Assessing students' plans for college.

Based on a contemporary cognitive-psychoanalytic theory (control-mastery theory; J. Weiss, H. Sampson, & Mount Zion Psychotherapy Research Group, 1986), this study proposed that college students have plans for college that consist of conscious and unconscious goals and obstructions to be overcome in meeting those goals. The construct of unconscious guilt was used to mediate the dual goals of autonomy and attachment. The idiographic plan-formulation method was adapted to derive plans for 12 sophomore women. Acceptable interjudge reliabilities and criterion validity were demonstrated, and several themes in the goals and obstructions were illustrated. Students worried more about mothers than about fathers, particularly when they perceived the mother as weak or needy. The potential of the method for generating inferences about unconscious process for normative development is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neural networks,rational functions,and realization theory

The problem of parametrizing single hidden layer scalar neural networks with continuous activation functions is investigated. A connection is drawn between realization theory for linear dynamical systems, rational functions, and neural networks that appears to be new. A result of this connection is a general parametrization of such neural networks in terms of strictly proper rational functions. Some existence and uniqueness results are derived. Jordan decompositions are developed, which show how the general form can be expressed in terms of a sum of canonical second order sections. The parametrization may be useful for studying learning algorithms.This work was supported by the Australian Research Council, the Australian Telecommunications and Electronics Research Board, and the Boeing Commencai Aircraft Company (thanks to John Moore).     

Memory for individual scent in hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) as assessed by habituation methods.

The memory of hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) for the flank scent of older male hamsters was investigated in a series of habituation experiments. In 2 types of habituation tasks (Exps 1 and 2), male hamsters habituated to the flank scent of 1 male and then increased their level of investigation to that of a novel male; similar results were obtained when the intervals between trials ranged from 1 sec to 2 days. When the test trial was 10 or 21 days after habituation (Exp 3), males discriminated between familiar and novel flank scents at 10 days but not at 21 days. The results demonstrate recognition of familiar and unfamiliar individual odors and excellent memory for these differences. Habituation techniques yield extremely robust results and may be useful for investigations of other aspects of individual signatures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early intervention for spelling problems: Teaching functional spelling units of varying size with a multiple-connections framework.

Poor spellers in 2nd grade (n?=?128) participated in 24 20-min sessions that included (a) direct instruction in the alphabet principle (most frequent phoneme-spelling connections); (b) modeling of different approaches, singly and in combination, for developing connections between spoken and written words for 48 words ordered by sound-spelling predictability; and (c) practice in composing. Results of this multilayered intervention showed that (a) more than 1 way of developing sound-spelling connections is effective in teaching spelling but that after training in the alphabet principle, combining whole word and onset-rime training is most effective in achieving transfer of the alphabet principle across word contexts; (b) functional spelling units of not only a single letter but also 2 or more letters are important in beginning spelling; and (c) training in spelling transfers to composition and word recognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Experimental fetal tracheal ligation reverses the structural and physiological effects of pulmonary hypoplasia in congenital diaphragmatic hernia

Infants with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (DH) and profound pulmonary hypoplasia are currently unsalvageable. The authors previously demonstrated that tracheal ligation (TL) accelerates fetal lung growth and reverses the pulmonary hypoplasia of fetal nephrectomy. The purpose of this study was to determine if the pulmonary hypoplasia of experimental DH could be similarly reversed and, if so, whether the resulting lungs would show better function than those of their DH counterparts. Eighteen fetal lambs were divided into three experimental groups of six animals each. In group 1, DH was created at 90 days' gestation. In group 2, DH was created at 90 days' gestation and TL performed during the same operation. Group 3 consisted of sham-operated controls. These animals were delivered near full-term, and their lungs analyzed by standard morphometric techniques. Ten additional fetal lambs were divided into two experimental groups of five animals each. In group 4, DH was created at 90 days' gestation. In group 5, DH was created at 90 days' gestation and TL performed 20 days later, at 110 days' gestation. These animals were pressure-ventilated via tracheostomy over a 2-hour period in which PaO2, PaCO2, and compliance were measured. Intratracheal pressure (ITP) was measured at the time of delivery in all groups. Upon retrieval, DH animals had abdominal viscera in the chest and small lungs; in contrast, DH/TL animals had the herniated viscera reduced from the chest by enlarged lungs. DH/TL lungs showed markedly increased growth, with significant increases in lung volume:body weight ratio (LV:BW; P = .0001), alveolar surface area (ALV.SA; P = .0001), and alveolar number (ALV#) (P = .0001) when compared with those of the DH or control group. This growth was associated with a normal maturation pattern based on histological appearance, normal airspace fraction, and normal alveolar numerical density. ITP in the DH/TL group was increased when compared with that of DH and control animals (P = .0001). Total lung DNA and protein were both elevated in the DH/TL animals (P = .0001). However, the DNA:protein ratio remained normal, suggesting lung growth had occurred through cell proliferation, not by hypertrophy. When ventilated over a range of settings, DH/TL lungs were more compliant (P = .0001) and achieved higher PaO2s (P < .003) and lower PaCO2s (P = .0001) than their DH counterparts. From these data, the authors conclude: (1) Experimental fetal DH produces hypoplastic lungs that are not capable of adequate gas exchange with conventional ventilation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)     

Nanocell logic gates for molecular computing

Molecular electronics seeks to build electrical devices to implement computation - logic and memory - using individual or small collections of molecules. These devices have the potential to reduce device size and fabrication costs, by several orders of magnitude, relative to conventional CMOS. However, the construction of a practical molecular computer will require the molecular switches and their related interconnect technologies to behave as large-scale diverse logic, with input/output wires scaled to molecular dimensions. It is unclear whether it is necessary or even. possible to control the precise regular placement and interconnection of these diminutive molecular systems. This paper describes genetic algorithm-based simulations of molecular device structures in a nanocell where placement and connectivity of the internal molecular switches are not specifically directed and the internal topology is generally disordered. With some simplifying assumptions, these results show that it is possible to use easily fabricated nanocells as logic devices by setting the internal molecular switch states after the topological molecular assembly is complete. Simulated logic devices include an inverter, a NAND gate, an XOR gate and a 1-bit adder. Issues of defect and fault tolerance are addressed.     

Maintaining global coherence during reading.

Previous research demonstrated a contradiction effect: Although text currently being processed was locally coherent, readers were aware of inconsistencies between a protagonist's actions and characteristics of the protagonists that were described earlier in the text and subsequently backgrounded. In the present experiments, not only the critical characteristics but also the protagonist were backgrounded. When the protagonist was reintroduced into the narrative in the context of carrying out an inconsistent action, the contradiction effect again occurred. In Exps 1–3, we examined the effects of several variables on the onset of the effect. In Exp 4, we presented probes at various points in the passage with results that supported the conclusion that the critical characteristics had been backgrounded before the sentence that contradicted them. Results are discussed in terms of several recent models in which currently active representational elements serve as retrieval cues for other inactive, but highly related, elements. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Automatic generation of IDEF0 models

This paper looks into a new area for knowledge-based system application, that of manufacturing modelling. Manual generation of IDEF0 models of manufacturing systems is time-consuming and inconsistent. However, the process can be automated to improve timeliness and consistency. In this paper, a knowledge-based manufacturing modelling system for the automatic generation of IDEF0 models is proposed. The system will not only greatly reduce the IDEF0 modelling time but will also eliminate the inconsistency problem of conventional IDEF0 modelling systems. The paper explains the knowledge-based approach and identifies the kinds of domain knowledge that are required for the construction of the knowledge-based manufacturing modelling system.