Self-affirmation reduces smokers' defensiveness to graphic on-pack cigarette warning labels.

Objective: Little is known about how smokers respond to graphic images depicting the health consequences of smoking. The authors tested whether smokers respond defensively to such images and whether allowing them to self-affirm reduces their defensiveness. Design: Young smokers (N = 87) were randomly allocated to self-affirm or perform a control task prior to viewing 4 images intended for future use on cigarette packs in the European Union. Measures were taken immediately postexposure and after 1 week. Main Outcome Measures: Participants rated each image for threat and personal relevance. Once all 4 images had been viewed, they completed measures of intentions, self-efficacy, and perceived behavioral control for reducing cigarette consumption, negative thoughts and feelings about smoking, personal vulnerability to 6 smoking-related diseases, desire to quit, and plans to quit. At the 1-week follow-up, measures of self-reported smoking and desire to reduce consumption were taken. Results: Relative to controls, self-affirmed participants rated the images as more threatening and personally relevant, and they reported more negative thoughts and feelings and higher levels of control, self-efficacy, and intentions. Risk level moderated the effect of self-affirmation on relevance and intentions: Self-affirmation increased ratings on both measures among those who smoked more. In addition, self-affirmation moderated the threat-intention relationship, which was weaker in the self-affirmed group. At follow-up, motivation to reduce consumption remained higher in self-affirmed participants, but there were no differences in reported consumption. Conclusion: Self-affirmation can promote less defensive responding even to visual material about well-established health risks such as smoking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

“Where’s Farah?”: Knowledge silos and information fusion by distributed collaborating teams

The Cognitively-Based Rapid Assessment Methodology (C-RAM) system manages multiple-user interactions as users work with multiple information sources. Further, it allows users to view, exchange, organize, and combine the information available and it facilitates group decision-making. Three-member teams, randomly assigned in either the (a) view others’ whiteboards or (b) cannot view others’ whiteboards conditions, completed an intelligence analysis and mission planning task. Each team member was given access to a virtual whiteboard populated with decision cards (DCards) containing intelligence information constrained to a specific area of expertise. DCards can be assessed (rated) for decision impact and importance and team members have access to all DCards regardless of experimental condition. Team members who can view their teammates’ whiteboards during collaborative activities achieve significantly higher performance. When compared to teams unable to view others’ whiteboards, they move their own DCards less frequently, add fewer additional DCards to their own whiteboards, and rate others’ DCards less frequently. Additionally, rating one’s own DCards is the only process positively related team performance.     

A study of combining heuristics for scheduling projects with limited multiple resources

The main objective of this study was to find a simple and quick procedure on the microcomputer for scheduling activities of a constrained multiple resource single project network that would minimize project duration. From this research there are two different types of results presented. First, a combination of simple heuristics which find the average of the minimum project durations for the constrained resource problem is presented. This combination not only supports the previous research on successful simple heuristic methods which set the priorities for constrained resource problems, but also produces results which are significantly better than those obtained by single heuristics. Second, a procedure for determining this combination of heuristics is introduced. A computer algorithm, COMAL, was developed for this study with constrained resource problems, but in the future its use may be expanded into other fields.     

Foreword: Hearsay testimony in trials involving child witnesses.

Allowing hearsay testimony in child abuse cases represents a dramatic and controversial change to the legal system, yet little scholarly and empirical work has been devoted to the topic. This special theme issue contains 12 articles written by psycholegal scholars from the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. It is organized to address 3 basic issues that should be of interest to psycholegal. researchers, as well as police officers, judges, lawyers, and other members of the legal community. (a) How often is hearsay testimony used? How is it used in comparison to other innovations designed to protect the psychological welfare of the child witness? (b) How accurate is hearsay testimony? Is it as accurate as the child's own account? (c) Do jurors believe hearsay testimony? How much weight do or should jurors give to hearsay testimony? Two critical commentaries, one legal and one psychological, follow these articles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Uptake, retention, and repellency of a potential carrier of active ingredients in crack and crevice treatments for stored-grain beetles

