The role of the self-concept and the social context in determining the behavior of power holders: Self-construal in intergroup versus dyadic dispute resolution negotiations.

In this work, the authors explored how a person's view of himself or herself might determine his or her use of power in a complex dispute resolution negotiation. In 3 studies of asymmetric power in negotiations, the authors demonstrated that the impact of power on motivation and behavior is moderated by both a person's self-view and the social context. In Study 1, the results revealed that in a one-on-one dispute, powerful individuals primed to hold an interdependent (as opposed to independent) self-construal are more generous in resolving their disputes with low-powered opponents. Study 2 replicated this finding but revealed a different pattern in intergroup disputes, in which powerful interdependent teams of negotiators are actually less generous than are independent teams. Study 3 provided a conceptual replication of Study 2, with the use of chronic measures of self-construal and self-reported measures of behavior. Results suggest that an interdependent self-construal may lead to a more benevolent use of power in dyadic conflicts but more exploitive uses of power in intergroup conflicts. Implications for the understanding of power and self-construal are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

GENETIC ALGORITHM APPROACH TO A LUMBER CUTTING OPTIMIZATION PROBLEM

Genetic algorithms are a technique for search and optimization based on the Darwinian principle of natural selection. They are iterative search procedures that maintain a population of candidate solutions. The best or most fit solutions in that population are then used as the basis for the next generation of solutions. The next generation is formed using the genetic operators reproduction, crossover, and mutation. Genetic algorithms have been successfully applied to engineering search and optimization problems. This paper presents a discussion of the basic theory of genetic algorithms and presents a genetic algorithm solution of a lumber cutting optimization problem. Dimensional lumber is assigned a grade that represents its physical properties. A grade is assigned to every board segment of a specific length. The board is then cut in various locations in order to maximize its value, A genetic algorithm was used to determine the cutting patterns that would maximize the board value.     

Neurocognitive signs in prodromal Huntington disease.

Objective: PREDICT-HD is a large-scale international study of people with the Huntington disease (HD) CAG-repeat expansion who are not yet diagnosed with HD. The objective of this study was to determine the stage in the HD prodrome at which cognitive differences from CAG-normal controls can be reliably detected. Method: For each of 738 HD CAG-expanded participants, we computed estimated years to clinical diagnosis and probability of diagnosis in 5 years based on age and CAG-repeat expansion number (Langbehn, Brinkman, Falush, Paulsen, & Hayden, 2004). We then stratified the sample into groups: NEAR, estimated to be ≤9 years; MID, between 9 and 15 years; and FAR, ≥15 years. The control sample included 168 CAG-normal participants. Nineteen cognitive tasks were used to assess attention, working memory, psychomotor functions, episodic memory, language, recognition of facial emotion, sensory–perceptual functions, and executive functions. Results: Compared with the controls, the NEAR group showed significantly poorer performance on nearly all of the cognitive tests and the MID group on about half of the cognitive tests (p = .05, Cohen's d NEAR as large as ?1.17, MID as large as ?0.61). One test even revealed significantly poorer performance in the FAR group (Cohen's d = ?0.26). Individual tasks accounted for 0.2% to 9.7% of the variance in estimated proximity to diagnosis. Overall, the cognitive battery accounted for 34% of the variance; in comparison, the Unified Huntington's Disease Rating Scale motor score accounted for 11.7%. Conclusions: Neurocognitive tests are robust clinical indicators of the disease process prior to reaching criteria for motor diagnosis of HD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Duration illusion and auditory grouping in infancy.

Extended previous research on perceptual grouping in infancy (Thorpe, Trehub, Morrongiello, & Bull, 1988). Infants' detection of temporal increments to silent intervals between groups of tones was compared with their detection of comparable silent increments within groups of tones. Ss were presented with standard 6-tone sequences, with the first 3 tones differing from the last 3 in harmonic structure, frequency, or intensity, and contrasting sequences with increments of 80 or 100 ms to the silent interval between the 3rd and 4th tone (XXX OOO, between groups) or between the 4th and 5th tone (XXXO OO, within group). Infants discriminated temporally altered sequences from the standard only when the increments occurred within a group. The authors conclude that perceptual grouping processes are operative in infancy and that infants perceive the silent increments between groups of sounds as longer than identical intervals within a group, as do adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Public attitudes toward political and technological options for biofuels

This paper explores detailed public attitudes regarding the expanding range of biofuels technologies and policy options. Subjects from 34 in-depth focus groups in central Indiana were fairly knowledgeable about biofuels technologies, but uninformed about biofuels policies despite being from a state where biofuels are a salient political issue. A narrow majority was supportive of biofuels in general, but expressed greater enthusiasm about “second generation” biofuels. Subject beliefs about biofuels’ economic and environmental impacts were most important in shaping these opinions, rather than concerns about energy independence or other issues. In terms of policy options, subjects were most supportive of an alternative fuels standard and least supportive of a fixed subsidy and a cap and trade policy. In contrast to arguments about technologies, participants primarily framed their attitudes toward policies in terms of fairness. Although discussion did not substantially change aggregate preferences for most policies, it did increase support significantly for at least one policy proposal—a variable subsidy for ethanol. It is particularly noteworthy that subjects generally did not support the most common biofuel technology—corn-based ethanol—or the most prominent biofuels policy option—the fixed subsidy—despite residing in a state hosting a strong corn industry and staunch political advocates for both positions.     

