Simulation of Facial Muscle Actions Based on Rational Free Form Deformations

This paper describes interactive facilities for simulating abstract muscle actions using Rational Free Form Deformations (RFFD). The particular muscle action is simulated as the displacement of the control points of the control-unit for an RFFD defined on a region of interest. One or several simulated muscle actions constitute a Minimum Perceptible Action (MPA), which is defined as the atomic action unit, similar to Action Unit (AU) of the Facial Action Coding System (FACS), to build an expression.     

Asymptotics of Largest Components in Combinatorial Structures

Given integers m and n, we study the probability that structures of size n have all components of size at most m. The results are given in term of a generalized Dickman function of n/m.     

Adolescent egocentrism and formal operations: Tests of a theoretical assumption.

The theoretical relation between adolescent egocentrism and formal operations was addressed in 2 studies. In Study 1, this relation was assessed with the Adolescent Egocentrism Scale (AES; R. Enright et al, see PA, Vols 63:5127 and 65:10218) and a battery of formal reasoning tasks administered to 183 6th-, 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-graders. The results reveal only significant negative or nonsignificant correlations between the measures in early adolescence. There was also no evidence of significant developmental covariation from early to middle adolescence. The validation effort was extended in Study 2 to include 2 measures of adolescent egocentrism (AES and the Imaginary Audience Scale [IAS; D. Elkind and R. Bowen, see PA, Vol 62:5769]) and a 2nd battery of formal operations problems. These measures were administered to 117 7th-, 9th-, and 11th-graders and to 56 undergraduates. There was once again no evidence of significant developmental covariation among the measures. The correlations between the AES and IAS were modest, reflecting differences in the nature and content of the measures. It is concluded that little support exists in this study or in the literature for the crucial theoretical assumption of adolescent egocentrism. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Automatic processing of psychological distance: Evidence from a Stroop task.

A picture-word version of the Stroop task was used to test the automatic activation of psychological distance by words carrying various senses of psychological distance: temporal (tomorrow, in a year), social (friend, enemy), and hypotheticality (sure, maybe). The pictures implied depth, with the words appearing relatively close to or distant from the observer. The participants classified the spatial distance of words faster when the word's implicit psychological distance matched its spatial distance (e.g., a geographically close word was classified faster when it was "friend" than when it was "enemy"). The findings are consistent with the idea that psychological distance is accessed automatically, even when it is not directly related to people's current goals, and suggest that psychological distance is an important dimension of meaning, common to spatial distance, temporal distance, social distance, and hypotheticality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

IR spectroscopic study of Pt/Kl zeolites using adsorption of CO as a molecular probe

FTIR spectra of CO adsorbed on Pt/KL catalysts show that the relative band intensities and the total dispersion markedly depend on the catalyst preparation method (ion exchange, incipient wetness impregnation or co-impregnation with KCl). The CO stretching frequency of the dominant band for linear CO is shifted to higher wavenumbers, parallel with the proton concentration in the reduced catalyst, which is derived independently from the intensity of the IR bands of the OH groups. The results are in accordance with the model that electron-deficient platinum particles are platinum-proton adducts.On leave from: N.D. Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry, Academy of Sciences, Moscow, USSR.     

Publication and citation of alcohol and drug articles in journals of the American Psychological Association.

Examined publishing practices of the American Psychological Association (APA) in the alcohol and drug area. Although the total number of articles published by APA increased only 7.6% between 1984 and 1990, the number of alcohol and drug articles more than doubled. Despite the disproportionate growth of alcohol and drug articles between 1984 and 1990, only 3.8% of 1,408 APA articles published in 1990 addressed alcohol and drug use issues. An earlier investigation by M. O. Howard and D. A. Howard (1992) reported that 541 articles published in 1984 in 12 alcohol and drug specialty journals received an average of 3.48 citations by the end of 1988. Alcohol and drug articles published by APA in 1984 received more than 4 times as many citations during this period. Also, alcohol and drug articles published by APA received significantly more citations between 1984 and 1988 than those published in specialty journals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Road to Next-Generation Broadband

Next-generation broadband promises to usher in a digital future in which it will be possible, for instance, to have a high-definition videoconference examination with your doctor from the comfort of your own home. Japan and Korea in particular are much closer to this sort of digital future than most countries, including the US. Public policy must play an important role in making tomorrow's broadband a reality in America.