If-then contingencies and the differential effects of the availability of an attractive alternative on relationship maintenance for men and women.

In 7 experiments, the causal effects of the availability of an attractive alternative (AA) relationship partner on current relationship thoughts and intentions were tested using confederates, mental simulations, and virtual reality. Men behaved consistent with traditional relationship-commitment theories, showing decreased willingness to tolerate their partner's transgressions after the availability of an AA was made salient. However, consistent with a motivated cognition approach to commitment and work on relational self-construals, women increased their tolerance when presented with the relationship threat of an alternative. Word-fragment and lexical decision data suggested that AAs may activate threat for women, and their ability to dampen threat accessibility is associated with prorelationship responses. Finally, this "if relationship is threatened, then defend the relationship" contingency was induced in men with an implementation intention induction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Characterization of electrospun poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) fibers

Poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) (pNIPAM) is an interesting material in that it shows a thermoresponsive behavior around 32 °C in aqueous solutions. This behavior mimics that of many proteins in solution and as a result, many researchers have studied pNIPAM as a model for protein behavior. Yet, little is known about the processability of pNIPAM into three-dimensional matrices and whether such processing affects polymer conformation. In this work, 3D fibrous mats of pNIPAM were prepared by electrospinning from three different solvents and the resulting morphologies evaluated. Additionally, electrospun pNIPAM was evaluated with polarized Raman and infrared spectroscopies and compared against the spectra of the bulk material. It was found that the electrospinning process did not alter the polymer structure or morphology.     

Understanding pregnant women's decision making concerning prenatal screening.

Objective: This study is aimed at enhancing understanding prenatal screening decision making through testing a hypothesized decision model based on decision theory and health behavior theory. Design: We obtained questionnaires from 1,666 pregnant women who were offered prenatal screening for Down's syndrome. Path analysis (using LISREL) resulted in a final model with reasonable model fit, which was verified by split-sample cross-validation. Main outcome measures: These included perceived probability, perceived severity, attitude toward termination, response efficacy, attitude toward prenatal screening, subjective norm, child-related anxiety, and intention to undergo prenatal screening. Results: Attitude toward termination of pregnancy, perceived test efficacy, and subjective norm regarding the desirability of having prenatal screening determined a woman's attitude toward having a prenatal test. Anxiety was influenced by perceived risk and perceived severity of having a child with Down's syndrome, and by subjective norm, but this appeared to be a weak predictor of intention to test. Pregnant women with a positive attitude toward prenatal screening, and who perceived a subjective norm in favor of undergoing prenatal screening, showed a greater intention to have prenatal screening done. Conclusion: These findings suggest that more attention should be paid toward the values and social context of pregnant women during the counseling process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nutritional evaluation of Araucaria angustifolia seed flour as a protein complement for growing rats

BACKGROUND: The seeds of Araucaria angustifolia, namely pinhão, are consumed in south and southeast Brazil as flour or baked. There is relatively little information about the chemical composition and nutritional value of the seed and its flour. RESULTS: Pinhão flour was obtained by drying at constant temperature of 50 °C (PF50) or 80 °C (PF80) in a circulating air drier for 16 h, and evaluated as a feed additive for growing rats. Wistar rats were fed five experimental diets (n = 6 rats per diet) containing different protein sources: casein (diet CAS), casein supplemented with 20% (w/w) flour PF50 or PF80 (diets PF50 and PF80), casein supplemented with 20% pinhão without heat treatment (diet NPF), and a non‐protein group (diet APROT). Values for weight gain, feed ingest, protein efficiency ratio (PER) and net protein ratio (NPR) were similar for diets CAS and PF80. Lowest values for all nutritional parameters were observed for diets complemented with pinhão flour. Trypsin inhibitor activity was detected in PF50 but not in PF80. CONCLUSION: Pinhão flour heated at 80 °C for 16 h and used as supplementary in diet had the most similar results in all nutritional parameters to casein‐based diets, and can be used as a complementary source, substituting up to 20% of a high biological value protein in food formulations. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry     

Hierarchical decomposition heuristic for scheduling: Coordinated reasoning for decentralized and distributed decision-making problems

This paper presents a new technique for decomposing and rationalizing large decision-making problems into a common and consistent framework. We call this the hierarchical decomposition heuristic (HDH) which focuses on obtaining “globally feasible” solutions to the overall problem, i.e., solutions which are feasible for all decision-making elements in a system. The HDH is primarily intended to be applied as a standalone tool for managing a decentralized and distributed system when only globally consistent solutions are necessary or as a lower bound to a maximization problem within a global optimization strategy such as Lagrangean decomposition. An industrial scale scheduling example is presented that demonstrates the abilities of the HDH as an iterative and integrated methodology in addition to three small motivating examples. Also illustrated is the HDH's ability to support several types of coordinated and collaborative interactions.     

