Attentional changes during implicit learning: Signal validity protects a target stimulus from the attentional blink.

Participants in 2 experiments performed 2 simultaneous tasks: one, a dual-target detection task within a rapid sequence of target and distractor letters; the other, a cued reaction time task requiring participants to make a cued left–right response immediately after each letter sequence. Under these rapid visual presentation conditions, it is usually difficult to identify the 2nd target when it is presented in temporal proximity of the 1st target—a phenomenon known as the attentional blink. However, here participants showed an advantage for detecting a target presented during the attentional blink if that target predicted which response cue would appear at the end of the trial. Participants also showed faster reaction times on trials with a predictive target. Both of these effects were independent of conscious knowledge of the target–response contingencies assessed by postexperiment questionnaires. The results suggest that implicit learning of the association between a predictive target and its outcome can automatically facilitate target recognition during the attentional blink and therefore shed new light on the relationship between associative learning and attentional mechanisms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What men want: The role of reflective opposite-sex normative preferences in alcohol use among college women.

Misperceptions of peer drinking norms have been found to be strongly associated with individual drinking behavior, especially for proximal reference groups such as same-sex friends. Less studied are the effects of perceived preferences from the opposite sex on alcohol use; that is, the behaviors an individual believes the opposite sex prefers from them. Research suggests that these perceived “reflective” normative preferences may be particularly salient among college women, who may drink in pursuit of intimate relationships and positive attention from male peers. Heterosexual undergraduate students from two universities participated in this project. Females answered questions regarding the amount of alcohol they believe a typical male would like his female friends, dates, or romantic partners to drink. Males answered the same questions, stating their actual preferences. Results showed that females overestimate the amount of alcohol males want their female friends, dating partners, and sexual partners to drink, and that this misperception was associated with their drinking behavior, even after controlling for perceived same-sex norms. These results suggest that reflective normative feedback may offer a powerful new tool for female-targeted interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

OCTOR: Subset selection in recursive pattern hierarchies

We present an approach for encoding and specifying selections in recursive pattern hierarchies. Hierarchies of patterns of features or other modeling entities are used in architectural and mechanical CAD to eliminate laborious repetitions from the design process. Yet, often a subset of the repeated occurrences in the model must be edited. Specifying a desired selection is often tedious and difficult. Our approach addresses these two drawbacks simultaneously, offering an effective and intuitive solution which requires only two mouse-clicks to specify any one of a wide range of selections, including selections in recursive hierarchies. The selection has a concise representation that is simple to compute.     

Green Cryptography: Cleaner Engineering through Recycling

Green cryptography is an implementation-centric design paradigm that advocates mature (that is, secure) and minimalist (that is, simple) implementations by recycling cryptographic primitives, components, and design strategies. To exemplify the merits of this recycling-based approach, the authors turn to the Advanced Encryption Standard and examine the pedigree of its predecessors, successors, and various other primitives that it recycles from and that recycle from it. To vouch for its viability as a secure strategy for cryptographic design, the authors also outline a framework for recycling the AES in both message encryption and message authentication, to achieve the strongest notions of confidentiality and integrity.     

Fluidisation of whey powders above the glass-transition temperature

The fluidisation of partially-crystallised whey powder above the glass-transition temperature of lactose has been investigated, with the intent of crystallising the amorphous-lactose fraction in order to reduce the propensity of the powder to cake during storage. Partially-crystallised whey powder can be fluidised in a vibrated fluidised bed at temperatures of 25 to 40 °C above the glass-transition point of lactose, depending on the relative humidity of the air, before the powder becomes too sticky to fluidise. This temperature difference can be increased up to 80 °C by fluidising the powder with fine, relatively non-sticky, fully-crystallised whey powder in order to coat and protect the sticky partially-crystallised whey particulates during fluidisation. Despite this temperature-difference increase, the time required to crystallise the amorphous-lactose fraction in partially-crystallised whey powder is not reduced sufficiently for this process to be viable in industry. An amorphous whey powder crystallisation process is likely to be more feasible, because the reduced salt and protein concentrations in this powder would ensure that lactose crystallisation is faster. Finally, this work has highlighted the potential of using the phenomenon of lactose plasticization above the glass-transition temperature and fines coating to improve the instant properties of milk-based powders.     

Comparing patterning and biconditional discriminations in humans.

In two experiments, human participants performed a causal judgment task that simultaneously comprised two reciprocal patterning discriminations and a biconditional discrimination. They learned both patterning discriminations more quickly than the biconditional discrimination. Postdiscrimination tests were used to identify participants who had, or had not, learned to apply the patterning rules, as well as participants who continued to expect summation when presented with two cues that predicted the same outcome. All groups were faster to learn the patterning than the biconditional discriminations. These results are inconsistent with models of stimulus representation that invoke configural representations (e.g., Pearce, 1987, 1994; Rescorla & Wagner, 1972) because these models solve biconditional discriminations more readily than patterning discriminations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using strong sustainability to optimize electricity generation fuel mixes

This work represents a contribution to the field of sustainable electricity system design by using an optimization tool to specify the final mix composition, subject to the constraints of: emissions that are within the biocapacity of the region; a diverse and robust electricity supply system; and supply that at least meets current demand. The 25-country European Union (EU-25) is used as a case study. All the goals, save diversity, can be met by re-structuring the current fuel mix, thus maintaining current consumption levels. The diversity target is only met when consumption is reduced by 10–15% and the constraint on maximum material throughput is relaxed. Re-structuring the mix and reducing consumption is insufficient to achieve a sustainable EU carbon footprint. However, the solution proposed singlehandedly allows the EU to meet its Kyoto emissions target as well as its 2007 policy of a reduction of 20% in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.