Crack and crevice treatments are important in modern stored-beetle management, because: (1) pests are abundant in such microhabitats, (2) they potentially deliver insecticides to insect pests without contaminating food products, and (3) they can significantly reduce the need for broadcast spray applications and/or fumigations. As part of on-going research into the development of novel insecticide delivery systems to be used in processed and unprocessed food environments, we examined uptake and behavioural responses of Oryzaephilus surinamensis to an electrostatically chargeable powder, Entostat^TM. Entostat is a processed plant wax and has been identified as a potential carrier for active ingredients to be delivered to cracks and crevices in food facilities. Depending upon the initial Entostat concentration in rolled oats, 0.03–0.26 μg powder was extracted from individual beetles 72 h after being transferred from treated to untreated food. SEM images showed that Entostat adhered to all body parts, including joints, between body segments, and at the insertions of body hairs. Choice experiments showed that O. surinamensis individuals were repelled, when rolled oats in cracks contained >5% Entostat. In a three-choice experiment cracks contained: (1) untreated oats, (2) oats mixed with 5% (w/w) Entostat, or (3) oats mixed with 5% (w/w) Entostat and a piece of filter paper containing a beetle attractant which was also inserted into the crack. The beetle attractant did not significantly increase the attractiveness of the crack in which it was applied, but the average powder uptake of beetles from cracks treated with the attractant was significantly higher than from the other cracks. Results presented here suggested that Entostat adhering to insects was retained over several days and that considerable amounts of Entostat were taken up even when beetles were offered a choice between treated and untreated cracks.     

Propranolol Hydrochloride Binding in Calcium Alginate Beads

The interaction of propranolol hydrochloride with alginate molecular chains in calcium alginate beads was investigated. The drug was either incorporated into formed calcium alginate gel beads or incorporated simultaneously with the gelation of alginate beads by Ca²⁺. Bed produced by the former method had a higher drug content and lower Ca²⁺ level compared to those prepared by the latter method. The extent of drug binding to the alginate molecules increased with decreasing Ca²⁺ levels in the beads, indicating that propranolol and Ca²⁺ shared common binding sites in the alginate chains, me appearance of the beads and the molphology of the alginate polymer in the beads were affected by the amounts of both propranolol and Ca²⁺ in the beads. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analyses showed that the formation of the calcium alginate gel structure was impeded in the presence of propranolol molecules.     

Nonminimum phase adaptive inverse control for settle performance applications

Single-track hard disk drive (HDD) seek performance is measured by settle time, $t_s$, defined as the time from the arrival of a seek command until the measured position reaches and stays within an acceptable distance from the target track. Our previous work has shown feedforward dynamic inversion, coupled with an aggressive desired trajectory $y_d$, is capable of achieving high performance settle times when the closed-loop dynamics are time-invariant and accurately modeled. In contrast, we describe an adaptive inversion procedure in this paper which removes the requirement for accurate initial models and tracks the position-variant dynamics present in our Servo Track Writer (STW) experimental apparatus. The proposed indirect adaptive inversion algorithm relies on a recursive least squares (RLS) estimate of the closed-loop dynamics. Pre-filtering of the RLS input signals, covariance resetting, and relative NMP system partitioning are necessary additions to the baseline adaptive algorithm in order to achieve fast settle times. Compared to the nonadaptive solution with accurate system identification, we show the adaptive algorithm achieves a 22% reduction in average settle time and a 53% reduction in settle time standard deviation.     

Sustainable Syngas Production by High-Temperature Co-electrolysis

High-temperature co-electrolysis shows comparable performance to steam electrolysis. Current densities above 1 A cm⁻² can be reached between 700 °C and 800 °C. Tailor-made syngas is produced, mainly determined by the reactant ratio. The experimental results are supported by modeling. Durability tests with cathode-supported cells show increased voltage degradation rates during electrolysis compared to fuel cell operation. Nickel depletion is found to be the main cause.     

Advances in the Application of Magnetic Nanoparticles for Sensing

Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are of high significance in sensing as they provide viable solutions to the enduring challenges related to lower detection limits and nonspecific effects. The rapid expansion in the applications of MNPs creates a need to overview the current state of the field of MNPs for sensing applications. In this review, the trends and concepts in the literature are critically appraised in terms of the opportunities and limitations of MNPs used for the most advanced sensing applications. The latest progress in MNP sensor technologies is overviewed with a focus on MNP structures and properties, as well as the strategies of incorporating these MNPs into devices. By looking at recent synthetic advancements, and the key challenges that face nanoparticle‐based sensors, this review aims to outline how to design, synthesize, and use MNPs to make the most effective and sensitive sensors.