bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The effectiveness of sexual harassment policies and procedures at higher education institutions in South Africa
Authors: Joubert Pierre , Van Wyk Christo , Rothmann Sebastiaan
Published: July 2011

Orientation: Sexual harassment policies are generally in place in higher education institutions without any indication of its effectiveness as determined by the awareness of the policy.Research purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the awareness levels of academic staff members at higher education institutions in South Africa of sexual harassment policies and procedures in their institutions.Motivation for the study: A number of high profile court cases emphasised the need for effective policies to reduce the incidence of sexual harassment complaints.Research design, approach and method: A cross-sectional survey design was conducted amongst 161 academic staff members, representing 10 higher education institutions in South Africa. The measuring instrument that was used is the Sexual Harassment Questionnaire (SHQ) that was developed specifically for this study.Main findings: The results showed that despite indications that sexual harassment policies do exist and that they are regarded as effective tools in addressing sexual harassment, the implementation of such policies is not effective and few academic staff members received training and/or guidance on the utilisation of the policy. Significant correlation coefficients were found between the elements of an effective policy and between population group and some of the elements.Practical/managerial implications: Employers across the board should regularly conduct an audit to determine the level of awareness of sexual harassment policies and procedures and plan interventions.Contribution: No other study in South Africa attempted to measure the awareness levels of academics and its impact on the management of sexual harassment.
Factors affecting the retention of Generation X public servants: An exploratory study
Authors: Masibigiri Vhutshilo , Nienaber Hester
Published: July 2011

Orientation: Retaining employees, especially Generation Xers, is imperative to ensure the high performance of organisations.Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that affect the retention of Generation X public servants.Motivation for the study: Given their unique characteristics, it is a challenge to retain Generation X employees. This problem may be worse in the public sector than in the private sector, as there are fewer financial rewards in the public service than in the private sector.Research design: The interpretivist paradigm is appropriate for this study. It used a qualitative, empirical approach. The researchers obtained the data through purposive sampling and interviews.Main findings: The study showed that the factors affecting the retention of Generation X public servants include work content, utilisation of skills, career advancement, work–life balance, compensation, security needs, leadership and drive.Practical/managerial implications: Employers, like the civil service, can be proactive in retaining Generation X employees because of the factors that affect their retention. Managers can prevent further pressure on service delivery that the skills shortage has caused if they use the skills the employees already have.Contribution: The article fills a gap, as there has been little research on staff retention. This is particularly true of Generation X employees in South Africa. This article adds information that will improve retention strategies for Generation X employees, particularly in the public service.
Support Vector Machine Based Classification Model for Screening Plasmodium falciparum Proliferation Inhibitors and Non-Inhibitors
Authors: Subramaniam Sangeetha , Mehrotra Monica , Gupta Dinesh
Published: July 2011

There is an urgent need to develop novel anti-malarials in view of the increasing disease burden and growing resistance of the currently used drugs against the malarial parasites. Proliferation inhibitors targeting P. falciparum intraerythrocytic cycle are one of the important classes of compounds being explored for its potential to be novel antimalarials. Support Vector Machine (SVM) based model developed by us can facilitate rapid screening of large and diverse chemical libraries by reducing false hits and prioritising compounds before setting up expensive High Throughput Screening experiment. The SVM model, trained with molecular descriptors of proliferation inhibitors and non-inhibitors, displayed a satisfactory performance on cross validations and independent data set, with an average accuracy of 83% and AUC of 0.88. Intriguingly, the method displayed remarkable accuracy for the recently submitted P. falciparum whole cell screening datasets. The method also predicted several inhibitors in the National Cancer Institute diversity set, mostly similar to the known inhibitors.
Boreal forest fire emissions in fresh Canadian smoke plumes: C1-C10 volatile organic compounds (VOCs), CO2, CO, NO2, NO, HCN and CH3CN
Authors: Simpson I. J. , Akagi S. K. , Barletta B. , Blake N. J. , Choi Y. , Diskin G. S. , Fried A. , Fuelberg H. E. , Meinardi S. , Rowland F. S. , Vay S. A. , Weinheimer A. J. , Wennberg P. O. , Wiebring P. , Wisthaler A. , Yang M. , Yokelson R. J. , Blake D. R.
Published: July 2011

