Effects of environmental support and strategy training on older adults' use of context.

Age-related cognitive differences may be due, in part, to difficulties using task-relevant context in a proactive manner. Two studies evaluated different methods for increasing older adults' use of context in the AX-Continuous Performance Task (H. E. Rosvold, A. F. Mirsky, I. Sarason, E. D. Bransome, & L. H. Beck, 1956), which evaluates components of context processing. The results suggest that (a) age differences in the use of context are not due to reduced access to cue information, (b) directed strategy training made older adults' context processing performance more like that of young adults, and (c) similar performance changes could be observed with less directed instruction and extended practice. These results suggest that age-related differences in context processing can be ameliorated by directed strategy training or extended practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

MMPI-2 random responding indices: Validation using a self-report methodology.

Investigated the validity of F, back F, and variable response inconsistency indices of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) for detection of self-reported partially random responding in several samples, including college students, community volunteers, and job applicants. Substantial numbers of Ss admitted to providing some random responses, with 29–60% of the various samples acknowledging an average of 12–38 random responses in their MMPI-2 answers. For all groups, with the expected exception of job applicants, the appropriate MMPI-2 validity indices were reliably and positively correlated with self-estimates of random responses. Available data suggested that random responding occurred most commonly toward the end of the test, although significant numbers indicated that they had scattered their random responses throughout the test. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Countercontrol treatment of sleep-maintenance insomnia in relation to age.

Administered countercontrol behavioral therapy for sleep-maintenance insomnia to 34 insomniacs (aged 35–78 yrs) in small groups. 22 Ss received immediate and 12 received delayed treatment. Three self-report measures of sleep disruption were collected on daily sleep diaries at baseline, termination of treatment, 1-mo follow-up, and 12-mo follow-up. Although amount of time awake at night was correlated with age, response to treatment was not. Even though older Ss experienced more time awake after sleep onset prior to treatment, they were able to profit from therapy as well as the younger insomniacs. Countercontrol therapy reduced the sleep complaint for the total group by about 30% at the end of treatment, with gradual improvement continuing through a 4-wk follow-up. It is suggested, however, that sleep-maintenance insomnia may be more difficult to treat than sleep-onset problems. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dissociative tendencies and dissociative disorders.

Although dissociative disorders are relatively rare, dissociative experiences are rather common in everyday life. Dissociative tendencies appear to be modestly related to other dimensions of personality, such as hypnotizability, absorption, fantasy proneness, and some facets of openness to experience. These dispositional variables may constitute diatheses, or risk factors, for dissociative psychopathology, but more complex models relating personality to psychopathology may be more appropriate. The dissociative disorders raise fundamental questions about the nature of self and identity and the role of consciousness and autobiographical memory in the continuity of personality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Great Lakes rivermouth ecosystems: Scientific synthesis and management implications

At the interface of the Great Lakes and their tributary rivers lies the rivermouths, a class of aquatic ecosystem where lake and lotic processes mix and distinct features emerge. Many rivermouths are the focal point of both human interaction with the Great Lakes and human impacts to the lakes; many cities, ports, and beaches are located in rivermouth ecosystems, and these human pressures often degrade key ecological functions that rivermouths provide. Despite their ecological uniqueness and apparent economic importance, there has been relatively little research on these ecosystems as a class relative to studies on upstream rivers or the open-lake waters. Here we present a synthesis of current knowledge about ecosystem structure and function in Great Lakes rivermouths based on studies in both Laurentian rivermouths, coastal wetlands, and marine estuarine systems. A conceptual model is presented that establishes a common semantic framework for discussing the characteristic spatial features of rivermouths. This model then is used to conceptually link ecosystem structure and function to ecological services provided by rivermouths. This synthesis helps identify the critical gaps in understanding rivermouth ecology. Specifically, additional information is needed on how rivermouths collectively influence the Great Lakes ecosystem, how human alterations influence rivermouth functions, and how ecosystem services provided by rivermouths can be managed to benefit the surrounding socioeconomic networks.     

