Happy affect and smiling: Is their relation moderated by interpersonal power?

Three studies examined the hypothesis that the relation between self-rated happy affect and overall smiling during dyadic interactions is moderated by one's relative power. In all 3 studies, interpersonal power was experimentally manipulated, and smiling and self-reported happy affect were measured during and after the interaction, respectively. Happy affect was positively correlated with overall smiling for both low-power and high-power participants. Moreover, the correlations for both low- and high-power participants were comparable to those found when power roles were not unequal or made salient, based on analysis of the present studies as well as comparison with the previously published literature. Happy affect and overall smiling had a positive relation that was not moderated by interpersonal power. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

In situ polymerization and nano‐templating phenomenon in nylon fiber/PMMA composite laminates

Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (SC CO₂) is used as a reaction/processing medium in the fabrication of fiber‐reinforced composite materials. SC CO₂ allows resin (reactive monomer), to penetrate inside the fibers themselves, partitioning into the amorphous regions of the fiber. The crystal structure then templates polymerization of matrix within the fiber. This process produces a composite that exhibits ultralong‐range order from the nanoscale reinforcement of crystals to the macroscale fiber reinforcement of matrix. In addition, SC CO₂ lowers resin viscosity and aids in wetting out Nylon 6,6 fiber reinforcement in a process similar to reaction injection molding (RIM) or resin transfer molding (RTM). This article will discuss the fabrication technique in detail, including process parameters and the structure of resulting composites and morphology of modified fibers. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 88: 1600–1607, 2003     

Classifying Facial Actions

The Facial Action Coding System (FACS) [23] is an objective method for quantifying facial movement in terms of component actions. This system is widely used in behavioral investigations of emotion, cognitive processes, and social interaction. The coding is presently performed by highly trained human experts. This paper explores and compares techniques for automatically recognizing facial actions in sequences of images. These techniques include analysis of facial motion through estimation of optical flow; holistic spatial analysis, such as principal component analysis, independent component analysis, local feature analysis, and linear discriminant analysis; and methods based on the outputs of local filters, such as Gabor wavelet representations and local principal components. Performance of these systems is compared to naive and expert human subjects. Best performances were obtained using the Gabor wavelet representation and the independent component representation, both of which achieved 96 percent accuracy for classifying 12 facial actions of the upper and lower face. The results provide converging evidence for the importance of using local filters, high spatial frequencies, and statistical independence for classifying facial actions.     

A review of robust design methods for multiple responses

Problems in engineering design often involve determining design variable settings to optimize individual product performance for multiple criteria, which are often in conflict. We review mathematically rigorous techniques from the statistical literature for finding a vector x of design variable settings, which produces an optimal compromise solution among a group of prioritized response variables. The best compromise solution is typically gained by optimizing an objective function, which incorporates the prioritized demands of multiple responses. Since most multi-response objective functions are constructed by combining the functions used to optimize univariate responses, a review of the prominent univariate approaches is presented first. A multivariate approach from the engineering literature called the compromise decision support problem (cDSP) is also reviewed. Finally, a table comparing the relative merits of the different multivariate approaches summarizes the article in a concise and user-friendly fashion.     

Compositional characteristics of muscle and visceral oil from steelhead trout and their oxidative stability

The quality of lipid from steelhead trout viscera, a byproduct of steelhead trout industry, was evaluated and compared with that of the muscle. Steelhead trout viscera had a higher lipid content than muscle and the visceral oil differed from muscle oil in its lipid class composition. Neutral lipids, mainly triacylglycerols (TAG), comprised the major lipid class in both muscle and visceral lipid. However, as expected, muscle contained a remarkably higher level of phospholipids (PL) than viscera, and the ratio of total neutral lipids to polar lipids was lower in muscle than in viscera. Visceral and muscle lipid had similar fatty acid compositions, with the concentration of muscle polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) slightly higher than that of visceral PUFA. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) were the major n-3 PUFA present in both muscle and visceral lipid; docosapentaenoic acid (DPA) was present at about 1.61–1.76%. With respect to minor components, muscle lipid had higher α-tocopherol and total carotenoids contents than visceral lipid. Oxidative stability of visceral and muscle lipid, as determined by conjugated dienes (CD) and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), showed that visceral lipid was more stable against oxidation than muscle lipid, probably due to their different lipid profiles. Besides, carotenoids, which were present more abundantly in muscle, might have acted as prooxidants and therefore, decreased the oxidative stability of muscle lipid. These results suggest that steelhead trout viscera may serve as a good source of lipid and could be utilized for production of omega-3 oils.