Abstract. Boreal regions comprise about 17 % of the global land area, and they both affect and are influenced by climate change. To better understand boreal forest fire emissions and plume evolution, 947 whole air samples were collected aboard the NASA DC-8 research aircraft in summer 2008 as part of the ARCTAS-B field mission, and analyzed for 79 non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) using gas chromatography. Together with simultaneous measurements of CO2, CO, CH4, CH2O, NO2, NO, HCN and CH3CN, these measurements represent the most comprehensive assessment of trace gas emissions from boreal forest fires to date. Based on 105 air samples collected in fresh Canadian smoke plumes, 57 of the 80 measured NMVOCs (including CH2O) were emitted from the fires, including 45 species that were quantified from boreal forest fires for the first time. After CO2, CO and CH4, the largest emission factors (EFs) for individual species were formaldehyde (2.1 ± 0.2 g kg−1), followed by methanol, NO2, HCN, ethene, α-pinene, β-pinene, ethane, benzene, propene, acetone and CH3CN. Globally, we estimate that boreal forest fires release 2.4 ± 0.6 Tg C yr−1 in the form of NMVOCs, with approximately 41 % of the carbon released as C1-C2 NMVOCs and 21 % as pinenes. These are the first reported field measurements of monoterpene emissions from boreal forest fires, and we speculate that the pinenes, which are relatively heavy molecules, were detected in the fire plumes as the result of distillation of stored terpenes as the vegetation is heated. Their inclusion in smoke chemistry models is expected to improve model predictions of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation. The fire-averaged EF of dichloromethane or CH2Cl2, (6.9 ± 8.6) × 10−4 g kg−1, was not significantly different from zero and supports recent findings that its global biomass burning source appears to have been overestimated. Similarly, we found no evidence for emissions of chloroform (CHCl3) or methyl chloroform (CH3CCl3) from boreal forest fires. The speciated hydrocarbon measurements presented here show the importance of carbon released by short-chain NMVOCs, the strong contribution of pinene emissions from boreal forest fires, and the wide range of compound classes in the most abundantly emitted NMVOCs, all of which can be used to improve biomass burning inventories in local/global models and reduce uncertainties in model estimates of trace gas emissions and their impact on the atmosphere.
Changes in organic aerosol composition with aging inferred from aerosol mass spectra
Authors: Ng N. L. , Canagaratna M. R. , Jimenez J. L. , Chhabra P. S. , Seinfeld J. H. , Worsnop D. R.
Published: July 2011

Abstract. Organic aerosols (OA) can be separated with factor analysis of aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) data into hydrocarbon-like OA (HOA) and oxygenated OA (OOA). We develop a new method to parameterize H:C of OOA in terms of f43 (ratio of m/z 43, mostly C2H3O+, to total signal in the component mass spectrum). Such parameterization allows for the transformation of large database of ambient OOA components from the f44 (mostly CO2+, likely from acid groups) vs. f43 space ("triangle plot") (Ng et al., 2010) into the Van Krevelen diagram (H:C vs. O:C) (Van Krevelen, 1950). Heald et al. (2010) examined the evolution of total OA in the Van Krevelen diagram. In this work total OA is deconvolved into components that correspond to primary (HOA and others) and secondary (OOA) organic aerosols. By deconvolving total OA into different components, we remove physical mixing effects between secondary and primary aerosols which allows for examination of the evolution of OOA components alone in the Van Krevelen space. This provides a unique means of following ambient secondary OA evolution that is analogous to and can be compared with trends observed in chamber studies of secondary organic aerosol formation. The triangle plot in Ng et al. (2010) indicates that f44 of OOA components increases with photochemical age, suggesting the importance of acid formation in OOA evolution. Once they are transformed with the new parameterization, the triangle plot of the OOA components from all sites occupy an area in Van Krevelen space which follows a ΔH:C/ΔO:C slope of ~ −0.5. This slope suggests that ambient OOA aging results in net changes in chemical composition that are equivalent to the addition of both acid and alcohol/peroxide functional groups without fragmentation (i.e. C-C bond breakage), and/or the addition of acid groups with fragmentation. These results provide a framework for linking the bulk aerosol chemical composition evolution to molecular-level studies.
Spatial distribution of the source-receptor relationship of sulfur in Northeast Asia
Authors: Kajino M. , Ueda H. , Sato K. , Sakurai T.
Published: July 2011

Abstract. The spatial distribution of the source-receptor relationship (SRR) of sulfur over Northeast Asia was examined using a chemical transport model (RAQM) off-line coupled with a meteorological model (MM5). The simulation was conducted for the entire year of 2002. The results were evaluated using monitoring data for six remote stations of the Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia (EANET). The modeled SO2 and O3 concentrations agreed well with the observations quantitatively. The modeled aerosol and wet deposition fluxes of SO42− were underestimated by 30 % and 50 %, respectively. The domain was divided into 5 source-receptor regions: (I) North China; (II) Central China; (III) South China; (IV) South Korea; and (V) Japan. The sulfur deposition in each receptor region amounted to about 50–75 % of the emissions from the same region. The largest contribution to the deposition in each region was originated from the same region, accounting for 53–84 %. The second largest contribution was due to Region II, supplying 14–43 %. The spatial distributions of the SRRs revealed that subregional values varied by about two times more than regional averages due to nonuniformity across the deposition fields. Examining the spatial distributions of the deposition fields was important for identifying subregional areas where the deposition was highest within a receptor region. The horizontal distribution changed substantially according to season.
Simulation of the time-variable gravity field by means of coupled geophysical models
Authors: Gruber Th. , Bamber J. L. , Bierkens M. F. P. , Dobslaw H. , Murböck M. , Thomas M. , van Beek L. P. H. , van Dam T. , Vermeersen L. L. A. , Visser P. N. A. M.
Published: July 2011

