Obituary: Jacquelin R. Goldman (1934–2008).

Presents an obituary for Jacquelin R. Goldman, professor emeritus in the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology and the Department of Psychology at the University of Florida, died November 3, 2008, at the age of 74 in Gainesville, Florida. She spent her entire career of 35-plus years at the University of Florida. She mentored 24 doctoral students, authored and edited three psychology textbooks, and published more than 40 professional articles and book chapters. She was an active contributor to university governance and was involved in teaching, research, clinical supervision, and the provision of clinical services to children. She was also an active contributor to the profession, having served as president of the Florida State Board of Examiners of Psychology (1975–1977), chair of the Southeastern Regional Board of the American Board of Professional Psychology (1983–1993), and president of the American Board of Professional Psychology (1990–1991), among other professional involvements. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Test-retest stability of injured workers' MMPI-2 profiles.

94 workers completed the (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2) MMPI-2 on 2 separate occasions, with an average lag of 21.3 months (SD?=?14.1, range--2-75), within the context of a psychological assessment after suffering an injury due to crime or accident. MMPI-2 profiles were moderately consistent, with correlation coefficients ranging from .61 to .73 for clinical scales, from .52 to .80 for supplementary scales, from .65 to .78 for content scales, and from .32 to .73 for the Personality Psychopathology Five scales (A. R. Harkness et al, 1995). The results suggest that the MMPI 2 provides consistent and stable results across time in injured workers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Improving biomolecular pattern discovery and visualization with hybrid self-adaptive networks

There is an increasing need to develop powerful techniques to improve biomedical pattern discovery and visualization. This paper presents an automated approach, based on hybrid self-adaptive neural networks, to pattern identification and visualization for biomolecular data. The methods are tested on two datasets: leukemia expression data and DNA splice-junction sequences. Several supervised and unsupervised models are implemented and compared. A comprehensive evaluation study of some of their intrinsic mechanisms is presented. The results suggest that these tools may be useful to support biological knowledge discovery based on advanced classification and visualization tasks.     

Significance of a behavioral economic index of reward value in predicting drinking problem resolution.

This study investigated whether a behavioral economic index of the value of rewards available over different time horizons improved prediction of drinking outcomes beyond established biopsychosocial predictors. Preferences for immediate drinking versus more delayed rewards made possible by saving money were determined from expenditures prior to resolution attempts by problem drinkers with different help-seeking experiences (N = 144). As hypothesized, stable resolutions over a 2-year follow-up were associated with proportionally more preresolution discretionary expenditures on savings and less on alcohol compared with unstable resolutions. The relationship held regardless of help-seeking history, and preresolution drinking practices, problems, and income were similar across outcomes. The findings extend experimental work on behavioral economics and indicate that measuring monetary allocation improves prediction of outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bringing forth worlds

Kress encourages us to understand writing as “transformative engagement in the world,” and his emphasis on the materiality of modes draws our attention to the multiple possibilities offered by different materials and sensory channels. Writing involves the transformation of all aspects of the resources for meaning; thus writing is always an ethical act, and the worlds that different cultures and communities bring forth through their semiotic work offer different possibilities of being.     

A security analysis of the Internet Chess Club

The Internet Chess Club (ICC) is a popular online chess server that started its existence in the early 1990s as the Internet chess server. Although the ICC Web site assures its users that the security protocol employed between the client and the server protects sensitive information, the authors show that this isn't true. This article examines two security aspects of the ICC. In moving from a free service to a commercial one, ICC's administrators introduced several enhancements to the original system, including time-stamping, a network security protocol, and online payments.     

AudioBrowser: a mobile browsable information access for the visually impaired

Although a large amount of research has been conducted on building interfaces for the visually impaired that allows users to read web pages and generate and access information on computers, little development addresses two problems faced by the blind users. First, sighted users can rapidly browse and select information they find useful, and second, sighted users can make much useful information portable through the recent proliferation of personal digital assistants (PDAs). These possibilities are not currently available for blind users. This paper describes an interface that has been built on a standard PDA and allows its user to browse the information stored on it through a combination of screen touches coupled with auditory feedback. The system also supports the storage and management of personal information so that addresses, music, directions, and other supportive information can be readily created and then accessed anytime and anywhere by the PDA user. The paper describes the system along with the related design choices and design rationale. A user study is also reported.     

