Past, current, and future trends in infant face perception research.

Describes themes prevalent in studies of infant face perception (IFP) before 1979. Evidence from the review indicates that maturational, as well as experiential processes contribute to developmental changes in the infant's ability to recognize faces. A summary of current trends in IFP research focuses on 3 topics: (1) the face as a conveyer of socially-salient information, (2) the neurological basis of IFP, and (3) methodological advances in the study of IFP. Suggestions for future areas of IFP research include the effect of IFP on infants' behavior and the neurological correlates of IFP. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Improved transient performance of nonlinear adaptive backsteppingusing estimator resetting based on multiple models

It is proved that the the transient performance of nonlinear adaptive backstepping can be improved by re-setting the parameter estimator, without loss of stability. The estimator re-setting algorithm is based on multiple-model adaptive control, where a number of models with fixed parameter vectors are monitored online in order to detect a parameter vector that gives a negative jump in the control Lyapunov function when replacing the estimate provided by the standard adaptation law. An application to wheel slip control is studied     

Voltage-induced adsorbate damping of single gold nanorod plasmons in aqueous solution

Unbiased gold nanoparticles are negatively charged in aqueous solution but not hydrated. Optical spectroscopy of voltage-clamped single gold nanoparticles reveals evidence that anion adsorption starts at positive potentials above the point of zero charge, causing severe but reversible plasmon damping in combination with a spectral red shift exceeding the linear double layer charging effect. Plasmon damping by adsorbate is relevant for the use of nanoparticles in catalysis, in biodiagnostics, and in surface enhanced Raman scattering.     

Conidial production by Penicillium nalgiovense for use as starter cultures in dry fermented sausages by solid state fermentation

Penicillium nalgiovense is the typical species used as starter culture on the casing of dry fermented sausages and it has been often produced by solid state fermentation (SSF). Soy beans, maize kernels and wheat bran (WB) at 50% humidity were tested as substrates in SSF for conidial production and viability in P. nalgiovense. Among them WB was the best substrate for conidial production and viability. Thus, WB proved to be a suitable and convenient choice for conidial production by P. nalgiovense in SSF. By analysing conidial production on different membranes in malt extract agar (MEA) and WB no differences were observed between different treatments for the same substrate. Therefore, the practical choice of the inert support seems to be filter paper. A natural substrate like WB together with membranes as support helped the production of viable conidia by SSF as starters for dry fermented sausages.     

Categorical representation of facial expressions by 7-month-old infants.

We investigated the ability of 7-month-olds to categorize the facial expressions happy, fear, and surprise when these expressions varied both by the model depicting the expression and by how intensely the expression was portrayed in a series of three experiments. In Experiment 1, infants successfully discriminated a single model posing a mild versus an extreme version of happy and fear. In Experiment 2, infants categorized happy when depicted by for different models posing mild and extreme versions and discriminated happy from fear. In Experiment 3, infants categorized both happy and surprise posed by five models varying in degree of expressiveness and discriminated these expressions from fear. In both Experiments 2 and 3, there was no evidence that infants could also (a) categorize the fear expressions and discriminate fear from happy or from surprise or (b) discriminate surprise from happy after habituating to surprise. These results are discussed in the context of the importance of experience in recognizing facial expressions and of how such experience influences the ease with which various expressions can be encoded and discriminated from other expressions in the laboratory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)