Abstract. Time variable gravity fields, reflecting variations of mass distribution in the system Earth is one of the key parameters to understand the changing Earth. Mass variations are caused either by redistribution of mass in, on or above the Earth's surface or by geophysical processes in the Earth's interior. The first set of observations of monthly variations of the Earth gravity field was provided by the US/German GRACE satellite mission beginning in 2002. This mission is still providing valuable information to the science community. However, as GRACE has outlived its expected lifetime, the geoscience community is currently seeking successor missions in order to maintain the long time series of climate change that was begun by GRACE. Several studies on science requirements and technical feasibility have been conducted in the recent years. These studies required a realistic model of the time variable gravity field in order to perform simulation studies on sensitivity of satellites and their instrumentation. This was the primary reason for the European Space Agency (ESA) to initiate a study on "Monitoring and Modelling individual Sources of Mass Distribution and Transport in the Earth System by Means of Satellites". The goal of this interdisciplinary study was to create as realistic as possible simulated time variable gravity fields based on coupled geophysical models, which could be used in the simulation processes in a controlled environment. For this purpose global atmosphere, ocean, continental hydrology and ice models were used. The coupling was performed by using consistent forcing throughout the models and by including water flow between the different domains of the Earth system. In addition gravity field changes due to solid Earth processes like continuous glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) and a sudden earthquake with co-seismic and post-seismic signals were modelled. All individual model results were combined and converted to gravity field spherical harmonic series, which is the quantity commonly used to describe the Earth's global gravity field. The result of this study is a twelve-year time-series of 6-hourly time variable gravity field spherical harmonics up to degree and order 180 corresponding to a global spatial resolution of 1 degree in latitude and longitude. In this paper, we outline the input data sets and the process of combining these data sets into a coherent model of temporal gravity field changes. The resulting time series was used in some follow-on studies and is available to anybody interested via a Website.
Quantifying water and salt fluxes in a lowland polder catchment dominated by boil seepage: a probabilistic end-member mixing approach
Authors: de Louw P. G. B. , van der Velde Y. , van der Zee S. E. A. T. M.
Published: July 2011

Abstract. Upward saline groundwater seepage is leading to surface water salinization of deep lying polders in the Netherlands. Identifying measures to reduce the salt content requires a thorough understanding and quantification of the dominant sources of water and salt on a daily basis. However, as in most balance studies, there are large uncertainties in the contribution from groundwater seepage. Taking these into account, we applied a probabilistic (GLUE) end-member mixing approach to simulate two years of daily to weekly observations of discharge, salt loads and salt concentration of water pumped out of an artificially drained polder catchment area. We were then able to assess the contribution from the different sources to the water and salt balance of the polder and uncertainties in their quantification. Our modelling approach demonstrates the need to distinguish preferential from diffuse seepage. Preferential seepage via boils contributes, on average, 66 % to the total salt load and only about 15 % to the total water flux into the polder and therefore forms the main salinization pathway. With the model we were able to calculate the effect of future changes on surface water salinity and to assess the uncertainty in our predictions. Furthermore, we analyzed the parameter sensitivity and uncertainty to determine for which parameter the quality of field measurements should be improved to reduce model input and output uncertainty. High frequency measurements of polder water discharge and weighted concentration at the outlet of the catchment area appear to be essential for obtaining reliable simulations of water and salt fluxes and for allotting these to the different sources.
Signal discrimination of ULF electromagnetic data with using singular spectrum analysis – an attempt to detect train noise
Authors: Saito S. , Kaida D. , Hattori K. , Febriani F. , Yoshino C.
Published: July 2011

Abstract. Electromagnetic phenomena associated with crustal activities have been reported in a wide frequency range (DC-HF). In particular, ULF electromagnetic phenomena are the most promising among them because of the deeper skin depth. However, ULF geoelctromagnetic data are a superposition of signals of different origins. They originated from interactions between the geomagnetic field and the solar wind, leak current by a DC-driven train (train noise), precipitation, and so on. In general, the intensity of electromagnetic signals associated with crustal activity is smaller than the above variations. Therefore, in order to detect a smaller signal, signal discrimination such as noise reduction or identification of noises is very important. In this paper, the singular spectrum analysis (SSA) has been performed to detect the DC-driven train noise in geoelectric potential difference data. The aim of this paper is to develop an effective algorithm for the DC-driven train noise detection.
Estimating suspended sediment concentrations using a broadband ADCP in Mahshahr tidal channel
Authors: Ghaffari P. , Azizpour J. , Noranian M. , Chegini V. , Tavakoli V. , Shah-Hosseini M.
Published: July 2011

