Experience, Context, and the Visual Perception of Human Movement.

Why are human observers particularly sensitive to human movement? Seven experiments examined the roles of visual experience and motor processes in human movement perception by comparing visual sensitivities to point-light displays of familiar, unusual, and impossible gaits across gait-speed and identity discrimination tasks. In both tasks, visual sensitivity to physically possible gaits was superior to visual sensitivity to physically impossible gaits, supporting perception-action coupling theories of human movement perception. Visual experience influenced walker-identity perception but not gait-speed discrimination. Thus, both motor experience and visual experience define visual sensitivity to human movement. An ecological perspective can be used to define the conditions necessary for experience-dependent sensitivity to human movement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Persistence of dyslexics' phonological awareness deficits.

Examined the phonological awareness skills of dyslexic children, adults with childhood diagnoses of dyslexia, and good readers at various age levels. Comparisons of the dyslexics to good readers of the same age or the same reading level indicated that dyslexics do not acquire appropriate levels of phoneme awareness, regardless of their age or reading levels, although they eventually acquire appropriate levels of onset-rhyme awareness. Even adults with fairly high levels of word recognition skill show phoneme awareness deficits. For normal readers, reliable increases in phoneme awareness were associated with age and reading level, whereas for dyslexic Ss these associations were not reliable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of carbon black on tribology of blends of poly(vinylidene fluoride) with irradiated and non-irradiated ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene

Friction and wear resistance are two vital tribological properties of polymer-based materials but optimization of both is rarely attempted. We have investigated blends of 70 wt% poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)+30% ultra high molecular weight polyethylene, the latter either un-irradiated or else γ-irradiated. Each sample contained varying amounts of carbon black (CB) and also had a varied degree of crosslinking and irradiation dose. We have determined static and dynamic friction, scratch resistance, and sliding wear in multiple scratching tests. Effects of the irradiation dose and CB concentration have been quantified. The electric conductivity threshold is reflected in a drop of static friction; formation of a continuous phase of the lubricant affects tribology as well as electrical properties—both for irradiated and for un-irradiated samples. The scratch resistance as represented by the residual (healing) depth is affected by crosslinking, by the stage at which irradiation is applied (before or after blending) and by CB addition. Crosslinking by moderate amounts of irradiation provides shallower residual depths while higher doses cause adverse results. Similarly, the CB lubricant can either improve or worsen the scratch resistance. A combination of both approaches produces either better or else worse results than crosslinking alone. Lower friction seems accompanied by higher scratch resistance. A combination of a specific irradiation dose and an optimized CB concentration lowers the sliding wear significantly. Strain hardening in sliding wear determination takes place for all materials studied, irrespective of the extent or radiation-induced crosslinking and of the presence and concentration of carbon black.     

The impact of childhood symptoms of conduct disorder on driver aggression in adulthood

Background

Despite limited empirical investigation, existing scientific literature suggests that individuals with a history or current diagnosis of conduct disorder (CD) may be more likely to demonstrate reckless and aggressive driving. Much of the limited research in this field examines the impact of childhood CD on driver behaviour and collision risk in young adults. Few if any, studies assess the impact of this disorder on driver behaviour beyond age 21 years. The current research is a population-based study of the impact of CD symptoms during childhood on the risk of engaging in driver aggression during adulthood.

Methods

Data are based on telephone interviews with 5230 respondents who reported having driven in the past year. Data are derived from the 2011–2013 cycles of the CAMH Monitor, an ongoing cross-sectional survey of adults in Ontario, Canada aged 18 years and older. A binary logistic regression analysis of self-reported driver aggression in the previous 12 months was conducted, consisting of measures of demographic characteristics, driving exposure, problem substance use, alcohol- and drug-impaired driving, symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and childhood (before age 15) symptoms of CD.

Results

When entered with demographic characteristics, driving exposure, and other potential confounders, childhood symptoms of CD increased the odds of reporting driver aggression more than two-fold (adjusted OR = 2.12). Exploratory analyses of the interaction between childhood symptoms of CD and age was not a significant predictor of driver aggression.

