaborative, is the architect for the project.
"Anytime you can reuse an existing building is typically good for the neighborhood and good for the environment," says Rothschild. "This building has been vacant because it was no longer useful. Reusing it for housing is ideal."
The special feature that sets it apart, says Rothschild, is a large courtyard which will be opened up as a public-facing space.
"The building was originally a U-shaped building with an addition on the back, with a large courtyard and a small courtyard, fallen into disrepair," says Rothschild. "We're going to be reimagining those as beautiful public spaces. One has an old wooden shelter that will be removed. Three very mature trees have been crowded by that shelter. They'll be able to stand on their own. We'll put in new landscaping and furniture so people can enjoy sitting under those trees, like a park-like setting."
The pandemic has not hindered the project so far.
"The pandemic only supported the project even more, because people start looking at their monthly budgets and reconsidered how much they should be spending on rent," says Freilich "The demand has increased. More importantly, it highlighted that we're all in this together; that's why this project is intended for all people, not just the luxury market."
"Fundamentally, I believe that doing business and doing good things don't need to be contradictory."
Read the full Next Pittsburgh article at: more here.
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Travelling to Chamoissiere with pets- Pet Passports.
We've been visiting Chamoissiere with our own dogs for over 10 years. Travelling in Europe is not as difficult as it may seem.
First of all, they need a pet passport. This can be arranged with your vet. As all dogs must now be microchipped by law, that is the easiest part, and the first step in the process. Next, make an appointment with your vet for a rabies vaccine. This lasts for 3 years in the UK. Your vet will check and record the microchip details, then vaccinate your dog. Once the vaccination has been done, and the pet passport completed, you must wait three weeks before travelling. There is no longer any requirement for blood tests for travel in Europe.
Finally, before returning to the UK, you must take your dog to the vets where you are staying to have a tapeworm treatment (this isn't necessary for cats).
This has to be done between 24 and 120 hours (1-5 days) before your return crossing/train to the UK.
Vet will again check the microchip, see that it matches the one in the passport, and record the date and time of the treatment in the pet passport.
This will be checked before you board your ferry or Eurotunnel, so make sure it is completed correctly before you leave the vets.
More details and information can be found on the DEFRA website.


