Do prospective workday appraisals influence end-of-workday affect and self-monitored performance?

The current study uses self-regulation as the basis for a model that examines the influence of three types of workday appraisals (resource, task, and response). At the beginning of their workday, a total of 170 faculty, graduate students, and staff of a university completed appraisal ratings of their anticipated workday tasks, resources, and responses. At the end of the workday, they completed assessments of positive and negative affect and self-monitored performance. Results suggested that resource appraisals of control and skills were predictive of task appraisals of difficulty, threat, and ambiguity. Task appraisals were then predictive of both response appraisals, in terms of anticipated support and effort, and self-monitored performance at the end of the day. Anticipated effort and self-monitored performance were both positively related to positive affect at the end of the day. Anticipated support and self-monitored performance were both negatively related to negative affect at the end of the day, while threat task appraisals were positively related to negative affect. Implications of the results for workplace interventions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distribution of Nitrosomonas europaea and Nitrobacter winogradskyi in an autotrophic nitrifying biofilm reactor as depicted by molecular analyses and mathematical modelling

The autotrophic two-species biofilm from the packed bed reactor of a life-support system, containing Nitrosomonas europaea ATCC 19718 and Nitrobacter winogradskyi ATCC 25391, was analysed after 4.8 years of continuous operation performing complete nitrification. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (Q-PCR) was used to quantify N. europaea and N. winogradskyi along the vertical axis of the reactor, revealing a spatial segregation of N. europaea and N. winogradskyi. The main parameters influencing the spatial segregation of both nitrifiers along the bed were assessed through a multi-species one-dimensional biofilm model generated with AQUASIM software. The factor that contributed the most to this distribution profile was a small deviation from the flow pattern of a perfectly mixed tank towards plug-flow. The results indicate that the model can estimate the impact of specific biofilm parameters and predict the nitrification efficiency and population dynamics of a multispecies biofilm.     

The Use of Duo-Functional PVC Film for Conservation of Minimally Processed Apples

Several conservation strategies regarding minimally processed vegetables (MPV) are applied keep organoleptic features and quality, in particular the use of active packaging to slow down enzymatic browning reactions and microbial growth. Based on such context, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) films with antimicrobial and antibrowning properties—due to the addition of a mix of additives (MA) that comprise pure (KM) and encapsulated (EKM) potassium metabisulfite—are the core of the current study to find out their influence on the quality parameters applied to minimally processed apples. The sol–gel method was used in the encapsulation process and the PVC films were prepared by applying 0.1 (w/w; F01), 1.0 (w/w; F1), and 2.0 (w/w; F2) of MA (KM and EKM), as well as the use of control film, for industrial extrusion processing. The EKM was chemically and morphologically characterized and the mechanical properties of the films were set. Minimally processed apples were prepared and packed in films for 20 days. The prepared packages were stored at different temperatures and evaluated for color variations as well as for chemical and microbiological quality. The encapsulation process increased the additive's thermal resistance. It also preserved the main characteristics of the additives that were incorporated into the process. It did not interfere in the machinability conditions of the films. The outcomes showed satisfactory effects regarding the maintenance of color and microbiological qualities. The F2 film could show toxicological safety for the minimally processed apples for 10 days at 8 °C. Therefore, duofunctional films are a good alternative for minimally processed apples storage.     

A comparative study of two polyelectrolyte complexes

Interpenetrating polymeric networks (IPNs) based on natural sodium alginate (NaAlg) biopolymer matrix and synthetic hydrophilic polymer were synthesized using sequential method. Poly(acryloxyethyl‐trimethylammonium chloride‐co‐2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (poly(Q‐co‐H)) with high content of quaternary ammonium groups (Q units) was used as a synthetic polymer for the purpose. Since NaAlg has anionic nature and poly(Q‐co‐H) is a polycation polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) was also prepared via ion interaction between these natural and synthetic components by mixing their water solutions. The all prepared materials were characterized by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR‐FTIR). The comparative analysis of IPNs of different compositions was carried out. Behavior of IPNs was also compared to PEC, material obtained via simple ionic interaction between oppositely charged polymers. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012     

The effect of water on the performance of TiO2 in photocatalytic selective alkane oxidation

Deactivation of TiO₂ is hampering practical implementation of photocatalytic alternatives for energetically intensive selective oxidation processes. In the present study, humidification of the air stream is demonstrated to be a solution to this problem for well-defined photocatalysts, such as Solaronix TiO₂, in selective oxidation of cyclohexane. Water establishes enhanced product desorption and stimulates decomposition of deactivating surface carboxylate species, as clearly demonstrated by ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. For high surface area TiO₂, such as Hombikat UV100, water molecules adsorb too strongly, and addition of water vapor to the air stream is detrimental to catalyst performance.     

Secondhand smoke exposure in Mexican discotheques.

This study describes the impact of exposure to secondhand smoke for subjects who spend time in a discotheque, by comparing within-subject baseline and postexposure urinary cotinine levels. A total of 100 nonsmoking volunteers from a central region of Mexico provided a urine sample before entering a discotheque and another sample an average of 6 hr after the end of exposure. Concentrations of cotinine and its metabolite, trans-3'-hydroxycotinine, were measured in the urine by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. In females the average preexposure level of urinary cotinine was 2.2 ng/ml, and the average postexposure level was significantly higher, at 15.7 ng/ml. In males the average preexposure level of cotinine was 3.7 ng/ml, compared with 49.1 ng/ml in the postexposure assessment. The highest postexposure values were found in men younger than 22 years old with a value of 469.5 ng/ml. Exposure to secondhand smoke is a serious health risk. Our findings are important given that many of our subjects were exposed to substantial amounts of secondhand smoke in discotheques, as evidenced by the high urinary cotinine and 3'-hydroxycotinine concentrations. These findings support the need to prohibit smoking in discotheques to protect nonsmokers' health.     