Conclusions

Results suggest that symptoms of CD during childhood are associated with significantly increased odds of self-reported driver aggression during adulthood. Limitations and future directions of the research are discussed.     

Role of the syllable in the processing of spoken English: Evidence from a nonword comparison task.

Previous research using monitoring tasks suggests that syllables do not play a role in the initial processing of speech by English listeners. The role of syllables in a different task, 1 involving the speeded comparison of 2 nonwords, was investigated. In 2 experiments, responses to nonword pairs that shared a complete syllable were significantly faster than responses to pairs that shared part of a syllable when the shared unit was at the beginning or in the middle of the nonwords. Results were mixed when the shared unit was at the end of the nonwords, possibly reflecting a confounding effect of rhyme. Findings suggest that syllabified representations of the nonwords may be used in a comparison task, even in English. Results are interpreted relative to different demands of the nonword comparison and monitoring tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The preparation and characterization of the methoxy derivatives of polyunsaturated fatty acids: Stabilized product analogs of lipoxygenase catalysis

The products from the action of soybean lipoxygenase on a series of polyunsaturated fatty acids have been converted in 2 steps into the corresponding methoxy derivatives. The product hydroperoxides were reduced in situ to alcohols with sodium borohydride. The ethers were generated by treatment of the alcohols with sodium hydride and methyl iodide in tetrahydrofuran. 13-Methoxy-9(Z),11(E)-octadecadienoic, 15-methoxy-11(Z),13(E)-eicosadienoic and 15-methoxy-5(Z),8(Z),11(Z), 13(E)-eicosatetraenoic acids were thus prepared. The methyl ethers were analyzed and the structures established by high performance liquid chromatography, nuclear magnetic resonance and infrared spectrometry, polarimetry and mass spectroscopy (as methyl esters). The methylation reaction proceeds without molecular rearrangements or racemiziation.     

Viewpoint and the recognition of people from their movements.

Observers can recognize other people from their movements. What is interesting is that observers are best able to recognize their own movements. Enhanced visual sensitivity to self-generated movement may reflect the contribution of motor planning processes to the visual analysis of human action. An alternative view is that enhanced visual sensitivity to self-motion results from extensive experience seeing one's own limbs move. To investigate this alternative explanation, participants viewed point-light actors from first-person egocentric and third-person allocentric viewpoints. Although observers routinely see their own actions from the first-person view, participants were unable to identify egocentric views of their own actions. Conversely, with little real-world experience seeing themselves from third-person views, participants readily identified their own actions from allocentric views. When viewing allocentric displays, participants accurately identified both front and rear views of their own actions. Because people have little experience observing themselves from behind or from third-person views, these findings suggest that visual learning cannot account for enhanced visual sensitivity to self-generated action. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Organizational learning: conceptual challenges from a project perspective

Do-it-yourself (DIY) is a staple element of the spare time activities of many households, but little is known about the extent to which basic repair work is carried out through DIY and about the quality of this work. Through secondary analyses of UK government data (English House Condition Survey and Family Expenditure Survey), this paper examines the scale of DIY work by owner-occupiers, how work is organized, the interrelationship of DIY work, the use of unpaid help, and the use of contractors. It considers the types of work carried out, the characteristics of those who tackle DIY or use unpaid help, the dwelling types most likely to experience DIY work, and the motivations of and constraints on those home-owners who do it. The paper concludes with a discussion on the policy implications of these findings for government and the building industry. Although most DIY work is cosmetic and does not deal with basic repair and maintenance, the sheer scale of DIY ensures that it makes a contribution to improving housing conditions. The provision of more advice, information and education by government, local authorities and the private sector could ensure that more DIY work is of better quality and that home owners give priority to essential repairs whether or not they tackle these themselves.     

国外RFID系统的管理应用

美国加利福尼亚南部的麦克阿瑟居民区物业管理部门用RFID门禁管理系统替换了他们原有的人工手动门禁系统，实现对车辆出入的准确管理。物业的这一举措，不仅保证了小区车辆管理的高效性、有序性以及安全性，而且还可以将RFID技术拓展应用到其它服务领域，可谓是一举多得。