Planning prompts and indexed terms in textbook search tasks.

Text search is a type of strategic reading that involves locating specific goal-relevant information. Previous research has indicated that college and high school students often exhibit inefficient or unsuccessful text-search performance. Consequently, the effects of 2 manipulations on text-search performance were investigated: (1) the presence of indexed terms in a text-search task and (2) the use of a planning prompt before beginning a task. 34 college students engaged in 6 text-search tasks. Half of these tasks contained terms that could be used in an index; half required that a search term be generated. Half of the subjects were randomly assigned to a prompt condition in which they were prompted to plan their search before beginning each task. The results indicated that a planning prompt raised the success level of search performance, as did the presence of terms that were searchable in the textbook's index. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Air is Always Cleaner on the Other Side: Race,Space, and Ambient Air Toxics Exposures in California

Abstract: Environmental justice advocates have recently focused attention on cumulative exposure in minority neighborhoods due to multiple sources of pollution. This article uses U.S. EPA's National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) for 1996 to examine environmental inequality in California, a state that has been a recent innovator in environmental justice policy. We first estimate potential lifetime cancer risks from mobile and stationary sources. We then consider the distribution of these risks using both simple comparisons and a multivariate model in which we control for income, land use, and other explanatory factors, as well as spatial correlation. We find large racial disparities in California's “riskscape” as well as inequalities by other factors and suggest several implications for environmental and land use policy.     

Integrated Personal Mobility Architecture: A Complete Personal Mobility Solution

The high expectations and demand for users to access the Internet from anywhere at anytime has made user mobility an important part of the design and development of the next generation mobile communications and computing. Traditionally user mobility has been divided into two areas: Terminal Mobility and Personal Mobility. In recent years terminal mobility has focused on the movement of the terminal and developed extensions to IP protocols such as Mobile IP. In contrast, personal mobility has only received limited attention, and is somewhat lagging behind. This research has either focussed on personal mobility in communications or personalisation of operating environments. As a result, to date no framework for providing true personal mobility has emerged. In this paper, we introduce a new personal mobility framework called IPMoA (Integrated Personal Mobility Architecture), which integrates both aspects of personal mobility to provide a complete personal mobility solution, and illustrate the viability of this approach through a proof-of-concept implementation.     

Infants' predictive reaching for moving objects in the dark.

Infants were presented with a moving object under 2 lighting conditions to investigate the role of vision in early reaching. The motion of the target object also allowed for an analysis of the infants' ability to use a predictive style of reaching. Infants were tested twice, at 5 and 7.5 months of age, with a moving object in the light and the same object painted with luminescent paint in the dark. Infants successfully contacted the glowing object on about half of their attempts at both ages, although 7.5 month-olds reached more often. Infants also took into account the motion of the target object by aiming their reaches ahead of the object and by reaching with their contralateral hand. These results suggest that proprioceptive feedback and sight of the target allow for successful reaching with limited visual information, even in relatively complex reaching tasks. The infants' success also demonstrates their ability to adapt their movements and reaching strategy to the speed and trajectory of the target object in order to reach predictively. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Steps towards a consumer-driven ‘concept innovation machine’ for food and drink

Innovation is often left to insight and serendipity. A lot of what researchers call innovation is actually a process by which one can make the individual consumer or practitioner more ‘creative’. Although it is important to work with the creative individual in hopes of coming up with the better ‘idea’ and new product/service opportunity, an equally valid albeit novel and counterintuitive approach systematizes creativity in a ‘research-driven machine’. This paper presents an approach to the systematization, based upon the point of view that creativity and innovation comprise the recombination of components into new blends. Given this point of view, to then spur innovation requires a systematic database that the user can access, with tools to help manipulate that database. The paper shows how such a database can be constructed and then used to create a novel product. The approach provides a general framework for the sensory professional to become more involved in the early stages of product development, where the focus is on the conceptual aspects of food features rather than on their physical manifestations in actual products.     

Antioxidant performance of mixed tocopherols in styrenic block copolymers

Mixed tocopherols (MT) containing a predominance of γ‐tocopherol were evaluated for antioxidant (AO) performance in polybutadiene‐ and polyisoprene‐based styrenic block copolymers (SBS and SIS, respectively) by using oxidative induction time as a measure of AO performance. A conventional hindered phenolic AO and α‐tocopherol (vitamin E) were evaluated in comparison. MT exhibited significantly higher performance than the controls in both SIS and SBS polymers. J. VINYL ADDIT. TECHNOL., 12:73–77, 2006. © 2006 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Autonomy and gender: Some questions for therapists.