Abstract. Data sets of Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) backscatter intensities (ABS) were used to evaluate suspended sediment concentrations (SSC) in the Mahshahr Channel (MC) of the Persian Gulf. Since the echo intensity is closely related to turbidity in water, the ADCP may be a promising tool to monitor the sediment transport. The low susceptibility of the acoustic backscatter to bio-fouling and the ADCP provision of current profiles as well as sediment time series makes this monitoring method more advantageous compared with the traditional methods. Time series of ADCP backscatter intensity profiles were used for improving temporal resolution of SSC estimates. Backscatter and traditional observational data were separated into two segments. The first part was utilized for calibrating the backscatter data and attributing the intensity to suspended particle concentrations and using the second part acoustic intensities were validated. Acoustic based SSC estimates are slightly underestimated in comparison with traditional water sample based SSC values, but still there is good agreement between acoustic SSC and traditional observations. Results illustrate a rather high correlation between lab based and acoustic based particles in suspension (R2 = 88 %). Additionally measurements reveal the domination of a semidiurnal ebb asymmetric system in the MC. Tidal currents provide the main energy source for particle resuspension and transport. Maximum suspended load concentrations are evident in ebb tides, while the currents strengths are enough to refloat loads from the bed. In general spring tides show higher SSC values compared with neap tides in the study area.
Erosion rates deduced from Seasonal mass balance along an active braided river in Tianshan
Authors: Liu Y. , Métivier F. , Gaillardet J. , Ye B. , Meunier P. , Narteau C. , Lajeunesse E. , Han T. , Malverti L.
Published: July 2011

Abstract. We report measurements performed during two complete flow seasons on the Urumqi River, a proglacial mountain stream in the northeastern ank of the Tianshan, an active mountain range in Central Asia. This survey of flow dynamics and sediment transport (dissolved, suspended and bed loads), together with a 25-year record of daily discharge, enables the assessment of secular denudation rates on this high mountain catchment of Central Asia. Our results show that chemical weathering accounts for more than one third of the total denudation rate. Sediment transported as bed load cannot be neglected in the balance given that sand and gravel transport accounts for one third of the solid load of the river. Overall, the mean denudation rates are low, averaging 46 t × km−2 × yr−1 (17–18 m Myr−1). We furthermore analyse the hydrologic record to show that the long-term sediment budget is not dominated by extreme and rare events but by the total amount of rainfall or annual runoff. The rates we obtain are in agreement with rates obtained from the mass balance reconstruction of the Plio-Quaternary gravely deposits of the foreland but signicantly lower than the rates recently obtained from cosmogenic dating of river sand. We show that the resolution of this incompatibility has an important consequence for our understanding of the interplay between erosion and tectonics in the semi-humid ranges of Central Asia.
Asking for Narratives to be Recognized: The Moral of Histories
Authors: Pierosara Silvia
Published: July 2011

This paper demonstrates an implicit connection between narrativity and recognition in the work of Paul Ricœur. This view is developed in three steps. First, it shows that the subject who calls for recognition demands that his or her own narrative be recognized. In order to be recognized, a story must be measured with history, particularly that of the victims. Second, from this perspective, the role of collective narratives is fundamental, because they represent the possibility to connect the intrinsic teleology of every human being to the collective attribution of significance. Finally, with the help of a little known essay by Ricœur, the metaphorical power of narrativity to configure meaning will be compared to the power of architecture to construct and to organize space. Both these fields give stories visibility and an ability to be recognized.
Affirmation originaire, attestation et reconnaissance: Le cheminement de l'anthropologie philosophique ricœurienne
Authors: Amalric Jean-Luc
Published: July 2011

Through an analysis of the concepts of originary affirmation, attestation and recognition, this article aims at redefining the meaning and motivations of the reflexive progress that leads Ricœur from Faillible Man to Oneself as Another and to The Course of Recognition. To that purpose, the article first tries to show the profound continuity of the Ricœurian anthropological project, both in its problematics and in method; it then tries to elucidate the central difficulties inherent in the idea of a poetic constitution of the self that lead Ricœur to elaborate anew the key concepts of his hermeneutics of the self. In light of Ricœur’s constant dialogue with Nabert’s philosophy, it finally attempts to show how the concepts of attestation and recognition essentially originate in a closer examination of the notion of originary affirmation, itself extended by a reflection on testimony.A travers une analyse des concepts d’affirmation originaire, d’attestation et de reconnaissance, cet article tente de reconstituer le sens et les motivations du cheminement réflexif qui conduit Ricœur de L’Homme faillible à Soi-même comme un autre et à Parcours de la reconnaissance. Pour ce faire, il s’efforce d’abord de montrer ce qui fait la continuité profonde, de problématique et de méthode, du projet anthropologique ricœurien; afin de dégager ensuite les difficultés centrales liées à l’idée d’une constitution poétique du soi, qui conduisent Ricœur à réélaborer les concepts directeurs de son herméneutique du soi. A la lumière du dialogue constant de Ricœur avec la philosophie de Nabert, il tente enfin de montrer comment les concepts d’attestation et de reconnaissance trouvent, pour l’essentiel, leur genèse dans un approfondissement de la notion d’affirmation originaire, lui-même prolongé par une réflexion sur le témoignage.
Ricoeur and the Hermeneutics of Suspicion
Authors: Marcelo Gonçalo
Published: July 2011

