Self-enhancement (SE) is often overlooked as a fundamental cognitive ability mediated via the Pre-Frontal Cortex (PFC). Here we present research that establishes the relationship between the PFC, SE, and the potential evolved beneficial mechanisms. Specifically, we believe there is now enough evidence to speculate that SE exists to provide significant benefits and should be considered a normal aspect of the self. Whatever the metabolic or social cost, the upside of SE is great enough that it is a core and fundamental psychological construct. Furthermore, though entirely theoretical, we suggest that a critical reason the PFC has evolved so significantly in Homo sapien is to, in part, sustain SE. We therefore elaborate as to its proximate and ultimate mechanisms.

Objective: The future mobility challenges leads to considering new safety systems to protect vehicle passengers in non-standard and complex seating configurations. The objective of this study is to assess the performance of a brand new safety system called nanobag and to compare it to the traditional airbag performance in the frontal sled test scenario. Methods: The nanobag technology is assessed in the frontal crash test scenario and compared with the standard airbag by numerical simulation. The previously identified material model is used to assemble the nanobag numerical model. The paper exploits an existing validated human body model to assess the performance of the nanobag safety system. Using both the new nanobag and the standard airbag, the sled test numerical simulations with the variation of human bodies are performed in 30 km/h and 50 km/h frontal impacts. Results: The sled test results for both the nanobag and the standard airbag based on injury criteria shows a good and acceptable performance of the nanobag safety system compared to the traditional airbag. Conclusion: The results show that the nanobag system has its performance compared to the standard airbag, which means that thanks to the design, the nanobag safety system has a high potential and extended application for multi-directional protection against impact.

This paper combines a literature survey and data analysis. The literature on the Subtropical Front (STF) in the Southern Ocean is reviewed with a two-pronged emphasis on the double-front structure of the STF, hence the existence of a subtropical frontal zone (STFZ), and the circumpolar continuity of the STFZ. The data analysis is based on the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) sections. The STFZ is detected along each section independently from other sections, while moving circum-polarly downstream (eastward). The literature survey and data analysis confirm the circumpolar continuity of the STFZ extending from the Brazil Current across the South Atlantic, South Indian, and South Pacific up to Chile, being bound by the North and South STF. The circumpolar continuity of the STFZ is partly interrupted by South Africa and Tasmania, where the North STF ceases, while the South STF continues eastward. The South Atlantic STFZ is the southern boundary of the well-defined Subtropical Mode Water (STMW) thermostad, which cools eastward from 15°C to 11°C between the Brazil Current and Greenwich Meridian. In the southeast Pacific, the STFZ is the southern boundary of the 17-to-19°C thermostad (South Pacific Eastern STMW). The STFZ’s vertical extent is at maximum in the South Atlantic (>1000 m), decreasing eastward to 300 m in the southeast Pacific off Chile. A special attention is given to the South Pacific and the STFZ’s role in the ecology of Chilean jack mackerel Trachurus murphyi that spawn at the STFZ and migrate along the STFZ from Chile up to New Zealand.

We constructed a novel design integrating the administration of a clinical self-assessment scale with simultaneous acquisition of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), aiming at cross-validation between psychopathology evaluation and neuroimaging techniques. We hypothesized that areas demonstrating differential activation in two groups of patients (paranoid and depressive) will have distinct connectivity patterns and structural differences.

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the left Inferior Frontal Gyrus (IFG) was found to improve apraxia of speech (AOS) in post-stroke aphasia, speech fluency in adults who stutter, naming and spelling in primary progressive (PPA). This paper aims to determine whether tDCS over the left IFG coupled with AOS therapy improves speech fluency in patients with PPA more than sham. Eight patients with non-fluent PPA with AOS symptoms received either active or sham tDCS, along with speech therapy for 15 weekday sessions. Speech therapy consisted of repetition of increasing syllable-length words. Evaluations took place before, immediately after, and two months post-intervention. Words were segmented into vowels and consonants and the duration of each vowel and consonant was measured. Segmental duration was significantly shorter after tDCS than sham for both consonants and vowels. tDCS gains generalized to untrained words. The effects of tDCS sustained over two months post-treatment in trained words. Taken together, these results demonstrate that the tDCS over the left IFG facilitates speech production by reducing segmental duration. The results provide preliminary evidence that tDCS can maximize efficacy of speech therapy in non-fluent PPA with AOS.

The Subtropical Front (STF) plays a key role in the ecology of Chilean jack mackerel Trachurus murphyi. Nonetheless, there are few remote sensing studies of the STF in the open Southeast Pacific Ocean, and almost all of them have been conducted by satellite oceanographers in Russia and Ukraine to support respective large-scale fisheries of jack mackerel in this region. We reviewed these studies that documented long-term seasonal and interannual variability of the STF from sea surface temperature (SST) and sea surface height (SSH) data. We also mapped the STF from satellite sea surface salinity (SSS) data of the SMOS mission (2012-2019). The Subtropical Front consists of two fronts -- North and South STF about 500 km apart -- that border the Subtropical Frontal Zone (STFZ) in-between. The STF is density-compensated, with spatially divergent manifestations in temperature and salinity. In the temperature field, the STF extends in the WNW to ESE direction in the Southeast Pacific. In the salinity field, the STFZ appears as a broad frontal zone, extending zonally between 30-35°S across the entire South Pacific. Three major types of satellite data – SST, SSH, and SSS – can be used to locate the STF. The SSH data is most advantageous with regard to the jack mackerel fisheries owing to the all-weather capability of satellite altimetry and the radical improvement of the spatial resolution of SSH data in the near future. Despite the dearth of dedicated in situ studies of the South Pacific STFZ, there is a broad consensus regarding the STFZ being the principal spawning and nursing ground of T. murphyi as well as a major migration corridor between Chile and New Zealand.