Beyond simple pessimism: Effects of sadness and anger on social perception.

In keeping with cognitive appraisal models of emotion, it was hypothesized that sadness and anger would exert different influences on causal judgments. Two experiments provided initial support for this hypothesis. Sad Ss perceived situationally-caused events as more likely (Exp 1) and situational forces more responsible for an ambiguous event (Exp 2) than angry Ss, who, in contrast, perceived events caused by humans as more likely and other people as more responsible. Exps 3, 4, and 5 showed that the experience of these emotions, rather than their cognitive constituents, mediates these effects. The nonemotional exposure to situational or human agency information did not influence causal judgments (Exp 3), whereas the induction of sadness and anger without explicit agency information did (Exps 4 and 5). Discussion is focused on the influence of emotion on social judgment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Remarkable Vapochromic Behavior of Pure Organic Octahedron Embedded in Porous Frameworks

Vapochromic behavior is employed to selectively monitor the vapor changes in surrounding environment, particularly for toxic gas leaking and floating detection. Thus, sensitive trapping and accurate response to different toxic vapors are critical factors in vapochromic sensing. In this work, a self‐assembled hybrid that consists of fluorescent organic octahedron encapsulated by metal–organic polyhedron (MOP) is reported. The fluorescent octahedron is used as a responsive sensor to probe various solvent vapors, while the MOP is employed as a protector to prevent the corrosion of solvents to the organic octahedron. The hybrid exhibits remarkable vapochromic behavior to different solvents, and shows the highest selectivity and sensitivity specifically to acetone. In addition, acetone vapor under different conditions is utilized for further studying the response mechanism of the hybrid. This work presents a promising vapochromic sensor with good stability, selectivity, and sensitivity. The study is expected to open up the applicability of MOP‐based hybrids for specific molecular capture, interim storage, controlled release, and advanced sensing.     

Kindle in the Writing Classroom

The authors, two librarians and one English department faculty member, received a grant to purchase of a set of e-book readers, Amazon's Kindle 3.0, to be used as an integral part of the writing classroom experience for students. In a literature and composition class held in the spring of 2011, students were loaned Kindles to read all of their class texts. Students’ attitudes towards technology and their experience with the Kindle was assessed through three online surveys and a focus group to track any changes over time to discover what effect if any, using a Kindle had on their reading, writing, and class discussion experience. The instructor also contributed his thoughts on how using the Kindle in the classroom changed his pedagogical approach. A concurrent program to lend Kindles at the library is briefly described.     

Escherichia coli (E. coli) distribution in the Lake Malawi nearshore zone

Residents along the shoreline of Lake Malawi depend on nearshore water for drinking, cooking, and bathing. Despite the importance of clean nearshore waters to public health, we are aware of no published studies of shoreline water quality in the lake. To address this gap, we explore seasonal and temporal trends of the fecal indicator bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli) in nearshore water and sand. E. coli concentrations in sand ranged from 0 to 17,600 colony forming units (CFU)/100?ml, and in water concentrations ranged from 0 to 21,200?CFU/100?ml. Fifty-three percent of water samples exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Recreational Water Quality Criteria of 126?CFU/100?ml, and 90% exceeded the World Health Organization drinking water standard of 0?CFU/100?ml. Distance from shore was the variable most predictive of E. coli concentration, with the level of beach use also playing a significant role. At 15?m from the shore, E. coli concentrations dropped to between 0.3% and 17% of shoreline values. Results suggest that the collection of water at distances >15?m from the beach could substantially decrease exposure to fecal bacteria. Further studies are needed to identify sources of fecal pollution and to determine the utility of E. coli as a predictor of the potential for waterborne disease.     

Skin cancer extraction with optimum fuzzy thresholding technique

This paper discusses a new approach to segment different types of skin cancers using fuzzy logic approach. The traditional skin cancer segmentation involves the analysis of image features to delineate the cancerous region from the normal skin. Using low level features such as colour and intensity, segmentation can be done by obtaining a threshold level to separate the two regions. Methods like Otsu optimisation provide a quick and simple process to optimise such threshold level; however this process is prone to the lighting and skin tone variations. Fuzzy clustering algorithm has also been widely used in image processing due to its ability to model the fuzziness of human visual perception. Classical fuzzy C means (FCM) clustering algorithm has been applied to image segmentation with good results; however, the classical FCM is based on type-1 fuzzy sets and is unable to handle uncertainties in the images. In this paper, we proposed an optimum threshold segmentation algorithm based on type-2 fuzzy sets algorithms to delineate the cancerous area from the skin images. By using the 3D colour constancy algorithm, the effect of colour changes and shadows due to skin tone variation in the image can be significantly reduced in the preprocessing stage. We applied the optimum thresholding technique to the preprocessed image over the RGB channels, and combined individual results to achieve the overall skin cancer segmentation. Compared to the Otsu algorithm, the proposed method is less affected by the shadows and skin tone variations. The results also showed more tolerance at the boundary of the cancerous area. Compared with the type-1 FCM algorithm, the proposed method significantly reduced the segmentation error at the normal skin regions.     

