Global effect of a nearby distractor on targeting eye and hand movements.

Eye-hand coordination was investigated with the global effect paradigm. In this paradigm, saccades typically land in between the target and a nearby presented distractor, the configuration's center of gravity. This so-called global effect, or spatial averaging, is attributed to incomplete target selection. Four experiments demonstrated a similar effect for hand movements; thus, eye and hand are coupled during target selection. However, under some conditions the global effect was different for eye and hand, suggesting that their coupling is not achieved through a shared target representation. Instead, eye and hand seem to use 2 separate target representations that exchange information. The convergent amplitudes of eye and hand with simultaneous execution support this interpretation. Latencies showed a similar converging pattern. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The ideal of resilient systems and questions of continuity

The importance of resilience is contextualized within the sustainable long-term management of the built environment. The built environment is considered as a set of different capitals (natural, physical, economic, social and cultural) with limited possibilities for substitution between the capitals. Resilience is related to other concepts used in the search for a sustainable development of the built environment: continuity, stability and equilibrium, duration and durability, robustness and vulnerability, fast- and slow-moving risks. Cultural capital (in its material and intangible forms) as well as natural capital are significant due to long foresight considerations, high uncertainty and limitations on substitutions. Different time and scale categories and the conservation of different capitals need different anticipation and resilience strategies. It is argued that natural and cultural capitals can be transmitted if they are conservatively used and if adaptation occurs slowly. Specific strategies are needed for the ‘non-recoverability’ of cultural capital.     

National assessment of early elementary teachers perceived self-efficacy for teaching tobacco prevention based on the CDC guidelines

A national random sample of 505 early elementary school teachers completed a 47-item survey to determine their perceived self-efficacy for teaching tobacco prevention education based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for grades K-3, their training status on tobacco prevention, and their level of teaching about tobacco prevention. Results indicated most of the teachers were female, White, held a bachelor's or master's degree, never smoked, and had not received formal tobacco prevention training. The teachers' scores were high for efficacy expectations, and for outcome expectations. Conversely, for outcome value, teachers ranked tobacco prevention fifth out of six health topics, as the most important health topic to teach elementary students. Also, teachers trained in four tobacco areas or more had statistically significantly higher scores for efficacy expectations than those trained in three or fewer areas. Statistically significant positive associations were also found between years of teaching tobacco prevention and efficacy and outcome expectation scores, and between the amount of time that tobacco prevention was taught during the past school year and outcome value.     

Towards psychology-aware preference construction in recommender systems: Overview and research issues

Journal of Intelligent Information Systems - User preferences are a crucial input needed by recommender systems to determine relevant items. In single-shot recommendation scenarios such as...     

Applying the fuzzy set theory for medium and small scale landscape assessment

The goal of a sustainable land use and landscape development can only be reached by re-establishing regulation functions. That is why it is necessary to assess such a function besides others (production, carrier, information) to derive different potentials for various parts of landscape properties and to promote these potentials by introducing relevant measures. A first step in this direction is to assess profoundly how capable landscape units are. Regarding landscape units as areas of assessment they have to be constant for a long time, especially along their boundaries. As land use changes profoundly on a large scale, landscape units have to be separated on a regional scale. Thinking in geographic dimensions it is the chronological level we have to work on. Unfortunately, there are no assessment methods for landscape functions in this dimension. Due to the fact that all traditional assessment procedures are only valid for small areas it is necessary to look for methods that are of value for larger areas too. The use of fuzzy set methods and fuzzy logic seems to be promising. Traditional assessment methods are taken and combined with fuzzy set theory to get results for larger landscape units. Taking the function of ground water protection as an example the method is exemplarily described and applied on landscape units in the agglomeration area of Leipzig–Halle in the central part of Eastern Germany. Finally, a suggestion for the cartographic implementation is given.     

Effect of dietary quebracho tannin extract on milk fatty acid composition in cows

