Self-consciousness and self-assessment.

Investigated the effect of self-consciousness on Ss' tendencies to seek out or avoid ability-diagnostic information by giving 30 male and 44 female undergraduates bogus feedback on task performance, initially indicating that they had either moderately high or low levels of "surgency" (an ability with which they were relatively unfamiliar). Ss were allowed to choose the composition of a 2nd surgency task by selecting test items from among several categories. For some items, but not others, performance norms were ostensibly available, allowing Ss to evaluate the adequacy of their performance on those items. Results show that private self-consciousness interacted with initial outcome so that seeking norms (after success) and avoidance of norms (after failure) occurred only among Ss who were relatively high in private self-consciousness (as measured several weeks earlier by a self-consciousness scale). (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Response of logarithmic amplifiers to noise signals

Tuned logarithmic amplifiers have shown a response to noise and radar clutter contrary to accepted theory in that the spread of the output probability-density function increases with increasing inputs. This effect is due to conversion of phase to amplitude modulation in the filters, and a remedy is described.     

Depression and cognitive style: Comparisons between measures.

Discusses 4 devices developed recently to measure cognitive styles associated with depression that appear to have an underlying similarity—an attributional style questionnaire developed by M. F. Seligman et al (see PA, Vol 88:6218); a model of characterological self-blame developed by R. Janoff-Bulman (see record 1981-01320-001); a cognitive-bias questionnaire developed by C. Hammen (1981); and an attitudes-toward-self (ATS) scale developed by C. S. Carver and R. J. Ganellen (see record 1983-32781-001). Each measure appears to reflect a tendency for respondents to infer a general lack of self-worth (or a continued likelihood of bad events) on the basis of a single discrete failure. The present research was a comparative test of one of these scales against the other 3 in terms of associations with Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores. Though all instruments were significantly correlated with the BDI, partial correlations revealed that the generalization (ATS) scale was a more robust predictor of BDI than were the measures of characterological self-blame, cognitive bias, and attributional style. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Two dimensional modelling of the homogenizing effects of flow obstructions in two fluid flow

It is well known that obstructions in two fluid flow have the effect of homogenizing the two fluid mixture, resulting not only in a more uniform phase distribution, but also in a significant reduction of the ratio of fluid velocities. This paper shows that these effects can be modelled using a two fluid computer program, and compares results to those obtained in a recent experiment.     

Evolution of the GPGP/TÆMS Domain-Independent Coordination Framework

The GPGP/TÆMS domain-independent coordination framework for small agent groups was first described in 1992 and then more fully detailed in an ICMAS'95 paper. In this paper, we discuss the evolution of this framework which has been motivated by its use in a number of applications, including: information gathering and management, intelligent home automation, distributed situation assessment, coordination of concurrent engineering activities, hospital scheduling, travel planning, repair service coordination and supply chain management. First, we review the basic architecture of GPGP and then present extensions to the TÆMS domain-independent representation of agent activities. We next describe extensions to GPGP that permit the representation of situation-specific coordination strategies and social laws as well as making possible the use of GPGP in large agent organizations. Additionally, we discuss a more encompassing view of commitments that takes into account uncertainty in commitments. We then present new coordination mechanisms for use in resource sharing and contracting, and more complex coordination mechanisms that use a cooperative search among agents to find appropriate commitments. We conclude with a summary of the major ideas underpinning GPGP, an analysis of the applicability of the GPGP framework including performance issues, and a discussion of future research directions.     

Private and public self-attention, resistance to change, and dissonance reduction.

Three experiments with 257 undergraduates investigated the effects of self-directed attention on dissonance reduction. Ss were induced to write counterattitudinal essays. In Exp I, mirror presence during either an attitude premeasure or the counterattitudinal behavior led to reduced attitude change. Exp II explored whether the discrepancy between present and prior research was due to the manner in which self-attention was manipulated. Ss were exposed either to a mirror or to a TV camera and were asked to report both their post-behavioral attitudes and their perceptions of their counterattitudinal behavior. Consistent with the results of the 1st study, Ss in the mirror condition again showed the least amount of attitude change. They did, however, reduce dissonance by altering their perceptions of their behavior. Consistent with prior findings, Ss in the camera condition tended to reduce dissonance by changing their attitudes, but did not distort their behavior. Exp III conceptually replicated these results by selecting Ss on the basis of their chronic levels of private and public self-consciousness. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Enhancing student learning through hypermedia courseware andincorporation of student learning styles

This paper outlines attempts to enhance student learning by addressing different learning styles through course hypermedia. Students learn by a variety of different learning styles. Previously, instructors were unable to effectively address these different learning styles outside the classroom. Two approaches were developed to address this problem. The first approach was the development of hypermedia courseware. This provided a wide variety of tools which students could use to prepare for lessons. In this way students retained complete control over how they prepared for a lesson and could choose those hypermedia tools that were most conducive to their learning. An assessment of the multimedia and hypertext documents in the course revealed that the value of a particular multimedia tool to a student varied widely. Each student was traversing the course material according to his/her unique learning style. Unfortunately, the plethora of tools confused some students because they were uncomfortable making active choices of what course material would be most conducive to their learning. As a result, a second approach was adopted. An adaptive hypermedia interface was developed that provided dynamic tailoring of the presentation of course material based on the individual student's learning style. By tailoring the presentation of material to the student's learning style, the authors believe students learned more efficiently and more effectively     

Cathodic limitations in microbial fuel cells: An overview

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are a promising technology for sustainable production of alternative energy and waste treatment. The performance of microbial fuel cells is severely affected by limitations based on irreversible reactions and processes in the anode and the cathode compartments. The purpose of this paper is to review the cathodic limitations MFCs and provide an overview on cathodic activation, ohmic and mass transport losses and substrate crossover. Recent studies that have addressed these limitations and explored approaches for improvement are also discussed. MFCs still face many challenges but with consistent advances, especially with respect to the cathode, performance can continue to improve.     

A Coupled Small and Wide-Angle X-Ray Scattering Study of Phase Transformation Mechanisms in U-6Wt Pct Nb

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A - The elevated temperature phase transformation kinetics of U-6wt pct Nb in both wrought and cast conditions were investigated using in-situ...     

A class library for implementing, testing, and debugging concurrent programs

We describe the Modern Multithreading (MM) class library. MM is a class library consisting of thread and synchronization classes that provide significant support for testing and debugging multithreaded programs. The synchronization classes implement commonly used synchronization objects such as semaphores, monitors, and asynchronous and synchronous message passing channels, for programs that run on a single computer or on a distributed system. MM uses controlled executions to provide program tracing and replay and to support a number of implementation-based and specification-based testing techniques, including non-deterministic and deterministic testing and several forms of reachability testing. MM is portable and easy to use, and has been implemented in Java and C++, with C++ versions for the POSIX Pthreads library and for the Windows Win32 API.