Emotional states of drivers and the impact on speed,acceleration and traffic violations—A simulator study

Maladjusted driving, such as aggressive driving and delayed reactions, is seen as one cause of traffic accidents. Such behavioural patterns could be influenced by strong emotions in the driver. The causes of emotions in traffic are divided into two distinct classes: personal factors and properties of the specific driving situation. In traffic situations, various appraisal factors are responsible for the nature and intensity of experienced emotions. These include whether another driver was accountable, whether goals were blocked and whether progress and safety were affected. In a simulator study, seventy-nine participants took part in four traffic situations which each elicited a different emotion. Each situation had critical elements (e.g. slow car, obstacle on the street) based on combinations of the appraisal factors. Driving parameters such as velocity, acceleration, and speeding, together with the experienced emotions, were recorded. Results indicate that anger leads to stronger acceleration and higher speeds even for 2 km beyond the emotion-eliciting event. Anxiety and contempt yielded similar but weaker effects, yet showed the same negative and dangerous driving pattern as anger. Fright correlated with stronger braking momentum and lower speeds directly after the critical event.     

Examining relations among attachment, religiosity, and new age spirituality using the Adult Attachment Interview.

This study was the first to examine relations between attachment and religion-spirituality in adults using a developmentally validated attachment assessment, the Adult Attachment Interview. Security of attachment was expected to be linked to a religiosity-spirituality that is socially based on the parental relationships and reflects extrapolation of attachment experiences with sensitive parents to perceived relationships with a loving God. Insecurity of attachment was expected to be related to religiosity- spirituality via emotional compensation for states of insecurity. Participants (N = 84; 40% men; mean age = 29 years) were drawn from religious-spiritual groups. Religiousness-spirituality was assessed with questionnaires. Results generally supported the hypotheses ( ps = .05). Estimates of parental loving were linked to socially based religiosity, loving God images, and gradual religious changes occurring at early ages and in life contexts indicating a positive influence of close relationships. Estimates of parental rejection and role reversal were related to New Age spirituality and sudden-intense religious changes occurring in life contexts of turmoil. Current attachment state of mind was generally unrelated to traditional religiosity, but current preoccupation, unresolved- disorganized, and cannot classify states were associated with New Age spirituality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Quantum Mereotopology

While mereotopology – the theory of boundaries, contact and separation built up on a mereological foundation – has found fruitful applications in the realm of qualitative spatial reasoning, it faces problems when its methods are extended to deal with those varieties of spatial and non-spatial reasoning which involve a factor of granularity. This is because granularity cannot easily be represented within a mereology-based framework. We sketch how this problem can be solved by means of a theory of granular partitions, a theory general enough to comprehend not only the familiar sorts of spatial partitions but also a range of coarse-grained partitions of other, non-spatial sorts. We then show how these same methods can be extended to apply to finite sequences of granular partitions evolving over time, or to what we shall call coarse- and fine-grained histories.     

Emotional Support From Parents Early in Life, Aging, and Health.

The purpose of this study is to estimate the relationship between receiving emotional support from parents early in life and an individual's health in adulthood. Analysis of data from a nationally representative sample of adults ages 25-74 years suggests that a lack of parental support during childhood is associated with increased levels of depressive symptoms and chronic conditions in adulthood. These associations between early parental support and adult health persist with increasing age throughout adulthood. Personal control, self-esteem, and social relationships during adulthood account for a large portion of these long-term associations. These findings underscore the importance of adopting a life course perspective in studying the social determinants of health among adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

SOME OBSERVATIONS ON AIR MOVEMENTS IN CLEAN ROOMS WITH UNIDIRECTIONAL AIR FLOW

To avoid particle contamination in clean process production, unidirectional air flow with HEPA-filtered air is used, either in the entire room or partly in the critical process region (clean air zones), the purpose of this presentation is to describe a number of observations in unidirectional air flow and to discuss the interaction between air movements and the dispersion of airborne contaminants, it has been shown, by using smoke photography technique, that wake regions and vortex streets can easily be formed behind the working operator and objects. If a contaminant is emitted in the region of a vortex an accumulation can occur. It is important for the user to investigate that such vortices do not occur in the clean working zone.     

Oxidation progress in an emulsion made from metmyoglobin and different triacylglycerols

Emulsions made using metmyoglobin as emulsifier and different synthetic and natural triacylglycerols (TAG), have been studied with respect to oxidation progress during 48 h at ambient temperature. The investigated model systems contained polyunsaturated TAGs of linolein (C18:2n-6, tri-LIN), arachidonin (C20:4n-6, tri-ARA), docosahexanoin (C22:6n-3, tri-DHA), salmon oil (SO) and cod liver oil (CLO). The synthetic TAGs were added in ratios of one part to nine parts trioctanoin (C8:0), yielding model composite oil systems. The total amount of volatiles, determined using dynamic headspace GC/MS, were relatively larger for tri-LIN and tri-ARA than for the marine systems during the first 6 h of observation. After 48 h of incubation, the marine oils had more total volatiles than had tri-LIN and tri-ARA. Hexanal and propanal were observed as the marker degradation compounds for n-6 and n-3 fatty acids, respectively. Myoglobin tended to aggregate in these model systems, and only for trioctanoin and tri-LIN could the protein monomer be recovered unmodified and subsequently observed using MALDI-TOF MS after 48 h of incubation. Myoglobin was only recovered after 4 h of incubation in the tri-DHA system, and it then appeared adducted with lipid fragments up to ∼1000 Da. Final oxidation (after 48 h) products from the marine lipids were trienes, most likely as alcohols or acids. The natural oils revealed a reaction pattern close to that of tri-DHA.