Book Review of Alison Scott-Baumann, Ricœur and the Hermeneutics of Suspicion (London: Continuum, 2009).
Introduction
Authors: Marcelo Gonçalo
Published: July 2011

The guest editor introduces Vol. 2, no. 1 (2011).
Introduction (française)
Authors: Marcelo Gonçalo
Published: July 2011

L'editeur invité présenter le second numéro de Études Ricœuriennes/Ricœur Studies (ERRS) consacré à la thématique de la reconnaissance.
Accuracy and results of photopic flash electroretinogram performed with skin electrodes in infants
Authors: Quoc Emmanuel Bui , Albuisson Eliane , Ingster-Moati Isabelle
Published: July 2011

Purpose

As it is not always possible to use corneal electrodes for recording electroretinograms (ERG) in children, it is necessary to check the feasibility of performing ERG with skin electrodes and to try to establish normative data.

Methods

Fifty-one healthy children (aged 7-11 years) were recruited. Cone ERG and 30-Hz flicker ERG were recorded with one active skin electrode positioned over the lower eyelid and a reference electrode at the outer canthus of the eye. Responses were recorded to full-field stimuli. Correlations between results of both eyes were studied. Results were compared to normative data obtained with corneal electrodes.

Results

Cone ERG response was obtained in 100/102 eyes. Flicker ERG was obtained in 88/102 eyes. No correlation between eyes was found for the a-wave latency, the a-wave amplitude, and the latency of the flicker. Mean b-wave implicit time of the cone ERG was 38.71±1.6 ms; the median of its amplitude was 10.0 µV. The median of the amplitude of the flicker ERG was 12.55 µV.

Conclusions

Amplitudes are significantly reduced, with a scaling factor of 8.75 for the b-wave amplitude of the cone ERG compared to corneal electrodes (9.6 for the a-wave amplitude and 8.87 for the flicker amplitude). Our study contributes to the establishment of normative data for skin electrode ERG. It emphasizes the feasibility and accuracy of this method. It is very useful to assess the normality of the ERG in many clinical situations, such as nystagmus and suspicion of delayed visual maturation.
Effect of Silicon Crystal Size on Photoluminescence Appearance in Porous Silicon
Authors: Kumar Pushpendra
Published: July 2011

The photoluminescence (PL) study in porous silicon (PS) with decreasing Si crystallites size among the pores was reported. The PL appearance is attributed to electronic confinement in columnar-like (or dotlike) structures of porous silicon. Three different pore diameter PS samples were prepared by electrochemical etching in HF-based solutions. Changes in porous silicon and Si crystallite size were studied by observing an asymmetric broadening and shift of the optical silicon phonons in Raman scattering. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to study the role of siloxene or other molecular species, for example, in the luminescence mechanism. This mechanism was further studied by thermal annealing of PS at different temperatures. The PL of PS sample annealed at ≥300°C for 1 hr shows that trap electronic states appear in the energy gap of the smaller nano-crystal when Si–O–Si bonds are formed. From the observation of PL, Raman, and FTIR spectroscopy, the origin of PL in terms of intrinsic and extrinsic properties of nanocrystalline silicon was discussed.
Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Reduce the Risk of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Development
Authors: Rino Yasushi , Tarao Kazuo
Published: July 2011

Nowadays, patients with chronic hepatitis C in all countries are generally treated with interferon (IFN), and more than 50% of patients become HCV-RNA negative following PEG-IFN plus ribavirin therapy, but unfortunately, the IFN therapy is not effective in about 70% of patients with HCV-associated LC. In Japan, HCC actually develops in about 7% of those patients every year. A strategy for preventing HCC development other than IFN therapy is, therefore, urgently needed for those patients.
We reported that the recurrence rate and the development of HCC was more rapid in the high serum ALT level (>80 IU) patients with HCV-associated LC. Sho-saiko-to, Juzen-taiho-to, and stronger-neo minophagen C are herbal medicines used in Japan to treat chronic viral liver diseases, and they work by reducing inflammatory processes and controlling ALT levels. Aggressive reduction therapy for ALT levels in HCV-LC patients could significantly prevent HCC development.
Study of Viscoplastic Flows Governed by the Norton-Hoff Operator
Authors: Ferchichi J. , Gaied I.
Published: July 2011

We deal with viscoplastic flows. The fluid motion is governed by the nonlinear
incompressible Norton-Hoff operator with homogeneous boundary conditions. We
provide the well-posedness of the model in the static case. The idea is based on the
crucial properties of the so-called compliance functional coupled with the min-max
theory relayed to a variational analysis of the associated Lagrangian.
Development and Evaluation of Microemulsions for Transdermal Delivery of Insulin
Authors: Malakar Jadupati , Sen Suma Oomen , Nayak Amit Kumar , Sen Kalyan Kumar
Published: July 2011

