Dogs (Canis familiaris) learn their owners via observation in a manipulation task.

Eighty-seven pet dogs (Canis familiaris) were involved in an experiment in which they had to solve a task to obtain a ball. After witnessing a full demonstration by their owner (10 times pushing the handle of the box, which released a ball), most dogs preferred to touch the handle sooner and more frequently in comparison with other parts of the box, and they used the handle to get the ball. In contrast dogs in 3 control groups developed their own respective methods. The lack of emergence of the ball and playing after the demonstration did not affect the learning performance strongly. This suggests that in dogs the outcome of a demonstration plays only a restricted role in the manifestation of social learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personal RF exposimetry in urban area

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the usefulness of a radiofrequency (RF) personal exposimeter (dosimeter) for assessing individual RF exposure in an urban environment. Measurements taken by RF personal dosimeter were also compared to preliminary site measurements taken around mobile base stations. The results from personal exposure showed that one third of the participants spent 40–70% of 24 h recording time above the detection limits (0.05 V/m), and half of subjects spent less than 10%. The highest exposure was detected during the traveling period and the lowest in bed at home. Based on our results, we concluded that site measurements cannot be used to accurately determine personal exposure. We also concluded that duration of time exposed to RF levels above the detection limit of the personal dosimeter is a useful exposure metric to compare and contrast individual RF exposure of study subjects.     

Absorption and fluorescence spectroscopic study on complexation of Oxazine 1 Dye by calix[8]arenesulfonate

It has been established by combined absorption and fluorescence measurements that the cationic dye Oxazine 1 (OX) and the polyvalent anionic host calix[8]arenesulfonate (SCA8) form two complexes in simultaneous reactions: OX + SCA8 <--> OX.SCA8 (1), and OX.SCA8 + OX <--> OX(2).SCA8 (2). The equilibrium constants for the two reactions, as functions of the ionic strength (I), and the absorption and fluorescence spectra of the two complex species have been determined by a least-squares fitting method from the experimental data. The variations of the binding constants with the ionic strength could be described on the basis of Debye-Huckel theory. The equilibrium constants are large; their values extrapolated to I = 0 are K(1) = 5.5 x 10(6) M(-1) and K(2) = 4.4 x 10(5) M(-1). The fluorescence of OX undergoes a strong static quenching upon complexation. These results indicate that the complexes are held together by strong electrostatic forces. The addition of non-fluorescent tetramethylammonium chloride to OX-SCA8 mixtures results in a dramatic fluorescent enhancement, which demonstrates the potential applicability of this supramolecular system in fluorescence assays.     

EMAT noise suppression using information fusion in stationary wavelet packets

An important issue in ultrasonic nondestructive testing is the detection of flaw echoes in the presence of background noise created by instrumentation and by clutter noise. Signal averaging, autoregressive analysis, spectrum analysis, matched filtering, and the wavelet transform have all been used to filter noise in ultrasonic signals. Widely-used wavelet threshold estimation algorithms are not designed for electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) pulse-echo signals, and therefore do not exploit their unique impulse nature. The approach to ultrasonic signal filtering proposed in this paper is based on stationary wavelet packet denoising with a threshold influenced by several information sources: a statistical echo detection, the amplitude distribution of the wavelet transform coefficients, and a priori known system frequency characteristics. The proposed method was evaluated on signals measured with EMAT probes and under various SNR conditions; it outperforms the wavelet transform with the Stein unbiased risk estimate (SURE) threshold estimation method and split-spectrum processing (SSP). The results indicate SNR enhancement of 19 dB with real EMAT data.     

