Temporal discounting of rewards in patients with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Patients with bipolar disorder (BD) and schizophrenia (SZ) often show decision-making deficits in everyday circumstances. A failure to appropriately weigh immediate versus future consequences of choices may contribute to these deficits. We used the delay discounting task in individuals with BD or SZ to investigate their temporal decision making. Twenty-two individuals with BD, 21 individuals with SZ, and 30 healthy individuals completed the delay discounting task along with neuropsychological measures of working memory and cognitive function. Both BD and SZ groups discounted delayed rewards more steeply than did the healthy group even after controlling for current substance use, age, gender, and employment. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that discounting rate was associated with both diagnostic group and working memory or intelligence scores. In each group, working memory or intelligence scores negatively correlated with discounting rate. The results suggest that (a) both BD and SZ groups value smaller, immediate rewards more than larger, delayed rewards compared with the healthy group and (b) working memory or intelligence is related to temporal decision making in individuals with BD or SZ as well as in healthy individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A procedure for defining behavior of weight functions near the edgefor best convergence using the Galerkin method

A general procedure is described for calculating linear functionals of the electromagnetic theory. The procedure is based on the equivalence of two methods of calculating such functionals-the GM and the variational method (VM). To implement the procedure the sought linear functional is expressed as a variational functional. The stationarity condition of the latter leads to some auxiliary problems. Due to the equivalence the WF behavior near the edge is the same as that obtained from the solution of the auxiliary problem. The efficiency of the procedure, i.e., the high speed of convergence, is illustrated by two examples: (1) calculation of the equivalent circuit shunt impedance of the capacitive diaphragm in a plane waveguide, and (2) calculation of the capacitance of a metal tube segment filled with dielectric     

Calculation of the sintering parameters of viscous solids

Conclusions The actual rate of deformation of a viscous material during sintering is one and a half to two times greater than has been supposed up to now on the basis of calculations allowing only for the radial component of stress. Various problems in the field of sintering of ceramic materials can be solved with comparative ease using force-type, rather than energy-type, relationships and Volterra's viscoelastic analogy.Translated from Poroshkovaya Metallurgiya, No. 8(224), pp. 23–26, August, 1981.     

Determination of the kinetics of size variation of a single pore in a mass of a viscous material with allowance for absorption and desorption

Conclusions The law of pore radius variation r=r() cannot be found without taking into account the functions of concentration distribution of two gases over the thickness of the matrix Ci=C₁(, ) and C₂ = C₂(, ). Because of this, it is proposed that the unknown functions of r, C₁, and C₂ be found by solving the system of three differential equations (3), (A), and (26) at the three initial conditions (8)–(10) and four boundary conditions (19), (20), (27), and (29). Depending on the nature of the matrix material and dissolving gases, the boundary conditions (27) and (29) may become transformed into the conditions (28) and (30). In dealing with a fuller model, including three or more gases dissolving in a matrix, it is necessary to solve a system of four or more equations in accordance with Eqs. (1) and (2). The necessary initial and boundary conditions can always be formulated by analogy with Eqs. (8)–(10), (19), (20), and (27)–(30).Translated from Poroshkovaya Metallurgiya, No. 7(271), pp. 32–36, July, 1985.     

TE10 mode scattering by a rectangular resistive film ofarbitrary dimensions placed along the rectangular waveguides axis

Transverse electric (TE)₁₀ mode scattering by a resistive film of arbitrary width (d) and length (l) placed in the longitudinal section of a rectangular waveguide parallel to its narrow faces is investigated. The vector integral equation for the discontinuity of the tangential magnetic field on the film is formulated. The equation is solved by the Galerkin method using basis functions, each of them taking into account the discontinuity behavior near the film edge. For a film that is sufficiently short (l≪d), approximate expressions for the scattering matrix elements are obtained. The scattering matrix for a wide range of values of the film width, length, surface impedance, and frequency is calculated