Culture and mixed emotions: Co-occurrence of positive and negative emotions in Japan and the United States.

Previous cross-cultural comparisons of correlations between positive and negative emotions found that East Asians are more likely than Americans to feel dialectical emotions. However, not much is known about the co-occurrence of positive and negative emotions in a given situation. When asked to describe situations in which they felt mixed emotions, Japanese and American respondents listed mostly similar situations. By presenting these situations to another group of respondents, we found that Japanese reported more mixed emotions than Americans in the predominantly pleasant situations, whereas there were no cultural differences in mixed emotions in the predominantly unpleasant situations or the mixed situations. The appraisal of self-agency mediated cultural differences in mixed emotions in the predominantly pleasant situations. Study 2 replicated the findings by asking participants to recall how they felt in their past pleasant, unpleasant, and mixed situations. The findings suggest that both Americans and Japanese feel mixed emotions, but the kinds of situation in which they typically do so depends on culture. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using economic valuation techniques to inform water resources management: a survey and critical appraisal of available techniques and an application

The need for economic analysis for the design and implementation of efficient water resources management policies is well documented in the economics literature. This need is also emphasised in the European Union's recent Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC), and is relevant to the objectives of Euro-limpacs, an EU funded project which inter alia, aims to provide a decision-support system for valuing the effects of future global change on Europe's freshwater ecosystems. The purpose of this paper is to define the role of economic valuation techniques in assisting in the design of efficient, equitable and sustainable policies for water resources management in the face of environmental problems such as pollution, intensive land use in agriculture and climate change. The paper begins with a discussion of the conceptual economic framework that can be used to inform water policy-making. An inventory of the available economic valuation methods is presented and the scope and suitability of each for studying various aspects of water resources are critically discussed. Recent studies that apply these methods to water resources are reviewed. Finally, an application of one of the economic valuation methods, namely the contingent valuation method, is presented using a case study of the Cheimaditida wetland in Greece.     

Adaptations of Skeletal Muscle Mitochondria to Obesity,Exercise, and Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids

Mitochondria intricately modulate their energy production through the control of mitochondrial adaptation (mitochondrial biogenesis, fusion, and/or fission) to meet energy demands. Nutrient overload may result in dysregulated mitochondrial biogenesis, morphology toward mitochondrial fragmentation, and oxidative stress in the skeletal muscle. In addition, physical activity and diet components influence mitochondrial function. Exercise may stimulate mitochondrial biogenesis and promote mitochondrial fusion/fission in the skeletal muscle. Moreover, some dietary fatty acids, such as n‐3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid, have been identified to positively regulate mitochondrial adaptation in the skeletal muscle. This review discusses the association of mitochondrial impairments and obesity, and presents an overview of various mechanisms of which exercise training and mitochondrial nutrients promote mitochondrial function in the skeletal muscle.     

House characteristics and condition as determinants of visible mold and musty odor: Results from three New Zealand House Condition Surveys in 2005, 2010, and 2015

This study assessed associations between house characteristics and mold and musty odor, using data from three consecutive (2005, 2010, and 2015) New Zealand House Condition Surveys, involving a total of 1616 timber-framed houses. Mold, musty odor, and house characteristics were assessed by independent building inspectors. We used multivariate logistic regression analyses mutually adjusted for other house characteristics for each survey separately. Positive and independent associations were found with tenure, ventilation, insulation, and envelope condition for both mold in living and bedrooms and musty odor. In particular, we found significant dose-response associations with envelope condition, ventilation, and insulation. Odds of mold increased 2.4–15.9 times (across surveys) in houses with the worst building envelope condition (BEC; p < 0.05–0.001 for trend); optimal ventilation reduced the risk of mold by 60% and the risk of musty odor by 70%–90% (p < 0.01 for trend). Other factors associated with mold and musty odor included: tenure, with an approximate doubling of odds of mold across surveys; and insulation with consistent dose-response patterns in all outcomes and surveys tested (p < 0.05 for trend in two surveys with mold and one survey for odor). In conclusion, this study showed the importance of BEC, ventilation, and insulation to avoiding harmful damp-related exposures.     

Conjoint Knowledge Discovery Utilizing Data and Content with Applications in Business,Bio-medicine,Transport Logistics and Electrical Power Systems

In Digital Enterprises Structured Data and Semi/Unstructured Content are normally stored in two different repositories, with the first often being stored in relational Databases and the second in a content manager which is frequently at an external outsourcer. This storage of complementary information in two different silos has led to the information being processed and data mined separately which is undesirable. Effective knowledge and information use requires seamless access and intelligent analysis of information in its totality to allow enterprises to gain enhanced insights. In this paper, we develop techniques to carry out correlation of the information across different sources and then carryout out knowledge discovery across these complementary sources in a conjoint manner. The techniques developed in our research will then be used to address significant issues in four application areas namely Business, Logistics, Bioinformatics and Electric Power Systems but potential applications with significant impact are much more extensive.