The aim of this study was to examine the capacity of quebracho tannin extract (QTE) to modulate the fatty acid (FA) profile in the milk fat of cows. Fifty Holstein cows yielding 33.2 ± 8.2 kg/d of milk were divided into 2 groups. The cows were fed a basal diet with a forage-concentrate ratio of 66:34 on a dry matter (DM) basis. Diets tested were control (CON, basal diet without QTE) and basal diet plus 15 or 30 g of QTE/kg of DM (QTE₁₅ and QTE₃₀, respectively). Two treatments could be tested simultaneously and were arranged along 6 periods. The milk FA profile was characterized by increments in the proportion of linoleic (LA) and α-linolenic acid (α-LNA) (QTE₁₅ = 10 and 6.1%; QTE₃₀ = 28 and 25%, respectively) compared to CON, which might indicate reduced ruminal biohydrogenation (BH) of both dietary LA and α-LNA. Vaccenic acid (VA) in the milk fat was reduced (QTE₁₅ 8.9% and QTE₃₀ 12%) compared to CON, which may be linked to inhibited BH of LA and α-LNA. Rumenic acid (RA), a conjugated LA (cis-9,trans-11 conjugated linoleic acid) and an important human health promoter, was unfortunately decreased (QTE₁₅ 8.3% and QTE₃₀ 16%) in the milk compared with CON, probably because of inhibited ruminal BH of LA. However, reduced RA in the milk was probably due to reduced availability of VA produced in the rumen and the consequently low VA available to be desaturated to RA in the mammary gland by Δ⁹-desaturase. The proportions of total polyunsaturated FA were increased with QTE₁₅ and QTE₃₀ by 4.7 and 15% compared to CON, respectively, and the long-chain FA proportions were also increased (QTE₁₅ 2.0% and QTE₃₀ 8.2%). Moreover, myristic and palmitic acid were reduced by QTE₃₀ (9.6 and 3.3%, respectively) compared to CON, which also contributed to increasing the nutritional quality of milk because they are recognized to increase high-density lipoprotein in humans. Branched-chain FA in milk was reduced with QTE treatments, which indicates inhibited ruminal BH and microbial activity. In general, our findings suggest that dietary QTE have the potential to modulate FA profile of milk fat, and this effect is dosage dependent. Because QTE influenced the FA profile of milk fat both positively and negatively, further research is needed before concluding that QTE may improve the nutritional quality of cow milk fat in human diets.     

Reconstitution of the dynamics of an urban building stock

What are the patterns and influences on the lifespan of the building stock? This paper presents (1) the reconstitution of an urban building stock composed of more than 60 000 buildings, (2) the analysis of the development of this stock over a period of 180 years (constructions and demolitions), and (3) the analysis of building mortality patterns and reasons for demolition resulting from historic decisions and regimes. A method to reconstitute the stock from different data sources is presented. The mortality models take into account not only the present demolition rates and the age distribution of the ‘survivors' but also the disappeared buildings. The main results are new insights into the lifespan behaviour of buildings according to their period of construction (cohorts) as well as the reasons for demolition. The demolitions do not show specific explanation patterns, but changing influences of the construction activities over time. The average demolition age of all buildings in Zurich, Switzerland, decreased from over 200 years to fewer than 70 years. A total of 18 000 buildings have been demolished over the 180-year period. The presented methods and results can be integrated in multidimensional geographical information systems (GIS) as comprehensive planning, scenario and regulatory tools.     

A Survey of Cardiac 4D PC‐MRI Data Processing

Cardiac four‐dimensional phase‐contrast magnetic resonance imaging (4D PC‐MRI) acquisitions have gained increasing clinical interest in recent years. They allow to non‐invasively obtain extensive information about patient‐specific hemodynamics, and thus have a great potential to improve the diagnosis, prognosis and therapy planning of cardiovascular diseases. A dataset contains time‐resolved, three‐dimensional blood flow directions and strengths, making comprehensive qualitative and quantitative data analysis possible. Quantitative measures, such as stroke volumes, help to assess the cardiac function and to monitor disease progression. Qualitative analysis allows to investigate abnormal flow characteristics, such as vortices, which are correlated to different pathologies. Processing the data comprises complex image processing methods, as well as flow analysis and visualization. In this work, we mainly focus on the aorta. We provide an overview of data measurement and pre‐processing, as well as current visualization and quantification methods. This allows other researchers to quickly catch up with the topic and take on new challenges to further investigate the potential of 4D PC‐MRI data.     

Amide Neighbouring‐Group Effects in Peptides: Phenylalanine as Relay Amino Acid in Long‐Distance Electron Transfer

In nature, proteins serve as media for long‐distance electron transfer (ET) to carry out redox reactions in distant compartments. This ET occurs either by a single‐step superexchange or through a multi‐step charge hopping process, which uses side chains of amino acids as stepping stones. In this study we demonstrate that Phe can act as a relay amino acid for long‐distance electron hole transfer through peptides. The considerably increased susceptibility of the aromatic ring to oxidation is caused by the lone pairs of neighbouring amide carbonyl groups, which stabilise the Phe radical cation. This neighbouring‐amide‐group effect helps improve understanding of the mechanism of extracellular electron transfer through conductive protein filaments (pili) of anaerobic bacteria during mineral respiration.