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Japanese »
for teachers and parents
Japanese classes for schoolchildren:
School children are divided, according to their level of Japanese, in small groups of 3~6 pupils. They start with Hiragana and Katakana, and move on to Kanji learning.
Kokugo textbooks (textbooks approved by the Ministry of Education) are used, and children will learn to write and read with reasonable speed and swiftness, while being encouraged to speak Japanese all the time.
The aim is to learn while having fun. Games, word games, poetry and audio materials help stimulate the children's imagination. More reading material will be provided to strengthen Kanji recognition.
Current time-tables are as follows.
09:30-10:25 Non-Japanese
10:30-11:25 GCSE Level Japanese Y5 Non-Japanese
11:30-12:30 GCSE Level Non-Japanese Hiragana (beginner) Hiragana Non-Japanese Beginner
12:30-13:25 Non-Japanese Beginner Japanese Y3 (vol.2) Japanese Y3 (vol.1) Japanese Y2 (vol.1)
13:30-14:25 Japanese Y4 Japanese Y2 (vol.2) Japanese Y1 (vol.1) Japanese Y1 (vol.2)
14:30-15:25 Japanese Y7 Japanese Y2 (vol.1) A Level
15:30-16:25 Non-Japanese (tbc)
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text:
Annual review of social media policies may not address regulatory risks, says expert Annual review of social media policies may not address regulatory risks, says expert
Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know
Annual review of social media policies may not address regulatory risks, says expert
Out-Law News | 14 Jul 2014 | 3:14 pm | 2 min. read
Businesses should conduct at least a quarterly review of their social media strategy to ensure their approach to engaging with customers via Facebook, Twitter and other channels remains compliant with the law, an expert has said.
Technology law specialist Luke Scanlon of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that businesses that only conduct a review of social media strategy once a year may be exposing themselves to legal risks.
"There have been a number of recent changes to the law and the way that regulators are approaching the law as well as number of forthcoming changes that highlight the need for companies to conduct a more regular review of their social media use than just annually," Scanlon said.
"For instance, enforcement action by the Financial Conduct Authority last month indicates the approach the regulator is willing to take against financial services companies that breach rules on financial promotions. Rulings by the Court of Justice of the EU have also raised the prospect of firms having to think more carefully about how they process personal data, even if published elsewhere. Both of these examples raise compliance issues in a social media setting," he said.
Scanlon also pointed to changes to defamation laws in England and Wales which came into force earlier this year as an issue that could impact on social media use, and further identified existing copyright and communication laws, as well as advertising and consumer protection rules, that must be adhered to by companies publishing on social media.
"There are many issues that organisations must be aware could affect them as a result of engaging with customers via social media," Scanlon said. "Most organisations will likely be aware of their basic obligations, such as those to do with data protection and defamation, but there are some legal changes that may go unnoticed unless there are regular reviews of social media strategy scheduled."
"A fast-changing regulatory environment means that businesses need to conduct regular reviews of their social media strategies – at least quarterly – to discuss those risks and the policies and procedures they need to adopt to address them," he said. "Forthcoming changes to EU data protection and cyber security laws are among the issues that businesses will want to monitor for to assess how they may affect how they utilise social media."
Scanlon was commenting after a survey of FTSE 350 company secretaries by the Financial Times and the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA) found that nearly half of those businesses failed to discuss their social media strategy within the last year.
According to a Financial Times report, approximately a third of respondents said they believe social media strategy is unimportant to the board of their FTSE 350 company. Only approximately 25% of respondents said they believe social media strategy is deemed as important to their company, it said. Just 7% of respondents said their businesses' social media strategy had been discussed at least four times in the past year, according to the report.
Data, privacy & cyber
Trending topics across the site:
Brexit Advisory
Out-Law Guide
Share plans on an initial public offering (IPO)
Brexit will spur divergence in the regulation of digital services
Record money laundering fine highlights HMRC scrutiny
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Roger Woods
Senior Pensions Consultant
Advertisers: a guide to advertising regulation in the UK


text:
Oróžje je snov, predmet ali naprava, ki se uporablja pri bojevanju; lahko za obrambo ali napad. Pri tem pojmujemo kot orožje stvari, ki jih lahko primemo v roke in manipuliramo z njimi, medtem ko tanke, oklepnike, podmornice,... prištevamo k bojnim sredstvom.

V vlogi orožja je mogoče uporabiti večino sredstev iz naše okolice, ne le tista, ki jih javnost povezuje s tem načinom uporabe, ali so bila mednje arbitrarno uvrščena. V tej vlogi so nekatera manj, spet druga, bolj učinkovita. Skupna in nesporna lastnost vseh sredstev, ki so lahko učinkovita v vlogi orožja je, da so to »potencialno nevarna«, ali celo »nevarna sredstva«. Skladno s tem je smiselno, da za pridobivanje, posest in uporabo le teh, veljajo ustrezno zaostreni zakonski pogoji, ki morajo biti interdisciplinarno primerljivi z ravnijo njihove potencialne učinkovitosti v vlogi orožja in skladni s pravili nomotehnike.

Sredstva, ki so definirana kot orožje, ter sredstva ali načine, ki so učinkoviti v vlogi orožja, izenačuje tudi slovenski kazenski zakonik, saj med drugim pravi »…z orožjem, nevarnim orodjem, drugim sredstvom ali na tak način, da se lahko telo hudo poškoduje ali zdravje hudo okvari,…« (122. člen, 127. člen in 135 člen, KZ). Skladno z zgoraj zapisanim je »potencialno oborožen« skorajda vsak posameznik! Ali je določena oseba tudi »dejansko oborožena«, je odvisno izključno od njegove odločitve, v kakšni vlogi bo določeno sredstvo posedoval, oziroma uporabil.

Družbeno problematična je le uporaba orožja za potrebe napada, za potrebe obrambe pa le, v kolikor sta presežena instituta silobrana ali skrajne sile.

