Development of efficient arithmetic computation.

The developing efficiency of simple arithmetic computations using dual reaction-time (RT) tasks was studied. The primary task of true–false verification of 2-term addition problems and the secondary task of auditory probe detection provided measures of the processing demands of encoding, computation, comparison, decision, and response stages of the addition process. Developmental shifts in the efficiency with which 2nd, 4th, and 6th graders and college adults computed answers to these problems were found. The dual task demands exceeded the processing resources of 2nd graders throughout all stages of the addition process; increasing processing efficiency was demonstrated by 4th and 6th graders, and for college Ss some information-processing costs were associated with both early and later stages of the addition process. These costs were attributable to resources other than those required by general alertness factors and structural demands of the dual tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental aspects of the feeling of knowing.

Prior reports that feeling-of-knowing (FOK) accuracy increases through childhood and remains constant during adulthood are inconclusive because (a) they used absolute FOK judgments that can be contaminated by differences in the threshold for claiming to know, (b) they used measures of FOK accuracy that are not invariant across different degrees of recognition-test difficulty, and (c) they did not rule out the possibility that age-related differences in FOK accuracy may be caused by changes in the reliability of FOK judgments. We avoided these methodological problems in two studies by using relative FOK judgments, by computing Goodman-Kruskal gamma coefficients to assess FOK accuracy, and by assessing the test–retest reliability of the subjects' FOK judgments. We found that 6-year-olds had less reliable FOK judgments but greater FOK accuracy than 10-year-olds or 18-year-olds. Moreover, 18- and 70-year-olds had equally reliable FOK judgments and equivalent FOK accuracy. Possible reasons for the greater FOK accuracy of youngsters included their lower rate of commission errors and more frequent recognition of correct answers for their commissions. Implications are drawn for the study of metacognitive development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Patterns of emotion expression during separation in the strange-situation procedure.

The facial expressions of 28 13-mo-old middle-class children were videotaped during the 3-min separation episode of the Ainsworth strange-situation procedure (ASSP). Facial behavior was analyzed to determine the patterns of emotional expressions during separation and to assess the relations between these patterns and types of attachment as assessed by the ASSP. Findings reveal that anger was the dominant negative emotion expressed by the majority of Ss in each of 3 ad hoc groups determined by level of negative emotion. Some high-negative emotion expressers displayed predominantly anger and others mainly sadness. Patterns of emotion expression varied with type of attachment; Ss who showed an insecure-resistant attachment pattern displayed less interest and more sadness than Ss in the securely attached groups. The proportion of time anger was expressed did not differ significantly with type of attachment. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of reward and response costs on inhibition in ADHD children.

This study examined effects of reward and response costs on the ability of 19 attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 17 control children to inhibit responding. Children were tested under 4 reinforcement conditions on a go/no-go learning task developed by J. P. Newman, C. S. Widom, and S. Nathan (1985). Two conditions involved both reward and response costs, 1 response costs only, and 1 reward only. ADHD children made more commission errors than controls across the 4 conditions. Analyses of learning curves indicated that group differences became larger on later trials. Thus, impaired inhibition was more generalized in ADHD children than in the psychopaths and extraverts studied by Newman and colleagues, and it became most evident when the children were required to improve learning across trials. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Strong African American Families Program: A cluster-randomized prevention trial of long-term effects and a mediational model.

The Strong African American Families Program, a universal preventive intervention to deter alcohol use among rural African American adolescents, was evaluated in a cluster-randomized prevention trial. This 7-week family skills training program is based on a contextual model in which intervention effects on youth protective factors lead to changes in alcohol use. African American 11-year-olds and their primary caregivers from 9 rural communities (N = 332 families) were randomly selected for study participation. Communities were randomized to prevention and control conditions. Intent-to-treat analyses indicated that fewer prevention than control adolescents initiated alcohol use; those who did evinced slower increases in use over time. Intervention-induced changes in youth protective factors mediated the effect of group assignment on long-term changes in use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development and characterization of collagen/gelatin films and gels incorporated with pequi oil