Insulin-loaded microemulsions for transdermal delivery were developed using isopropyl myristate or oleic acid as the oil phase, Tween 80 as the surfactant, and isopropyl alcohol as the cosurfactant. The pseudoternary phase diagrams were constructed to determine the composition of microemulsions. The insulin permeation flux of microemulsions containing oleic acid as oil phase through excised mouse skin and goat skin was comparatively greater than that of microemulsions containing isopropyl myristate as oil phase. The insulin-loaded microemulsion containing 10% oleic acid, 38% aqueous phase, and 50% surfactant phase with 2% dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as permeation enhancer showed maximum permeation flux (4.93 ± 0.12 μg/cm2/hour) through goat skin. The in vitro insulin permeation from these microemulsions was found to follow the Korsmeyer-Peppas model (R2=0.923 to 0.973) over a period of 24 hours with non-Fickian, “anomalous” mechanism. Together these preliminary data indicate the promise of microemulsions for transdermal delivery of insulin.
Development of Ecosystem Research
Authors: Specht Raymond Louis
Published: July 2011

Experimental studies established the major community-physiological processes that determine the structure, growth and biodiversity of overstorey and understorey plants and resident vertebrates in an ecosystem. These community-physiological studies were promoted internationally by the UNESCO Arid Zone Research Program, the International Biological Program (Sections Productivity, Production Processes and Conservation), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and, finally, the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program that is studying the impact of Global Warming on the World's ecosystems. During the short period of annual foliage growth in evergreen plant communities, aerodynamic fluxes (frictional, thermal, evaporative) in the atmosphere as it flows over and through a plant community determine the foliage projective covers and leaf attributes in overstorey and understorey strata. These foliar attributes determine the community-physiological constant, the evaporative coefficient, of the plant community. An increase in air temperature of during this period of annual foliage growth will affect the structure of the plant community, so that tall open-forests open forests woodlands open scrub low open-shrubland desert communities. Variation in available soil water during this short period of annual foliage growth will influence vertical shoot growth but not foliage projective covers and leaf attributes produced in the overstorey stratum.
The Interaction between Specific and General Information in Category Learning and Representation: Unitization and Parallel Interactive Processing
Authors: Nahinsky Irwin D. , Harbison J. Isaiah
Published: July 2011

We investigated the effects of specific stimulus information on the use of rule information in a category learning task in 2 experiments, one presented here and an intercategory transfer task reported in an earlier article. In the present experiment photograph–name combinations, called identifiers, were associated with 4 demographic attributes. The same attribute information was shown to all participants. However, for one group of participants, half of the identifiers were paired with attribute values repeated over presentation blocks. For the other group the identifier information was new for each presentation block. The first group performed less well than the second group on stimuli with nonrepeated identifiers, indicating a negative effect of specific stimulus information on processing rule information. Application of a network model to the 2 experiments, which provided for the growth of connections between attribute values in learning, indicated that repetition of identifiers produced a unitizing effect on stimuli. Results suggested that unitization produced interference through connections between irrelevant attribute values.
Intention to Respond in a Special Way Offers Some Protection Against Forgetting Associations
Authors: Bourne Lyle E. , Healy Alice F. , Bonk William J. , Buck-Gengler Carolyn J.
Published: July 2011

In a continuous memory-updating paradigm, subjects studied name–color associations and were tested later for the color associate given the name. The default color response was made in one location, but on predesignated trials the response was required to be made in a special location. Memory for the color associated with a given name was assessed after short and long retention intervals when both default and special responses were required. Separate measures were examined of memory for the intention to respond in a particular way (default or special) and of memory for the color associations paired with the names. Memory for color associates was better overall with short than with long retention intervals and was better when special (rather than default) responses were required, especially at the long retention interval. These results imply that the requirement to respond in a special way protects associations from loss due to forgetting.
Working Memory and Sequence Learning in the Hebb Digits Task: Awareness Is Predicted by Individual Differences in Operation Span
Authors: Weitz Dawn , O’Shea Geoffrey , Zook Nancy , Needham William
Published: July 2011

We examined the extent to which individual differences contribute to performance in a task considered to index implicit learning, the Hebb Digits task. Although Hebb Digits learning is considered to be equivalent for those with implicit and explicit knowledge of the repeating digit pattern, this study found that participants who developed explicit knowledge showed learning, whereas those without explicit knowledge did not. Additionally, participants who developed explicit knowledge outperformed participants without explicit knowledge on working memory measures, specifically the Automated Operation Span Task total correct score and absolute score. However, no significant differences were found between those who did and who did not develop explicit knowledge on the Hopkins Verbal Learning Task–Revised, which uses delayed recall to index long-term memory. These results suggest that learning and awareness in the Hebb Digits task relies on individual differences in working memory capacity.
Note Taking, Review, Memory, and Comprehension
Authors: Bohay Mark , Blakely Daniel P. , Tamplin Andrea K. , Radvansky Gabriel A.
Published: July 2011