Zgodovina
Uporaba orodja in orožja je tesno povezana. Tako uporaba nožev, ognja, gradnje, sekire, litin, ostrega kamenja, vsako sredstvo, ki ga človek uporabi, da je nadrejen naravi, je možno uporabiti v škodo človeku. Da opišemo nek zgodovinski objekt kot namenjen zgolj oborožitvi, mora obstajati dovolj trdna razlika med orodji za lov in orodji za vojno.

Če je orožje vsako orodje, ki lahko povzroči škodo, nevarnost, grožnjo, je zgodovina orožarstva precej starejša in bližje orodjarstvu. Večinoma štejemo, da je orožje namensko namenjeno vojni, oboroženem spopadu.

Prva oborožitev je bila namenjena pehoti. Sestavljena je bila s ščiti, sulicami, ki so imele na vrhu oster našpičen kamen ali drugi oster obtežen konec in neke vrste meč.

Sledila je konjenica in lokostrelstvo. Žival pospeši gibanje, uporaba loka poveča doseg napada, išče se vedno bolj dodelan ščit, oklep, išče se zaščita tudi za konje.

Uvedba obstreljevanja je pomenila okrepitev konjenice. Išče se način obstreljevanja mest in razbijanja mestnih zidov. Uvaja se gradnja utrdb, kar pomeni, da je napad odvisen tudi od nabave materialov, hrane, podobno velja tudi za utrdbo.

S topništvom in dolgim lokom se vidno poveča doseg in uničevalna moč napadalcev. Strelno orožje izboljša natančnost in frekvenco izstrelkov, metki napredujejo iz šiber do dodelanega izstrelka, katerega cilj je lahko zadet točno tudi iz zelo velike razdalje.

Vse te izboljšave se širijo tudi na področje morja in gorovja.

Uvedba oklepnih vozil, kemičnega orožja, strupenih plinov je nekako v času 1,svetovne vojne, ko se prebivalstvo in civilna družba prične tudi ozirati, ali bi bilo potrebno vsa ta orožja tudi prepovedati ali omejiti, saj so učinki množični in morebiti preokrutni. Le deloma se to upošteva, se pa prvič uvaja humanitarno oskrbo ranjencev, nevtralne bolničarje, ki bi rešili ranjence. Rdeči križ je prva organizacija, ki dobi status, da je kršitev vojnega prava streljati na bolničarja, saj velja oskrba za nevtralno delo, ki ga ni treba dokazovati.

A vojn to ni ustavilo, tehnološki napredek pa tudi ne popušča. Razvoj tankov, podmornic, jedrskega orožja in drugih superiornih orožij je vojska prinesel mnoštvo opcij za oborožen spopad.

Zakonske opredelitve
Zakon o orožju Republike Slovenije v 2. členu opredeljuje:

Orožje po tem zakonu je predmet, izdelan ali prilagojen tako, da lahko pod pritiskom zraka, smodnikovih ali drugih plinov ali drugega potisnega sredstva izstreljuje krogle, šibre ali druge izstrelke, oziroma razpršuje pline, tekočino ali drugo substanco in drugi predmeti, ki so po svojem bistvu namenjeni zlasti:
 da z neposrednim učinkovanjem preprečijo ali zmanjšajo napad ali nevarnost;
 za lov;
 za športno streljanje.

Orožje po namembnosti
 vojaško orožje
 športno orožje
 lovsko orožje

Razdelitev vojaškega orožja

 Orožje za boj z bližine (ali hladno orožje)
 Ročna metalna orožja
 Ročno strelno orožje
 Ognjeno strelno orožje na podstavku
 Ovire, pasti in minsko-eksplozivna sredstva
 Bombe in izstrelki
 Kemična, jedrska in biološka orožja
 Orožje prihodnosti

Razdelitev orožja
Obstajajo trije načini za razdelitev orožja: kdo ga uporablja, kako deluje in kaj je cilj.

