Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) anticipation of food return: Coping with waiting time in an exchange task.

Despite controversial expectations that animals achieve reciprocal altruism, it is unclear if nonhuman species possess the necessary cognitive abilities. For reciprocal altruism, individuals must anticipate the loss of a commodity and accept a delay before some return. The authors investigated the abilities of 5 chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) to cope with increasing waiting duration in exchange tasks. Subjects had to keep a small cookie before returning it to a human partner to obtain a larger piece. For a piece 2, 4, or 8 times the size of the small piece, 3 of the 5 subjects waited for up to 4 min. For a piece 40 times larger, 4 of the 5 subjects waited up to 8 min. At long time lag, renouncement to wait occurred earlier than predicted by subjects' general waiting capacity, suggesting that the decision to wait was based on a trade-off between reward quantity and expected costs of the waiting duration. Chimpanzees could anticipate a delayed reward at a time scale of several minutes. If this reflects a cognitive limit in chimpanzees' anticipation capacity, reciprocal altruism by keeping track of costs and benefits over extended periods may be unlikely in chimpanzees. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Numbers or apologies? Customer reactions to telephone waiting time fillers.

The authors examined the effect of time perception and sense of progress in telephone queues on caller reactions to 3 telephone waiting time fillers: music, apologies, and information about location in the queue. In Study 1, conducted on 123 real calls, call abandonment was lowest, and call evaluations were most positive with information about location in the queue as the time filler. In Study 2, conducted with 83 participants who experienced a simulated telephone wait experience, sense of progress in the queue rather than perceived waiting time mediated the relationship between telephone waiting time filler and caller reactions. The findings provide insight for the management and design of telephone queues, as well as theoretical insight into critical cognitive processes that underlie telephone waiting, opening up an important new research agenda. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

电容器绝缘电阻测量的瞬态定量分析

在电容器未经研究充电和预充电两种超始条件下，对绝缘电阻的测量值进行瞬态分析，定量地导出两种起始条件下测量值与仪器内阻、电容器固有特性之间的关系。为分析测量结果和制定标准提供依据。     

Brief Maternal Interaction Increases Number, Amplitude, and Bout Size of Isolation-Induced Ultrasonic Vocalizations in Infant Rats (Rattus norvegicus).

The number, amplitude, duration, and bout structure of isolation-induced ultrasonic vocalization (USV) of infant rats (Rattus norvegicus) were measured on postnatal Day 10. Measurements were made before and after a brief, 1-min, active interaction with their mother or before and after a "pick-up" control procedure. Consistent with prior studies, the number of USVs emitted was significantly increased in the period following the maternal reunion but not after the control procedure. The average amplitude of USVs was also greater following maternal reunion. Finally, analyses characterizing the bout structure of USV production indicated that the average bout size (i.e.. number of USVs/bout) was increased severalfold following the reunion with the mother, accounting for the greater rate of USV production during the second isolation period. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Conditions for Temporal Tracking Under Interval Schedules of Reinforcement.

On many cyclic-interval schedules, animals adjust their postreinforcement pause to follow the interval duration (temporal tracking). Six pigeons were trained on a series of square-wave (2-valued) interval schedules (e.g., 12 fixed-interval [FI] 60, 4 FI 180). Experiment 1 showed that pigeons track square-wave schedules, except those with a single long interval per cycle. Experiments 2 and 3 established that tracking and nontracking are learned and both can transfer from one cyclic schedule to another. Experiment 4 demonstrated that pigeons track a schedule with a single short interval per cycle, suggesting that a dual process--cuing and tracking--is necessary to explain behavior on these schedules. These findings suggest a potential explanation for earlier results that reported a failure to track square-wave schedules. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

应用变形观测数据预报建筑物变形发展趋势

利用数学方法对不均匀沉降引起的建筑物或基坑等变形数据进行分析，估算建筑物沉降的稳定时间和最大沉降值，能够及时对构筑物进行纠偏．     

现代钢结构抗火设计方法

文章论述了火灾对负结构的危害和钢结构抗火设计的目标与意义，基于高温承载力极限状态验算的思想，文章阐述了现代钢结构抗火计算与设计方法，并通过试验验证了这一方法的科学性、合理性与有效性。     

Stationary Probabilities of States of a Queuing System with an Inverse Discipline and Demands of Three Types

Formulas are derived for probabilities of stationary states of a queuing system with demands of different types and a discipline of the inverse type with interrupts. Later on, the service of an interrupted demand is completed or such a demand is served again with a new (or with an old) length depending on its type.     

Volatile compounds found in expired air during eating of fresh tomatoes and in the headspace above tomatoes

Volatile compounds from tomatoes were measured in the headspace above tomatoes and in the air expired from the noses of people eating tomatoes (nosespace). Eleven target compounds, representative of the different metabolic pathways that contribute to tomato aroma were chosen for analysis. The procedure consisted of trapping volumes of headspace or nosespace on Tenax, desorbing and chromatographing the samples on gas chromatographs and quantification by integration of characteristic ion chromatograms. Small volumes (8.5 cm³) of headspace were used to develop the method which was then applied to study potential sources of variation in the raw material and in the sampling procedure. The variation in headspace profiles, with time after dicing tomatoes, and with tissue maturity, demonstrated that the amounts of some volatiles changed with time and with maturity. Sampling was therefore undertaken using batches of tomatoes with similar histories and the time of sampling was fixed. The headspace and nosespace profiles from tomatoes produced raw data with substantial variation (percentage coefficient of variation 50–60%) but this appeared to be due to different amounts of voiatiles in the replicates. When data were expressed on a relative basis by normalisation, the profiles from groups of replicates were seen to be quite similar for nine of the compounds but values for 3-methylnitrobutane and 2-isobutylthiazole showed considerable variation. Nosespace profiles of tomato voiatiles were broadly similar between operators when expressed on a relative basis; the actual total amounts varied considerably. The headspace profiles from diced and stomached tomatoes were comparable but distinctly different from the nosespace profile. There were differences between the headspace and nosespace profiles particularly in the amounts of 3-methylbutanal, dimethyl disulphide and hexanal which were present to a greater extent in the headspace on a relative basis.     

Psychological perspectives on political change.

Presents a reply by the authors to comments by Sullivan (see record 2007-14606-016) and Webster (see record 2007-14606-017). Both of these comments help to place our article on the red states versus blue states metaphor (Seyle & Newman, see record 2006-11202-001) into a broader context. In particular, both comments make valuable points about the potential for collaboration between psychology, political science, and political action. Sullivan made two points that address this collaboration directly. First, he pointed out that we failed to acknowledge a book by Morris Fiorina and his colleagues. Second, Sullivan disagreed with our claim that psychologists cannot change the system. Webster argued persuasively that we let the Electoral College off too easy. To support his indictment of the Electoral College, he drew on two compelling sources of evidence. First, because of changes in population distribution, electoral votes appear to play more of a role in the outcome of elections than they have at any time in the past. Second, the weighting system used to determine a state's number of electoral votes has the consequence of underrepresenting minority populations. However, we are less optimistic than Webster that this approach might "eliminate red- blue labeling" (p. 703). Thus, we repeat our original suggestion that the best short-term solution for improving political discourse is to encourage the use of the "purple America" approach. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)