Overcoming intuition: Metacognitive difficulty activates analytic reasoning.

Humans appear to reason using two processing styles: System 1 processes that are quick, intuitive, and effortless and System 2 processes that are slow, analytical, and deliberate that occasionally correct the output of System 1. Four experiments suggest that System 2 processes are activated by metacognitive experiences of difficulty or disfluency during the process of reasoning. Incidental experiences of difficulty or disfluency--receiving information in a degraded font (Experiments 1 and 4), in difficult-to-read lettering (Experiment 2), or while furrowing one's brow (Experiment 3)--reduced the impact of heuristics and defaults in judgment (Experiments 1 and 3), reduced reliance on peripheral cues in persuasion (Experiment 2), and improved syllogistic reasoning (Experiment 4). Metacognitive experiences of difficulty or disfluency appear to serve as an alarm that activates analytic forms of reasoning that assess and sometimes correct the output of more intuitive forms of reasoning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The temperature dependence of the electrochemistry of the lithium-sulphur dioxide system

Value for the activation energy, U ^act, and the entropy change, S, for the reaction 2Li + S₂O ₄ ^2– Li₂S₂O₄+2e in acetonitrile have been found to be 72 kJ mol^–11 and — 0.3 kJ mol^–1 K^–1, respectively, by a combination of impedance techniques and the use of a temperature-controlled environment on commercially manufactured cells which acted as constant volume containers.     

Understanding users and their needs

Gaze-control enables people to control a computer by using eye-gaze to select items on screen. Gaze-control is a necessity for people who have lost all motor control of their body and only have control over eye movements. In addition, gaze-control can be the quickest and least tiring option for a far broader group of people with varying disabilities. This paper reports findings from gaze-control user trials involving users from both groups: people who are totally paralyzed, as well as people with a wide range of complex disabilities. The trials conducted involved four different centres supporting people with disabilities in three different European countries. Several gaze-control systems were trialled by a large number of users with varying needs and abilities. The perceived benefits of gaze-control are described, and recommendations for successful assessment and implementation of gaze-control are provided.     

What role for microgeneration in a shift to a low carbon domestic energy sector in the UK?

Domestic energy use accounts for more than a quarter of CO₂ emissions in the UK. Traditional approaches to energy reduction look at direct emissions savings, and recommend insulation and efficiency as more cost-effective than microgeneration. However, microgeneration has indirect, ‘soft’ benefits and could play a significant role in emissions reduction. Current uptake of microgeneration in the UK is low, with various barriers—economic, technical, cultural, behavioural and institutional—both to uptake and to maximising energy and emissions savings once installed. Subsidies and spreading information alone do not guarantee maximising uptake, and even if successful, this is not enough to maximise savings. The industry focuses on maximising sales, with no incentives to ensure best installations and use; householders do not have access to the best information, and user behaviour does not maximise energy and emission savings. This is related to a broader state of socio-technical ‘lock-in’ in domestic energy use; there’s a lack of connection between personal behaviour and energy consumption, let alone global climate change. This suggests that a major cultural–behavioural shift is needed to reduce energy/emissions in the home. Transition theory and strategic niche management provide insights into possible systemic change and a suitable framework for future policies, such as supporting a variety of radically innovative niches, both technological and social. Microgeneration, properly employed, has the potential to play a part in such a transition by increasing awareness and energy literacy and empowering people to seriously engage in energy debates as producers, as well as consumers, of energy. This deeper understanding and heightened responsibility are crucial in a shift toward bottom-up emission-reducing behaviour change and better acceptance of top-down energy-saving policy measures, as part of a new domestic energy paradigm. The implications for policy are that, as well as supporting the technologies, it needs to support existing niches and to develop new niche experiments. Policy needs to consider how to promote empowerment and responsibility and support or even develop new energy sector models; this will involve a range of stakeholders and multiple governance levels, not just national incentive schemes.     

