Rising verbal intelligence scores: Implications for research and clinical practice.

Evidence suggests that scores on various intelligence tests have been rising at a fast rate. To find out whether performance on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) Vocabulary subtest has also been rising, the authors searched major psychology journals for investigations involving healthy younger and older adult participants and collected the reported WAIS Vocabulary scores. The meta-analysis shows that WAIS Vocabulary scores have been rising at the rate of 0.117/year (corresponding to 1.52 IQ points/decade) for younger adults and 0.367/year (corresponding to 4.79 IQ points/decade) for older adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Birds of a feather and birds flocking together: Physical versus behavioral cues may lead to trait- versus goal-based group perception.

Entitativity perception refers to the perception of a collection of individuals as a group. The authors propose 2 perceptual-inferential bases of entitativity perception. First, perceivers would expect a collection of individuals with similar physical traits to possess common psychological traits. Second, perceivers watching a group of individuals engage in concerted behavior would infer that these individuals have common goals. Thus, both similarity in physical traits (e.g., same skin color) and concerted collective behavior (e.g., same movement) would evoke perception of group entitativity. Results from 5 experiments show that same group movement invariably leads to common goal inferences, increased perceived cohesiveness, and increased perceived entitativity. Moreover, same skin color evokes inferences of group traits and increases perceived homogeneity and perceived entitativity but only when skin color is diagnostic of group membership. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A primal-dual interior point method for optimal power flow dispatching

In this paper, the solution of the optimal power flow dispatching (OPFD) problem by a primal-dual interior point method is considered. Several primal-dual methods for optimal power flow (OPF) have been suggested, all of which are essentially direct extensions of primal-dual methods for linear programming. The aim of the present work is to enhance convergence through two modifications: a filter technique to guide the choice of the step length and an altered search direction in order to avoid convergence to a nonminimizing stationary point. A reduction in computational time is also gained through solving a positive definite matrix for the search direction. Numerical tests on standard IEEE systems and on a realistic network are very encouraging and show that the new algorithm converges where other algorithms fail.     

The epidermal growth factor receptor is not required for tumor necrosis factor-alpha action in normal mammary epithelial cells

Our laboratory has shown that tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF alpha) can regulate normal mammary epithelial cell (MEC) growth, morphogenesis, and, under certain circumstances, functional differentiation in a manner similar to epidermal growth factor (EGF). As TNF alpha has been shown to up-regulate EGF receptor (EGFR) expression and function in other systems, the present studies were undertaken to determine whether TNF alpha action in MEC was indirect through stimulation of the EGFR. An inhibitor of EGFR tyrosine kinase activity, PD158780, failed to block proliferation induced by 40 ng/ml TNF alpha and only partially inhibited growth in response to 2 ng/ml TNF alpha. PD158780 was also unable to suppress the extensive morphological development induced by either TNF alpha concentration. In contrast, the effects of TNF alpha and PD158780 on functional differentiation (i.e. casein accumulation) were time dependent. When measured on day 7 after 48 h of treatment, casein accumulation was unaffected by either concentration of TNF alpha or by PD158780. When assessed on day 21 after 16 days of treatment, however, casein levels were decreased by 40 ng/ml TNF alpha and increased by PD158780. Significantly, this PD158780-induced increase in casein was not observed in MEC that had been treated with both PD158780 and TNF alpha. These results thus suggest that EGFR tyrosine kinase activity is not necessary for TNF alpha action in normal MEC.     

Interfacial phenomena in the liquid copper-calcium ferrite slag system

The surface and interfacial tensions of the copper-calcium ferrite slag system were determined at 1573 K as a function of oxygen and sulfur pressures and CaO content in the slag. The effect of a 2.9 mass pct SiO₂ addition to the calcium ferrite slag was also investigated. The measurements were carried out using the sessile drop technique with a high-temperature X-ray setup. The surface tension of copper was found to be a strong function of oxygen and sulfur partial pressures. The surface tension of the calcium ferrite slag decreased slightly with CaO addition. On the other hand, CaO had a negligible effect on the interfacial tension of the system. Surface tension of the slag and the interfacial tension were influenced by the oxygen partial pressure in the system. Sulfur partial pressure also altered the interfacial tension between the copper and the ferrite slag. Based on the experimental data, filming and flotation coefficients were calculated to predict the entrainment behavior of copper, by bubble attachment in the ferrite slag.     