Kdo ga uporablja?

 osebno orožje
 posadkovno orožje
 fortifikacijsko orožje
 gorsko orožje
 orožje za vozila
 železniško orožje
 letalsko orožje
 pomorsko orožje
 vesoljsko orožje

Kako delujejo?

 lokostrelno orožje
 artilerijsko orožje
 biološko orožje
 kemijsko orožje
 energijsko orožje
 eksplozivno orožje
 strelno orožje
 zažigalno orožje
 neubojno orožje
 hladno orožje
 izstrelki
 jedrsko orožje
 primitivno orožje
 metalno orožje
 raketno orožje
 samomorilsko orožje

Kaj je cilj?

 protiletalsko orožje
 protifortifikacijsko orožje
 protipersonalno orožje
 protiradiacijsko orožje
 protiladijsko orožje
 protipodmorniško orožje
 protioklepno orožje
 lovsko orožje
 pehotno podporno orožje

Orožje po času

 antična orožja

 srednjeveška orožja
 vojaška tehnologija Napoleonovih vojn
 vojaška tehnologija prve svetovne vojne
 vojaška tehnologija druge svetovne vojne
 sodobna vojaška tehnologija
 Vsa vojaška tehnologija

Zakonodaja glede orožja
Orožna industrija je sorazmerno uspešna pri proizvodnji in trgovanju z orožjem. Ker je orožje nasilno orodje z škodljivimi posledicami, je to zelo nadzorovana dejavnost. Nadzoruje se vse od načina uporabe kot načina trgovanja s to dejavnostjo, tako z omejevanjem načina trgovanja za maloprodajo kot omejitev proizvodnje ali omejitev prodaje ali celo omejevanje kupca. Primeri takšne zakonodaje so:

 Samoobramba
 Zakonodaja glede ostrih predmetov
 Zračne puške in zakonodaja
 Orožna zakonodaja
 Lovska zakonodaja
 Mednarodne pogodbe o omejitvi določenega orožja

Nadzor orožja
Vsaka država ima svojo orožno zakonodajo, ki omejuje ali ureja uporabo orožja za državljane in tujce, ki ureja možnosti nakupa, uvoza ali izvoza streliva in doreče omejitve rokovanja z orožjem za določene skupine ljudi, ali predpiše izobraževanje za tako rokovanje.

Mednarodne pogodbe prav tako urejajo neke takšne vsebine, ki urejajo skladiščenje, omejitve, uporabo, proizvodnjo in razvoj orožja vseh oblik in teže in obsega. Diplomacija skuša uveljaviti standarde primernega vedenja za vse države, kar pomeni, da se lahko država, ki odstopa od orožnega odpovedovanja ali aktivnega oboroževanja, spremisli ali ponudi rešitve, ki ne bi bile vojna ali omejitve. Ker je to izrazito državno-predpisana dejavnost, je veliko pogodb o nakupu orožja neveljavnih, spornih, izpodbojnih in zato negotovih za obe stranki.

Časovna trajnost orožja
Orožje je velikokrat napravljeno iz zelo trajnih materialov. Deponija orožja ima lahko eksplozivne posledice, varna hramba zahteva posebne pogoje, razgradnja orožja pa ni vedno možna ali varna. Odstranjevanje orožja z nekega prostora pa je velikokrat dolgotrajno.

 Velikokrat se je zgodilo, da je mornarnica uporabila morje za izpust snovi ali nepotrebnih materialov, min, orožja, vseh neplovnih snovi, nič nenavadnega tudi ni, da se prepusti območje bitke nedotaknjeno.
 Pregled eksplozivnih sredstev, ki so bile spuščene, napete, aktivirane ali defektne pri napadu. Sredstva so lahko prepuščena zapuščeni, opusteli zemlji in tako lahko povzročijo škodo tudi desetletja kasneje.
 Razminiranje ali odstranjevanje min na konfliktnih vojnih območjih je nevaren postopek. Minska polja, sicer namenjena onemogočanju pehotnega prehoda določenega območja, so v času miru lahko povsem spodobna plodna zemlja ali koristno zemljišče za cestogradnjo, Zemeljske mine končajo življenje tudi 10000 ljudem na leto.

