Adjustment of guidelines for exposure of the eye to optical radiation from ocular instruments: statement from a task group of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)

A variety of optical and electro-optical instruments are used for both diagnostic and therapeutic applications to the human eye. These generally expose ocular structures to either coherent or incoherent optical radiation (ultraviolet, visible, or infrared radiation) under unique conditions. We convert both laser and incoherent exposure guidelines derived for normal exposure conditions to the application of ophthalmic sources.     

Interaction structure of husbands' and wives' disclosure of marital conflict to their respective best friend.

Eighty-eight husbands' and wives' conversations with their respective best friend were coded to assess spouses' and friends' mutual influence in regulating support and interference with regard to spouses' marriage and to assess the impact of spouses' sex and marital satisfaction on the conversation processes. Dissatisfied husbands and wives expressed fewer positive and more negative views of marriage than satisfied husbands and wives and the friends in the 2 groups. There were no group and no sex differences in interference sequences. There were group and sex differences in support sequences. Friends of satisfied wives and those of dissatisfied husbands were more likely than satisfied wives and dissatisfied husbands to get support for their positive views of marriage. The findings are discussed with reference to the specific effects of outsiders' support and interference on satisfied and dissatisfied spouses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dasymetric modelling of small-area population distribution using land cover and light emissions data

Despite the improvements made in census procedures over recent decades, the availability of detailed population data is limited. For many applications, including environmental and health analyses, methods are therefore needed to model population distribution at the small-area level. With the development of GIS and remote sensing techniques, the ability to develop such models has greatly improved. This paper describes a GIS-based approach using remotely sensed land cover and nighttime light emissions data to model population distribution at the land parcel level across the European Union. Light emission data from the DMSP satellites were first resampled and modelled using kriging and inverse distance weighting methods to provide a 200-m resolution light emissions map. This was then matched to CORINE land cover classes across the EU. Regression methods were used to derive models of relationships between census population counts (at NUTS 5 level) and land cover area and light emissions. Models were developed at both national and EU scale, using a range of different modelling strategies. Model performance, as indicated by the regression statistics, was seen to be good, with R² typically in the order of 0.8-0.9 and SEE ca. 4000 people. In southern countries, especially, incorporation of light emissions data was found to improve model performance considerably compared to models based only on land cover data. More detailed post hoc validation in Great Britain, using independent data on population at census tract (enumeration district and output area) and postcode level, for 1991 and 2001, showed that models gave good predictions of population at the 1 km level (R² > 0.9), but were less reliable at resolutions below ca. 500 m. Impending enhancements in the available land cover and light emissions data are expected to improve the capability of this modelling approach in the future.     

The value of genuine and polite smiles.

Humans show remarkable ability to adapt their social behavior to suit the changing requirements of their interactions. An interaction partner's social cues, particularly facial expressions, likely play an important role in motivating and reinforcing this behavioral adaptation. Over three studies, we test a key aspect of this idea. Specifically, we ask how the reinforcement value of facial expressions compares to that of nonsocial feedback and to what degree two frequently occurring expressions (genuine and polite smiles) differ in reinforcement value. Our findings show that social feedback is preferred over nonsocial feedback and that genuine smiles are preferred over polite smiles. Based on a logistic model of our data, we show that both monetary and social values of stimuli contribute significantly to participants' decisions. Indeed, participants were willing to sacrifice the chance of a monetary reward to receive a genuine smile and produced inflated estimates of the value of genuinely smiling faces. These findings suggest that genuine smiles, and potentially other social cues, may be useful social reinforcers and therefore important in the control of social behavior on a moment-to-moment basis during interaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Automated training-set creation for software architecture traceability problem

Automated trace retrieval methods based on machine-learning algorithms can significantly reduce the cost and effort needed to create and maintain traceability links between requirements, architecture and source code. However, there is always an upfront cost to train such algorithms to detect relevant architectural information for each quality attribute in the code. In practice, training supervised or semi-supervised algorithms requires the expert to collect several files of architectural tactics that implement a quality requirement and train a learning method. Establishing such a training set can take weeks to months to complete. Furthermore, the effectiveness of this approach is largely dependent upon the knowledge of the expert. In this paper, we present three baseline approaches for the creation of training data. These approaches are (i) Manual Expert-Based, (ii) Automated Web-Mining, which generates training sets by automatically mining tactic’s APIs from technical programming websites, and lastly (iii) Automated Big-Data Analysis, which mines ultra-large scale code repositories to generate training sets. We compare the trace-link creation accuracy achieved using each of these three baseline approaches and discuss the costs and benefits associated with them. Additionally, in a separate study, we investigate the impact of training set size on the accuracy of recovering trace links. The results indicate that automated techniques can create a reliable training set for the problem of tracing architectural tactics.     

