Attentional control within 3-D space

Four experiments investigated whether directing attention to a particular plane in depth enables observers to filter out information from another depth plane. Observers viewed stereoscopic displays and searched for a red line segment among green line segments. The results showed that directing attention to a particular depth plane cannot prevent attentional capture from another depth plane when the colors of the target and distractor are identical. However, it can prevent attentional capture by a singleton from another depth plane when the colors of the target and distractor are different. These results indicate that only when both color and depth information are selective in guiding attention to the target singleton can attentional capture by irrelevant singletons be prevented. The results also suggest that retinal disparity does not have the same special status as location information in two dimensions and should be considered as just another feature along which selection may occur.     

Clinical and functional evaluation of health status of workers exposed to infrasound, noise and general vibration

The article covers complex evaluation of health state in building industry workers engaged into ferro-concrete production in St. Petersburg. The health state was considered under combined action of infrasound, noise and general vibration. Clinical and functional evaluation included medical examination by doctors, blood biochemistry and CBC, ECG, computer integral rheography, voice audiometry. Data for 62 moulders helped to assess acoustic environment at workplace and to reveal the morbidity structure.     

Breast micro-opacities of lead origin mimicking microcalcifications

After a surgical excision of focal mammary "microcalcification" we noticed that in fact they represented fine lead deposits (mean diameter: 100 microns) resulting from an attempted suicide (22 long rifle) 10 years previously. The leaded nature of these foreign microbodies was demonstrated by a micro-analysis by energy dispersion on histological slides.     

Manual Therapy Facilitates Homeostatic Adaptation to Bone Microstructural Declines Induced by a Rat Model of Repetitive Forceful Task

The effectiveness of manual therapy in reducing the catabolic effects of performing repetitive intensive force tasks on bones has not been reported. We examined if manual therapy could reduce radial bone microstructural declines in adult female Sprague–Dawley rats performing a 12-week high-repetition and high-force task, with or without simultaneous manual therapy to forelimbs. Additional rats were provided 6 weeks of rest after task cessation, with or without manual therapy. The control rats were untreated or received manual therapy for 12 weeks. The untreated TASK rats showed increased catabolic indices in the radius (decreased trabecular bone volume and numbers, increased osteoclasts in these trabeculae, and mid-diaphyseal cortical bone thinning) and increased serum CTX-1, TNF-α, and muscle macrophages. In contrast, the TASK rats receiving manual therapy showed increased radial bone anabolism (increased trabecular bone volume and osteoblast numbers, decreased osteoclast numbers, and increased mid-diaphyseal total area and periosteal perimeter) and increased serum TNF-α and muscle macrophages. Rest, with or without manual therapy, improved the trabecular thickness and mid-diaphyseal cortical bone attributes but not the mineral density. Thus, preventive manual therapy reduced the net radial bone catabolism by increasing osteogenesis, while rest, with or without manual therapy, was less effective.     

Computer modelling and analysis of the photodegradation effect in a-Si:H p-i-n solar cell

Using a previous model, which was developed to describe the light-induced creation of the defect density in the a-Si:H gap states, we present in this work a numerical modelling of the photodegradation effect in the a-Si:H p-i-n solar cell under continuous illumination. We first considered the simple case of a monochromatic light beam with a wavelength λ between 530-540 nm non uniformly absorbed, then the global standard solar spectrum (AM 1.5) illumination is taken into account. The photodegradation is analysed on the basis of the resulting changes in the free carrier's densities, recombination rate, band structure, electrical potential and field, space charge, and current densities. Changes in the cell's external parameters: the open circuit voltage V_oc, the short circuit current density J_sc, the fill factor FF and the maximum power density P_max are also presented.     

Psychological differentiation and psychotherapy

Patient's level of psychological differentiation was studied in relation to patients' and therapists' evaluations of the initial psychotherapy session. The evaluations assessed two broad dimensions of the interaction which generally have been considered important for psychotherapeutic success and which have been found to be related to patients' psychological differentiation: namely, patients' and therapists' satisfaction with the amount of structure, and therapists' impressions of patients' appropriateness for therapy. Significant correlations were obtained between patients' psychological differentiation and both of these dimensions. However, two control variables, socioeconomic status and alcohol use, were also found to be related to these dimensions. When the effects of these variables were partialed out, the relationships with therapists' impressions of appropriateness disappeared, but the relationships with patients' and therapists' satisfaction with the amount of structure remained significant. The relationship of these findings to other studies of psychological differentiation and psychotherapy is discussed. Finally, the contribution of the present results to the choice of the most appropriate measure of psychological differentiation is noted.