Diminished self-conscious emotional responding in frontotemporal lobar degeneration patients.

Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) is a neurodegenerative disease that dramatically alters social and emotional behavior. Recent work has suggested that self-conscious emotions (e.g., embarrassment) may be particularly vulnerable to disruption in this disease. Self-conscious emotions require the ability to monitor the self in relation to others. These abilities are thought to be subserved by brain regions (e.g., medial prefrontal, anterior cingulate, and insula) that are particularly vulnerable to damage in FTLD. This study examined emotional responding (expressive behavior, peripheral physiology, and subjective experience) in 24 FTLD patients and 16 cognitively normal control participants using a karaoke task known to elicit self-conscious emotion reliably and a nonemotional control task (isometric handgrip). Results indicated that FTLD patients showed diminished self-conscious emotional behavior (embarrassment and amusement) and diminished physiological responding while watching themselves singing. No differences were found between patients and controls in the nonemotional control task. These findings offer evidence of marked disruption of self-conscious emotional responding in FTLD. Diminished self-conscious emotional responding likely contributes significantly to social inappropriateness and other behavioral abnormalities in FTLD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family risk factors, parental depression, and psychopathology in offspring.

Associations between parents' poor marital adjustment, parent–child discord, affectionless control, low family cohesion, and parental divorce and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) diagnoses were explored in a study of 220 offspring of parents with and without major depression. Family risk factors were more prevalent among offspring of depressed parents. Risk factors were associated with major depression and any diagnosis for children of nondepressed parents; they were associated with conduct disorder for both groups. Parental depression was more important than family risk factors in models predicting major depression, anxiety disorders, and any diagnosis. Both parental depression and family risk factors were significant predictors of conduct disorder. Implications for the etiology of psychopathology and for analytic strategies are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptions of counselor source characteristics by premature and successful terminators.

Examined 56 premature and 148 successful terminators' perceptions of counselor source characteristics and satisfaction with counseling services at a university counseling center. S-completed measures included the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire and a counselor rating form. Results indicate that Ss who terminated prematurely were less satisfied with counseling services that they received and viewed their counselors as less expert, attractive, and trustworthy than did Ss who terminated successfully. Ss who responded anonymously to the evaluation form viewed the counselors as less attractive and trustworthy and also expressed less satisfaction with counseling than did those who did not respond anonymously. Significant though modest correlations between ratings of source characteristics and client satisfaction were also found. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introducing dependency into IC yield models

Many models have been proposed to explain the distribution of point defects on integrated circuit (IC) chips. The most popular of these models are based on distributions derived from the Poisson distribution for describing the number of defects expected on a chip. These models do not inherently allow for dependence between the number of defects expected on two adjacent chips. This paper introduces a model for generating an IC defect distribution that allows for dependence in the number of defects on chips that are near one another. Simulations are done to compare the new dependent model to a previously proposed independent model. These simulations with the new model show defective chips clustered near each other on the water. This clustering property has been observed on real wafers. Methods of parameter and yield estimation in the dependent model are discussed.     

Green space context and vegetation complexity shape people’s preferences for urban public parks and residential gardens

Landscape preferences shape decision-making and drive the ecological outcomes of urban landscapes. We investigate how people’s landscape preferences are shaped by the green space context (public park vs private residential garden landscapes) and by physical features such as vegetation complexity. A postal questionnaire was sent to households near seven urban parks in Melbourne, Australia. Results showed that landscapes were grouped into four categories based on patterns of preference response. Landscapes with moderate vegetation complexity were placed in separate categories distinguished by green space context (parks vs gardens), while very simple and very complex landscapes were placed in different categories irrespective of green space context. Surprisingly, dense vegetation was highly preferred by respondents. As areas of dense vegetation also provide complex habitats for wildlife, this highlights the possibility of developing policies and designing landscapes that can benefit both people and nature.     

