It takes two to mimic: Behavioral consequences of self-construals.

The present studies demonstrated the moderation of self-construal orientation on mimicry. Recent research has indicated that an interdependent self-construal is associated with assimilation of the other to the self whereas an independent self-construal is associated with minimizing the influence of others on the self (H. R. Markus & S. Kitayama, 1991; D. Stapel & W. Koomen, 2001). Therefore, the authors hypothesized that an interdependent self-construal would be associated with more mimicry than an independent self-construal. When self-construal orientations were experimentally primed. as in Studies 1 and 2, independent self-construals produced less nonconscious mimicry than interdependent self-construals. When self-construals were examined as cultural differences with either a chronically dominant independent (Americans) or interdependent (Japanese) construal of the self, these results were replicated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Validity of the WISC–IV Spanish for a clinically referred sample of Hispanic children.

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) is the most commonly used intelligence test for children. Five years ago, a Spanish version of the WISC–IV was published (WISC-IV Spanish; Wechsler, 2005), but a limited amount of published information is available regarding its utility when assessing clinical samples. The current study included 107 children who were Spanish speaking and of Puerto Rican descent that had been administered the WISC–IV Spanish. They were subdivided into a clinical sample of 35 children with diagnoses of various forms of brain dysfunction (primarily learning disability, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and epilepsy) and a comparison group made up of 72 normal children who were part of the WISC–IV Spanish version standardization sample. Comparisons between these groups and the standardization sample were performed for the WISC–IV Spanish index and subtest scores. Results indicated that the clinical sample performed worse than the comparison samples on the Working Memory and Processing Speed Indexes, although findings varied to some extent depending on whether the clinical group was compared with the normal comparison group or the standardization sample. These findings provide support for the criterion validity of the WISC–IV Spanish when it is used to assess a clinically referred sample with brain dysfunction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of family and community violence on children’s depression trajectories: Examining the interactions of violence exposure, family social support, and gender.

This longitudinal study used multilevel modeling to examine the relationships between witnessing intimate partner violence (IPV), community and school violence exposure (CSVE), family social support, gender, and depression over 2 years within a sample of 100 school-aged children. We found significant between-child differences in both the initial levels of depression and the trajectories of depression; depression over time was positively associated with change in witnessing IPV and CSVE and negatively associated with change in support. Two significant 3-way interactions were found: Gender and initial support, as well as gender and initial witnessing IPV, both significantly moderated the effect of change in witnessing IPV on the children’s depression over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Main, mediating, and moderating effects of social support on the well-being of survivors of intimate partner violence across 2 years.

Intimate partner violence is a serious and pervasive social problem with deleterious consequences for survivors’ well-being. The current study involved interviewing 160 survivors 6 times over 2 years to examine the role of social support in explaining or buffering these negative psychological consequences. The authors examined both between- and within-persons variability to explore women’s trajectories regarding their experiences of abuse, social support, depression, and quality of life (QOL). Findings revealed the complex role of social support on women’s well-being. Evidence was found for main, mediating, and moderating effects of social support on women’s well-being. First, social support was positively related to QOL and negatively related to depression. Social support also partially explained the effect of baseline level and subsequent change in physical abuse on QOL and depression over time, partially mediated the effects of change in psychological abuse, and moderated the impact of abuse on QOL. The buffering effects of social support were strongest at lower levels of abuse. Implications for future research and intervention are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comparative analysis of hardware and software fault tolerance: Impact on software reliability engineering

Today's digital systems are growing increasingly complex, and are being used in increasingly critical functions. The first premise makes them more prone to contain faults, and the second premise makes their failure less tolerable. This widening gap highlights the need for fault tolerant techniques, which make provisions for reliable operation of digital systems despite the presence and occasional manifestation of faults. In this paper we present a brief comparative survey of fault tolerance as it arises in hardware systems and software systems. We discuss logical models as well as statistical models of fault tolerance, and use these models to analyze design tradeoffs of fault tolerant systems. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Assembly of finite element methods on graphics processors

Recently, graphics processing units (GPUs) have had great success in accelerating many numerical computations. We present their application to computations on unstructured meshes such as those in finite element methods. Multiple approaches in assembling and solving sparse linear systems with NVIDIA GPUs and the Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) are created and analyzed. Multiple strategies for efficient use of global, shared, and local memory, methods to achieve memory coalescing, and optimal choice of parameters are introduced. We find that with appropriate preprocessing and arrangement of support data, the GPU coprocessor using single‐precision arithmetic achieves speedups of 30 or more in comparison to a well optimized double‐precision single core implementation. We also find that the optimal assembly strategy depends on the order of polynomials used in the finite element discretization. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Executive function in older adults: A structural equation modeling approach.

Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to study the organization of executive functions in older adults. The four primary goals were to examine (a) whether executive functions were supported by one versus multiple underlying factors, (b) which underlying skill(s) predicted performance on complex executive function tasks, (c) whether performance on analogous verbal and nonverbal tasks was supported by separable underlying skills, and (d) how patterns of performance generally compared with those of young adults. A sample of 100 older adults completed 10 tasks, each designed to engage one of three control processes: mental set shifting (Shifting), information updating or monitoring (Updating), and inhibition of prepotent responses (Inhibition). CFA identified robust Shifting and Updating factors, but the Inhibition factor failed to emerge, and there was no evidence for verbal and nonverbal factors. SEM showed that Updating was the best predictor of performance on each of the complex tasks the authors assessed (the Tower of Hanoi and the Wisconsin Card Sort). Results are discussed in terms of insight for theories of cognitive aging and executive function. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A non-destructive X-ray microtomography approach for measuring fibre length in short-fibre composites

An improved method based on X-ray microtomography is developed for estimating fibre length distribution of short-fibre composite materials. In particular, a new method is proposed for correcting the biasing effects caused by the finite sample size as defined by the limited field of view of the tomographic devices. The method is first tested for computer generated fibre data and then applied in analyzing the fibre length distribution in three different types of wood fibre reinforced composite materials. The results were compared with those obtained by an independent method based on manual registration of fibres in images from a light microscope. The method can be applied in quality control and in verifying the effects of processing parameters on the fibre length and on the relevant mechanical properties of short fibre composite materials, e.g. stiffness, strength and fracture toughness.