Judgment under emotional certainty and uncertainty: The effects of specific emotions on information processing.

The authors argued that emotions characterized by certainty appraisals promote heuristic processing whereas emotions characterized by uncertainty appraisals result in systematic processing. The 1st experiment demonstrated that the certainty associated with an emotion affects the certainty experienced in subsequent situations. The next 3 experiments investigated effects on processing of emotions associated with certainty and uncertainty. Compared with emotions associated with uncertainty, emotions associated with certainty resulted in greater reliance on the expertise of a source of a persuasive message in Experiment 2, more stereotyping in Experiment 3, and less attention to argument quality in Experiment 4. In contrast to previous theories linking valence and processing, these findings suggest that the certainty appraisal content of emotions is also important in determining whether people engage in systematic or heuristic processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fast Generation of Pointerless Octree Duals

Geometry processing applications frequently rely on octree structures, since they provide simple and efficient hierarchies for discrete data. However, octrees do not guarantee direct continuous interpolation of this data inside its nodes. This motivates the use of the octree's dual structure, which is one of the simplest continuous hierarchical structures. With the emergence of pointerless representations, with their ability to reduce memory footprint and adapt to parallel architectures, the generation of duals of pointerless octrees becomes a natural challenge. This work proposes strategies for dual generation of static or dynamic pointerless octrees. Experimentally, those methods enjoy the memory reduction of pointerless representations and speed up the execution by several factors compared to the usual recursive generation.     

Chemical reagents as probes: Application to fish protein gels and detection of a cysteine TGase in hake

A new concept was applied to fish products. Chemical reagents targeting specific chemical bonds were incorporated in to gel products for assessing the importance of non-covalent (sodium dodecylsulphate, 1.0%, w/w), disulphide (dithiothreitol, 0.2%, w/w) or transglutaminase-catalyzed (N-ethylmaleimide, 0.2%, w/w) bonding. These reagents acting as chemical probes were applied to the study of sea bass and hake protein gels and the effect of MTGase (0.5%, w/w).These reagents were valuable for reaching conclusions. The action of an endogenous cysteine TGase in hake products was detected. It was found that frozen storage and protein denaturation are fundamental not only for explaining differences between raw materials, but also seem to favour a different action mode of MTGase in each raw material. Moreover, this study may help to improve processed products, for instance, the positive interaction between MTGase and the disruption of disulphide bonds in hake gels may find a useful application through incorporation of cysteine + MTGase.     

Legumes seeds protein isolates in the production of ascorbic acid microparticles

This study evaluated the use of pea (Pisum sativum) and cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) protein isolates (PPI and CPI) in the microencapsulation of ascorbic acid (AA), by spray drying. PPI and CPI were used pure or mixed with maltodextrin (M) as wall materials of AA. The process yield was improved from 66% to 86% by the addition of M (CPI/M and PPI/M); also, AA particles yield was 79%. The AA retention from the drying process was higher in PPI/M (69%) than in CPI/M (66%), and this was attributed to PPI proteolysis profile, demonstrated by the SDS–PAGE electrophoresis. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that AA particles were similarly spherical and shriveled. Mean particle sizes of PPI/M/AA and CPI/M/AA were 7 and 8 μm, respectively. This study showed the exploration of protein isolates from legumes in the development of a microparticulate system containing AA with great potential for use in human health.     

Antioxidant synergy of α-tocopherol and phospholipids

The prevention of oxidation of a refined sardine oil by α-tocopherol at 0.04%, by several phospholipids [phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), and cardiolipin (CL)] at 0.5%, as well as by combinations of α-tocopherol with each phospholipid, was investigated. The evolution of the oxidation process during 1 mon at 40±2°C was followed by a series of methods, measuring peroxide value (PV), diene, triene, and polyene index, and absorbance at 430 nm, while α-tocopherol and phospholipid content were being monitoried. Among these indices, PV was found to be the most adequate to follow the process. PC was the most effective individual antioxidant as shown by the PV values obtained at the end of the storage period, which were 54.0, 83.4, 87.9, and 97.7 meq O₂/kg for PC, CL, PE, and α-tocopherol, respectively. The highest synergistic effect was obtained with a mixture of α-tocopherol and PE, and the second and third best by mixtures made with PC and CL, respectively. The corresponding PV values recorded at the end of the period were 27.0, 35.0, and 58.0 meq O₂/kg. The high degree of synergy between PE and tocopherol is probably due to the occurrence of a simultaneous antioxidant mechanism involving Maillard compounds.     

