Seeing and Being Seen: The Effects on Gesture Production

Speakers are argued to adapt their language production to their addressee's needs. For instance, speakers produce fewer and smaller hand gestures when interlocutors cannot see each other. Yet is this because speakers know their addressee cannot see them, or because they themselves do not see their addressee? By means of computer‐mediated communication we manipulated these factors independently. We found that speakers took into account what their addressee saw. They produced more and larger gestures when they knew the addressee could see them. Seeing the addressee increased gesture production only if speakers could readily interpret the addressee's eye gaze, which is not usually the case in mediated interaction. Adding this affordance resulted in gesturing being similar in mediated and unmediated communication.     

A longitudinal study of the social and academic competence of economically disadvantaged bilingual preschool children.

This longitudinal study was conducted to gain understanding of the social–emotional and academic development of economically disadvantaged bilingual preschool children. In Study 1, the authors combined cognitive, psychosocial, and cultural-linguistic factors to determine profiles of social competence as measured by peer play. A person-centered analysis of 207 Hispanic American preschoolers (ages 4 and 5 years) yielded 6 distinct profiles, 2 of which were socially competent and 1 of which was vulnerable. Findings revealed profile differences in social competence and a significant relationship between bilingualism and social–emotional development. In Study 2, the authors determined which profiles were associated with later academic achievement and growth of English proficiency. Findings indicated a significant relationship of early social–emotional development to later academic success and English acquisition, highlighting the role of bilingualism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cross-language postevent misinformation effects in Spanish–English bilingual witnesses.

Three experiments examined whether postevent misinformation affects eyewitness memory across languages in bilingual witnesses. Participants watched a videotaped simulation of a robbery, read a postevent narrative that contained misleading information about the robbery, and answered either forced-choice or cued-recall questions about 6 target items from the videotape. Experiment I was conducted entirely in English, but Experiments 2 and 3 tested Spanish–English bilingual participants who were exposed to 1 of 3 language combinations of the postevent narrative and memory test—Spanish–Spanish, English–Spanish, or Spanish–English (as well as English–English in Experiment 3). Across all 3 experiments, the effects of postevent misinformation were as large in the cross-language conditions as in the same-language conditions. This study has important implications for the justice system, and the results suggest new ways to study postevent misinformation effects and bilingual memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Propriétés de la Surface d'un Film de Polyéthylène Modifiée par Greffage d'un Oligomère Acrylique

The grafting of a liquid acrylic derivative (2-methylenepentane-1,5-dicarboxylic acid diethylester) on the surface of a polyethylene film (HD) was carried out in the presence of benzoylperoxide. The wettability of the surface was investigated with respect to the adhesion properties against aluminium and compared with those of a film of polyethylene grafted in mass with acrylic acid. The mobility of the surface grafted chains may cause the differences in the observed comportment.     

Minority stress and mental health among Dutch LGBs: Examination of differences between sex and sexual orientation.

Minority stress is often cited as an explanation for greater mental health problems among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals than heterosexual individuals. However, studies focusing on sex or sexual orientation differences in level of minority stress and its impact on mental health are scarce, even more so outside the United States. Performing secondary analyses on the data of a Dutch population study on sexual health, the present study examines the robustness of the minority stress model by explaining mental health problems among men and women with mostly or only same-sex sexual attraction, and men and women who are equally attracted to same-sex and opposite-sex partners in the “gay-friendly” Netherlands (N = 389; 118 gay men, 40 bisexual men, 184 lesbian women, and 54 bisexual women). Results showed that minority stress is also related to mental health of Dutch LGBs. Participants with a higher level of internalized homonegativity and those who more often encountered negative reactions from other people on their same-sex sexual attraction reported more mental health problems. Such negative reactions from others, however, had a stronger link with mental health among lesbian/gay than among bisexual participants. Openness about one's sexual orientation was related to better mental health among sexual minority women, but not among their male counterparts. Suggestions for future research, implications for counseling, and other societal interventions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are engineering schools masculine and authoritarian? The mission statements say yes.