Sex- and site-dependent variations in the thickness and mechanical properties of human skin in vivo

A new method for the in vivo characterization of the physical properties of skin is presented. This comprises an ultrasound device to measure the vertical displacement of the surface of the skin, as well as its thickness and that of the hypodermis under suction. In combination with this, a mathematical model is used to calculate the following skin parameters: Young's modulus, the initial stress and an index of non-elasticity. These parameters were evaluated from the volar forearm and the forehead of 30 male and 30 females, of similar ages (28 +/- 6-years-old). The sensitivity of the testing procedure, allowing the characterization of the mechanical parameters of the skin, easily differentiated these two sites, and in some cases, differences between women and men were demonstrated. The main results showed for both sexes that the thickness (P = 0.0001), Young's modulus (P = 0.0001), and the index of non-elasticity (P = 0.0001) were greater for the forehead than for the ventral forearm, but that the initial stress was lower (P = 0.0001). The results show that the skin is thicker, stiffer and less tense and elastic on the forehead than on the ventral forearm, suggesting structural differences between these two sites (collagen fibre network, elastic fibres, epidermis, stratum corneum, microvascularization, actinic damage, presence of sebaceous glands, etc.). It is hoped that this device will be useful for the evaluation of certain skin disorders (scleroderma, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, cutis laxa, oedema, etc.) and their therapy, as well as being a useful tool in skin ageing and cosmetic product assessment.     

Design and Use of Linear Models for Image Motion Analysis

Linear parameterized models of optical flow, particularly affine models, have become widespread in image motion analysis. The linear model coefficients are straightforward to estimate, and they provide reliable estimates of the optical flow of smooth surfaces. Here we explore the use of parameterized motion models that represent much more varied and complex motions. Our goals are threefold: to construct linear bases for complex motion phenomena; to estimate the coefficients of these linear models; and to recognize or classify image motions from the estimated coefficients. We consider two broad classes of motions: i) generic motion features such as motion discontinuities and moving bars; and ii) non-rigid, object-specific, motions such as the motion of human mouths. For motion features we construct a basis of steerable flow fields that approximate the motion features. For object-specific motions we construct basis flow fields from example motions using principal component analysis. In both cases, the model coefficients can be estimated directly from spatiotemporal image derivatives with a robust, multi-resolution scheme. Finally, we show how these model coefficients can be use to detect and recognize specific motions such as occlusion boundaries and facial expressions.     

Breast disease: dynamic spiral MR imaging

The cochleo- and tonotopic organization of the second auditory area (AII) was investigated in cats anaesthetized with pentobarbital using a combination of macro- and microelectrode recording technique. The results obtained following electrical stimulation of the neural fibres innervating different regions of the organ of Corti indicate the existence of two complete representations of the cochlea in area AII: one in the dorsocaudal portion, the other in its ventrorostral portion. These two cortical representations of the cochlea differ in size and spatial orientation. The dorsocaudal projection area extends over a distance of 2.6-3.2 mm from the basal to the apical focus and is arc-shaped. The spatial orientation of cochlea representation within the dorsocaudal region of AII is similar to that described in AI, in that stimulation of the cochlea base results in maximal responses in the more rostral portion of AII and stimulation of the apex evokes cortical responses more caudally. The ventrorostral region within AII is smaller (1.4-2.5 mm length), and has the opposite cochleotopic orientation (base and apex stimulation represented caudally and rostrally, respectively). In both AII zones, there was a proportionally greater cortical representation of basilar membrane than of middle and apical portions. Although two distinct zones with the overall cochleotopic pattern described above were noted in all cats, their precise size and location considerably varied in different animals. Using microelectrode recordings, a cortical tonotopic organization can be observed that was consistent with and expanded on the earlier cochleotopic data. Within the dorsocaudal region of AII, neurons with higher best frequency responses were located in more rostral regions, while those with lower best frequencies were located caudally. An orderly progression of best frequency responses was noted as serial recordings carried out along the full extent of the representation. Neurons within the ventrorostral region of AII also displayed an orderly progression of best frequencies, but in the opposite direction, with higher best frequencies noted more caudally and lower best frequencies more rostrally.