Zunanje povezave

Glej tudi
 bojna sredstva

Reference

Bojna sredstva

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: Problem with sub-menu container I try to add container for  of main navigation menu.
This is entire functions.php of my custom theme:
<?php

function gzabrze_menu() {
    register_nav_menu('glowne',__( 'Menu Główne' ));
}
add_action( 'init', 'gzabrze_menu' );

class Child_Wrap extends Walker_Nav_Menu {
    function start_lvl(&$output, $depth = 0, $args = array())
    {
        $indent = str_repeat("\t", $depth);
        $output .= "\n$indent

\n";
    }
    function end_lvl(&$output, $depth = 0, $args = array())
    {
        $indent = str_repeat("\t", $depth);
        $output .= "$indent

\n";
    }
}

?>

Now in my header.php i use code below to print main navigation on my site:
<?php
    wp_nav_menu( array(
        'walker'            => new Child_Wrap(),
        'theme_location'    => 'glowne',
        'container'         => 'nav',
        'container_id'      => 'main-menu',
        'menu_class'        => "nav-menu",
        'items_wrap'        => '
%3$s
',
    ) );
?>

Problem is that the my
 which now should be
 instead, is still without container which should appear after use new Child_Wrap() from above.
It seems that my theme does not include Child_Wrap class from functions.php code.
I use Wordpress 4.4.2 .

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Angelfish Genetics
Angelfish Standards
Bylaw Update Notices
Notice of Proposed Bylaws Changes - March 2014
catsma_97504
The Angelfish Society Bylaws and Membership Compliance Committee met on Sunday, March 2, 2014; and has the following proposed changes to present.
The Board of Directors and Officers will review our proposals at our next scheduled meeting on Sunday, March 16, 2014. The Angelfish Society members will be asked to vote on each proposal at our regularly scheduled meeting after the 60-day public notice period has ended. Voting is expected to occur on Sunday, May 18, 2014.
ORIGINAL STATEMENT
Section 2. Special TAS Membership Meetings:
a. Special TAS membership meetings may be called by the President, or
b. By a majority vote of the members of Board who are present and voting at any regular or special meeting of the Board as long as a quorum is present, or
c. Shall be called by the Secretary upon receipt of a petition signed by ten members of TAS who are in good standing. Copies of the petitions must be sent to all BOD members.
d. Such special membership meetings shall be held at the location determined for the regular
meetings. No other TAS business may be transacted thereat. The quorum for such meetings
shall be 25% of the members in good standing or the majority of votes comprised of the current incumbent count of the BOD at Large and Committee Chairs plus 5 general members in good standing, already vested to vote, which ever is the smaller number. Votes can be made by attending or by proxy during a meeting; or if by poll, a quorum will be the majority of the total number of voters. All special meetings shall be scheduled by the Secretary no sooner than 5 days and no later than 21 days from the date the special meeting is announced to the membership.
a. Special TAS Membership meetings may be called by:
1. President
2. Majority vote of the Board of Directors
3. Secretary upon receipt of a petition signed by ten (10) TAS members in good standing. Copies of the petition must be sent to all BOD members.
b. Such Special Membership meetings shall be held at the location determined for the regular meetings. No other TAS business may be transacted thereat. The quorum for such meetings shall be 14 or 25% of the members in good standing, whichever is smaller. Votes can be made by attending, by proxy if filed in advance with the BOD, or by the majority of voters in an online poll.
c. All special meetings shall be scheduled by the Secretary. Notices will be sent no sooner than 5 days and no later than 21 days from the date of the special meeting.
NOTES: Reorganized to group in logical blocks.
Section 5. Voting:
Each member of at least 45 days in good standing whose dues are paid for the current year shall be entitled to one vote at any membership meeting of the TAS at which he is present.
Section 6. Voting may be conducted by using an online polling system, email, or any other system deemed efficient by the board.
a. Each member of at least 45 days in good standing whose dues are paid for the current year shall be entitled to one vote at any membership meeting of TAS.
b. Voting may be conducted by using an online polling system, email, or any other system deemed efficient by the board.
NOTES: Reorganized to group a single topic into one section.
ARTICLE IV: Directors and Officers
Section 1. Board of Directors:
The Board shall be comprised of the officers and 5 other persons all of whom shall be members in good standing and all of whom shall be elected for two-year terms at TAS's annual meeting as provided in Article V and shall serve until their successors are elected. General management of TAS's affairs shall be entrusted to the Board of Directors.
The Board shall be comprised of the officers and 5 other persons all of whom shall be members in good standing and all of whom shall be elected for two-year terms at TAS's annual meeting as provided in Article V or shall serve until their successors are elected. General management of TAS's affairs shall be entrusted to the Board of Directors.
NOTES: Changed "and shall serve until their successors are elected" to "or shall serve....". Reason being this change allows the membership to petition to remove someone from office when unhappy with the given elected individual; and no longer must wait for the conclusion of the 2-year term to vote in another.


