Effects of alcohol and expectancies on verbal aggression in men and women.

In Exp I, 48 male and 48 female heavy social-drinking undergraduates were assigned to beverage (vodka [.75 ml/kg] and tonic or only tonic) and beverage-expectancy (alcohol or tonic) conditions. Ss were provoked by a confederate's unfavorable evaluation and allowed to retaliate. In Exp II, Exp I was repeated using 44 males and 45 females and higher doses of ethanol (1.12 and 1.10 ml/kg, respectively, for males and females). In Exp III, an experimenter criticized 62 male drinkers (.9 ml/kg ethanol) who later evaluated the experimenter's job performance on a questionnaire for his employer. Results show that for Ss at higher doses and males at the lower dose, those expecting alcohol were significantly less aggressive and at higher doses felt happier than did Ss expecting only tonic. Actual alcohol consumption increased aggression only for females at the lower doses. It is concluded that alcohol by its pharmacologic action alone does not necessarily increase aggression at either a low or a moderately high dose. It is suggested that many of the reinforcements of alcohol use are due to the drinkers' cognition rather than the pharmacologic action of alcohol itself. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cultural differences in strategic behavior: A study in computational estimation.

Imbo and LeFevre (2009) observed that Asians (responding in their 2nd language) selected strategies less adaptively than did non-Asians (responding in their 1st language). In the present research, we tested whether adaptive strategy selection is (a) really more resource demanding for Asians than for non-Asians or (b) more resource demanding for participants answering in a nonpreferred language. Three groups of participants were tested on a computational estimation task (e.g., 42 × 57 ≈ ?) in no-load and load conditions: 40 Belgian-educated adults who answered in their first language (Dutch), 40 Chinese-educated adults who answered in their first language (Chinese), and 40 Chinese-educated adults who answered in their second language (English). Although the Chinese were faster and more accurate than the Belgians, they selected strategies less adaptively. That is, the Chinese were less likely to choose the strategy that produced the best estimate; this was especially so when their working memory was loaded. Further, we also observed that the Chinese who answered in English were slower than the Chinese who answered in Chinese; this difference was larger for difficult strategies and under working memory load. These results are interpreted in terms of the encoding complex model, whereas the explanation for the adaptivity results is based on cultural differences in educational history. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Exploratory investigation of the chemical characteristics and relative toxicity of ambient air particulates from two New Zealand cities

We examined the chemical composition and biological response associated with particulate emissions from the two largest cities in New Zealand, Auckland and Christchurch. The organic and water-soluble fractions were isolated from the particulate matter (PM). The organic fraction was examined for PAH content, direct mutagenicity, CYP1A1 induction, and cytotoxicity and TNF-α release in RAW264.7 macrophages. The water-soluble fraction was examined for metal content, and cytotoxicity and TNF-α release in RAW264.7 macrophages.Particulate, PAH and water-soluble metal concentrations were all higher in PM collected from Christchurch, being highest in May-July when woodburners for home heating are widely in use. In contrast, PM from Auckland showed the highest concentrations in March, but PAH and metal concentrations were highest in July. We found marked differences in the biological response elicited by ambient air PM: the organic extracts of Christchurch PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ showed higher mutagenicity and CYP1A1 induction compared with PM₁₀ from Auckland. In contrast, water-soluble extracts of Auckland PM were more cytotoxic and resulted in greater TNF-α release than those from Christchurch PM, although they had a lower metal content. The organic fraction of PM from both cities did not induce any cytokine release, and the organic extract from Auckland samples showed no cytotoxicity; smaller PM mass was available for testing for these samples. Biological responses typically occurred at lower doses of the organic extract, indicating that organic components may be more important in eliciting effects than water-soluble components.Preliminary apportionment of the biological responses to the dominant sources of PM in both cities-woodburners and vehicles-was undertaken. This indicated that for both cities, vehicles have a greater contribution to the direct mutagenic activity of ambient PM than woodsmoke, despite a lower contribution to ambient PM. In contrast, woodsmoke is estimated to have a greater contribution to CYP1A1 induction of ambient PM. The calculated activity forms only a small proportion of the activity observed in extracts of ambient PM from Christchurch, particularly for mutagenicity, and may indicate a significant influence of atmospheric transformation processes on biological response. Only data for mutagenicity and CYP1A1 activity could be used for apportionment as low and/or variable cytotoxicity or TNF-α release response were obtained for either the individual source or ambient PM at the doses tested. Further, in the case of the water-soluble extracts from Auckland, additional components are suggested to have a role in the observed activity.     

