Smearing the opposition: Implicit and explicit stigmatization of the 2008 U.S. Presidential candidates and the current U.S. President.

Four studies investigated whether political allegiance and salience of outgroup membership contribute to the phenomenon of acceptance of false, stigmatizing information (smears) about political candidates. Studies 1–3 were conducted in the month prior to the 2008 U.S. Presidential election and together demonstrated that pre-standing opposition to John McCain or Barack Obama, as well as the situational salience of differentiating social categories (i.e., for Obama, race; for McCain, age), contributed to the implicit activation and explicit endorsement of smearing labels (i.e., Obama is Muslim; McCain is senile). The influence of salient differentiating categories on smear acceptance was particularly pronounced among politically undecided individuals. Study 4 clarified that social category differences heighten smear acceptance, even if the salient category is semantically unrelated to the smearing label, showing that, approximately 1 year after the election, the salience of race amplified belief that Obama is a socialist among undecided people and McCain supporters. Taken together, these findings suggest that, at both implicit and explicit cognitive levels, social category differences and political allegiance contribute to acceptance of smears against political candidates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of fiber bundle interaction forces in non‐isothermal compression molding of thermoplastic composites

The non‐isothermal flow during compression molding of thermoplastic‐based composites having a planar, randomly oriented fiber structure has been investigated. Local interactions at the bundle‐bundle level were measured and a constitutive equation was derived to describe the shear and squeeze flow of the composites. This equation contains only micro‐mechanics‐related variables, and accounts for the temperature dependence of the interaction forces. The flow of the material under industrial processing conditions can thus be related to the deformation mechanisms of the reinforcement structure at the scale of the individual fibers Good agreement was obtained between the predicted and experimentally observed theological behavior of the composites in both shear and squeeze flow. The use of this approach to analyze the industrial molding of complex‐shaped parts is dis cussed.     

Long-term impact of parental divorce on optimism and trust: Changes in general assumptions or narrow beliefs?

Two studies were conducted to examine the long-term impact of parental divorce on beliefs about the self and others. In Study 1, college-aged children of divorce and students from intact families did not differ on 8 basic assumptions or on measures of depression. Those whose parents had divorced, however, were less optimistic about the success of their own future marriages. Assumptions about the benevolence of people best predicted the marital optimism of the parental divorce group, but not of the intact family group. In Study 2, assumptions about the benevolence of people were explored in terms of trust beliefs. College-aged children of divorce and a matched sample from intact homes differed only on marriage-related beliefs, not on generalized trust. Children of divorce reported less trust of a future spouse and were less optimistic about marriage. Exploratory analyses found that continuous conflict in family of origin adversely affected all levels of trust. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Involvement of Cytokines and Hormones in the Development of Spermatogenesis In Vitro from Spermatogonial Cells of Cyclophosphamide-Treated Immature Mice

Aggressive chemotherapy treatment may lead to male infertility. Prepubertal boys do not produce sperm at this age, however, they have spermatogonial stem cells in their testes. Here, we examined the effect of intraperitoneal injection of cyclophosphamide (CP) on the capacity of immature mice (IM) to develop spermatogenesis in vivo and in vitro [using methylcellulose culture system (MCS)]. Our results show a significant decrease in testicular weight, total number of testicular cells, and the number of Sertoli, peritubular, premeiotic, and meiotic/post-meiotic cells, but an increase in the percentages of damaged seminiferous tubules in CP-treated IM compared to control. The functionality of Sertoli cells was significantly affected. The addition of testosterone to isolated cells from seminiferous tubules of CP-treated IM significantly increased the percentages of premeiotic (CD9-positive cells) and meiotic/post-meiotic cells (ACROSIN-positive cells) developed in MCS compared to control. The addition of FSH did not affect developed cells in MCS compared to control, but in combination with testosterone, it significantly decreased the percentages of CD9-positive cells and ACROSIN-positive cells. The addition of IL-1 did not affect developed cells in MCS compared to control, but in combination with testosterone, it significantly increased the percentages of VASA-positive cells and BOULE-positive cells compared to IL-1 or testosterone. Addition of TNF significantly increased only CD9-positive cells in MCS compared to control, but in combination with testosterone, it significantly decreased ACROSIN-positive cells compared to testosterone. Our results show a significant impairment of spermatogenesis in the testes of CP-treated IM, and that spermatogonial cells from these mice proliferate and differentiate to meiotic/post-meiotic cells under in vitro culture conditions.     

Community Neighbourhood Park (CNP) Use in Cape Town’s Townships

Living sustainably entails fulfilling Maslow??s hierarchy of needs. The need for leisure and recreation is one of the most essential higher-order needs, and local authorities can meet these needs through park delivery. The existing park literature in South Africa is limited in scope and dates back to the apartheid era, with little evidence pertaining to community neighbourhood park (CNP) use in townships. The aim of this paper is to determine the perceptions, preferences, needs and uses of CNPs in five black townships in Cape Town. Findings indicate that townships have few CNPs, which therefore require travelling greater distances by public transport for access. Due to a lack of private garden space, respondents visit CNPs regularly and spend more time there, participating in either active or passive recreation. The main concerns about CNPs include safety and maintenance, and a lack of CNP facilities. These concerns extend to the type of facilities that respondents want to develop in CNPs, to create their ideal setting.     

Dynamic multicrop model to characterize impacts of pesticides in food

A new dynamic plant uptake model is presented to characterize health impacts of pesticides applied to food crops, based on a flexible set of interconnected compartments. We assess six crops covering a large fraction of the worldwide consumption. Model estimates correspond well with observed pesticide residues for 12 substance-crop combinations, showing residual errors between a factor 1.5 and 19. Human intake fractions, effect and characterization factors are provided for use in life cycle impact assessment for 726 substance-crop combinations and different application times. Intake fractions typically range from 10?2 to 10?? kg(intake) kg(applied)?1. Human health impacts vary up to 9 orders of magnitude between crops and 10 orders of magnitude between pesticides, stressing the importance of considering interactions between specific crop-environments and pesticides. Time between application and harvest, degradation half-life in plants and residence time in soil are driving the evolution of pesticide masses.We demonstrate that toxicity potentials can be reduced up to 99% by defining adequate pesticide substitutions. Overall, leafy vegetables only contribute to 2% of the vegetal consumption, but due to later application times and higher intake fractions may nevertheless lead to impacts comparable or even higher than via the larger amount of ingested cereals.     

Number density of turbulent vortices in the entire energy spectrum

In coalescence and break‐up modeling, vortex number density and size distributions of turbulent vortices are required to calculate the rate of interaction between continuous and dispersed phases. Existing number density models are only valid for the inertial subrange of the energy spectrum and no model of the vortex number density, valid for the entire energy spectrum, is available. The number density of the turbulent vortices were studied and modeled for the entire energy spectrum including the dissipative, inertial, and energy containing subranges. It was observed that the new number density model depends on vortex size, local turbulent kinetic energy, and dissipation rate. Moreover, the new number density model was validated by the number density distributions quantified in a turbulent pipe flow. The turbulent vortices of the pipe were identified and labeled using a vortex‐tracking algorithm that was developed recently by the authors. © 2014 The Authors AIChE Journal published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 60: 3989–3995, 2014