Discover the new collections soon to hit Beach Cafe from Seafolly, Melissa Odabash, Vix and JETS along with new brands for Spring 2019. Be the first to receive new season beachwear by pre-ordering your favourite new pieces. Shop the new swimwear trends for 2019.


text:
Does Zaire have a rainforest?
Esther Fleming May 11, 2020
What part of Africa has the most deforestation?
Where is the Zaire rainforest?
How much of the Congo rainforest has been deforested?
What is the biggest rainforest in the world?
What is the 2nd biggest forest in the world?
What is the largest forest on earth?
What are the different types of forests in Zaire?
Which is the worst country for deforestation in Africa?
Why is deforestation on the rise in Cote d'Ivoire?
Why is deforestation a problem in the Congo?
The Congo rainforest is known for its high levels of biodiversity, including more than 600 tree species and 10,000 animal species….The Congo Rainforest.
Primary forest extent Share of land mass (million hectares)
Primary forest loss 2002-2019
Tree cover extent 2020 (million hectares)
According to the FAO, Nigeria has the world's highest deforestation rate of primary forests. It has lost more than half of its primary forest in the last five years. Causes cited are logging, subsistence agriculture, and the collection of fuel wood. Almost 90% of West Africa's rainforest has been destroyed.
The Congo Basin spans across six countries—Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. There are approximately 10, 000 species of tropical plants in the Congo Basin and 30 percent are unique to the region.
Satellite data indicate the Congo Basin lost an area of forest larger than Bangladesh between 2000 and 2014. Researchers found that small-scale farming was the biggest driver, contributing to around 84 percent of deforestation.
The Amazon
The Amazon is the world's largest rainforest. It's home to more than 30 million people and one in ten known species on Earth.
Congo Basin rainforest
The Congo Basin rainforest, the second largest in the world, could disappear by 2100. The world's second largest rainforest, in Central Africa's Congo Basin, is disappearing at alarming rates due to severe deforestation.
Forest types are as follows: 1. (a) Evergreen rain forests and swamp forests and (b) closed forests of the central basin. 2. (a) Dry semideciduous forests, substantially degraded, and (b and c) moist semideciduous forests of Mayumbe in the lower Zaire River region. 3. Montane forests of Kivu Province. 4.
Kenya's forests are the worst of the nations in the region, with only about two percent of the nation under forest cover. Reduction of the forest cover is severely impacting the regional climate and ecosystems.
The recent news showing increased deforestation in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana is a very clear call for action. The Cocoa & Forests Initiative (CFI) and its stakeholders have made great progress, and we need to move faster.
The Congo basin used to be covered by rainforest, yet an expansion of savannah in Central Africa has extending the sandy soil area because of deforestation. The generation of oxygen by forest are contributors to the rainfall system. However, deforestation has disrupted the ecosystem services and created an eco-climate issue.
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text:
Теодор Продром — назван Млађи (грчки: Θεόδωρος Πρόδρομος; око 1100. - око 1166), био је византијски писац поезије из епохе Комнина.

Два Теодора Продрома
Истраживачи византијске историје утврдили су да су у овом периоду средњовековне хеленске културе деловала најмање два лица по имену Продром. Обојица су имала доста заједничких црта у свом животу. Мада су готово били савременици, ипак припадају различитим епохама византијске историје 12. века. Први делује углавном током владавине цара Јована II Комнина (1118-1143), а други током владавине његовог сина Манојла I Комнина (1143-1180). Карл Крумбахер није познавао истраживања о проблему личности Теодора Продрома те је увек говорио о песнику као о једној особи.

