Agreement among judges of personality: Interpersonal relations, similarity, and acquaintanceship.

Personality judgments of 184 targets were provided by the self, college acquaintances, hometown acquaintances, parents, and strangers. Study 1 found that knowing the target in the same context enhanced but was not necessary for interjudge agreement and that acquaintances who had never met agreed with each other as well as those who had met. Study 2 found that personality judgments by acquaintances manifested much better interjudge and self–other agreement than did judgments by strangers. Acquaintances were not more similar to their targets than were strangers, and their accuracy derived more from their distinctive judgment of the target than from assumed similarity. These results rule out overlap, communication, and assumed similarity as necessary bases of interjudge agreement and thereby support the simpler hypothesis that interjudge agreement stems from mutual accuracy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Demographics, family history, premorbid functioning, developmental characteristics, and course of patients with deteriorated affective disorder

OBJECTIVE: This exploratory study examined the characteristics of a group of unusual and previously undescribed patients with major affective disorder who not only had been continuously symptomatic for prolonged periods of time but were also so functionally impaired that they required years of continuous care in psychiatric facilities or by family members. METHOD: Twenty-seven inpatients with major mood disorders and 29 inpatients with schizophrenia were recruited from a large state hospital; 27 outpatients with major mood disorders were recruited from an affiliated outpatient facility. The research battery included the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R--Patient Version, the Premorbid Adjustment Scale, and a semistructured interview designed to assess demographic, family history, developmental, and course information. RESULTS: Inpatients with deteriorated affective disorder differed from outpatients with nondeteriorated affective disorder along several important dimensions, including family history of mental illness, birth-related problems, physical disorders in infancy, premorbid functioning, presence of mixed episodes and rapid cycling, and medication non-compliance between hospitalizations. Inpatients with deteriorated affective disorder differed from inpatients with schizophrenia on the Premorbid Adjustment Scale. Patients with bipolar affective disorder differed from those with unipolar disorder on many of the variables associated with deterioration of functioning. CONCLUSIONS: Birth-related problems, physical disorders in infancy, and poor premorbid adjustment in childhood and adolescence appear to play an important role in deterioration of functioning among patients with unipolar depression. Disruption in treatment because of medication noncompliance and the appearance of mixed episodes and rapid cycling are associated with functional decline in bipolar affective disorder. Several characteristics previously considered specific to deterioration of functioning in schizophrenia, such as a high rate of birth complications and poor premorbid adjustment, appear to be associated with functional deterioration among patients with major depression as well.     

The impact of artificial intelligence in accounting work: Expert systems use in auditing and tax

This paper uses Perrow’s sociological framework as a basis for a comparative organisation analysis of the impact of expert systems on organisational issues. The study analyses the relative impact of expert systems on two different types of accounting work: auditing and tax. The results indicate an impact on factors that ultimately improve productivity. The aggregate results indicate that expert systems are found to allow the user substantial control of search for solutions and discretion on whether to follow system recommendations, increased access to top management, and a decrease in the need for supervision. The systems allow the user the ability to solve a broader range of problems, while allowing the user the ability to perform more work. The comparison of auditing and tax expert systems indicates that audit systems seem to allow for greater control over search. Tax systems seem to allow more work to be done without supervision, make more decisions immediately, and allow the user to make a wider range of decisions.     

Influence of the social environment on parental behavior and pup development of meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) and prairie voles (M. Ochrogaster).

Parental behavior and pup development in meadow and prairie voles were examined. Social units were manipulated for the presence of fathers and of juveniles. Meadow vole mothers alone with pups showed less maternal care and spent more time resting than did mothers with juveniles or with fathers and juveniles. Pups reared only with mothers developed faster than did pups under other conditions. Number of animals in the social unit was negatively correlated with the rate of pup development. Meadow vole fathers and juveniles showed no parental care. In contrast, prairie vole mothers spent less time in the nest when both fathers and juveniles were present. Fathers assisted in rearing pups, and litters developed more rapidly when fathers were present. Juveniles remained in the natal nest and engaged in parentlike behavior. The findings relate to differences in the life history strategy for the 2 vole species. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Electrical Detection and Magnetic Imaging of Stabilized Magnetic Skyrmions in Fe1−xCoxGe (x < 0.1) Microplates