Effects of ethanol and caffeine on behavior in C57BL/6 mice in the plus-maze discriminative avoidance task.

Introduction: Caffeine is frequently consumed concurrent to or immediately following ethanol consumption. Identifying how caffeine and ethanol interact to modulate behavior is essential to understanding the co-use of these drugs. The plus-maze discriminative avoidance task (PMDAT) allows within-subject measurement of learning, anxiety, and locomotion. Methods: For training, each mouse was placed in the center of the plus-maze for 5 min, and each time that the mouse entered the aversive enclosed arm, a light and white noise were turned on. At testing, each mouse was returned to the center of the maze for 3 min. No cues were turned on during testing. Results: Ethanol (1.0–1.4 g/kg) dose-dependently decreased anxiety and learning, and increased locomotion. Caffeine (5.0–40.0 mg/kg) dose-dependently increased anxiety and decreased locomotion and learning. Caffeine failed to reverse ethanol-induced learning deficits. However, 1.4 g/kg ethanol blocked the anxiogenic effect of caffeine. Discussion: Although caffeine and ethanol interact to modulate behavior in the PMDAT, caffeine does not reverse ethanol-induced learning deficits. Ethanol-induced anxiolysis may contribute to alcohol consumption, while ethanol’s blockade of caffeine-induced anxiogenesis may contribute to co-use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Energy-ecological efficiency of the fuel cell electric vehicle powered by different biofuels

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy - This paper examines the net environmental impact for the Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle, in special the Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (SOFCEV), by...     

Nanocomposite synthesis and characterization of Kesterite,Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) for photovoltaic applications

Nanocomposite processing of binary metal chalcogenide solids has led to the synthesis of Kesterite, Cu₂ZnSnS₄ (CZTS), which is an important emerging material for thin film photovoltaic devices. Nanophase precursors are combined in stoichiometric ratios and annealed in a 350–500 °C sulfur-rich nitrogen atmosphere to form CZTS. Processing methods for CZTS in the literature are either energy-intensive, requiring the sequential sputtering of metal layers at 700 °C, followed by an annealing step in a sulfur-containing atmosphere at 500 °C, or the use of chemicals and solvents that are detrimental to the environment. The presence of CZTS is clear in the resulting powders as confirmed by both XRD and UV–Vis analysis. Our results show that increasing the annealing temperature of the nanophase precursor mixture led to a higher level of CZTS purity and that a copper-poor and zinc-rich environment produced the purest CZTS. Tin disulfide, SnS₂, precursors produced a purer CZTS than when tin monosulfide, SnS, was used, because the latter is more volatile and decomposes at lower temperatures than the former. This synthetic route is more cost effective and environmentally friendly, avoiding the use of long processing times and harsh solvents.     

A longitudinal study of preschool children's (homo sapiens) sex segregation.

In this 2-year longitudinal study, we hypothesized that sex of the human child (Homo sapiens), differences in physical activity, and time of the year would interact to influence preschool children's sex segregation. We also hypothesized that activity would differentially relate to peer rejection for boys and girls. Consistent with the first hypothesis, high-activity girls started off as the most integrated group but became more segregated with time, whereas high-activity boys remained the most segregated group across the duration of the study. The second hypothesis was also supported: For girls only, activity was significantly related to peer rejection during Year 1 only, the time when high-activity girls also interacted frequently with boys. Results are discussed in terms of sexual selection theory and gender boundary violations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Iterative estimation of eigenmodes for acoustic cavities

In this paper, a stochastic estimation method of the number of eigenvalues of nonlinear eigenproblem (initially proposed by Maeda et al., JSIAM Letters 3, 61-64, (2011)) is employed iteratively in order to identify eigenvalues of acoustic cavities. Applied to several discretization formulations of the Helmholtz equation, the proposed approach handles complex acoustic cavities. Specific developments are carried out concerning the approximation of the stochastic estimator for the solved kernels. The method's accuracy is illustrated with academic nonlinear eigenproblems with various boundary conditions. In particular, a sphere problem with constant surface impedance is solved and validated by comparison with results issued from a finite element method software.