A Formaldehyde-Free Soy-Based Adhesive for Making Oriented Strandboard

A formaldehyde-free adhesive consisting of soy flour, polyethylenimine, maleic anhydride, and sodium hydroxide was investigated for making randomly oriented strandboard (R-OSB) and oriented strandboard (OSB). The hot-press conditions and the adhesive usage rate were optimized in terms of enhancing internal bond strength (IB), modulus of rupture (MOR), and modulus of elasticity (MOE) of the resulting R-OSB and OSB. The IB, MOR, and MOE were the highest at a hot-press temperature of 170°C, a hot-press time of 4–5 min, and an adhesive usage rate of 7%. The strengths of the OSB panels made with this formaldehyde-free adhesive were compared with those of commercial OSB panels purchased at a local Home Depot store.     

Prognosis of learning disability.

This article reviews earlier and recent studies about the long-term and adult outcomes of children with learning disabilities (LDs). Although some results are contradictory or inconclusive because of the many methodological problems in the conduct of such studies, there is agreement that LDs persist into adulthood to some degree. Outcome is dependent on the severity of the LD at school age, on intelligence, on the socioeconomic status of parents, and on the presence or absence of neurological impairment. Intervention has not been clearly related to improved outcome. Some evidence has suggested that a language-deficit subtype of LD may show poorer outcome. The prognosis of outcome in the strict sense is limited at this time and has little validity for the individual child. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Disentangling the adult attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder endophenotype: Parametric measurement of attention.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) persists frequently into adulthood. The decomposition of endophenotypes by means of experimental neuro-cognitive assessment has the potential to improve diagnostic assessment, evaluation of treatment response, and disentanglement of genetic and environmental influences. We assessed four parameters of attentional capacity and selectivity derived from simple psychophysical tasks (verbal report of briefly presented letter displays) and based on a “theory of visual attention.” These parameters are mathematically independent, quantitative measures, and previous studies have shown that they are highly sensitive for subtle attention deficits. Potential reductions of attentional capacity, that is, of perceptual processing speed and working memory storage capacity, were assessed with a whole report paradigm. Furthermore, possible pathologies of attentional selectivity, that is, selection of task-relevant information and bias in the spatial distribution of attention, were measured with a partial report paradigm. A group of 30 unmedicated adult ADHD patients and a group of 30 demographically matched healthy controls were tested. ADHD patients showed significant reductions of working memory storage capacity of a moderate to large effect size. Perceptual processing speed, task-based, and spatial selection were unaffected. The results imply a working memory deficit as an important source of behavioral impairments. The theory of visual attention parameter working memory storage capacity might constitute a quantifiable and testable endophenotype of ADHD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Arabidopsis thaliana Plants with Different Levels of Aliphatic- and Indolyl-Glucosinolates Affect Host Selection and Performance of Bemisia tabaci

Generalist insects show reduced selectivity when subjected to similar, but not identical, host plant chemical signatures. Here, we produced transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana plants that over-express genes regulating the aliphatic- and indolyl- glucosinolates biosynthetic pathways with either a constitutive (CaMV 35S) or a phloem-specific promoter (AtSUC2). This allowed us to examine how exposure to high levels of aliphatic- or indolyl-glucosinolates in homogenous habitats (leaf cage apparatus containing two wild-type or two transgenic leaves) and heterogeneous habitats (leaf cage apparatus containing one wild-type and one transgenic leaf) affects host selection and performance of Bemsia tabaci, a generalist phloem-feeding insect. Data from homogenous habitats indicated that exposure to A. thaliana plants accumulating high levels of aliphatic- or indolyl-glucosinolates negatively affected the performance of both adult females and nymphs of B. tabaci. Data from heterogeneous habitats indicated that B. tabaci adult females selected for oviposition plants on which their offspring perform better (preference-performance relationship). However, the combinations of wild-type and transgenic plants in heterogeneous habitats increased the period of time until the first choice was made and led to increased movement rate on transgenic plants, and reduced fecundity on wild-type plants. Overall, our findings are consistent with the view that both performance and selectivity of B. tabaci decrease in heterogeneous habitats that contain plants with closely-related chemical signatures.     

Parallel computation of disease transforms

Distance transforms are an important computational tool for the processing of binary images. For ann ×n image, distance transforms can be computed in time (n) on a mesh-connected computer and in polylogarithmic time on hypercube related structures. We investigate the possibilities of computing distance transforms in polylogarithmic time on the pyramid computer and the mesh of trees. For the pyramid, we obtain a polynomial lower bound using a result by Miller and Stout, so we turn our attention to the mesh of trees. We give a very simple (logn) algorithm for the distance transform with respect to theL ₁-metric, an (log² n) algorithm for the transform with respect to theL -metric, and find that the Euclidean metric is much more difficult. Based on evidence from number theory, we conjecture the impossibility of computing the Euclidean distance transform in polylogarithmic time on a mesh of trees. Instead, we approximate the distance transform up to a given error. This works for anyL _k -metric and takes time (log³ n).This research was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft under Grant Al 253/1-1, Schwerpunktprogramm Datenstrukturen und effiziente Algorithmen.