In previous work assessing memory at various levels of representation, namely the surface form, textbase, and situation model levels, participants read texts but were otherwise not actively engaged with the texts. The current study tested the influence of active engagement with the material via note taking, along with the opportunity to review such notes, and the modality of presentation (text vs. spoken). The influence of these manipulations was assessed both immediately and 1 week later. In Experiment 1 participants read a text, whereas in Experiment 2 participants watched a video recording of the material being read as a lecture. For each experiment the opportunity to take notes was manipulated within participants, and the opportunity to review these notes before the test was manipulated between participants. Note taking improved performance at the situation model level in both experiments, although there was also some suggestion of benefit for the surface form. Thus, active engagement with material, such as note taking, appears to have the greatest benefit at the deeper levels of understanding.
Dispositional Empathy and the Hierarchical Structure of Personality
Authors: Mooradian Todd A. , Davis Mark , Matzler Kurt
Published: July 2011

Personality psychology has recognized a fundamental 5-factor structure that has integrated and organized theory and research. Nevertheless, personality-like differences beyond that structure have been identified. In heretofore unrelated research, dispositional empathy has been an essential construct in understanding human development, behavior, and interpersonal relationships. Addressing a gap in the literature, we map multidimensional dispositional empathy into 2 versions of the 5-factor space. Empathic concern is closely related to agreeableness, and personal distress is closely related to neuroticism. Perspective taking has complex, interstitial relationships with the 5 factors. In contrast, fantasy is not well explained by the 5 factors. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding dispositional empathy and for understanding the 5-factor structure, its correlates in emotional processes and experiences, and its limits.
Building Bridges Between Genotypes, Hebbian Synapses, and Phenotypes
Authors: Jones Clara B.
Published: July 2011

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New Variations of Intrahemispheric and Interhemispheric Processing Indexed by the Dimond Paradigm
Authors: Braun Claude M. J. , Achim André , Gauvin Geoffrey , Desjardins Samuel , Roberge Carl , Suffren Sabrina
Published: July 2011

We report 2 experiments designed to demonstrate that unilateral tachistoscopic stimulation would yield a response time (RT) advantage over bilateral stimulation in a simple experiment, whereas the opposite pattern would occur in a complex version of the same task, as predicted by the intrahemispheric resource limitation model of Banich and colleagues. Experiment 1 was a go/no-go task in which participants had to press a key when two shapes (circles or squares) were identical on the computer screen. A unilateral field advantage was obtained that was accentuated in several task conditions that yielded overall longer RTs, mostly in the bilateral condition. Experiment 2 was similar but required a more complex judgment: The go trials were to 2 stimuli identical on 1 dimension (shape or color) but not both or neither. The RTs were significantly and substantially longer than in Experiment 1 and exhibited a nonsignificant bilateral field advantage, which differed significantly from the unilateral field advantage obtained in Experiment 1. These results support the intrahemispheric resource limitation model of Banich and colleagues. However, several within-experiment effects are in direct opposition to this model and are best explained as limitations of commissural relay of perceptual information.
An Application of a Dual-Process Approach to Decision Making in Social Dilemmas
Authors: Liu Chang-Jiang , Hao Fang
Published: July 2011

This study compared psychological and behavioral responses in a take-some social dilemma with those in a give-some situation and suggested an explanation in terms of a dual process model. Participants facing the take-some dilemma exhibited a higher level of cooperation than those facing the give-some dilemma only in their first decision trial, and this effect was independent of our experimental manipulation of the information processing mode. Furthermore, once an experiential mode was induced, participants spent less time and experienced less conflict when making decisions in the take-some dilemma than in the give-some situations. The findings indicate that in social dilemmas the information processing mode has a stronger effect on psychological responses than on behavioral responses.
Revising Superior Planning Performance in Chess Players: The Impact of Time Restriction and Motivation Aspects
Authors: Unterrainer Josef Martin , Kaller Christoph Philipp , Leonhart Rainer , Rahm Benjamin
Published: July 2011

In a previous study (Unterrainer, Kaller, Halsband, and Rahm, 2006), chess players outperformed non-chess players in the Tower of London planning task but exhibited disproportionately longer processing times. This pattern of results raises the question of whether chess players’ planning capabilities are superior or whether the results reflect differences in the speed–accuracy trade-off between the groups, possibly attributable to sports motivation. The present study was designed to disambiguate these alternative suggestions by implementing various constraints on planning time and by assessing self-reported motivation. In contrast to the previous study, chess players’ performance was not superior, independently of whether problems had to be solved with (Experiment 1) or without (Experiment 2) time limits. As expected, chess players reported higher overall trait and state motivation scores across both experiments. These findings revise the notion of superior planning performance in chess players. In consequence, they do not conform with the assumption of a general transfer of chess-related planning expertise to other cognitive domains, instead suggesting that superior performance may be possible only under specific circumstances such as receiving competitive instructions.
Reading Dream Literature: Frequency, Influencing Factors, and Self-Rated Benefit
Authors: Schredl Michael
Published: July 2011

