Impulsivity and rapid discounting of delayed hypothetical rewards in cocaine-dependent individuals.

In this study, crack/cocaine-dependent (CD) and non-drug-using matched control (MC) participants were presented with hypothetical immediate and delayed rewards, with 16 delay conditions ranging from 5 min to 25 years. All participants were presented with hypothetical monetary rewards; however, the CD group was also presented with hypothetical crack/ cocaine rewards. The objective value of the rewards ranged from $1 to $1,000. Hyperbolic discounting functions provided a good fit of the data. The CD group discounted monetary rewards at a higher rate than the MC group did, and the CD group discounted crack/cocaine rewards at a higher rate than it did monetary rewards. Moreover, scores on self-report measures indicated greater impulsivity in the CD group when compared with the MC group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Outcomes of hand surgery. British Society for Surgery of the Hand

The findings are presented of a conference on Outcomes of Hand Surgery organized by the audit committee of British Society for Surgery of the Hand in 1993. Measures of outcome in terms of movement, power, sensibility, pain, activities of daily living, complications and patient satisfaction are considered, and an example of a patient evaluation measure given as an appendix.     

HIV integrase: a target for AIDS therapeutics

HIV integrase catalyses the incorporation of virally derived DNA into the human genome. This unique step in the virus life cycle provides a variety of points for intervention and hence is an attractive target for the development of new therapeutics for the treatment of AIDS. In this review we summarize current knowledge of the function of this enzyme and discuss some of the obstacles to the development of appropriate drugs.     

Comorbidity of anxiety and depression in youth: Treatment implications.

Reviews the empirical literature on the comorbidity of anxiety and depressive disorders in youth, emphasizing prevalence of comorbidity, difficulties in assessment and measurement, familial factors, and developmental differences. The nature of anxiety and of depression in youth is examined (e.g., differentiating cognitive deficiencies from cognitive distortions), and treatment recommendations are presented from a cognitive-behavioral framework. Components of the treatment include affective education, enactive programming, addressing reinforcement difficulties, correcting cognitive distortions, and enhancing problem-solving skills. Peer and familial factors are discussed. Successful treatment of comorbid children relies on a flexible application of these strategies with consideration of the developmental level and particular symptom constellation of the individual child. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of Age and Hypertension Status on Cognition: The Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study.

The authors examined the influence of age and hypertensive status (normotensive, controlled, untreated, or uncontrolled) on several cognitive tests via multiple regression in 357 nondemented, community-dwelling older men (mean age = 67 years) whose hypertensive status was stable over 3 years and who had no medical comorbidities. Age was negatively associated with performance on all but 1 test. Age interacted with hypertensive status on verbal fluency and word list immediate recall; older uncontrolled hypertensives exhibited significantly larger age decrements on these tests compared with normotensives. These findings suggest that uncontrolled hypertension produces specific cognitive deficits beyond those attributable to age alone. These and previous findings illustrate that health conditions such as hypertension should be regularly considered in studies of "normal" cognitive aging. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coating and near‐surface modification design strategies for protective and functional surfaces

This paper discusses strategies for controlling the surface chemistry and microstructure of materials to form protective and functional surfaces through controlled gas‐metal reactions. Potential applications range from oxidation, corrosion, and wear resistance to electrochemical devices such as fuel cells to catalysts. Phenomenological examples are presented for coatings designed to self‐grade under oxidizing conditions, and for the growth of simple and complex (binary and ternary) nitride and carbide phase surface layers by nitridation and carburization reactions. Specific systems discussed include environmental barrier coatings (EBCs) for Si‐based ceramics such as Si₃N₄ and SiC, the growth of continuous, protective CrN/Cr₂N, TiN, VN, NiNbVN, and related simple nitride layers on Fe‐ and Ni‐base alloys, the possible formation of ternary nitride and carbide surface phases (e.g. Ti₃AlC₂ and related MAX‐phases) on intermetallic surfaces to improve oxidation resistance, and the formation of composite near‐surface structures in Ag‐SiO₂ and Co(Mo)‐Co₆Mo₆C₂ systems.     

Microcamera aperture scale in monocentric gigapixel cameras

Multiscale cameras achieve wide-angle, high-resolution imaging by combining coarse image formation by a simplified wide-field objective with localized aberration correction in an array of narrow field microcameras. Microcamera aperture size is a critical parameter in multiscale design; a larger aperture has greater capacity to correct aberration but requires a more complex microcamera optic. A smaller aperture requires integration of more microcameras to cover the field. This paper analyzes multiscale system performance as a function of microcamera aperture for 2 and 40 gigapixel monocentric objective lenses. We find that microcamera aperture diameters of 3 to 12 mm paired with complementary metal oxide semiconductor sensors in the 1 to 15 megapixel range are most attractive for gigapixel-scale cameras.     

Joint segmentation and reconstruction of hyperspectral data with compressed measurements

This work describes numerical methods for the joint reconstruction and segmentation of spectral images taken by compressive sensing coded aperture snapshot spectral imagers (CASSI). In a snapshot, a CASSI captures a two-dimensional (2D) array of measurements that is an encoded representation of both spectral information and 2D spatial information of a scene, resulting in significant savings in acquisition time and data storage. The reconstruction process decodes the 2D measurements to render a three-dimensional spatio-spectral estimate of the scene and is therefore an indispensable component of the spectral imager. In this study, we seek a particular form of the compressed sensing solution that assumes spectrally homogeneous segments in the two spatial dimensions, and greatly reduces the number of unknowns, often turning the underdetermined reconstruction problem into one that is overdetermined. Numerical tests are reported on both simulated and real data representing compressed measurements.