Semantic priming after severe closed head trauma: Automatic and attentional processes.

The 2-process theory of semantic priming (J. H. Neely, 1977; M. I. Posner and C. R. Snyder, 1975) was used to determine the maintenance of automatic processes after severe closed head injury (CHI) and to determine whether processes that demand attention suffer a deficit. Ss with severe CHI (N?=?18,?>?2 yrs postinjury) and 18 matched control Ss completed a lexical decision task in which a category prime was followed by a target. Automatic and attentional priming were determined by orthogonally varying prime–target relatedness, expectancy, and stimulus onset asynchrony. Although the CHI Ss had slower reaction times (RTs) overall, there were no significant group differences in the magnitude of either the automatic or attentional component of semantic priming. The present results indicate the integrity of semantic processes and normal semantic priming in long-term patients with severe CHI. The results are discussed in relation to an attentional resource hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accelerating entry into supported employment for persons with severe psychiatric disabilities.

Tested the hypothesis that Ss with severe mental illnesses would achieve better vocational outcomes with an accelerated approach to supported employment (AASE), as compared to gradual approaches (GA) with prevocational training. 86 Ss (mean age 35.1 yrs) with a diagnosis of a serious mental illness, were randomly assigned to either the AASE, or the GA, which included a minimum of 4 mo prevocational training. Data were obtained on indicators of vocational outcomes over 2 yrs, and for a limited number of Ss (n=36), during the 4th yr of inception into the program. Initially, only 5% of Ss preferred prevocational training. After 1 yr, AASE Ss showed better outcomes for a range of indicators, including achievement of competitive employment, duration of employment and mean earnings. During the 4th yr, 59% of these Ss were competitively employed, as compared to only 6% of GA Ss. Rehabilitation is more effective using AASE than GA. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Compile-time copy elimination

Single-assignment and functional languages have value semantics that do not permit side-effects. This lack of side-effects makes automatic detection of parallelism and optimization for data locality in programs much easier. However, the same property poses a challenge in implementing these languages efficiently. This paper describes an optimizing compiler system that solves the key problem of aggregate copy elimination. The methods developed rely exclusively on compile-time algorithms, including interprocedural analysis, that are applied to an intermediate data flow representation. By dividing the problem into update-in-place and build-in-place analysis, a small set of relatively simple techniques—edge substitution, graph pattern matching, substructure sharing and substructure targeting—was found to be very powerful. If combined properly and implemented carefully, the algorithms eliminate unnecessary copy operations to a very high degree. No run-time overhead is imposed on the compiled programs.     

Enhanced direct stiffness method for finite element analysis of textile composites

Traditional homogenization techniques are not useful when the microstructural scale of a material is of the same order of magnitude as the structural scale of a component. Such is the case for many textile composites. Since discrete modeling of the microstructure throughout a component is prohibitively expensive, continuum finite elements are needed which account for the microstructure within a single element. This paper describes a simple substructuring technique for formulating these special elements.     

Probing the early stages of polymerization of ethylene on a model chromium/silica catalyst by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

The nature of the interaction of monomer, and the early stages of growth of oligomers of ethylene on a rather more uniform surface of Cr/SiO₂ catalyst than hitherto studied has been investigated by differenceFTIR spectroscopy using C₂D₄ and C₂H₄ as reactants both with and without subsequent treatment of the catalyst with CO andTHF. The active catalyst was prepared by reaction of vapour phase CrO₂Cl₂ with the vicinal hydroxyls of the silica surface. Three distinct kinds of methylene groups were detected. Arguments are given for assigning the peaks at 2935 and 2860 cm^–1 to CH₂ groups directly bound to the active site and those at 2920 and 2850 to CH₂s in the growing chain well removed from the Cr. The peaks at 2160 and 2165 cm^–1 are attributed to CD₂ groups hydrogen bonded to surface hydroxyls.     

School psychologists' acceptability of behavioral and traditional assessment procedures for externalizing problem behaviors.

A national survey of school psychologists' acceptability of psychological assessment techniques in the area of externalizing problem behaviors was examined. School psychologists' ratings of 2 procedures, Behavioral Assessment (BA) and Traditional Assessment (TA), were compared using an analog case study methodology. Using a random sample of 500 National Association of School Psychologists members from the 1991–1992 membership directory, 339 Ss completed the Assessment Rating Profile after reading a hypothetical case summary describing a student with suspected externalizing problem behaviors. Results indicated statistically significant differences between assessment methods and ratings of acceptability. BA procedures were found to be more acceptable than TA procedures. Implications related to the acceptability of psychological assessment techniques, as well as implications for school psychology practitioners are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An improved method for magnetic identification and localization of cracks in conductors

A SQUID magnetometer can be used to measure the magnetic field produced by flaws in a two-dimensional, conducting plate carrying a current. Identification of the flaw-induced magnetic field is difficult because of the large magnetic field associated with the edges of the plate and the current in the leads that connect the plate to the power supply. We have developed a technique by which the wire and edge fields can be cancelled prior to mapping the magnetic field. In this technique, a similar unflawed conducting sheet is placed adjacent to the flawed plate, with a connection between the sheet and the plate at one edge, and with the opposite edges of the sheet and of the plate connected to the two conductors of a coaxial cable. Thus, an applied current will flow along one conductor of the cable, across the cancelling sheet, cross into the flawed plate, return along the plate, and then return to the power supply along the other conductor of the coaxial cable. As a result of this geometry, there is no magnetic field from the lead-in wires because they are coaxial, and the magnetic field due to the edges of the plate is cancelled by the opposing magnetic field of the edges in the adjacent sheet. The extent of cancellation is determined primarily by the separation between the plate and the cancelling sheet, by the thickness of the plate, and by macroscopic inhomogeneities in their electrical conductivities.     

Macroscopic analysis of design processes based on a scheme for coding designers' cognitive actions

We have devised a new scheme for coding designers' cognitive actions from video/audio design protocols. Designers' actions are coded into four cognitive levels; physical, perceptual, functional and conceptual. Relations between actions belonging to different levels, such as dependencies and triggering relations, are also coded. The present scheme has two benefits. First, we found that design actions are definable in a systematic way using the vocabulary of the scheme, and thus a designer's cognitive behaviours in each of local design stages is represented as a structure composed of defined primitive actions. This is expected to lay the foundation for microscopic analyses of how particular types of actions contribute to the formation of key design ideas. Second, this scheme is suitable for macroscopic analyses of how designers cognitively interact with their own sketches. We examined, for a practising architect, the ways in which drawing, inspection of drawings, perception, and functional thoughts correlated with one another in his design process. The findings suggest that design sketches serve not only as external memory or as a provider of visual cues for association of non-visual information, but also as a physical setting in which design thoughts are constructed on the fly.     

Finance and the technology-trade nexus

This paper sketches the contours of the evolving international/monetary system and examines the various roles of the intemediation mechanisms. Then it examines the extent to which the financial system is independent from the “real economy” and the various ways in which it impacts it. The paper discusses some views in good currency on the dynamics of the technology-trade-finance nexus and shows how the financial system influences organization, location and technology choices in meso-innovation systems. The final section of the paper looks at the policy implications that might be derived from the analysis and suggests some directions for the future research.