Synchronous cellular automata-based scheduler initialized by heuristic and modeled by a pseudo-linear neighborhood

Cellular automata (CA) are able to produce a global behavior from local interactions between their units. They have been applied to the task scheduling problem in multiprocessor systems in a very distinguished way. As this problem is NP-Complete, heuristics and meta-heuristics are usually employed. However, these techniques must always start the scheduling process from scratch for each new parallel application given as input. On the other hand, the main advantage to use CA for scheduling is the discovery of rules while solving one application and their subsequent reuse in other instances. Recently studies related to CA-based scheduling have shown relevant approaches as the use of synchronous updating in CA evolution and good results in multiprocessor systems with two processors. However, some aspects, such as the low performance of CA-based schedulers in architectures with more than two processors and during the reuse of the discovered rules, need to be investigated. This paper presents two new models to improve CA-based scheduling to deal with such aspects. The first proposal refers to the employment of a construction heuristic to initialize CA evolution and the second one is a new neighborhood model able to capture the dependence and relations strength among the tasks in a very simple way. It was named pseudo-linear neighborhood. An extensive experimental evaluation was performed using graphs of parallel programs found in the literature and new ones randomly generated. Experimental analysis showed the combined application of both techniques makes the search for CA transition rules during learning stage more robust and leads to a significant gain when considering the reuse of them on real-world conditions.     

Mutagenic activity removal of selected disperse dye by photoeletrocatalytic treatment

The degradation of black dye commercial product (BDCP) composed of C.I. Disperse Blue 373, C.I. Disperse Orange 37, C.I. Disperse Violet 93 dyes was investigated by photoelectrocatalysis process. The dyes have shown high mutagenic activity with Salmonella strain YG1041 and TA98 with and without S9. Samples of BCPD dye submitted to conventional chlorination and photoelectrocatalytic oxidation were compared monitoring its products by HPLC using a diode array detector, spectrophotometry UV–vis, TOC removal, and mutagenicity potency. The photoelectrocatalytic method operating with Ti/TiO₂ as anode at +1.0 V and UV illumination presented fast oxidation of test solutions containing 10 mg L⁻¹ of dye in 0.1 mol L⁻¹ NaCl pH 4.0 leading to 100% of discoloration, 67% of mineralization, and negative response to all tested Salmonella strains. The formation of Cl^•, CL₂ ^• on photoelectrocatalytic medium improved the efficiency of the method in relation to conventional chlorination method that promoted 100% of discoloration, but only 8% of TOC removal and more mutagenic product.     

Ring opening metathesis copolymerization of norbornene with norbornadiene from solutions with different mole fractions of the comonomers catalyzed by Ru‐amine complexes

Copolymers from norbornene (NBE) with norbornadiene (NBD) were synthesized via ring opening metathesis copolymerization varying the mole fractions of the comonomers (0.8 : 0.2; 0.6 : 0.4; 0.4 : 0.6; 0.2 : 0.8) for a total monomer quantity of 5000 equivalents/[Ru]. The batch reactions were performed with [RuCl₂(PPh₃)₂(amine)] complex types as precatalysts, where amine is perhydroazepine ( 1 ) or piperidine ( 2 ), in CHCl₃ (2 mL) in the presence of ethyl diazoacetate (5 μL) for different intervals of times (5, 30, 60, and 120 min) at 40°C. The copolymers were characterized by ¹³C NMR. Quantitative yields of isolated materials were obtained from solutions with NBD : NBE 0.8 : 0.2 mole fraction in the presence of 1, decreasing to 70% for NBD : NBE 0.2 : 0.8 solutions. Concerning 2 , the yields were 70% at most. Polymeric materials obtained with 1 were less soluble in CHCl₃ than those synthesized with 2 . The dependence of the reaction yields and occurrence of crosslinking on the starting NBE : NBD proportion related to reactivity of the complexes 1 and 2 were discussed. A few differences in the amines such as ancillary ligands were sufficient to change the reactivity of the {RuCl₂(PPh₃)} moiety complex to provide copolymers with different compositions. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013     

Correlation Between Photoluminescence and Structural Defects in Ca1+xCu3−xTi4O12 Systems

Ca_1+xCu_{3 ? x}Ti₄O₁₂ powders were synthesized by a conventional solid‐state reaction. X‐ray diffraction (XRD) was performed to verify the formation of cubic CaCu₃Ti₄O₁₂ (CCTO) and orthorhombic CaTiO₃ (CTO) phases at long range. Rietveld refinements indicate that excess Ca atoms added to the Ca_{1 ? x}Cu_{3 ? x}Ti₄O₁₂ (x  =  1.0) composition segregated in a CaTiO₃ secondary phase suggesting that solubility limit of Ca atoms in the CaCu₃Ti₄O₁₂ lattice was reached for this system. The FE‐SEM images show that the Ca_1+xCu_{3 ? x}Ti₄O₁₂ (0  <  x  <  3) powders are composed of several agglomerated particles with irregular morphology. X‐ray absorption near‐edge structure spectroscopy (XANES) spectra indicated [TiO₅V_o^z]‐[TiO₆] complex clusters in the CaCu₃Ti₄O₁₂ structure which can be associated with oxygen vacancies (V_o^z  =  V_o^x, V_o^?, and V_o^??) whereas in the CaTiO₃ powder, this analysis indicated [TiO₆]–[TiO₆] complex clusters in the structure. Ultraviolet‐visible (UV–vis) spectra and photoluminescence (PL) measurements for the analyzed systems revealed structural defects such as oxygen vacancies, distortions, and/or strains in CaCu₃Ti₄O₁₂ and CaTiO₃ lattices, respectively.