Baeyer–Villiger Oxidation of Cyclohexanone in Aqueous Medium with In Situ Generation of Peracid Catalyzed by Perhydrolase CLEA

A perhydrolase, immobilized as a cross linked enzyme aggregate (CLEA), was employed to catalyze the in situ formation of peracetic acid (PAA) from ethylene glycol diacetate (EGDA) and hydrogen peroxide. The produced PAA was used for the Baeyer–Villiger oxidation of cyclohexanone, which afforded caprolactone in 63 % yield. The effect of type and amount of acyl donor, solvent, pH, temperature and ratio of cyclohexanone to hydrogen peroxide on the production of caprolactone was studied. The highest caprolactone yield was obtained with 100 mM EGDA as the acyl donor at pH 6 and room temperature using a ratio of cyclohexanone to hydrogen peroxide ratio of 1:4. Interestingly, the perhydrolase CLEA exhibited the highest activity in aqueous medium in contrast to the well studied lipase B from Candida antarctica. The perhydrolase CLEA proved to be a very efficient catalyst; the K _m and V_max values were 118 mM and 56.3 μmol min^?1, respectively.     

Processing instructional texts and examples.

72 undergraduates used 1 of 4 formats of instructional information to solve series completion problems, and processing of instructional information and test performance were assessed. Direct retrieval of a procedure with an instructional text was most successful when the name of the procedure was provided, rather than the component steps. Analogical processing was used when an example was given. When inferring a rule and mapping the example rule on to the test items, Ss looked back at the example more often than at the instructional text. Practice effects were most evident for Ss given an example, suggesting that the example but not the instruction procedure was being modified in the course of the test. An appendix of problems used on the computer test is included. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Empirical Evaluation of Aesthetics-based Graph Layout

Many automatic graph layout algorithms have been designed and implemented to display relational data in a graphical (usually node-arc) manner. The success of these algorithms is typically measured by their computational efficiency and the extent to which they conform to aesthetic criteria (for example, minimising the number of crossings, maximising symmetry). Little research has been performed on the usability aspects of such algorithms: do they produce graph drawings that make the embodied information easy to use and understand? Is the computational effort expended on conforming to the assumed aesthetic criteria justifiable with respect to better usability? This paper reports on usability studies that were performed to investigate the merit of automatic graph layout algorithms with respect to human use. The paper describes three ways in which this issue has been considered experimentally: first, investigating individual aesthetic criteria in simple, abstract graph structures; second, investigating the results of common automatic graph layout algorithms; and third, investigating individual aesthetic criteria and other relevant secondary notations in Unified Modeling Language class and collaboration diagrams. The results show that the use of only some aesthetics affect usability significantly, and that the semantic domain of the graph drawings affects which aesthetic criteria need to be emphasised.     

Implicating the lexicon: Base-word frequency effects in pseudohomophone naming.

Ss named pseudohomophones (e.g., phocks) and nonpseudohomophones (e.g., snocks) under conditions in which words were or were not included in the stimulus lists. For Ss classified as fast responders, pseudohomophone advantages were not accompanied with base-word frequency effects. For slow responders, pseudohomophone naming was related to base-word frequency, but only when words were included in the stimulus lists. A dual-route model is proposed in which (1) lexical representations are frequency sensitive, (2) the relative use of nonlexical vs lexical information in phonological synthesis depends on strategic factors, and (3) overlapping lexical and nonlexical codes are assumed to lengthen processing time at the level of a phonological buffer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cholinergic receptor blockade produces impairments in a sensorimotor subsystem for place navigation in the rat: Evidence from sensory, motor, and acquisition tests in a swimming pool.

In Experiment 1, control rats and rats treated with atropine sulfate or atropine methyl nitrate (50 mg/kg) were trained to escape to a visible platform from different starting points in a swimming pool. All groups learned the task by concomitantly developing position responses, by orienting according to room cues, and by orienting to the platform, but probe trials showed that the atropine-sulfate group made more use of the platform as a local cue and made less use of distal cues than did the other groups. The atropine-sulfate group also made fewer searches during acquisition, made fewer searches when the platform was removed on probe trials, and were less responsive to novel cues placed above and around the pool. Swim speed, as estimated by the distance swum on probe trials, was also greater in atropine-sulfate-treated rats. The postulate that rats treated with atropine sulfate preferentially guide swimming by using position responses and local cues was tested in Experiment 2 by comparing their performance with that of control rats in a place task in which the target platform was hidden (no local cues present) and in a similar place task in which the target platform was visible, as was a second incorrect platform that sank when climbed upon (two competing local cues present). Although both tasks were acquired by the control and drugged rats, the two-platform task, as predicted, was comparatively more difficult for the atropine-treated rats. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Polysemy effects in word naming.

The present research examined the influence of polysemy on word naming. Thirty psychology students served as Ss. Ss named 80 words in an online naming condition followed by a delayed naming condition. For online naming, Ss fixated on a centrally presented asterisk and initiated a trial by pressing a microswitch. The asterisk disappeared immediately and the stimulus word appeared following a 600 msec delay. For the delayed-naming condition, the asterisk disappeared and was replaced 600 msec later by a word that remained on the monitor for 250 msec. Naming was faster to polysemous than to nonpolysemous words. Moreover, polysemy interacted with word frequency such that the facilitative effects of polysemy were isolated to naming of low-frequency words. These findings are discussed with reference to the distributed models of M. E. J. Masson (1991, 1995; R. Borowsky and Masson, 1996; Masson and Borowsky, 1995), A. H. Kawamoto et al (1994), and other relevant studies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)