Determination of Young’s modulus in polyester-Al2O3 and epoxy-Al2O3 nanocomposites using the Digital Image Correlation method

Young’s modulus of nano-composite systems composed of unsaturated polyester and epoxy resins with alumina nanoparticles of different sizes has been experimentally estimated. The nanoparticles used were spherical alpha-Al₂O₃ having 30-40 and 200 nm in diameter. Young’s modulus was estimated using an inverse problem that is solved by means of the classical Levenberg-Marquardt technique. A cantilever beam under bending was used in the experiments and the experimental procedure was performed using the Digital Image Correlation method, which is a well-established optical-numerical method for estimating full-field displacement. Experimental results indicate that Young’s modulus increases with increasing nanoparticle volume fraction. Finally, the estimated Young’s moduli were compared with classical theoretical models, showing that the experimental results are in agreement with literature data.     

Compressibility of carbon woven fabrics with carbon nanotubes/nanofibres grown on the fibres

Growth of carbon nanotubes (CNT) or carbon nano-fibres (CNF) on carbon fibrous substrates is a way to increase the fracture toughness of fibre reinforced composites (FRC), with encouraging results reported in the recent years. If these nano-engineered FRC (nFRC) are destined to leave laboratories and enter industrial-scale production, a question of adapting the existing composite manufacturing methods will arise. The paper studies compressibility of woven carbon fibre performs (two types of fabrics) with CNT/CNF grown on the fibres using the CVD method. The results include pressure vs thickness and pressure vs fibre volume fraction diagrams for one and four layers of the fabric. Morphology of the nFRC is studied with SEM. It is shown that the pressure needed to achieve the target fibre volume fraction of the preform increases drastically (for example, from 0.05 MPa to more than 0.5 MPa for a fibre volume fraction of 52%) when CNT/CNF are grown on it. No change in nesting of the fabric plies is noticed. The poor compressibility can lower the achievable fibre volume fraction in composite for economical vacuum assisted light-RTM techniques and increase the pressure requirements in autoclave processing.     

A model for the compression of a random assembly of carbon nanotubes

A model for calculation of the compression resistance of a random assembly of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is proposed. The model is based on the theory of geometry and compression of fibrous materials with randomly oriented fibres. It accounts for the orientation distribution and volume fraction of CNTs in the assembly, the bending rigidity of a CNT and its decrease after onset of buckling and for friction and slippage between CNTs. The model also allows for calculation the number of contacts between CNTs in the assembly and of the percolation threshold. The predicted compression resistance is compared with experimental data on compression of “buckydisks” made of CNTs.     

Spatial and temporal dynamics of river channel migration and vegetation in central Amazonian white-water floodplains by remote-sensing techniques

We investigated spatial and temporal migration of the Solimões, the Japurá, and the Aranapu River channels in western Brazilian Amazonia with Landsat TM imagery over a 21-year period. Additionally, we classified and monitored how channel migrations affect the distribution of pioneer vegetation and old-growth forest. The cloud-free study area was 153,032 ha — open water plus 3 km inland on each margin. The channel migration rates, expressed as percent dislocation of the open water body of the river year^− 1, were lowest in the Japurá River (1.2%), and highest in the Aranapu channel (2.5%), the point bars at river confluence being the most affected landforms subject to geomorphic changes. Annual rates of lateral erosion and accretion of vegetated land along the three rivers were well-balanced. They averaged 0.79 and 0.83% of the cloud-free channel area over the 21 years. The Solimões River was more dynamic than the Japurá River, which can be traced to higher water discharge and sediment load. During the 21 years, the area covered by pioneer vegetation increased by 5.8% of the study area, while late-succession areas decreased by a similar amount (5.5%). According to local biomass estimates of the different vegetation types, these values suggest that C-releases by alluvial erosion would be much higher than C-sequestration caused by the creation of areas suitable for colonization by pioneer vegetation at our study site.     

Electrochemical corrosion characterization of Al-Ni alloys in a dilute sodium chloride solution

The aim of this study is to characterize the electrochemical corrosion resistance of Al-Ni alloy samples which were directionally solidified under upward unsteady state heat flow conditions. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and potentiodynamic polarization techniques were used to analyze the corrosion resistance in a dilute 0.05 M NaCl solution at 25 °C. Equivalent circuit analyses were also conducted. It was found that microstructural features such as the dendritic arrangement and the distribution of Al₃Ni intermetallic particles have important roles on both the resulting pitting potential and the general corrosion resistance of Al-Ni alloys.