Presenting information to multiple sensory modalities sometimes facilitates and sometimes interferes with processing of this information. Research examining interference effects shows that auditory input often interferes with processing of visual input in young children (i.e., auditory dominance effect), whereas visual input often interferes with auditory processing in adults (i.e., visual domi...

A discretized massless wave equation in two dimensions, on an appropriately chosen square lattice, exactly reproduces the solutions of the corresponding continuous equations. We show that the reason for this exact solution property is the discrete analog of conformal invariance present in the model, and find more general field theories on a two-dimensional lattice that exactly solve their conti...

Heterosis refers to the phenomenon in which an F1 hybrid exhibits enhanced growth or agronomic performance. However, previous theoretical studies on heterosis have been based on bi-parental segregating populations instead of F1 hybrids. To understand the genetic basis of heterosis, here we used a subset of F1 hybrids, named a partial North Carolina II design, to perform association mapping for ...

Dominance has been suggested as one of the genetic mechanisms explaining heterosis. However, using traditional quantitative genetic methods it is difficult to obtain accurate estimates of dominance effects. With the availability of dense SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) panels, we now have new opportunities for the detection and use of dominance at individual loci. Thus, the aim of this stu...

In quantitative genetics, the average effect at a single locus can be estimated by an additive (A) model, or an additive plus dominance (AD) model. In the presence of dominance, the AD-model is expected to be more accurate, because the A-model falsely assumes that residuals are independent and identically distributed. Our objective was to investigate the accuracy of an estimated average effect ...

Using diploidy and dominance is one method to enhance the performance of genetic algorithms in dynamic environments. For diploidy genetic algorithms, there are two key design factors: the cardinality of genotypic alleles and the uncertainty in the dominance scheme. This paper investigates the effect of these two factors on the performance of diploidy genetic algorithms in dynamic environments. ...

Nutrients may affect the invasiveness of alien plants and the invasibility of native plant communities. We performed a greenhouse experiment to investigate the interactive effect of invasion by a clonal herb Hydrocotyle vulgaris and nutrient enrichment on biomass and evenness of native plant communities. We established three types of plant communities (H. vulgaris alone, native plant communitie...

To investigate the effect of semantic congruity on audiovisual target responses, participants detected a semantic concept that was embedded in a series of rapidly presented stimuli. The target concept appeared as a picture, an environmental sound, or both; and in bimodal trials, the audiovisual events were either consistent or inconsistent in their representation of a semantic concept. The resu...