"Social cognitions as organizers of autonomic and affective responses to social challenge": Correction.

Reports an error in the original article by D. B. Bugental et al (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1993, Vol 64[1], 94–203). On page 97, the sentence "SCL was measured by bipolar silver-silver chloride electrodes placed on the thumb of the nonpreferred hand' should read as follows: "SCL was measured by bipolar silver-silver chloride electrodes placed on the thenar and hypothenar eminences of the nonpreferred hand.' (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1993-21385-001.) Autonomic and affective responses to children were assessed as a function of adult perceptions of interpersonal control. Women (N?=?160) interacted with and provided feedback to computer-simulated children who behaved responsively or unresponsively on a computer game. Women were categorized as low in perceived control (PC) if they attributed high control to children but low control to self over negative events on the Parent Attribution Test. As predicted, low-PC women were maximally reactive to child characteristics, manifesting peak levels of defensive arousal (increased level of heart rate and electrodermal activity) and negative affect with unresponsive children and minimal levels of arousal and negative affect with responsive children … (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Electrochemical sensing platform based on polyelectrolyte-surfactant supramolecular assemblies incorporating carbon nanotubes

The characterization and application of a polyelectrolyte-surfactant supramolecular assembly formed by poly(allylamine) and dodecyl sulfate (PA-DS) on a screen-printed graphite electrode for the preparation of electrochemical sensing platforms are presented. The system was characterized by X-ray reflectometry (XRR) and grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) and tested with four benchmark electrochemical probes undergoing different electron-transfer mechanisms on carbon: ferrocyanide, hexaammineruthenium, ascorbic acid, and dopamine. The polyelectrolyte acts as a scaffold favoring the incorporation of the ferrocyanide, an ion oppositely charged to poly(allylamine). Also, its ability to incorporate carbon nanotubes (CNT) is presented. The composite material PA-DS-CNT is able to electrocatalyze the oxidation of dopamine, allowing its detection at micromolar levels in the presence of 100 times higher concentrations of ascorbate and it is shown to be stable, while XRR and GISAXS results confirm a lamellar structure with well-defined domains, not perturbed by the presence of the CNT. The dispersion is easily prepared in aqueous solution and could facilitate the processing of the CNT with an efficient loading and yielding a more robust carbon-based material for sensing applications.     

Distinctive Toll-like Receptors Gene Expression and Glial Response in Different Brain Regions of Natural Scrapie

Prion diseases are chronic and fatal neurodegenerative diseases characterized by the accumulation of disease-specific prion protein (PrP^Sc), spongiform changes, neuronal loss, and gliosis. Growing evidence shows that the neuroinflammatory response is a key component of prion diseases and contributes to neurodegeneration. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) have been proposed as important mediators of innate immune responses triggered in the central nervous system in other human neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. However, little is known about the role of TLRs in prion diseases, and their involvement in the neuropathology of natural scrapie has not been studied. We assessed the gene expression of ovine TLRs in four anatomically distinct brain regions in natural scrapie-infected sheep and evaluated the possible correlations between gene expression and the pathological hallmarks of prion disease. We observed significant changes in TLR expression in scrapie-infected sheep that correlate with the degree of spongiosis, PrP^Sc deposition, and gliosis in each of the regions studied. Remarkably, TLR4 was the only gene upregulated in all regions, regardless of the severity of neuropathology. In the hippocampus, we observed milder neuropathology associated with a distinct TLR gene expression profile and the presence of a peculiar microglial morphology, called rod microglia, described here for the first time in the brain of scrapie-infected sheep. The concurrence of these features suggests partial neuroprotection of the hippocampus. Finally, a comparison of the findings in naturallyinfected sheep versus an ovinized mouse model (tg338 mice) revealed distinct patterns of TLRgene expression.     

Aldehyde Dehydrogenases Expression in Corneal Epithelial Cells with Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency

Purpose: The purpose of the present study is to investigate the expression of aldehyde dehydrogenases (ALDHs) in rabbit corneas with limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD) and corneas treated with cultured autologous oral mucosa epithelial cell sheet CAOMECS designed to reconstruct the ocular surface with LSCD. Methods: New Zealand white rabbit autologous oral mucosal epithelial cells were isolated from a buccal biopsy and cultured to be grafted back onto corneas of rabbit model of LSCD. Immunofluorescent staining and Western blot analysis were used to compare the expression of ALDH1A1 and ALDH1A3 in healthy, LSCD-diseased, CAOMECS treated corneas. Human oral mucosal and corneal epithelial cells (OMECS and CECs) were cultured and treated with retinoic acid (RA) to further investigate the expression of ALDHs. Results: In healthy corneas, ALDH1A1 and ALDH1A3 were markedly expressed in basal cells of corneal epithelium. In LSCD diseased corneas, ALDH1A1 and ALDH1A3 were markedly expressed in the conjunctivalized apical epithelial cells, the goblet cells, and the stroma. CAOMECS grafted corneas showed a decreased expression of ALDHs as compared to LSCD diseased corneas. Western blot analysis confirmed the up regulation of ALDH1A1 and ALDH1A3 expression in LSCD-diseased corneal epithelial cells. CAOMECS expressed low levels of ALDH1A1 and ALDH1A3, as compared to diseased CECs (D-CEC). When ALDH1A3 was up regulated by retinoic acid treatment in OMECS, Pax-6 expression was down regulated, suggesting a decrease in regenerative capacity when ALDH enzymes are up regulated. Conclusions: These findings report for the first time the up regulation of ALDH1A1 and ALDH1A3 in rabbit corneas with LSCD and document that CAOMECS grafting used to reconstruct corneal epithelium may reduce the expression levels of ALDH enzymes.     

Total polyphenol extraction from red sorghum grain and effects on the morphological structure of starch granules

The aim of this study was to propose a treatment to reduce the content of total polyphenols (TPP) and to obtain flour without significant morphological changes in the starch granules. The response surface methodology (RSM) was used to predict the influence of temperature and time on TPP extraction. Research work was conducted using the central composite design methodology. Results showed that the effect of temperature was more significant than that of time. A quadratic fit of data regarding temperature and linear data adjustment as to time was obtained. A scanning electron microscopy analysis of starch showed no morphological change in the granules at the temperature studied. Starch granules presented a size distribution ranging from 6 to 25 μm being 35% of granules <15 μm, and 65% of granules >15 μm in size, respectively.     

De-anonymization attack on geolocated data

With the advent of GPS-equipped devices, a massive amount of location data is being collected, raising the issue of the privacy risks incurred by the individuals whose movements are recorded. In this work, we focus on a specific inference attack called the de-anonymization attack, by which an adversary tries to infer the identity of a particular individual behind a set of mobility traces. More specifically, we propose an implementation of this attack based on a mobility model called Mobility Markov Chain (MMC). An MMC is built out from the mobility traces observed during the training phase and is used to perform the attack during the testing phase. We design several distance metrics quantifying the closeness between two MMCs and combine these distances to build de-anonymizers that can re-identify users. Experiments conducted on real datasets demonstrate that the attack is both accurate and resilient to sanitization mechanisms.     

Restrained eating among adolescents: Dieters are not always bingers and bingers are not always dieters.

This study examined individual differences in the relationships among 3 constructs relevant to restrained eating theory—cognitive restraint (dieting), disinhibition (bingeing), and hunger. Participants were 421 adolescents (158 male, 255 female, and 8 not indicated). Comparisons among subgroups based on scores on the 3 constructs indicated that there were (a) 2 types of frequent dieters—those who follow theoretical predictions and become disinhibited and those who maintain their restraint; (b) 2 types of bingers—those who engage in dieting-induced bingeing and those who are hungry and disinhibited; and (c) 2 types of low-hunger eaters—those who suppress their hunger and those who eat before they experience much hunger. Implications of the results for restrained eating theory are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Who's the boss? Differential accessibility of dominance ideation in parent–child relationships.

The accessibility of dominance ideation (as opposed to other types of ideation) was measured among parents with high or low perceived power as caregivers. Parents made comparative judgments of self versus child under concurrent memory load or no-load conditions. As predicted, dominance comparisons were found to be highly accessible for low-power parents; that is, attentional load served to increase response latencies in all conditions except those in which low-power parents made dominance judgments. Under cognitive load, low-power parents (unlike high-power parents) rated child as more dominant than self; under no load, however, they rated self as more dominant than child. Decision reversals in the absence of cognitive load were interpreted as "defensive corrections." Findings are discussed with respect to the elevated use of coercive control tactics by low-power parents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multi‐scale Internet traffic forecasting using neural networks and time series methods

This article presents three methods to forecast accurately the amount of traffic in TCP/IP based networks: a novel neural network ensemble approach and two important adapted time series methods (ARIMA and Holt‐Winters). In order to assess their accuracy, several experiments were held using real‐world data from two large Internet service providers. In addition, different time scales (5 min, 1 h and 1 day) and distinct forecasting lookaheads were analysed. The experiments with the neural ensemble achieved the best results for 5 min and hourly data, while the Holt‐Winters is the best option for the daily forecasts. This research opens possibilities for the development of more efficient traffic engineering and anomaly detection tools, which will result in financial gains from better network resource management.