Incorporation of engineering knowledge into the modeling process: a local approach

Process modelling is the foundation of developing process controllers for monitoring and improving process/system health. Modelling process behaviours using a pure empirical approach might not be feasible due to limitation in collecting large amount of data. Engineering models provide valuable information about processes’ general behaviours but they might not capture distinct characteristics in the particular process studied. Many recent publications presented various ideas of using limited experimental data to adjust engineering models for making them suitable for certain applications. However, the focuses there are global adjustments, where modification of engineering models impacts the entire model-application region. In practice, some engineering models are only valid in a part of experimental data domain. Moreover, many discrepancies between engineering models and experimental data are in local regions. For example, in a chemical vapour deposition process, at high temperatures a process may be described by a diffusion limited model, while at low temperatures the process may be described by a reaction limited model. To address these problems, this article proposes two approaches for integrating engineering and data models: local model calibration and local model averaging. Through the local model calibration, the discrepancies between engineering’s first-principle models and experimental data are resolved locally based on experts’ feedbacks. To combine models adjusted locally in some regions and also models required little adjustments in other regions, a model averaging procedure based on local kernel weights is proposed. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated on simulated examples, and compared against a well-known existing global-adjustment method.     

Parallel generation of meshes with cracks using binary spatial decomposition

This work describes a technique to generate tetrahedral meshes with cracks using parallel computers with distributed memory. This technique can be used for models without cracks as well. It employs a binary partitioning structure that uses axis-aligned planes to decompose the domain. Those decomposing planes are determined based on a refined octree that is built to estimate the amount of work necessary to generate the whole mesh, so that the amount of work in each subdomain is approximately the same. A serial advancing front technique is used in each subdomain concurrently, in such a way that the generated tetrahedra do not cross the decomposing planes. After local synchronizations, meshes are generated interfacing the subdomains. The results show that the prediction of the number of elements in each subdomain is accurate, leading to a well-balanced algorithm and to a good speed-up. Also, the meshes generated in parallel have very good quality, similar to the that of a serially generated mesh.     

Alkyl Formate Ester Synthesis by a Fungal Baeyer–Villiger Monooxygenase

We investigated Baeyer–Villiger monooxygenase (BVMO)‐mediated synthesis of alkyl formate esters, which are important flavor and fragrance products. A recombinant fungal BVMO from Aspergillus flavus was found to transform a selection of aliphatic aldehydes into alkyl formates with high regioselectivity. Near complete conversion of 10 mm octanal was achieved within 8 h with a regiomeric excess of ～80 %. Substrate concentration was found to affect specific activity and regioselectivity of the BVMO, as well as the rate of product autohydrolysis to the primary alcohol. More than 80 % conversion of 50 mm octanal was reached after 72 h (TTN nearly 20 000). Biotransformation on a 200 mL scale under unoptimized conditions gave a space‐time yield (STY) of 4.2 g L^?1 d^?1 (3.4 g L^?1 d^?1 extracted product).     

TiF4 gel effects on tubular occlusion of eroded/abraded human dentin

This in situ study evaluated the tubular occlusion caused by 4% TiF₄ gel on the surface of eroded/abraded dentin. Sixty human dentin samples were eroded in vitro and assigned into six groups (n = 10) according to the in situ surface treatment and number of cycling days: 4% TiF₄ gel applied once (TiF₄1), twice (TiF₄2), or three times (TiF₄3) followed by 2, 4, and 6 days of erosive/abrasive in situ cycling, respectively. Control groups (no treatment) were subjected to 2 (C1), 4 (C2), and 6 (C3) days of erosive/abrasive in situ cycling only. A seventh group (n = 10) was comprised by in vitro uneroded samples (UN), subjected to 6 days of in situ erosive/abrasive cycling. Each cycling day consisted on six erosive (0.5% citric acid, pH 2.6) and one abrasive events. Environmental scanning electron microscopy micrographs were taken. For all groups, blinded examiners assessed dentin tubules occlusion using visual scores (0—unoccluded, 1—partially occluded by granular deposits, 2—partially occluded by reduction in tubular lumen into diamond shape, 3—completely occluded) on images captured prior and after the in situ phase. Scheirer‐Ray‐Hare test demonstrated that treatments significantly affected tubule occlusion (p < .001). Dunn's test showed that tubule occlusion in TiF₄3 was significantly higher than in C1. Tubule occlusion in remaining groups did not differ from that observed in groups TiF₄3 and C1. Tubule occlusion was significantly higher after in situ phase. It may be suggested that TiF₄, when applied three times, was able to positively change tubule occlusion of dentin samples.