Биографија
Поједини историчари веровали су да је право име Теодора Продрома Млађег било Иларион и да је он можда био син Теодора Продрома Старијег. О његовом животу познато је мање него о животу Теодора Продрома Старијег. Такође је рођен у угледној византијској породици у Цариграду крајем 11. века. Ништа се не зна о његовом животу пре 1140. године када ступа у службу севастократора Андроника, млађег сина Јована II Комнина. На том положају задржао се до Андроникове изненадне смрти 1142. године. После тог догађаја, Продром је ступио у службу Андроникове удовице Ирине те са њом одлази у прогонство 1144. године. Убрзо се враћају у Цариград. Када је севастократориса Ирина отишла у Сердику 1151. године, где се налазио њен син Јован, Продром такође полази са њом. У поодмаклим годинама, Продром се замонашио у манастиру Светог Георгија Манганског. У више махова молио је интервенцију цара Манојла и севастократорисе Ирине. У цариградски манастир ушао је 1156. године где је и умро, вероватно 1166. године.

Дело
Књижевна заоставштина Теодора Продрома Млађег знатно је скромнија од опуса његовог старијег имењака. Његови стихови сачувани су углавном у једном грчком кодексу библиотеке Светог Марка у Венецији. То су песме које су највећим делом посвећене севастократориси Ирини. Поред наведених списа, постоји и низ дела у стиховима, поема, које говорним, народним језиком описују неке моменте из свакодневног цариградског живота. Тешко је рећи коме од два истоимена песника припадају. Песме доносе важне и занимљиве податке о походима Манојла Комнина против Рашке. Пошто су и они сачувани у библиотеци Светог Марка у Венецији, вероватно потичу из пера Теодора Продрома Млађег. Продром описује ратовање Манојла Комнина против рашког архижупана Уроша II, битку на Тари из 1150. године, као и одузимање власти узурпатору Деси и враћању Уроша II на рашки престо.

Види још
 Теодор Продром Старији

Извори
 Византијски извори за историју народа Југославије, том 4, Византолошки институт, Београд (1971), стр. 172-4

Византијски писци
Рођени 1100.
Умрли 1166.


Jeff Galle received 2019 Distinguished Service Award by the Illinois Pork Producers Association at the Illinois Pork Expo.
Dr. Jeff Galle of Pittsfield was honored as the 2019 Distinguished Service Award winner by the Illinois Pork Producers Association (IPPA) at the Illinois Pork Expo.
He believes the greatest achievement of his career is witnessing the effect and influence his students have had on the industry.
Throughout his life, Galle has been involved in all aspects of the pork industry at the local, state and national level. He was heavily involved with the Henry County Pork Producers in his younger years, under the guidance of his father, who was president at the time.
Galle later became president of the Pike County Pork Producers, then District 9 Director for IPPA and eventually worked up the officer ranks to become IPPA president from 2000-2001.
He was a delegate for several years at the American Pork Congress, now known as Pork Industry Forum. He later ran for a position on the National Pork Board where he was appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture in 2006 and served through 2009. Galle has served on almost all the committees for pork producers at the local, state and national level.
He is currently a member of the Industry Services and Production Tech Committees for IPPA and is a member of the Swine Extension and Educators group for the National Pork Board. Galle is one of the founding members of the Western Illinois Pork Producers.
"I nominated Jeff because of the multiple years of his promotion to the pork industry – both as a volunteer and as a professional. The international scope and spectrum of his experience is admirable," says Sarah Michaels, agricultural specialist and past president of Western Illinois Pork Producers.
In 1980, he started working as the facilitator/herdsman for the newly established John Wood Community College (JWCC) Swine Confinement training program near Perry. Upon his retirement in 2010, the college presented Galle with the honor of professor emeritus. He continues to teach at JWCC part-time as an associate faculty member.
Dr. Jeff Galle believes the greatest indicators of success in his life are the former students he continues to keep in close contact with today.
There's no question he has made a huge impact on the lives of his graduates of JWCC. Former student Rob Tedrow, a grain and hog farmer from Quincy, Ill., said the connections Galle provided have made a huge impact on his life.
In addition to these roles, Galle has served his community by being involved with the Extension Council, 4-H Livestock Sale committee, and regularly judging 4-H and FFA record books, proficiency awards and master showmanship contests.
He enjoys focusing his efforts today on his company, Global Pork Production Enterprises, Ltd. He lives in Pittsfield with his wife Pat where he continues to be a leader and a voice for pork producers in Illinois.
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