Arsenic association and stability in long-term disposed arsenic residues

Long-term stability of arsenic residues is investigated by determining arsenic phases remaining in gold mining residues after two decades of impoundment. The residues, generated by arsenic coprecipitation with iron and lime, were disposed of in-lined sites for 9-16 years (pit C) and 16-23 years (pits A and B). Arsenic is present in the residues as As(V) species, predominantly in the form of amorphous iron arsenate (55-75% As_total, pits A and B; 55-70% As_total, pit C) and sorbed onto amorphous iron-oxyhydroxides (20-33% As_total, pits A and B; 22-37% As_total, pit C). The presence of minor Ca-arsenate phases (undefined composition) and Al-arsenate coprecipitates is also indicated. The passive enrichment of iron in pits A and B, and the relative low concentration of calcium, sulfur and arsenic if compared to those of pit C, suggest that a soluble Ca-arsenate phase (e.g. CaHAsO₄.H₂O), a fraction of gypsum and As(III) were dissolved along 16-23 years of residue disposal. The presence of As(V) only and excess iron demonstrates the importance of the oxidation state and high Fe/As ratio on long-term stability of arsenic residues.     

Synthesis and properties of boron-containing soybean oil based thermosetting copolymers

The first example of boron-containing soybean oil based copolymers was prepared from soybean oil, styrene, divinylbenzene and 4-vinylphenyl boronic acid by cationic polymerization using boron trifluoride etherate as initiator. Soxhlet extraction and NMR spectroscopy indicate that the copolymers consist of a crosslinked network plasticized with varying amounts of oligomers and unreacted oil. The thermal degradation mechanism was studied and the thermal, dynamomechanical and flame retardant properties of these materials were examined. Thermosets with glass transition temperatures ranging from 43 to 60 °C, which are thermally stable below 350 °C and with LOI values from 23.7 to 25.6 were obtained. The LOI tests indicate that the flame retardant properties of vegetable oil can be improved by adding boron covalently bonded to the polymer.     

Influence of initial mixing methods on melt‐extruded single‐walled carbon nanotube–polypropylene nanocomposites

We report the first direct comparison of melt‐extruded polypropylene–single‐walled carbon nanotube (PP/SWNT) nanocomposites prepared by three different initial mixing methods. The standard deviation of the G‐band intensity obtained using Raman mapping was found to be the best measure of dispersion uniformity in the extruded composites, and dispersion uniformity was found to generally correlate with rheological and thermal properties. For all three initial mixing methods, both unmodified and sidewall‐functionalized purified SWNTs were evaluated. Surprisingly, in all cases, dodecylated SWNTs prepared using the reductive alkylation method were less uniformly dispersed in the final composite than the unmodified SWNTs. The simplest process, dry blending, resulted in poor nanotube dispersion and only polymer crystallization was significantly affected by the presence of the nanotubes. A slightly more complex rotary evaporation process resulted in significantly more uniform dispersion and significant changes in rheological properties, polymer crystallization, and thermal stability. The most elaborate process tested, hot coagulation, enabled the most uniform dispersion and the greatest change in properties but also resulted in some polymer degradation. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 50:1831–1842, 2010. © 2010 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Influence of birth rates and transmission rates on the global seasonality of rotavirus incidence

Rotavirus is a major cause of mortality in developing countries, and yet the dynamics of rotavirus in such settings are poorly understood. Rotavirus is typically less seasonal in the tropics, although recent observational studies have challenged the universality of this pattern. While numerous studies have examined the association between environmental factors and rotavirus incidence, here we explore the role of intrinsic factors. By fitting a mathematical model of rotavirus transmission dynamics to published age distributions of cases from 15 countries, we obtain estimates of local transmission rates. Model-predicted patterns of seasonal incidence based solely on differences in birth rates and transmission rates are significantly correlated with those observed (Spearman''s ρ = 0.65, p < 0.05). We then examine seasonal patterns of rotavirus predicted across a range of different birth rates and transmission rates and explore how vaccination may impact these patterns. Our results suggest that the relative lack of rotavirus seasonality observed in many tropical countries may be due to the high birth rates and transmission rates typical of developing countries rather than being driven primarily by environmental conditions. While vaccination is expected to decrease the overall burden of disease, it may increase the degree of seasonal variation in the incidence of rotavirus in some settings.     

The Capital Cities

The labour market is perhaps the best place to observe the impact of a national recession. There the flow on from falls in national demand can be seen directly in increased unemployment and falling numbers of jobs.