Controlled Evolution of Morphology and Microstructure in Laser Interference-Structured Zirconia

Tape-cast pseudo-cubic zirconia pellets were surface irradiated by two coherent interfering high-power short-pulse Nd:YAG laser beams. The interfering beams of the third harmonic with a wavelength of 355 nm of a 2.5-ns Q-switched laser produced a line-like intensity distribution with a periodic distance of 3.3 μm due to the selected angle between the beams. The resulting nonuniform surface heating produced a microstructure consisting of ultrafine-grained zirconia with a grain size of about 10 nm within the top 100–200 nm depth of the treated surface region due to the high cooling rates during short-pulse laser processing (up to 10¹⁰ K/s). The surface morphology closely followed the microperiodic heat treatment provided by the interfering laser beams. The pore size distribution within the periodic surface morphology ranged from a few nanometers to a maximum of half of the periodic line distances.     

Introduction to a symposium on recent advances in the development of medications for drug abuse treatment in honor of Jack H. Mendelson, M.D.

This article introduces a symposium on Recent Advances in Medications Development for Drug Abuse Treatment was organized to honor the late Jack H. Mendelson, MD (August 30, 1929-August 15, 2007). The symposium was sponsored by the American Psychological Association Division 28 and Division 50. Papers based on the invited presentations appear in this special section of Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A genetically informed study of the association between harsh punishment and offspring behavioral problems.

Conclusions about the effects of harsh parenting on children have been limited by research designs that cannot control for genetic or shared environmental confounds. The present study used a sample of children of twins and a hierarchical linear modeling statistical approach to analyze the consequences of varying levels of punishment while controlling for many confounding influences. The sample of 887 twin pairs and 2,554 children came from the Australian Twin Registry. Although corporal punishment per se did not have significant associations with negative childhood outcomes, harsher forms of physical punishment did appear to have specific and significant effects. The observed association between harsh physical punishment and negative outcomes in children survived a relatively rigorous test of its causal status, thereby increasing the authors' conviction that harsh physical punishment is a serious risk factor for children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Exposure to endocrine disrupting compounds via the food chain: Is packaging a relevant source?

Contamination of foodstuffs by environmental pollutants (e.g. dioxins, metals) receives much attention. Until recently, food packaging as a source of xenobiotics, especially those with endocrine disrupting properties, has received little awareness despite its ubiquitous use. This article reviews the regulations and use of endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) in food packaging and discusses their presence within the context of new toxicology paradigms.I focused on substances known to be legally used in food packaging that have been shown to exhibit endocrine disruptive effects in biological systems. I compiled a list of 50 known or potential EDCs used in food contact materials and examined data of EDCs leaching from packaging into food, with a focus on nonylphenol. I included recent advances in toxicology: mixture effects, the developmental origins of adult disease hypothesis, low-dose effects, and epigenetics. I especially considered the case of bisphenol A. The core hypothesis of this review is that chemicals leaching from packaging into food contribute to human EDCs exposure and might lead to chronic disease in light of the current knowledge.Food contact materials are a major source of food contaminants. Many migrating compounds, possibly with endocrine disruptive properties, remain unidentified. There is a need for information on identity/quantity of chemicals leaching into food, human exposure, and long-term impact on health. Especially EDCs in food packaging are of concern. Even at low concentrations, chronic exposure to EDCs is toxicologically relevant. Concerns increase when humans are exposed to mixtures of similar acting EDCs and/or during sensitive windows of development. In particular, non-intentionally added substances (NIAS) migrating from food contact materials need toxicological characterization; the overall migrate of the finished packaging could be evaluated for biological effects using bioassays. The widespread legal use of EDCs in food packaging requires dedicated assessment and should be updated according to contemporary scientific knowledge.     

School-based prevention of depressive symptoms: A randomized controlled study of the effectiveness and specificity of the penn resiliency program.

The authors investigated the effectiveness and specificity of the Penn Resiliency Program (PRP; J. E. Gillham, L. H. Jaycox, K. J. Reivich, M. E. P. Seligman, & T. Silver, 1990), a cognitive-behavioral depression prevention program. Children (N = 697) from 3 middle schools were randomly assigned to PRP, Control (CON), or the Penn Enhancement Program (PEP; K. J. Reivich, 1996; A. J. Shatté, 1997), an alternate intervention that controls for nonspecific intervention ingredients. Children's depressive symptoms were assessed through 3 years of follow-up. There was no intervention effect on average levels of depressive symptoms in the full sample. Findings varied by school. In 2 schools, PRP significantly reduced depressive symptoms across the follow-up relative to both CON and PEP. In the 3rd school, PRP did not prevent depressive symptoms. The authors discuss the findings in relation to previous research on PRP and the dissemination of prevention programs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Familiarity enhances visual working memory for faces.

Although it is intuitive that familiarity with complex visual objects should aid their preservation in visual working memory (WM), empirical evidence for this is lacking. This study used a conventional change-detection procedure to assess visual WM for unfamiliar and famous faces in healthy adults. Across experiments, faces were upright or inverted and a low- or high-load concurrent verbal WM task was administered to suppress contribution from verbal WM. Even with a high verbal memory load, visual WM performance was significantly better and capacity estimated as significantly greater for famous versus unfamiliar faces. Face inversion abolished this effect. Thus, neither strategic, explicit support from verbal WM nor low-level feature processing easily accounts for the observed benefit of high familiarity for visual WM. These results demonstrate that storage of items in visual WM can be enhanced if robust visual representations of them already exist in long-term memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Chemical compounds from Eperua falcata and Eperua grandiflora heartwood and their biological activities against wood destroying fungus (Coriolus versicolor)

The chemical analysis of the compounds present in dichloromethane and ethanolic fractions as well as bioassays enable to understand the differences in the durability of Eperua falcata and Eperua grandiflora. The main distinction between these two species is the acidic subfraction of diterpenoid extract, which is antifungal in Eperua falcata when tested under in-vitro conditions. This study also shows that ethanolic fraction plays an important role in the mechanism of natural durability. Furthermore, it reports the first isolation of cativic acid in Eperua falcata wood.     

城市动力 中轴原理的四大特征之二——国际化，城市升级的新象征

在城市的进程中,国际化的程度则代表了一个城市的繁华指数、开放指数、文明指数."国际化大都市"对于目前中国的大多数城市而言,都还处于只能远瞻的梦想阶段,是一个正在奋斗争取的远景目标.有人说它业已成为一顶给城市加冕的皇冠,高于现有一切奖项.