Discusses the nature of autonomy and explores how autonomy as a therapeutic goal relates to clinical practice and the conduct of psychotherapy. Autonomy has been defined as the power to determine one's own best interests, and it has been criticized for promoting selfishness and reflecting upper-class values and gender bias. It is suggested that issues of autonomy are involved in the process of psychotherapy as well as its aim. In therapy, there is a dynamic tension between the principle of autonomy, the right of clients to determine their own interests, and the principle of beneficence, the therapist's obligation to protect the client's welfare. Whether autonomy is an appropriate ideal in psychotherapy for women or for men is considered. Feminist theorists have criticized aspects of masculine autonomy, contrasting it with feminine relatedness; however, the idealization of relatedness is questioned. It is concluded that the present conceptualizations of autonomy do not fully encompass the complexity of human interaction. It is argued that (a) autonomy and relatedness are not essential aspects of male and female nature but depend on power and status and (b) without social change, autonomy may not be a realistic goal of therapy for women. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Micron-Scale Soft Actuators Fabricated from Multi-Shell Polystyrene Particle-Gold Nanoparticle Nanohybrids

Actuators made of soft matter are needed for a variety of fields ranging from biomedical devices to soft robotics to microelectromechanical systems. While there are a variety of excellent methods of soft actuation known, the field is still an area of intense research activity as new niches and needs emerge with new technology development. Here, a soft actuation system is described, based on a core-multi-shell particle, which moves via photothermal expansion. The system consists of a novel polystyrene-based thermally expandable microsphere, with a secondary shell of a silicate-silane graft copolymer, to which gold nanoparticles are covalently linked. The gold nanoparticles act as photothermal nano-transducers, converting light energy into the thermal energy necessary for microsphere expansion, which in turn results in material movement. Actuation is shown in isolated particles in thermal and photothermal regimes using metal ceramic heaters or 520 nm laser illumination, respectively. Macroscale actuation is demonstrated by making a composite material of particles suspended in the transparent elastomer polydimethylsiloxane. The sample demonstrates an inchworm-like movement by starting from an arched geometry. Overall, this work describes a new particle-based actuation method for soft materials, and demonstrates its utility in driving the movement of a composite elastomer.     

Designing amino acid sequences to fold with good hydrophobic cores

We present two methods for designing amino acid sequences ofproteins that will fold to have good hydrophobic cores. Giventhe coordinates of the desired target protein or polymer structure,the methods generate sequences of hydrophobic (H) and polar(P) monomers that are intended to fold to these structures.One method designs hydrophobic inside, polar outside; the otherminimizes an energy function in a sequence evolution process.The sequences generated by these methods agree at the levelof 60–80% of the sequence positions in 20 proteins inthe Protein Data Bank. A major challenge in protein design isto create sequences that can fold uniquely, i.e. to a singleconformation rather than to many. While an earlier lattice-basedsequence evolution method was shown not to design unique folders,our method generates unique folders in lattice model tests.These methods may also be useful in designing other types offoldable polymer not based on amino acids     

β-Carotene transport in human lipoproteins. Comparisons with a-tocopherol

The purpose of this study was to investigate the temporal relationships of the transport of β-carotene in human lipoproteins. We administered 60 mg β-carotene with breakfast to nine fasting subjects, then blood samples were collected at intervals of up to 75 h, lipoproteins were isolated, and β-carotene was quantitated. β-Carotene concentrations in chylomicrons and very low density lipoproteins (VLDL) peaked at 6 and 9 h, respectively. Nonetheless, at all time points the majority of plasma β-carotene was contained in low density lipoproteins (LDL), while high density lipoproteins (HDL) carried a smaller portion (at 24 h, 73±8% in LDL as compared with 23±5% in HDL). In three subjects, transport of β-carotene was compred with the results of earlier studies on the transport of stereoisomers of α-tocopherol. Unlike plasmaRRR-α-tocopherol concentrations, which are maintained by the preferential incorporation ofRRR-α-tocopherol into VLDL by the liver, β-carotene increased and decreased in VLDL similarly toSRR-α-tocopherol, a stereoisomer whose concentrations are not maintained in plasma. In conclusion, β-carotene is primarily transported in the plasma in LDL, but its incorporation by the liver into lipoproteins does not appear to be enhanced.