Representation and selection of relative position.

Part 1 concerns representation: Pop-out for a target that can be distinguished from the distractors only by the relative position of its components was demonstrated, thereby showing that simple shape information is represented preattentively. Findings are discussed in terms of early- vs late-selection debate and in terms of theories of search and texture segregation. Part 2 concerns selection: Strong learning in a varied-mapping paradigm was demonstrated, and it was shown that preattentive shape information can be used for selection. Finally, an account of the learning, namely the group scale hypothesis, is suggested and a final experiment to test it is presented. Results confirm and extend the emphasis placed by J. Duncan and G. W. Humphreys's (1989) attentional engagement theory on grouping processes in visual search. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Benzylation of thiophene using zinc and iron chloride modified montmorillinite clay

Montmorillinite clays, modified with either Zn(II) or Fe(III) chlorides have been used to catalyze the Friedel-Crafts alkylation of thiophene. High yields (ca. 80%) of 2- and 3-benzylthiophene mixtures were obtained using either catalyst in chlorobenzene or nitrobenzene solvent at 80°C. The ratio of 2–3-products was found to be controlled by their relative stability. Reactions were most rapid in nitrobenzene solution (<5 min) and resulted in formation of the 2-isomer as the only mono-substituted product. This is believed to be the first example in which an alkylation of thiophene has been limited to one regio-isomer.     

Differential responses in anterior pituitary luteinizing hormone (LH) content and LH beta- and alpha-subunit mRNA, and plasma concentrations of LH and testosterone, in bulls treated with the LH-releasing hormone agonist deslorelin

Tooth loss diminishes oral function and quality of life, and national health targets aim to reduce population levels of tooth loss. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to determine tooth loss incidence and predictors of tooth loss among older adults in South Australia. METHODS: Data were obtained from a cohort study of a stratified random sample of community-dwelling dentate people aged 60+ years. Interviews and oral examinations were conducted among 911 individuals at baseline and among 693 of them (76.1%) 2 years later. Incidence rates and relative risks were calculated for population subgroups and multivariate logistic regression was used to construct risk prediction models. A method was developed to calculate 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for relative risks (RR) from logistic regression models using a Taylor series approximation. RESULTS: Some 19.5% (95% CI = 15.4-23.6%) of people lost one or more teeth during the 2 years. Men, people with a recent extraction, people who brushed their teeth infrequently, smokers and people born outside Australia had significantly (P < 0.05) greater risk of tooth loss. Baseline clinical predictors of tooth loss included more missing teeth, retained roots, decayed root surfaces, periodontal pockets and periodontal recession. In a multivariate model that controlled for baseline clinical predictors, former smokers (RR = 2.55, 95% CI = 1.48-4.40) and current smokers (RR = 2.06, 95% CI = 0.92-4.62) had similarly elevated risks of tooth loss compared with non-smokers. CONCLUSIONS: The findings from this population suggest that a history of smoking contributes to tooth loss through mechanisms in addition to clinical disease processes alone.     

Post-traumatic stress disorder and smoking: a systematic review.

We conducted a systematic review of what is known about the relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and smoking to guide research on underlying mechanisms and to facilitate the development of evidence-based tobacco treatments for this population of smokers. We searched Medline, PsychINFO, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and identified 45 studies for review that presented primary data on PTSD and smoking. Smoking rates were high among clinical samples with PTSD (40%-86%) as well as nonclinical populations with PTSD (34%-61%). Most studies showed a positive relationship between PTSD and smoking and nicotine dependence, with odds ratios ranging between 2.04 and 4.52. Findings also suggest that PTSD, rather than trauma exposure itself, is more influential for increasing risk of smoking. A small but growing literature has examined psychological factors related to smoking initiation and maintenance and the overlapping neurobiology of PTSD and nicotine dependence. Observational studies indicate that smokers with PTSD have lower quit rates than do smokers without PTSD. Yet a few tobacco cessation treatment trials in smokers with PTSD have achieved quit rates comparable with controlled trials of smokers without mental disorders. In conclusion, the evidence points to a causal relationship between PTSD and smoking that may be bidirectional. Specific PTSD symptoms may contribute to smoking and disrupt cessation attempts. Intervention studies that test behavioral and pharmacological interventions designed specifically for use in patients with PTSD are needed to reduce morbidity and mortality in this population.     

Reengineering the Internet for Better Security

The growing proliferation of malware is raising doubts about the Internet's future. Security measures primarily target inbound traffic, but service providers have no incentive to stop attacks and spam at the source. A proposed certification scheme motivates providers to control outgoing traffic, efficiently increasing overall security while preserving the Internet's open, decentralized structure     

Turnover rates for heptane reforming over Pt/L zeolites with different alkali cations

A series of 0.6 wt% Pt/BaL catalysts with different alkali cations have been tested for heptane reforming at 440 ° C, 0.16 atm heptane, 0.95 atm H₂, 6.7 atm He, 3 to 5 h of reaction, and conversions between 2 and 10%. As the cations in the zeolite are progressively changed from lithium to cesium, the turnover rates for hydrogenolysis and dehydrocyclization increase by about 5–10 times, while the turnover rate for isomerization remains unchanged. Since the turnover rates for hydrogenolysis and dehydrocyclization are similarly affected, exchanging lighter alkali cations for heavier ones increases the aromatics selectivity by a small amount, from 72 to 82%. These results indicate that metal-support interactions have a moderate effect on the heptane reforming activity, but only a weak effect on the selectivity.     

Management of lymphoproliferative disorders after cardiac transplantation

We conducted a retrospective study of 516 cardiac recipients who underwent transplantation between April 1983 and April 1992, 19 of whom had development of post-transplantation lymphoproliferative disorders (PTLDs). These 19 patients presented with involvement of lung (5), gastrointestinal tract (5), disseminated disease (6), and adenoids and lymph nodes (3). B-cell proliferations ranging from an atypical hyperplasia to malignant lymphoma developed in 18 patients, and mixed cellularity Hodgkin's disease developed in 1 patient. The 19 patients with PTLD displayed a predominance of both women and cardiomyopathy as the indication for transplantation when compared with two separate control populations. No correlation was found between demographic criteria analyzed and (1) early versus late diagnosis of PTLD after transplantation, (2) the site of PTLD involvement, or (3) the histopathologic category of the PTLD lesion. Patients with gastrointestinal tract and lung PTLD involvement enjoyed an improved survival after both transplantation and PTLD diagnosis when compared with patients with PTLD involvement of all other extranodal sites. We report a high incidence of PTLD involving the lung and gastrointestinal tract in our cohort study. These sites of involvement responded better to a reduction in immunosuppression than did the other extranodal sites of involvement.     

A New Approach to Abstract Syntax with Variable Binding

The permutation model of set theory with atoms (FM-sets), devised by Fraenkel and Mostowski in the 1930s, supports notions of ‘name-abstraction’ and ‘fresh name’ that provide a new way to represent, compute with, and reason about the syntax of formal systems involving variable-binding operations. Inductively defined FM-sets involving the name-abstraction set former (together with Cartesian product and disjoint union) can correctly encode syntax modulo renaming of bound variables. In this way, the standard theory of algebraic data types can be extended to encompass signatures involving binding operators. In particular, there is an associated notion of structural recursion for defining syntax-manipulating functions (such as capture avoiding substitution, set of free variables, etc.) and a notion of proof by structural induction, both of which remain pleasingly close to informal practice in computer science. Received October 2000 / Accepted in revised form April 2001