用低成本FPGA轻松实现DDR内存接口设计

系统设计者在大量的应用中,常使用经济的双倍数据速率(DDR)内存。虽然DDR在概念上一目了然,但要满足它那高于100MHz速度的时序要求,却是一项挑战。由于它们的灵活性、内置特性、高速工作、大量的闸数和低成本,当今的FPGA为设计提供了有用的基础方法。DDR内存控制器设计的三个主要问题是:数据选通(DQS)和数据(DQ)间的对齐、数据的多路合成和分解以及时脉域的转换。数据选通至数据(DQS至QD)的对齐要对齐DQS和DQ,需要一个精密的DLL来动态地校准DQS。由于DDR内存在读操作时产生相位对齐的DQS和DQ,控制器必须将DQS相对于多个…     

ORGANIC METAMORPHISM IN THE LOWER MISSISSIPPIAN-UPPER DEVONIAN BAKKEN SHALES — II: SOXHLET EXTRACTION1

In this paper, we report on Soxhlet extraction (and subsequent related analyses) of 39 Lower Mississippian-Upper Devonian Bakken shales from the North Dakota portion of the Williston Basin, and analyses of 28 oils from the Basin. Because of the influence of primary petroleum migration, no increase in the relative or absolute concentrations of hydrocarbons or bitumen was observed at the threshold of intense hydrocarbon generation (TIHG), or during mainstage hydrocarbon generation in the Bakken shales. Thus, the maturation indices that have been so useful in delineating the TIHG and mainstage hydrocarbon generation in other studies were of no use in this study, where these events could clearly be identified only by Rock-Eva1 pyrolysis data. The type of primary petroleum migration operative in the Bakken shales led to the selective concentration of certain compound types in the oils of the basin, as well as the selective concentration of certain compound types in the shale extracts. The compositional differences between the crude oils and shale extracts provide evidence of the primary migration mechanism operative in this case, which is believed to have been gaseous solution, although the actual expulsion of oil from the rock, if observed, would probably have appeared to be bulk phase migration. Gaseous-solution bulk-phase primary petroleum migration also left organic-geochemical imprints on the Bakken shales, observable by Soxhlet extraction and to a lesser extent by pyrolysis. The data of this study demonstrate that primary petroleum migration is a very efficient process. Four distinctive classes of saturated hydrocarbon gas chromatograms from the Bakken shales arose from facies, maturation, and primary migration controls. As a consequence of maturation, the percentage of saturated hydrocarbons increased in the shale extract at the expense of decreases in the resins and asphaltenes. Measurements involving resins and asphaltenes appear to be excellent maturation indices in the Bakken shales. Two different and distinct organic facies were present in immature Bakken shales. Rock-Eval pyrolysis analysis was a critical research tool in this study; however, combined use of pyrolysis and Soxhlet extraction allowed organic-geochemical features to be distinguished which would not have been possible by using either analysis alone.     

An intrinsic source of behavioral regulation that influences discrete responses to cues important for the initiation of suckling.

The present experiment investigated the relationship between motor activity and oral grasping of an artificial nipple in newborn rats. Pups orally grasped the artificial nipple, and they performed more and longer oral grasps in the latter portion of the nipple presentation. Motor activity was cyclical, and this cyclicity was evident before and during presentation of the artificial nipple. The onset of an oral grasp response was preceded by a period of relatively low motor activity, and the termination of a grasp was followed by relatively high motor activity. The newborn rat pup's intrinsic oscillations in motor activity may regulate the expression of discrete responses to cues important for the initiation of suckling. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting the vulnerability of reservoirs to poor water quality and cyanobacterial blooms

Cyanobacterial blooms in drinking water reservoirs present a major ecosystem functioning and human health issue. The ability to predict reservoir vulnerability to these blooms would provide information critical for decision making, hazard prevention and management. We developed a new, comparative index of vulnerability based on simple measures of reservoir and catchment characteristics, rather than water quality data, which were instead used to test the index’s effectiveness. Testing was based on water quality data collected over a number of seasons and years from 15 drinking water reservoirs in subtropical, southeast Queensland. The index correlated significantly and strongly with algal cell densities, including potentially toxic cyanobacteria, as well as with the proportions of cyanobacteria in summer months. The index also performed better than each of the measures of reservoir and catchment characteristics alone, and as such, was able to encapsulate the physical characteristics of subtropical reservoirs, and their catchments, into an effective indicator of the vulnerability to summer blooms. This was further demonstrated by calculating the index for a new reservoir to be built within the study region. Under planned dimensions and land use, a comparatively high level of vulnerability was reached within a few years. However, the index score and the number of years taken to reach a similar level of vulnerability could be reduced simply by decreasing the percentage of grazing land cover via revegetation within the catchment. With climate change, continued river impoundment and the growing demand for potable water, our index has potential decision making benefits when planning future reservoirs to reduce their vulnerability to cyanobacterial blooms.     

Simultaneous hyperaccumulation of nickel, manganese, and calcium in Alyssum leaf trichomes

We have developed commercially viable phytoremediation/phytomining technologies employing Alyssum Ni-hyperaccumulator species to quantitatively extract Ni from soils. The majority of Ni is stored either in Alyssum leaf epidermal cell vacuoles or in the basal portions only of the numerous stellate trichomes. Here, we report simultaneous and region-specific localization of high levels of Ni, Mn, and Ca within Alyssum trichomes as determined by scanning electron microscopy/energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (SEM/EDX). Plants were grown in high Ni soil, achieving up to 48 400 microg g(-1) Ni in total leaf concentration; however, Ca and Mn were not enriched in the experimental soils. The region-specific localization of hyperaccumulated Ca, Mn, and Ni occurred in three soil types, five Alyssum species/ecotypes, and over a wide range of soil Ni concentrations. The metal concentration in the trichome basal compartment was approximately 15-20% dry weight, the highest ever reported for healthy vascular plant tissue.