Projective and repressive styles of processing aversive information.

Examined the relationship between projective and repressive styles of dealing with aversive information about the self, and sex differences in the use of these 2 defensive syles, in 47 normal undergraduates, using the Adjective Check List. Results show an inverse relation between the use of projective attribution and repressive forgetting of negative traits that was independent of sex, supporting the assumption of individual differences in the utilization of the major defense mechanisms. Females used repression more than males, but no sex difference in projection was shown. Implications for personality theory and research methodology are presented. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assessing floor slipperiness in fast-food restaurants in Taiwan using objective and subjective measures

Slips and falls are major problems in occupational injuries in which floor slipperiness is a critical issue. Most of the studies on slipperiness assessments were conducted in laboratories. Field assessments are rarely reported in the literature. This study investigated floor slipperiness in seven kitchen areas of 10 western-style fast-food restaurants in Taiwan using both objective and subjective measurements which were conducted by friction measurements and by employees' ratings of floor slipperiness, respectively. The friction measurement results showed that the sink area had the lowest average friction in the kitchens. Employees, however, rated both the sink and back vat (chicken fry) areas as the most slippery areas. The Pearson's and Spearman's correlation coefficients between the averaged friction coefficients and subjective ratings for all 70 evaluated areas across all 10 restaurants were 0.49 and 0.45, respectively, with p < 0.0001 for both. The results indicate that average friction coefficient and perception are in fair agreement, suggesting that both might be reasonably good indicators of slipperiness.     

Anodic stripping voltammetry combined on-line with inductively coupled plasma-MS via a direct-injection high-efficiency nebulizer

A direct-injection high-efficiency nebulizer (DIHEN) is used to couple a thin-layer electrochemical flow cell on-line with an ICP-mass spectrometer to perform anodic stripping voltammetry (ASV) at a thin mercury film followed by subsequent ICPMS measurements for the stripped metal analytes. The resultant hyphenated technique (ASV-DIHEN-ICPMS) is capable of analyzing select heavy metals present at ultratrace levels (down to low-ppt to sub-ppt levels) that are lower than the detection limits obtained by conventional ICPMS. In addition to its good analytical performance, the technique offers other attractive features such as the ability to eliminate detrimental matrix effects that can compromise ICPMS analyses and the possibility of probing electrode reactions involving trace amounts metal species with ICPMS. For conducting ASV on-line with ICPMS, the DIHEN was found to be more advantageous than the microconcentric nebulizer in terms of minimizing memory effects and potential artifacts caused by the erosion of the Hg film into the flowing solution stream. Compared to a direct injection nebulizer (DIN), the DIHEN was easier to operate. Moreover, its simpler design and the lack of back pressure from the DIHEN capillary made it more compatible with coupling to the thin-layer electrochemical cell than a DIN system.     

Managing photons for quantum information processing

We study distinguishing information in the context of photonic quantum interference tailored for practical implementations of quantum information processing schemes. In particular, we consider the character of single-photon states optimized for multiple-source interference experiments and for experiments relying on Bell-state measurement and arrive at specific design criteria for photons produced by parametric down-conversion. Such states can be realistically implemented with available technology. We describe a novel method for characterizing the mode structure of single photons, and demonstrate it in the context of coherent light.     

Interregional transfers: A political-economy CGE approach

We model the effects of changes in a federal governments inter-regional transfers within the context of a CGE model of a federal system in which regional governments act to maximise the welfare of the residents of their region subject to the effects of their decision on regional economic outcomes. Regional governments are modelled as players in a non-cooperative game. Simulations are conducted with six versions of a small two-region model, each calibrated for a particular Australian state and the rest of the nation. We show that a change in the level of transfers has little influence on per-capita private consumption, government consumption and welfare, and that its main effect is to induce migration from the donor region to the recipient region.Received: 27 June 2001, Accepted: 20 December 2002, JEL Classification: C72, D58, H73, R13, R23The research reported in this article was supported by a SPIRT Grant from the Australian Research Council. We are indebted to Peter Dixon, James Giesecke, Sang-Hee Han, Peter McGregor, Alex Scherini, two anonymous referees, and the Pacific editor for their valuable comments and suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies.     

DFB Lasers With Deeply Etched Vertical Grating Based on InAs–InP Quantum-Dash Structures

Distributed feedback lasers with first-order vertical grating based on AlInGaAs-InAs-InP quantum-dash lasers were fabricated by electron beam lithography and Cl₂-Ar reactive ion etching with an electron cyclotron resonance source. Low threshold currents and single-mode operation with sidemode suppression ratios of 48 dB and a direct modulation bandwidth of 5.5 GHz were demonstrated     

Efficient computation of adaptive threshold surfaces for image binarization

The problem of binarization of gray level images, acquired under non-uniform illumination is reconsidered. Yanowitz and Bruckstein proposed to use for image binarization an adaptive threshold surface, determined by interpolation of the image gray levels at points where the image gradient is high. The rationale is that high image gradient indicates probable object edges, and there the image values are between the object and the background gray levels. The threshold surface was determined by successive over-relaxation as the solution of the Laplace equation. This work proposes a different method to determine an adaptive threshold surface. In this new method, inspired by multiresolution approximation, the threshold surface is constructed with considerably lower computational complexity and is smooth, yielding faster image binarizations and often better noise robustness.     

An LDAP-based User Modeling Server and its Evaluation

Representation components of user modeling servers have been traditionally based on simple file structures and database systems. We propose directory systems as an alternative, which offer numerous advantages over the more traditional approaches: international vendor-independent standardization, demonstrated performance and scalability, dynamic and transparent management of distributed information, built-in replication and synchronization, a rich number of pre-defined types of user information, and extensibility of the core representation language for new information types and for data types with associated semantics. Directories also allow for the virtual centralization of distributed user models and their selective centralized replication if better performance is needed. We present UMS, a user modeling server that is based on the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). UMS allows for the representation of different models (such as user and usage profiles, and system and service models), and for the attachment of arbitrary components that perform user modeling tasks upon these models. External clients such as user-adaptive applications can submit and retrieve information about users. We describe a simulation experiment to test the runtime performance of this server, and present a theory of how the parameters of such an experiment can be derived from empirical web usage research. The results show that the performance of UMS meets the requirements of current small and medium websites already on very modest hardware platforms, and those of very large websites in an entry-level business server configuration.The UMUAI managing editor for this paper was Sandra Carberry, University of Delaware.     

Reversible inactivation of the CG specific SssI DNA (cytosine-C5)-methyltransferase with a photocleavable protecting group

Caging of proteins by conjugation with a photocleavable group is a powerful approach for reversibly blocking enzymatic activity. Here we describe the covalent modification of the bacterial SssI DNA methyltransferase (M.SssI) with the cysteine-specific reagent 4,5-dimethoxy-2-nitrobenzylbromide (DMNBB). M.SssI contains two cysteine residues; replacement of the active-site Cys141 with Ser resulted in an approximately 100-fold loss of enzymatic activity; this indicates an important role for this residue in catalysis. However, replacement of Cys368 with Ala did not affect methyltransferase activity. Treatment of the Cys368Ala mutant enzyme with DMNBB led to an almost complete loss of activity. Irradiation of the inactivated enzyme with near-ultraviolet light (320-400 nm) restored 60 % of the catalytic activity. This indicates that caging by DMNBB can be used for the reversible inactivation of M.SssI.