Implicit social cognition: Attitudes, self-esteem, and stereotypes.

Social behavior is ordinarily treated as being under conscious (if not always thoughtful) control. However, considerable evidence now supports the view that social behavior often operates in an implicit or unconscious fashion. The identifying feature of implicit cognition is that past experience influences judgment in a fashion not introspectively known by the actor. The present conclusion--that attitudes, self-esteem, and stereotypes have important implicit modes of operation--extends both the construct validity and predictive usefulness of these major theoretical constructs of social psychology. Methodologically, this review calls for increased use of indirect measures--which are imperative in studies of implicit cognition. The theorized ordinariness of implicit stereotyping is consistent with recent findings of discrimination by people who explicitly disavow prejudice. The finding that implicit cognitive effects are often reduced by focusing judges' attention on their judgment task provides a basis for evaluating applications (such as affirmative action) aimed at reducing such unintended discrimination. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A standardized interviewing technique for evaluating postgraduate training applicants

In an effort to streamline the personal interview and to reduce the influence of subjectivity inpreparation of ranking lists for postgraduate year-one applicants, a standardized interview was constructed for use in evaluating condidates for admission to a training program in internal medicine. The interview was conducted in a uniformly structured manner by 14 interviewers of 260 applicants. Each applicant received an interview score which correlated well with the final decision of the Intern Selection Committee. For each interviewer various measures of performance were obtained which allowed a classification into "hard" versus "easy" interviewer and indicated the comparability of each interview's evaluations with the final decisions. Thus, the standardized interview resulted in quantifiable data in the form of uniform evaluations of applicants and interviewers.     

Agents and markets

Autonomous agents are intelligent software programs. Typically, agents are situated in an environment. Repeatedly, they sense their environment, engage in some decision making whereby they select actions, and execute their actions, which, in turn, impact their environment. Moreover, in most cases, the environment contains a number of such agents whose actions typically mutually affect one another. This interdependence arises because the different agents, with their own aims and objectives, must operate in a common environment that has finite resources and capabilities. Depending on the dependency's nature, several different types of social interaction occur between the agents, including cooperation, coordination, and negotiation. Autonomous agents are becoming active participants in marketplaces. We present a study on the interactions between autonomous agents and markets.     

Report of the U.S. Department of Energy Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC) Panel Reviewing the Theory and Computing Program

This Panel was set up by the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC) at its November 2000 meeting for the purpose of addressing questions from the Department of Energy concerning the theory and computing/simulation program of the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences. Although the Panel primarily addressed programmatic questions, it acknowledges that the theory and computing in fusion energy sciences has a stellar record of research successes. (A recent FESAC report entitled Opportunities in the Fusion Energy Sciences Program listed a number of theory and computing research highlights.) Last year the National Research Council performed an assessment of the quality of the fusion energy sciences program—including theory and computing—and concluded that the quality of its research is on a par with that of other leading areas of contemporary physical science.     

Toward optimal health: the experts discuss tamoxifen and breast cancer prevention. Interview by Jodi Godfrey Meisler

Retinoids are commonly used for the treatment of nonmalignant skin disorders and occasionally for the treatment of various neoplasms including epidemic Kaposi sarcoma (KS). Dry skin and mucus membranes, muscle and joint aches, alopecia, headaches, and liver and lipid abnormalities are the most frequent medication-related side effects. Very rarely, this class of drugs is associated with the development of hypercalcemia. The authors report the case of a man with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)-associated KS who, while participating in a phase II clinical trial of LGD 1057 (9-cis-retinoic acid) for treatment of epidemic KS, developed hypercalcemia, mental status changes, and renal insufficiency. The etiologic factors of retinoid-induced hypercalcemia are imperfectly understood, but with drug withdrawal his serum calcium, mental acuity, and renal function quickly normalized. Hypercalcemia occurs infrequently in the setting of AIDS and when present, is usually mediated by opportunistic infections. Clinicians should be alert to this potentially life-threatening iatrogenic complication that responds favorably to drug withdrawal.     

Percutaneous aspiration liver biopsy using a large-caliber disposable needle: a preliminary report

A modification of the aspiration liver biopsy technique using a large-caliber disposable needle is described in an 18-month experience. One hundred forty liver biopsies were performed, obtaining adequate tissue in 98% of the patients. Complications occurred in 12 patients and were limited to pain at the biopsy site, epigastrium, or right shoulder; one instance of tachycardia and three of transient hypotension occurred. Thirty patients studied prospectively with liver scans and hematologic parameters failed to disclose subclinical complications. While the number of patients biopsied is still too small to provide definite conclusions , it appears that this technique is safe, similar and has a very high yield of excellent specimens. In addition, the needle offers the advantage of being disposable and easy to use by a single operator.     

Effects of hypertension on the static mechanical properties and chemical composition of the rat aorta

The contributions of the relative radius, relative wall thickness, incremental strain, incremental elastic modulus, and medial scleroprotein content to the static elastic properties of the rat aortic wall have been examined in three groups of rats. Controls, rats made hypertensive at four weeks of age, and rats whose blood pressure was lowered after 6 weeks hypertension, were studied. The results show evidence of adaptive changes in the aorta of hypertensive animals, and that irreversible alterations in the mechanical properties of the wall may be induced by a brief period of hypertension. A direct relationship between aortic medial scleroprotein content and the elastic properties of the wall is demonstrated.     

In search of reliable persuasion effects: II. Associative interference and persistence of persuasion in a message-dense environment.

Conducted 3 experiments, with a total of 272 Ss, to test an associative learning model. Fictitious consumer-product brands were used as stimuli and brand evaluations as responses. In each experiment, Ss received messages concerning up to 54 brands drawn from up to 12 product categories. Exp I demonstrated associative interference—messages advocating diverse evaluations of similar products led to rapid decay of persuasion. Exp II demonstrated reduction of associative interference—messages advocating similar evaluative responses to similar products facilitated associative learning and attenuated decay of persuasion. Exp III demonstrated the correlation between learning of brand-evaluation associations and persuasion. Results suggest that associative learning theory can provide a useful tool for analyzing the persisting impacts of persuasive messages in message-dense environments. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

COVERAGE: detecting and reacting to worm epidemics using cooperation and validation

Cooperative defensive systems communicate and cooperate in their response to worm attacks, but determine the presence of a worm attack solely on local information. Distributed worm detection and immunization systems track suspicious behavior at multiple cooperating nodes to determine whether a worm attack is in progress. Earlier work has shown that cooperative systems can respond quickly to day-zero worms, while distributed detection systems allow detectors to be more conservative (i.e., paranoid) about potential attacks because they manage false alarms efficiently. In this paper we present our investigation into the complex tradeoffs in such systems between communication costs, computation overhead, accuracy of the local tests, estimation of viral virulence, and the fraction of the network infected before the attack crests. We evaluate the effectiveness of different system configurations in various simulations. Our experiments show that distributed algorithms are better able to balance effectiveness against worms and viruses with reduced cost in computation and communication when faced with false alarms. Furthermore, cooperative, distributed systems seem more robust against malicious participants in the immunization system than earlier cooperative but non-distributed approaches.