Effects of humor on sentence memory.

Memory for humorous and nonhumorous versions of sentences was compared. Humorous sentences were better remembered than the nonhumorous sentences on both free- and cued-recall tests and on measures of sentence recall and word recall. These effects persisted when Ss were warned that they were about to read a humorous sentence but were attenuated in incidental learning and limited to within-Ss manipulations. In incidental learning, recall was also scored as a function of subjective ratings of humor. Subjective humor affected memory in both within- and between-Ss designs. Attention, arousal, rehearsal, retrieval, and surprise explanations were explored. Results suggest that humorous material receives both increased attention and rehearsal relative to nonhumorous material. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Time consumption at an orthopedic operating theatre. Physicians' ability to predict their own time consumption

The aim of the study was to investigate the time spent on different procedures in an orthopaedic operating theatre, and to evaluate the ability of doctors to predict their own time consumption. Time schedules were registered for 146 operations, of these 104 were either knee or hip replacements. Sixty percent of the total time was spent on surgery. The median misjudgment was 15 minutes for surgeons and five minutes for anaesthetists. An improvement in the doctors' ability to predict their own time consumption in the course of the study period could not be demonstrated. Comparing the study period with the similar period the year before it was not possible to demonstrate a change in the number of cancelled operations or the number of days with overtime. Epidural anaesthesia with bupivacaine was the most time consuming anaesthesia, the differences between the other forms of anaesthesia used were insignificant.     

The folding of centromeric DNA strands into intercalated structures: a physicochemical and computational study

We have carried out a physicochemical and computational analysis on the stability of the intercalated structures formed by cytosine-rich DNA strands. In the computational study, the electrostatic energy components have been calculated using a Poisson-Boltzmann model, and the non-polar energy components have been computed with a van der Waals function and/or a term dependent on the solvent-accessible surface area of the molecules. The results have been compared with those obtained for Watson-Crick duplexes and with thermodynamic data derived from UV experiments. We have found that intercalated DNA is mainly stabilized by very favorable electrostatic interactions between hydrogen-bonded protonated and neutral cytosines, and by non-polar forces including the hydrophobic effect and enhanced van der Waals contacts. Cytosine protonation electrostatically promotes the association of DNA strands into a tetrameric structure. The electrostatic interactions between stacked C.C+ pairs are strongly attenuated by the reaction field of the solvent, and are modulated by a complex interplay of geometric and protonation factors. The forces stabilizing intercalated DNA must offset an entropic penalty due to the uptake of protons for cytosine protonation, at neutral pH, and also the electrostatic contribution to the solvation free energy. The latter energy component is less favorable for protonated DNA due to the partial neutralization of the negative charge of the molecule, and probably affects other protonated DNA and RNA structures such as C+-containing triplexes.     

Phenylketonuria: findings at MR imaging and localized in vivo H-1 MR spectroscopy of the brain in patients with early treatment

PURPOSE: To characterize white matter changes in early-treated phenylketonuria (PKU) with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and hydrogen-1 MR spectroscopy and to correlate these findings to biochemical control and brain function. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifty-one patients aged 12-33 years underwent T1-, T2-, and proton-density-weighted MR imaging and testing of intelligence, visual evoked potentials (VEPs), and neuropsychologic status (29 adult patients only). H-1 MR spectroscopy was performed in eight patients to determine brain metabolite concentrations, including phenylalanine (PHE) concentration, and brain compartmentation. RESULTS: MR imaging revealed a high frequency of supra- and infratentorial abnormalities. MR imaging grade, which was based on areas of high signal intensity on T2-weighted images, showed statistically significant correlation with long-term biochemical control and neuropsychologic test results but not with intelligence quotient or VEPs. H-1 MR spectroscopy revealed normal metabolite levels, except for increased PHE levels. It also showed enlarged cerebrospinal fluid-like compartments in affected white matter, related to plasma and brain concentrations of PHE and MR imaging grades. CONCLUSION: A synergistic use of MR imaging and MR spectroscopy may help elucidate both the pathogenesis of brain dysfunction and clinical treatment policies in PKU.     

Workflow interoperability standards for the Internet

Efforts toward defining a standard for workflow interoperability began in 1994 with the Workflow Reference Model from the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC). From that model other standardization efforts have evolved: from OMG's jointflow specification to the simple Workflow Access Protocol. The WfMC's Wf-XML focuses on a simple subset of SWAP for a first version of a standard, with the aim of future extension     

Planung und Betriebsoptimierung von Verteilungsnetzen im liberalisierten Markt unter Nutzung neuer Technologien

Ohne Zusammenfassung Kurzfassung eines Vortrags, gehalten anl?sslich der gemeinsamen Fachtagung der Energietechnischen Gesellschaften des ?VE, SEV und VDE „Netze im 3. Jahrtausend — Technik und Wirtschaft” (gleichzeitig 38. Fachtagung der ?sterreichischen Gesellschaft für Energietechnik im ?VE), die vom 15. bis 17. November 2000 in Innsbruck stattfindet.     

Finite-Elemente-Analyse einer Transversalflussmaschine

An efficient and resource saving method to generate the different angular rotor positions of a transverse flux machine with a 3D finite element model is presented. The calculations are performed with the superelement analysis of the EMAS solver. From the magnetostatic results the torque-position relationships and the stray field energy in the rotor shaft are evaluated in the steady state condition for different values of the excitation current.