Automatic Image Annotation Based on Generalized Relevance Models

This paper presents a generalized relevance model for automatic image annotation through learning the correlations between images and annotation keywords. Different from previous relevance models that can only propagate keywords from the training images to the test ones, the proposed model can perform extra keyword propagation among the test images. We also give a convergence analysis of the iterative algorithm inspired by the proposed model. Moreover, to estimate the joint probability of observing an image with possible annotation keywords, we define the inter-image relations through proposing a new spatial Markov kernel based on 2D Markov models. The main advantage of our spatial Markov kernel is that the intra-image context can be exploited for automatic image annotation, which is different from the traditional bag-of-words methods. Experiments on two standard image databases demonstrate that the proposed model outperforms the state-of-the-art annotation models.     

Preemptive and delay-based mechanisms to provide preference to emergency traffic

Preemptive and delay-based policies are derived here to provide preferential treatment to emergency users as motivated by the need to respond to natural or man-made disasters. These are applied in circuit switched networks or IP-based networks in conjunction with reservation mechanisms at single links or routers where congestion occurs. A unique optimization formulation is provided where policies are constrained by blocking requirements for emergency traffic, then optimized to provide lowest preemption probabilities. An iterative optimization approach is derived for a multi-dimensional Markov chain to provide an approximate solution for a non-linear integer program. Markov state space concerns are mitigated by introducing and analyzing algorithmic simplifications. Polices are found for hard preemption where sessions are interrupted or soft preemption where session quality is reduced. In addition, delay-based approaches are also examined where emergency users are allowed to wait for network resources if they are first blocked. All of the above approaches are compared with each other and with traditional approaches that hold back resources for emergency traffic. The results demonstrate that in general no approach is superior based on network performance characteristics alone. Qualitative factors must also be considered, most notably the nuisance to non-emergency users from preemption.     

Application of capillary ion electrophoresis and ion chromatography for the determination of O-acetate groups in bacterial polysaccharides

Many bacterial polysaccharides possess O-linked acetate groups as constituents of their repeating units which often can serve as immunological determinants. It is therefore important to develop analytical methods for process monitoring as well as product characterization when such O-acetylated polysaccharides are used as components of vaccines. This is the case in a polysaccharide conjugate vaccine under development for treatment of diseases caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. An ion chromatographic (IC) method utilizing suppressed conductivity detection (SCD) was developed to quantitatively measure O-acetate groups in the capsular polysaccharides from S. pneumoniae types 18C and 9V following hydrolytic release of O-acetate from the polysaccharide backbones using 2 mM sodium hydroxide. IC was carried out using an OmniPac PAX-500 column and 0.98 mM NaOH in 2% methanol as the mobile phase. Capillary ion electrophoresis (CIE) with indirect photometric detection was evaluated as an alternative method. The CIE method utilized a 72 cm x 75 microns I.D. fused-silica capillary and an electrolyte composed of 5 mM potassium hydrogenphthalate, 0.5 mM tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide, and 2 mM sodium tetraborate, pH 5.88. A comparison of CIE and IC-SCD in terms of reproducibility, accuracy, linearity, and sensitivity will be presented.     

Bim: a novel member of the Bcl-2 family that promotes apoptosis

Certain members of the Bcl-2 family inhibit apoptosis while others facilitate this physiological process of cell death. An expression screen for proteins that bind to Bcl-2 yielded a small novel protein, denoted Bim, whose only similarity to any known protein is the short (nine amino acid) BH3 motif shared by most Bcl-2 homologues. Bim provokes apoptosis, and the BH3 region is required for Bcl-2 binding and for most of its cytotoxicity. Like Bcl-2, Bim possesses a hydrophobic C-terminus and localizes to intracytoplasmic membranes. Three Bim isoforms, probably generated by alternative splicing, all induce apoptosis, the shortest being the most potent. Wild-type Bcl-2 associates with Bim in vivo and modulates its death function, whereas Bcl-2 mutants that lack survival function do neither. Significantly, Bcl-xL and Bcl-w, the two closest homologues of Bcl-2, also bind to Bim and inhibit its activity, but more distant viral homologues, adenovirus E1B19K and Epstein-Barr virus BHRF-1, can do neither. Hence, Bim appears to act as a 'death ligand' which can only neutralize certain members of the pro-survival Bcl-2 sub-family.