Role of cerclage in the prevention of abortion and premature labor

In the course of the analysis of the results of 175 cerclage-operations carried out during the last 5 years, the authors intended to answer the question: whether the operation is reasonable on the basis of a prophylactic indication. As indication of this kind has been considered for example the following: when in the case-history of the patient one or more spontaneous abortions have occured after the third month of gravidity--with insufficient symptoms, when the mother's birth was a full-term confinement after cerclage-operation, finally, when the insufficiency of the cervical os had been diagnosed before getting pregnant. At symptoms of incipient abortion the aim of the medical treatment was therapeutic. The prophylactic operation was performed between the 16-18th week of the pregnancy, while the therapeutic one between the 20th and 30th week. In the first group 97,2 per cent was the rate of the viable children, while in the second one: 67,2 per cent. The well-foundedness of the prophylactic indication is proved by the fact that the number of full-term confinements has been quinetupled, compared with the pre-operation state. In our opinion in case of typical anamnesis the cerclage-operation is to be performed earlier than in the practice up till now, before opening the cervical os, and the infection of the amnion.     

Quantitative structure-activity relationships. 3.1 A comparison of different Free-Wilson models

The Fujita-Ban model and the classical Free-Wilson model are shown to be linearly related: the de novo group contributions obtained by one model are linear transformations of those obtained by the other model. An example is given to illustrate this linear dependence. The Fujita-Ban model is characterized by a number of advantages as compared with the classical Free-Wilson model: no transformation of the structural matrix and no symmetry equations are necessary; all group contributions are based on an arbitrarily chosen reference compound, preferably the unsubstituted compound; the constant term, which is the theoretically predicted activity value of the reference compound, and the values of the group contributions are not markedly influenced by addition or elimination of a compound; the problem of linear dependence (the singularity problem) sometimes can be circumvented by preparation of a contracted matrix; if the unsubstituted compound is chosen as reference compound, the group contributions are numerically equivalent to Hansch-derived group contributions; therefore, the Hansch approach and the Fujita-Ban model can be combined to a mixed approach. Taking all these facts into consideration, the Frujita-Ban model is recommended as the most suitable approach for the calculation of de novo group contributions.     

Elimination of interference effects from photoinduced-transmission decay curves of thin silicon films

The effects of interference on the photoinduced-absorption signals of thin absorbing films have been studied by recording the picosecond photoinduced-absorption decay curves of an amorphous and a polycrystalline silicon film and applying various probe-beam wavelengths and angles of incidence. The normalized decay curves measured at close to normal incidence have been found to depend strongly on the probe-beam wavelength. By contrast the decay curves obtained at the Brewster angle of incidence have shown a satisfactory coincidence. Theoretical calculations for the photoinduced changes of the transmittance of the film have been performed. These calculations prove that at normal incidence the contributions of the photoinduced changes of the absorption coefficient Δα and of the refractive index Δn to the change in the transmittance Δ T are comparable, whereas when the Brewster angle arrangement is employed, Δ T is proportional to Δα and the effect of the change in the refractive index is negligible.     

Three-dimensional quantitative similarity-activity relationships (3D QSiAR) from SEAL similarity matrices

The program SEAL is suited to describe the electrostatic, steric, hydrophobic, and hydrogen bond donor and acceptor similarity of different molecules in a quantitative manner. Similarity scores AF can be calculated for pairs of molecules, using either a certain molecular property or a sum of weighted properties. Alternatively, their mutual similarity can be derived from distances d or covariances c between SEAL-based property fields that are calculated in a regular grid. For a set of N chemically related molecules, such values form an N x N similarity matrix which can be correlated with biological activities, using either regression analysis and an appropriate variable selection procedure or partial least-squares (PLS) analysis. For the Cramer steroid data set, the test set predictivities (r2pred = 0.53-0.84) of different PLS models, based on a weighted sum of molecular properties, are superior to published results of CoMFA and CoMSIA studies (r2pred = 0.31-0.40), regardless of whether a common alignment or individual, pairwise alignments of all molecules are used in the calculation of the similarity matrices. Training and test set selections have a significant influence on the external predictivities of the models. Although the SEAL similarity score between two molecules is a single number, its value is based on the 3D properties of both molecules. The term 3D quantitative similarity-activity analyses (3D QSiAR) is proposed for approaches which correlate 3D structure-derived similarity matrices with biological activities.