Magnetic skyrmions are topologically protected spin textures that are being investigated for their potential use in next generation magnetic storage devices. Here, magnetic skyrmions and other magnetic phases in Fe_1?xCo_xGe (x < 0.1) microplates (MPLs) newly synthesized via chemical vapor deposition are studied using both magnetic imaging and transport measurements. Lorentz transmission electron microscopy reveals a stabilized magnetic skyrmion phase near room temperature (≈280 K) and a quenched metastable skyrmion lattice via field cooling. Magnetoresistance (MR) measurements in three different configurations reveal a unique anomalous MR signal at temperatures below 200 K and two distinct field dependent magnetic transitions. The topological Hall effect (THE), known as the electronic signature of magnetic skyrmion phase, is detected for the first time in a Fe_1?xCo_xGe nanostructure, with a large and positive peak THE resistivity of ≈32 nΩ cm at 260 K. This large magnitude is attributed to both nanostructuring and decreased carrier concentrations due to Co alloying of the Fe_1?xCo_xGe MPL. A consistent magnetic phase diagram summarized from both the magnetic imaging and transport measurements shows that the magnetic skyrmions are stabilized in Fe_1?xCo_xGe MPLs compared to bulk materials. This study lays the foundation for future skyrmion‐based nanodevices in information storage technologies.     

ENAMeL: A Language for Binary Correlation Matrix Memories

Despite their relative simplicity, correlation matrix memories (CMMs) are an active area of research, as they are able to be integrated into more complex architectures such as the Associative Rule Chaining Architecture (ARCA) “Austin et al. (International conference on artificial neural networks, pp 49–56, 2012)”. In this architecture, CMMs are used effectively in order to reduce the time complexity of a tree search from \(O(b^d)\) to \(O(d)\) —where \(b\) is the branching factor and \(d\) is the depth of the tree. This paper introduces the Extended Neural Associative Memory Language (ENAMeL)—a domain specific language developed to ease development of applications using CMMs. We discuss various considerations required while developing the language, and techniques used to reduce the memory requirements of CMM-based applications. Finally we show that the memory requirements of ARCA when using the ENAMeL interpreter compare favourably to our original results “Austin et al. (International conference on artificial neural networks, pp 49–56, 2012)” run in MATLAB.     

Chemical and morphological analyses of zinc powders for alkaline batteries

Zinc powders containing Bi, In and either Mg or Al were analyzed to determine chemical and morphological differences. Morphology and chemistry may influence the reactivity of Zn powders in the basic environment found inside alkaline batteries. Increased reactivity leads to increased Zn corrosion, increased hydrogen gas evolution, and possibly leakage of the battery electrolyte. The surface chemistry of the powders was examined using Auger electron spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and atomic absorption spectroscopy to check for surface ZnO. Powder chemistry was measured using an electron probe micro analyzer equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray analyzer. Inert gas fusion determined the bulk oxygen content. Morphology studies included powder sieving for size determination, examining loose powders with a scanning electron microscope (SEM), and determining surface areas via Brunauer, Emmet, and Teller (BET) analyses. SEM images showed differences in powder shapes and surface conditions between passed and failed powders. Powders exhibiting smooth surfaces and regular shapes were more likely to pass gas testing. However, pass/fail gas test results could not be correlated to powder chemistry, powder size, or surface area. Powder roughness and irregularity may indicate an increase in the number of active sites such as peaks and barbs versus particles with smooth surfaces.     

The effect of post-treatment time and temperature on cerium-based conversion coatings on Al 2024-T3

Corrosion performance, morphology, and electrochemical characteristics of cerium-based conversion coatings on Al 2024-T3 were examined as a function of phosphate post-treatment time and temperature. Corrosion resistance improved after post-treatment in 2.5 wt.% NH₄H₂PO₄ for times up to 10 min or temperatures up to 85 °C. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and polarization testing correlated to neutral salt spray corrosion performance. Hydrated cerium oxide and peroxide species present in the as-deposited coatings were transformed to CePO₄·H₂O for post-treatments at longer times and/or higher temperatures. Based on these results, processes active during post-treatment are kinetically dependent and strongly influenced by the post-treatment time and temperature.     

A Drug Screening Pipeline Using 2D and 3D Patient-Derived In Vitro Models for Pre-Clinical Analysis of Therapy Response in Glioblastoma

Glioblastoma is one of the most common and lethal types of primary brain tumor. Despite aggressive treatment with chemotherapy and radiotherapy, tumor recurrence within 6–9 months is common. To overcome this, more effective therapies targeting cancer cell stemness, invasion, metabolism, cell death resistance and the interactions of tumor cells with their surrounding microenvironment are required. In this study, we performed a systematic review of the molecular mechanisms that drive glioblastoma progression, which led to the identification of 65 drugs/inhibitors that we screened for their efficacy to kill patient-derived glioma stem cells in two dimensional (2D) cultures and patient-derived three dimensional (3D) glioblastoma explant organoids (GBOs). From the screening, we found a group of drugs that presented different selectivity on different patient-derived in vitro models. Moreover, we found that Costunolide, a TERT inhibitor, was effective in reducing the cell viability in vitro of both primary tumor models as well as tumor models pre-treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. These results present a novel workflow for screening a relatively large groups of drugs, whose results could lead to the identification of more personalized and effective treatment for recurrent glioblastoma.