Psychological methodology: Should it differ from that of natural science?

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 13(2) of Canadian Psychologist Psychologie Canadienne (see record 2007-02145-010). The sentence beginning on line 30, p. 514 should read: Such value judgments include: falsifiability of a scientific theory is indispensable; as is logical consistency and (by implication) precise definition of technical terms; comprehensiveness; and parsimony.] By the methodology of a science is intended its mathematical-logical base, its axiomatic foundations or philosophical commitments - not its techniques. Whether psychological methodology differs from that of the natural sciences is considered obliquely by raising the question as to whether value judgments enter psychology in any way unknown to natural science. Six ways values enter psychology are found. Although only one of these does not also intrude upon natural science, this one suffices to require for psychology a new mathematical logic or methodology. The present approach seeks to help disambiguate such phenomenological approaches as Verstehen. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Selective angiography and transcervical exeresis in mediastinal parthyroid adenoma with anomalous drainage

A personal case of hyperparathyroidism due to parathyroid adenoma is reported: selective angiography enabled the neoplasia to be precisely localized in an unusual site and made it possible to identify its abnormal venous drainage. Transcervical surgery was used to remove the adenoma and the patient cured with no relapse up to the present. In the light of this expecience and a review of the recent literature on diagnostic techniques, emphasis is laid on the effectiveness of angiography in the localization of parathyroid adenoma, a localization which should always be sought preoperatively to avoid the risk of pointless surgical exploration.     

Characterization of Candida albicans orthologue of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae signal-peptidase-subunit encoding gene SPC3

The Candida albicans orthologue of the SPC3 gene, which encodes one of the subunits essential for the activity of the signal peptidase complex in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, was isolated by complementation of a thermosensitive mutation in the S. cerevisiae SEC61 gene. The cloned gene (CaSPC3) encodes a putative protein of 192 amino acids that contains one potential membrane-spanning region and shares significant homology with the corresponding products from mammalian (Spc22/23p) and yeast (Spc3p) cells. CaSPC3 is essential for cell viability, since a hemizygous strain containing a single copy of CaSPC3 under control of the methionine-repressible MET3 promoter did not grow in the presence of methionine and cysteine. The cloned gene could rescue the phenotype associated with a spc3 mutation in S. cerevisiae, indicating that it is the true C. albicans orthologue of SPC3. However, in contrast with results previously described for its S. cerevisiae orthologue, CaSPC3 was not able to complement the thermosensitive growth associated with a mutation in the SEC11 gene. The heterologous complementation of the sec61 mutant suggests that Spc3p could play a role in the interaction that it is known to occur between the translocon (Sec61 complex) and the signal peptidase complex, at the endoplasmic reticulum membrane.     

Minimal models of adapted neuronal response to in vivo-like input currents

Rate models are often used to study the behavior of large networks of spiking neurons. Here we propose a procedure to derive rate models that take into account the fluctuations of the input current and firing-rate adaptation, two ubiquitous features in the central nervous system that have been previously overlooked in constructing rate models. The procedure is general and applies to any model of firing unit. As examples, we apply it to the leaky integrate-and-fire (IF) neuron, the leaky IF neuron with reversal potentials, and to the quadratic IF neuron. Two mechanisms of adaptation are considered, one due to an afterhyperpolarization current and the other to an adapting threshold for spike emission. The parameters of these simple models can be tuned to match experimental data obtained from neocortical pyramidal neurons. Finally, we show how the stationary model can be used to predict the time-varying activity of a large population of adapting neurons.     

MuscleBuilder: A modeling tool for human anatomy

A traditional multi-layered approach is adopted to human body modeling and deformation. The model is split into three general anatomical structures: the skeleton, musculature and skin. It is shown that each of these layers is modeled and deformed by using fast, procedural, ad-hoc methods that can painlessly be reimplemented. The modeling approach is generic enough to handle muscles of varying shape, size and characteristics and does not break in extreme skeleton poses. It is also described that the integrated MuscleBuilder system whose main features are: i) easy and quick creation of muscle deformation models; ii) automatic deformation of an overlying skin. It is shown that visually realistic results can be obtained at interactive frame rates with very little input from the designer.     

Mechanisms of polymer crystallization from flowing solutions

The recent experimental results on flow-induced crystallization by Pennings and coworkers show that extremely rigid polyethylene fibers can be obtained in a shear flow. On the other hand, the mechanism by which these flow-induced crystals are produced is still open to investigation. In this work a few aspects of fibrous crystal growth are theoretically investigated. The molecular dynamics of chains partly attached to the crystal and partly immersed in the solution is considered. The influence of temperature and of geometrical factors is also discussed.     

Solubility of ethylene in several polar and non-polar solvents

Solubilities of ethylene at atmospheric pressure and temperatures ranging from ?9°C to 70°C are reported in solvents ranging from the non-polar ones, heptane, dodecane, carbon tetrachloride, carbon disulfide and chlorobenzene to the highly polar ones, isopropanol, butanol and ethylene glycol. A useful relation was observed between ethylene solubilities in non-polar solvents and those of methane, ethane and propane, along with the corresponding energy of vaporization at the normal boiling for those gases. In the highly polar solvents on the other hand, hydrogen bonding (H-bonding) factors were found more useful in relating solubilities in one hydrogen bonding solvent to those in other hydrogen bonding solvents.     

基于Java的多功能XML工作引擎

运用Java和XML技术开发的应用软件平台有很多优点,而采用电子邮件代替网络连接作为信息交换的载体能够增强系统的安全性,本文介绍了一个基于电子邮件的Java-XML工作引擎－XMLInterchange,重点描述XMLInterchange的设计,实验“并给出了一个XMLInterchange作为电子商务平台的应用实例－电子传单。     

Efficacy and stability of ammoniation process as aflatoxin B1 decontamination technology in rice

Rice, a cereal widely used in Venezuela for human and animal nutrition, is susceptible to aflatoxin contamination in the field and during storage. Therefore, the goal of this research was the evaluation of the efficacy and permanence of the ammoniation process through high pressure/high temperature (HP/HT) and atmospheric pressure/moderate temperature (AP/MT) conditions applied to rice samples artificially contaminated with aflatoxin B1. For this purpose a 2k design was drawn up considering the temperature, the rice moisture and the process time as variables. Under both sets of conditions, aflatoxin B1 concentration was reduced in a range of 90% to 100%. After in vitro stomach digestion simulation, toxin reversion ranged from 0% to 19%. In conclusion, the process efficacy and permanence were achieved through the use of high temperature and long process time for both sets of conditions (HP/HT and AP/MT), respectively.