Dream books have a very long history, but systematic research on how many people have read magazine articles or books on dreams and whether reading such literature is beneficial to the dreamer is scarce. In the present sample of 444 people (mostly psychology students), about 75% of the participants stated that they had read at least one magazine article on dreams, and more than 40% had read at least one book about dreams. The main factor associated with the frequency of reading dream literature was a positive attitude toward dreaming, whereas personality factors play a minor role in explaining interindividual differences in this variable. The self-rated benefit of reading dream literature varied greatly, from not helpful at all to very helpful, and was associated with dream recall frequency and positive attitude toward dreaming. Using this approach in a more sophisticated way, eliciting details about the kinds of information participants have read would help researchers learn more about what techniques of dream work are effective and thus complement the research carried out in therapist-guided sessions.
The Memory of Two Great Mental Calculators: Charcot and Binet’s Neglected 1893 Experiments
Authors: Nicholas Serge , Gounden Yannick , Levine Zachary
Published: July 2011

French neurologist Jean Martin Charcot (1825–1893) and French psychologist Alfred Binet (1857–1911) are almost unknown as investigators who conducted original and fascinating studies in the area of memory. In a series of 1893 experiments, they compared the performance of two expert mental calculators, Jacques Inaudi and Pericles Diamandi, in tasks that consisted of recalling digits. Inspired by Ribot’s psychological work (1881), they believed in the existence of not one type of memory but several partial, special, and local memories, each devoted to a particular domain. In all arithmetical prodigies, memory for digits is abnormally developed compared with other memories. Inaudi was considered to be an auditory memory–based mental calculator; when memorizing digits, he did not rely on the appearance of the items or create visual imagery of any kind. Rather, he remembered digits principally by their sounds. Inaudi’s methods of calculation and memorization were original and different from those used by Diamandi, who was a typical visual memory–based mental calculator. The experiments presented in the 1893 article were among the first scientific demonstrations of the importance to psychology of studying different types of memory. The present work gives a translation of this pioneering experimental article on expert calculators by Charcot and Binet, instructive for the comprehension of normal memory.
Research into Corporeality
Authors: Barba Fabian
Published: July 2011

The first time I saw films of the Wigman solos on video, I experienced a vague, ambivalent feeling of recognition: something in these dances felt very familiar, although the choreography retained its historical strangeness seen through the eyes of a contemporary dance student. The uncanniness of the experience functioned as a powerful trigger to think about something that concerned me but that at first I couldn't fully understand. For one thing, it made me think of my dance education in Ecuador, and it occurred to me that there could well be significant similarities between Ausdruckstanz and Ecuadorian modern dance (I shall develop this idea at the end of this essay). In a personal research project in 2007, while studying at P.A.R.T.S. between 2004 and 2008, I learned and performed three of Wigman's solos: Seraphisches Lied, Pastorale, and Sommerlicher Tanz, from Mary Wigman's dance cycle Schwingende Landschaft. At that time I realized I was dealing with a totally different physicality for which my contemporary training was insufficient, and I had to seek different technical tools in order to perform these solos. First, I realized I had to develop other modes of muscular tension, as my training in release techniques did not suffice. Second, I was bound to consider movement not purely as a physical activity (I imagine that Wigman would have dismissed such an option as mere gymnastics) but rather as a tool for expressing a subtext. Despite these insights, my approach remained rather vague. The mere knowledge that I was dealing with a different physicality and mental involvement did not enable me to define them accurately.
Reenacting Modernity: Fabian Barba's A Mary Wigman Dance Evening (2009)
Authors: Stalpaert Christel
Published: July 2011

To reenact nine solos Mary Wigman performed during her first U.S. tour (1930–31), Fabian Barba establishes a contract with the audience based on representational codes of modernist dance in the early twentieth century. As one enters the theater, a little program is found on one's seat with the intended course of the evening. The program mentions the place and date of the reenactment—in German, with an English translation, as it might have been during the American tours—but not the year. Reading it, we learn that six solos, Aus dem Tanzcyklus “Schwingende Landschaft” (From the Dance Cycle “Shifting Landscape“), dated 1929, will be performed. There will be an eight-minute intermission after which three other solos are to follow: two from Visions and one from Celebration. The program is printed in the typography of those days and the contractual agreement of the dance concert—written in small letters as is usually the case with contracts—is indicated at the bottom: “The audience is kindly asked not to leave the room during the intermission. At the end of the recital and upon demand from the public, two dances can be shown again as ‘encores.’”
“Pets or Meat”? Ethics and Domestic Animals
Authors: Clement Grace
Published: July 2011

We treat companion animals according to one set of guidelines and so-called “meat animals” according to an opposing set of guidelines, despite the apparently significant similarities between the animals in question. I consider moral justifications offered for this disparity of treatment and show that this paradox reveals a mistake in our moral thinking. Generally, we group animals used in farming and free-living animals together as subject to the ethic of justice and distinguish both from companion animals, who are subject to the ethic of care. I argue that animals used in farming, like companion animals, should be understood as within the sphere of care.