A posteriori error estimates for combined finite volume–finite element discretizations of reactive transport equations on nonmatching grids

We derive in this paper guaranteed and fully computable a posteriori error estimates for vertex-centered finite-volume-type discretizations of transient linear convection–diffusion–reaction equations. Our estimates enable actual control of the error measured either in the energy norm or in the energy norm augmented by a dual norm of the skew-symmetric part of the differential operator. Lower bounds, global-in-space but local-in-time, are also derived. These lower bounds are fully robust with respect to convection or reaction dominance and the final simulation time in the augmented norm setting. On the basis of the derived estimates, we propose an adaptive algorithm which enables to automatically achieve a user-given relative precision. This algorithm also leads to efficient calculations as it balances the time and space error contributions. As an example, we apply our estimates to the combined finite volume–finite element scheme, including such features as use of mass lumping for the time evolution or reaction terms, of upwind weighting for the convection term, and discretization on nonmatching meshes possibly containing nonconvex and non-star-shaped elements. A collection of numerical experiments illustrates the efficiency of our estimates and the use of the space–time adaptive algorithm.     

Children's emotion regulation: Self-report and physiological response to peer provocation.

The authors examined the notion that children's emotion regulation (ER) is a uniform skill by (a) investigating the concordance between self-report of ER and physiological measures and by (b) examining ER in a specific context (e.g., peer provocation) and context-free manner (e.g., during a semistructured interview of ER abilities). Seventy-two children in middle childhood (average age = 9 years) participated. Time-locked measures of heart rate reactivity and recovery were obtained in response to provoking comments, and vagal regulation was measured throughout the provocation session. Children who reported greater dysregulation showed increased heart rate reactivity to provocative comments (i.e., steeper heart rate slope) but no difference in heart rate recovery. The context-free but not the context-specific self-report measure was associated with a failure to suppress vagal tone. Implications for ER measurement and children's peer relations are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Periscope: supporting a computer enhanced field trip for children

This paper describes an interactive device, the Periscope, designed to be used as an educational tool featured during a children's digitally enhanced field trip in a woodland setting. The Periscope assembly, including a display and RFID equipped tangibles, is controlled using handles that enable it to be raised and rotated. The display is controlled by rotating the Periscope, or alternatively by twisting the handles. A set of tangibles, a collection of Petri dishes fitted with RFID tags, enable the children to carry out experiments with the results being shown on the display. Field trials are also outlined in which the effectiveness of this design is established. In conclusion, we discuss the aesthetic design issues raised by introducing digital technology into everyday environments.     

Monitoring land use and cover around parks: A conceptual approach

Many of the habitats and resources which influence ecological functioning within National Parks, and protected areas in general, are located outside of their borders in unprotected areas. Hence, land use and land cover changes in surrounding areas may substantially influence the natural resources within parks. The US National Park Service has recognized these threats and incorporated land use and land cover monitoring into its Inventory and Monitoring Program. The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework based on a conceptual approach for planning and implementing monitoring within this Program. We present a conceptual model, based on ecological theory, which illustrates how land use and land cover change impact park resources, and helps to identify monitoring indicators that will measure relevant attributes of land use and land cover change. We also discuss potential sources of data for quantifying indicators of land use and land cover change over time, including remote sensing data and ancillary spatial datasets. Finally, we describe steps for analyzing monitoring data so that the intensity and direction of changes in land use and land cover over time are quantified, as well as trends in the status of important park resources impacted by these changes. Integration of land use and land cover monitoring data and park resource data will allow for analysis of change from past to present, and can be used to project trends into the future to provide knowledge about potential land use and land cover change scenarios and ecological impacts. We illustrate our monitoring approach with an example from the Inventory and Monitoring Program's Greater Yellowstone Network.