Nitroarenes as Antitubercular Agents: Stereoelectronic Modulation to Mitigate Mutagenicity

Nitroarenes are less preferred in drug discovery due to their potential to be mutagenic. However, several nitroarenes were shown to be promising antitubercular agents with specific modes of action, namely, nitroimidazoles and benzothiazinones. The nitro group in these compounds is activated through different mechanisms, both enzymatic and non‐enzymatic, in mycobacteria prior to binding to the target of interest. From a whole‐cell screening program, we identified a novel lead nitrobenzothiazole (BT) series that acts by inhibition of decaprenylphosphoryl‐β‐d ‐ribose 2′‐epimerase (DprE1) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). The lead was found to be mutagenic to start with. Our efforts to mitigate mutagenicity resulted in the identification of 6‐methyl‐7‐nitro‐5‐(trifluoromethyl)‐1,3‐benzothiazoles (cBTs), a novel class of antitubercular agents that are non‐mutagenic and exhibit an improved safety profile. The methyl group ortho to the nitro group decreases the electron affinity of the series, and is hence responsible for the non‐mutagenic nature of these compounds. Additionally, the co‐crystal structure of cBT in complex with Mtb DprE1 established the mode of binding. This investigation led to a new non‐mutagenic antitubercular agent and demonstrates that the mutagenic nature of nitroarenes can be solved by modulation of stereoelectronic properties.     

国家公园管理模型的演变：从岛屿和网络到景观和社会生态方法

通过应用帕洛莫模型(Palomo's Model),回顾了新西兰国家公园和保护地管理方法的演变。结合新西兰林肯大学最近所进行的国家公园研究,对国家公园管理相关的岛屿方法、网络方法、景观方法和社会生态方法的关键特性进行分析,包括保护理念与实践,管理和规划维度,文化理念与价值观,以及每种方法的理论地位等。最后,指出景观方法和社会生态方法在当前国家公园和保护地管理中具有创新性价值,并与中国国家公园体制试点建设和生态文明发展方向高度契合。     

The human dead ringer/bright homolog, DRIL1: cDNA cloning, gene structure, and mapping to D19S886, a marker on 19p13.3 that is strictly linked to the Peutz-Jeghers syndrome

A 2-year trial was conducted to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of heliotherapy for psoriasis. The course and cost of psoriasis of 46 Finnish patients were first closely monitored for 1 year, then the patients received a 4-week supervised heliotherapy treatment in the Canary Islands, Spain, after which they continued to be followed for another year. Heliotherapy dramatically reduced the severity of psoriasis and also seemed to have favourable long-term effects on psoriasis. The mean direct cost of the 4-week heliotherapy for one patient was FIM12,289 (1 Pound = FIM7.0 in 1989). The cost of flights and half-board in Spain formed nearly 60% (FIM7033) of the total cost. In the year preceding heliotherapy, the mean direct annual cost of antipsoriasis therapy was FIM7335 and in the year after FIM5700, a reduction of 22% in annual costs; this change was not statistically significant because there were large variations in costs among patients. The costs of heliotherapy exceeded manyfold the mean monthly cost of conventional psoriasis therapy. There were no overall savings using heliotherapy in those patients suffering mainly from moderately severe psoriasis. Heliotherapy saved costs only in those patients with severe psoriasis that required expensive medication or ward treatment. Although heliotherapy cannot be regarded as an economical treatment for the average patients with psoriasis, it clears psoriasis effectively and is preferred by patients. Thus, heliotherapy constitutes an alternative for patients suffering severe psoriasis.     

Hsp70/Hsp90 co‐chaperones are required for efficient Hsp104‐mediated elimination of the yeast [PSI+] prion but not for prion propagation

The continued propagation of the yeast [PSI⁺] prion requires the molecular chaperone Hsp104 yet in cells engineered to overexpress Hsp104; prion propagation is impaired leading to the rapid appearance of prion‐free [psi^?] cells. The underlying mechanism of prion loss in such cells is unknown but is assumed to be due to the complete dissolution of the prion aggregates by the ATP‐dependent disaggregase activity of this chaperone. To further explore the mechanism, we have sought to identify cellular factors required for prion loss in such cells. Sti1p and Cpr7p are co‐chaperones that modulate the activity of Hsp70/Ssa and Hsp90 chaperones and bind to the C‐terminus of Hsp104. Neither Sti1p nor Cpr7p is necessary for prion propagation but we show that deletion of the STI1 and CPR7 genes leads to a significant reduction in the generation of [psi^?] cells by Hsp104 overexpression. Deletion of the STI1 and CPR7 genes does not modify the elimination of [PSI⁺] by guanidine hydrochloride, which inhibits the ATPase activity of Hsp104 but does block elimination of [PSI⁺] by overexpression of either an ATPase‐defective mutant of Hsp104 (hsp104^K218T/K620T) or a ‘trap’ mutant Hsp104 (hsp104^E285Q/E687Q) that can bind its substrate but can not release it. These results provide support for the hypothesis that [PSI⁺] elimination by Hsp104 overexpression is not simply a consequence of complete dissolution of the prion aggregates but rather is through a mechanism distinct from the remodelling activity of Hsp104. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.