Role of consciousness and accessibility of death-related thoughts in mortality salience effects.

On the basis of terror management theory, research has shown that subtle mortality salience inductions engender increased prejudice, nationalism, and intergroup bias. Study 1 replicated this effect (increased preference for a pro-US author over an anti-US author) and found weaker effects when Ss are led to think more deeply about mortality or about the death of a loved one. Study 2 showed that this effect is not produced by thoughts of non-death-related aversive events. Studies 2 and 3 demonstrated that this effect occurs only if Ss are distracted from mortality salience before assessment of its effects. Study 4 revealed that although the accessibility of death-related thoughts does not increase immediately after mortality salience, it does increase after Ss are distracted from mortality salience. These findings suggest that mortality salience effects are unique to thoughts of death and occur primarily when such thoughts are highly accessible but outside of consciousness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Weight gain as a function of smoking cessation and 2-mg nicotine gum use among middle-aged smokers with mild lung impairment in the first 2 years of the Lung Health Study.

Assessed the extent and predictors of weight change among sustained nonsmoking special intervention participants in the Lung Health Study. The intervention included a 12-session group program and 2-mg nicotine gum. At 12 mo, female sustained quitters (SQs; n?=?248) had gained a mean of 8.4% (5.3 kg) of their baseline weight, whereas male SQs (n?=?443) had gained 6.7% (5.5 kg). By 24 mo, female SQs had gained 9.8% of their baseline weight compared with 6.9% for men. Nicotine gum usage delayed a portion of the weight gain. Multiple regression analysis showed that weight gain at 12 mo was associated with a higher baseline salivary cotinine level, a lower baseline body mass index, drinking less alcohol per week, and a lower cotinine level at 12 mo (indicating less or no nicotine gum use). Moderate weight gain may be a long-term consequence of smoking cessation, a portion of which can be delayed with 2-mg nicotine gum. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Determining the long-term potential for energy conservation and renewable energy in Canada

This paper summarizes the results of a 28-month study, funded by the Canadian government, which developed new methods for analysing the technical and economic potential for conservation and renewable energy alternatives in Canada to the year 2025. The results of the study show that under conditions of strong economic growth and moderate population growth, it would be technically feasible and cost-effective to operate the Canadian economy in 2025 with 12–34% less energy than it requires today and, over the same 47-year period, to shift from 16% reliance on renewable sources to over 77% (mostly biomass and hydro). Over the study period, energy use per capita falls to between one-half and two-fifths of its level in 1978, and energy use per dollar of GDP to just over one-quarter of its 1978 level.     

Enhanced sodium appetite in rats with lesions centered on nucleus medianus.

Recent experiments have demonstrated that rats with lesions of the ventral portion of nucleus medianus (VNM) frequently exhibit a chronic and robust hyperdipsia, which occurs only at night. The present study demonstrated that the same brain damage may produce a nocturnal appetite for sodium that is similarly pronounced and persistent. Of 68 male Sprague-Dawley rats with VNM lesions, 33 were observed to drink at least 15 ml of 0.51 M NaCl solution per day, and 11 of them consumed more than 30 ml daily. The basis for this high consumption of saline is uncertain; the brain-damaged Ss had normal sodium concentrations, renin activities, and aldosterone levels in plasma during basal maintenance conditions, and they conserved sodium in urine when maintained on a sodium-deficient diet. Nevertheless, the present results indicate that VNM and/or local fibers of passage may play an important role in the control of sodium appetite, as it does in the control of thirst. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

North-south coupling study

An empirical study of stationkeeping data on several RCA series 3000 spacecraft which was used to analyse coupling effects during inclination manoeuvres has yielded valuable data on changes in east-west drift and eccentricity which result from these manoeuvres. The major origins of these effects are thruster alignments and plume impingement on the north solar panel. While thruster alignments for a given spacecraft will differ depending on its centre of mass, plume impingement showed a higher order seasonal influence over the basic cant angle differences between thruster pairs on opposite sides of a satellite, i.e. when the solar arrays are at a ‘near zero’ angle (array panel directly facing earth) the net radial vector bias is attenuated. Plume impingement has a primary seasonal influence in tangential coupling, however: when the solar array was ‘looking east’, eastward drift was observed, and likewise when the solar panel was west-oriented, there was a westward drift effect. Recommendations are made as to how this information might be used to improve an operator's stationkeeping schedule.     

Contextual local analysis in the design of distributed systems

Compositional Reachability Analysis is a popular technique for studying behaviour of finite-state distributed systems. The technique is applied by a repetition oflocal analyses, the basic steps of which are to construct and examine the behaviour of subsystems. In most cases, behaviour of the subsystem is constrained by its environment (calledcontext) formed by neighbouring components. These behaviour constraints are normally not considered when using local analysis in conventional techniques of compositional reachability analysis. As a result, many execution paths derived in the local analysis may not be actually traversed by the subsystem. These paths are made impossible to traverse by the constraints. The paths are unnecessary for understanding the subsystem behaviour and their removal greatly simplifies the local analysis.In this paper, we describe an elegant technique, calledcontextual local analysis, to include these behaviour constraints in conventional local analysis. The technique can alleviate dramatically the state explosion problem encountered in local analysis. It also facilitates early detection of anomalous behaviour of a distributed system at its design stage. The technique works by composing an interface process with the subsystem being examined. That interface process is so chosen that it captures behaviour constraints enforced by the environment while its composition with the subsystem does not affect the global system behaviour. This interface process can be automatically derived using a simple algorithm. The contextual local analysis technique results in a simplified labelled transition system which can be used as a substitute for the original subsystem in the construction of the global system behaviour. The contextual local analysis technique is illustrated with a clients/server example implementing a round-robin protocol.     

High capacity capillary electrophoresis-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry: coupling a porous sheathless interface with transient-isotachophoresis

A sheathless interface making use of a porous tip has been used for coupling capillary electrophoresis and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. First, effective flow rates using the interface have been characterized. It was found that the interface is capable of generating a stable spray with flow rates ranging from below 10 nL/min to >340 nL/min, enabling its use in either the mass or concentration-sensitive region of the electrospray process. Subsequently, by analyzing peptide mixtures of increasing complexity, we have demonstrated that this platform provides exquisite sensitivity enabling the detection of very low amounts of materials with very high resolving power. Transient isotachophoresis (t-ITP) can also be integrated with this setup to increase the mass loading of the system while maintaining peak efficiency and resolution. Concentration limits of detection in the subnanomolar or nanomolar range can be achieved with or without t-ITP, respectively. The application of a vacuum at the inlet of the separation capillary further allowed the peak capacity of the system to be improved while also enhancing its efficiency. As a final step in this study, it was demonstrated that the intrinsic properties of the interface allows the use of coated noncharged surfaces so that very high peak capacities can be achieved.     

Free-space optical communications link budget estimation

This paper describes a new methodology of estimating free-space optical communications link budgets to be expected in conditions of severe turbulence. The approach is derived from observing that the ability of an adaptive optics (AO) system to compensate turbulence along a path is limited by the transmitter and receiver Rayleigh range, proportional to the diameter of the optics squared and inverse of the wavelength of light utilized. The method uses the Fried parameter computed over the range outside of the transmitter and receiver Rayleigh ranges, to calculate the Strehl ratios that yield a reasonable prediction of the light impinging on the receiving telescope aperture and the power coupling into the fiber. Comparisons will be given between theory and field measurements. These comparisons show that AO is most effective within the Rayleigh ranges, or when an atmospheric gradient is present, and lesser so when the total range is much greater than the sum of the Rayleigh ranges.