After reading the mission statements of 20 engineering and liberal arts schools, business students recorded their impressions of a hypothetical successful student at each institution. Based only on institutional mission statements, engineering students were deemed significantly more likely to be dominant, forceful, and masculine and significantly less likely to defend their beliefs, or to be soft spoken, eager to soothe feelings, feminine, or likable. Additionally, for male subjects, the higher their own level of authoritarianism, the more likely they were to indicate that a successful student at an engineering institution was someone like themselves. Authoritarianism had no such predictive value for female subjects. Our results may illustrate why engineering schools might be having trouble attracting a more diverse group of students: a culture of masculinity and hierarchy may be so deeply entrenched that it is evident even to casual observers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Information Sharing During Crisis Management in Hierarchical vs. Network Teams

This study examines the differences between hierarchical and network teams in emergency management. A controlled experimental environment was created in which we could study teams that differed in decision rights, availability of information, information sharing, and task division. Thirty‐two teams of either two (network) or three (hierarchy) participants (N=80 in total) received messages about an incident in a tunnel with high‐ranking politicians possibly being present. Based on experimentally induced knowledge, teams had to decide as quickly and as accurately as possible what the likely cause of the incident was: an attack by Al Qaeda, by anti‐globalists, or an accident. The results showed that network teams were overall faster and more accurate in difficult scenarios than hierarchical teams. Network teams also shared more knowledge in the difficult scenarios, compared with the easier scenarios. The advantage of being able to share information that is inherent in network teams is thus contingent upon the type of situation encountered.     

Evaluation of measures to mitigate mineral oil migration from recycled paper in food packaging

The presence of mineral oil saturated hydrocarbons (MOSH) and aromatic hydrocarbons (MOAH) in food is a safety concern. Migration to food from recycled paper and board is a relevant source of MOSH and MOAH, and the potential of several technologies to reduce it was explored. These technologies were assessed for food safety (people), environment (planet) and economy (profit) in an integrated way, using a framework developed to compare the effect of the technologies with the current state of the art. Two mature technologies were evaluated (MB12 and flotation), two in development (supercritical CO₂ and thermal treatment), and two as a concept (anionic trash catchers and functionalized clays). The use of mineral-oil-free inks for printing newspapers was also evaluated. It was concluded that, although it is desirable to apply mineral-oil-free inks, in the short-term reduction technologies have more impact. All technologies of which the effectiveness could be investigated (MB12, flotation, supercritical CO₂ and thermal treatment) are able to reduce the potential migration of mineral oils by >70%, but none score optimally on all indicators. The MB12 technology shows the best overall performance and is ready for implementation, provided its patent will be available to more parties. Supercritical CO₂ performs best on food safety, but environmental and economic performance has to be improved. The developed assessment framework yields a clear overview of the advantages and disadvantages of the technologies. Based on the assessment, recommendations are made to stakeholders, including the recycling industry, the ink and printing industry, the food industry and research institutes.     

The GPI-Anchored Protein Thy-1/CD90 Promotes Wound Healing upon Injury to the Skin by Enhancing Skin Perfusion

Wound healing is a highly regulated multi-step process that involves a plethora of signals. Blood perfusion is crucial in wound healing and abnormalities in the formation of new blood vessels define the outcome of the wound healing process. Thy-1 has been implicated in angiogenesis and silencing of the Thy-1 gene retards the wound healing process. However, the role of Thy-1 in blood perfusion during wound closure remains unclear. We proposed that Thy-1 regulates vascular perfusion, affecting the healing rate in mouse skin. We analyzed the time of recovery, blood perfusion using Laser Speckle Contrast Imaging, and tissue morphology from images acquired with a Nanozoomer tissue scanner. The latter was assessed in a tissue sample taken with a biopsy punch on several days during the wound healing process. Results obtained with the Thy-1 knockout (Thy-1^−/−) mice were compared with control mice. Thy-1^−/− mice showed at day seven, a delayed re-epithelialization, increased micro- to macro-circulation ratio, and lower blood perfusion in the wound area. In addition, skin morphology displayed a flatter epidermis, fewer ridges, and almost no stratum granulosum or corneum, while the dermis was thicker, showing more fibroblasts and fewer lymphocytes. Our results suggest a critical role for Thy-1 in wound healing, particularly in vascular dynamics.     

Supporting interactive argumentation: Influence of representational tools on discussing a wicked problem

This study describes difficulties students can encounter when discussing a wicked problem and in what way two different representational tools can support interactive argumentation between students. About 55 pairs discussed in chat and wrote about genetically modified organisms in a groupware environment, supported by a text-outline or an argumentative diagram. The expectation was that students who were constructing a diagram would argue in a more thorough way, which is called the broadening and deepening in the space of debate. The expectations were partially confirmed. Diagrams help students to argue in a more thorough way, but only in the diagrams itself and not, as expected, in the discussion. This article shows the difficulties of supporting interactive argumentation with representational tools, because of the great amount of other variables in task and learning environment that effect the way students broaden and deepen an argument.