Natural compounds, such as pequi oil, could be added to collagen/gelatin mixtures to improve its properties. Gels characterized by rheological analysis indicated modifications in entanglement network of the mixtures after pequi oil addition. Films processed by casting were analyzed by mechanical and thermal properties, contact angle, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The pequi oil addition reduced the contact angle values due to the addition of carboxyl groups found in the palmitic and oleic acid chains of pequi oil. The rough characteristic observed by SEM images was a result of a good homogenization process after oil incorporation. In addition, pequi oil addition decreased the tensile forces and elongation of the films and increased the thermal stability possibly due to lower inter‐ and intra‐molecules interactions. The results suggested a good compatibility between pequi oil and biopolymers and the potential application of this natural compound to increase the wound healing process. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018 , 135, 46627.     

A Hydrogel Platform that Incorporates Laminin Isoforms for Efficient Presentation of Growth Factors – Neural Growth and Osteogenesis

Laminins (LMs) are important structural proteins of the extracellular matrix (ECM). The abundance of every LM isoform is tissue-dependent, suggesting that LM has tissue-specific roles. LM binds growth factors (GFs), which are powerful cytokines widely used in tissue engineering due to their ability to control stem cell differentiation. Currently, the most commonly used ECM mimetic material in vitro is Matrigel, a matrix of undefined composition containing LM and various GFs, but subjected to batch variability and lacking control of physicochemical properties. Inspired by Matrigel, a new and completely defined hydrogel platform based on hybrid LM-poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogels with controllable stiffness (1–25 kPa) and degradability is proposed. Different LM isoforms are used to bind and efficiently display GFs (here, bone morphogenetic protein (BMP-2) and beta-nerve growth factor (β-NGF)), enabling their solid-phase presentation at ultralow doses to specifically target a range of tissues. The potential of this platform to trigger stem cell differentiation toward osteogenic lineages and stimulate neural cells growth in 3D, is demonstrated. These hydrogels enable 3D, synthetic, defined composition, and reproducible cell culture microenvironments reflecting the complexity of the native ECM, where GFs in combination with LM isoforms yield the full diversity of cellular processes.     

Inkjet Printed Disposable High-Rate On-Paper Microsupercapacitors

On-paper microsupercapacitors (MSCs) are a key energy storage component for disposable electronics that are anticipated to essentially address the increasing global concern of electronic waste. However, nearly none of the present on-paper MSCs combine eco-friendliness with high electrochemical performance (especially the rate capacity). In this work, highly reliable conductive inks based on the ternary composite of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS), graphene quantum dots and graphene are developed for scalable inkjet printing of compact (footprint area ≈ 20 mm²) disposable MSCs on commercial paper substrates. Without any post treatment, the printed patterns attain a sheet resistance as low as 4 Ω ?^?1. The metal-free all-solid-state MSCs exhibit a maximum areal capacitance > 2 mF cm^?2 at a high scan rate of 1000 mV s^?1, long cycle life (>95% capacitance retention after 10 000 cycles), excellent flexibility, and long service time. Remarkably, the “totally metal-free” MSC arrays are fully inkjet printed on paper substrates and also exhibit high rate performance. The life cycle assessment indicates that these printed devices have much lower eco-toxicity and global warming potential than other on-paper MSCs.     

Design and evaluation of ECO: an augmentative and alternative communication tool

Universal Access in the Information Society - Current technology provides new challenges to improve skills on people with special necessities. In fact, persons with communications needs can take...     

Transforming powerlist-based divide-and-conquer programs for an improved execution model

Powerlists are data structures that can be successfully used for defining parallel programs based on divide-and-conquer paradigm. These parallel recursive data structures and their algebraic theories offer both a methodology to design parallel algorithms and parallel programming abstractions to ease the development of parallel applications. The paper presents a technique for speeding up the parallel recursive programs defined based on powerlists. The improvements are achieved by applying transformation rules that introduce tuple functions and prefix operators, for which a more efficient execution model is defined. Together with the execution model, a cost model is also defined in order to allow a proper evaluation. The treated examples emphasise the fact that the transformation leads to important improvements of the programs. The speeding up is achieved by reducing the number of recursive calls, and also by enable the fusion of splitting/combining operations on different data structures. In addition, enhancing the function that has to be computed to other useful functions using a tuple, could improved the cost reduction even more.