Misattribution and speech anxiety.

30 high-speech-anxious and 30 low-speech-anxious Ss participated in an experiment to test the hypothesis that misattribution would reduce the anxiety of speech-anxious Ss. The present study crosscut misattribution vs no misattribution (control) and high vs low speech anxiety and assessed the impact on Ss' nervous behavior and subsequent speech making. The misattribution concerning bodily preparation for Ss' speech-making events was delivered verbally to 15 speech-anxious and 15 nonanxious Ss prior to their speeches. Results show that misattribution did not significantly affect the behavior of Ss making speeches. Implications for misattribution when personality traits are involved are discussed. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How do thermal conditions in intensive care units affect the health and well-being of intensivists?

This study presents situational risk scenarios to predict the potential implications of predicted and perceived thermal configurations on the health and well-being of health care professionals in intensive care units (ICUs). Nine ICUs were selected, and thermal variables were collected; simultaneously, 128 health care professionals were interviewed to assess their perceptions, satisfaction, and health conditions related to their workplace environment. In scenarios with thermal comfort (either predicted or perceived), the risk of exposure to physical and psychological symptoms was reduced. This effect also extends to predictions and perceptions tending toward slightly cooler temperatures. In situations with a predicted mean vote below −1.5 and above 0.5, symptom complaints increased, even when the health care professionals perceived their environment as thermally comfortable, with the most extreme cases generating an increase of up to 27% in the baseline probability. Adjusting the workplace environment to be thermally comfortable can reduce symptom complaints.     

A practical PID regulator with bounded torques for robot manipulators

This paper proposes a saturated nonlinear PID regulator for industrial robot manipulators. Our controller considers the natural saturation problem given by the output of the control computer, the saturation phenomena of the internal PI velocity controller in the servo driver, and the actuator torque constraints of the robot manipulator. An approach based on the singular perturbations method is used to analyze the exponential stability of the closed-loop system. Experimental essays show the feasibility of the proposed controller. Furthermore, the theoretical results justify why the classical PID used in industrial robots preserves its exponential stability despite the saturation effects of the electronic control devices and the actuator torque constraints.     

Monolithic chromatography: insights and practical perspectives

The use of monoliths, one‐piece porous separation materials, as column packaging media is known as monolithic chromatography and this technology has been widely exploited to improve the separation profile of high‐valued biomolecules from complex biological matrices. Monoliths possess a wide range of processing advantages over commonly used chromatographical resins, including: fast flow rates, short processing times, sufficient surface area interactions, and enhanced thoroughness. The application of three different types of monolithic supports (hydrophobic, ion exchange and affinity) as an alternative to overcome traditional drawbacks in bioseparations will be presented as a practical perspective for the recovery of PEGylated proteins, stem cells or industrial enzymes. In our experience, the use of monolithic matrixes in the separation of high‐valued biological materials has greatly simplified the usual problems observed in traditional chromatographic separations, resulting in a highly efficient downstream separation procedure. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry     

In-house validation of an ELISA method for screening of semicarbazide in eggs

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method is described for the semi-quantitative determination of semicarbazide (SEM), the marker residue for the banned nitrofuran drug, nitrofurazone, in chicken eggs. The sample homogenate is subjected to acid hydrolysis and derivatisation with o-nitrobenzaldehyde, followed by ethyl acetate/hexane extraction and detection by ELISA. The ELISA procedure has been validated using 0.3, 1.0 and 3 µg kg^?1 of SEM in fortified samples. Detection capability (CC_ß) was based on the acceptance of 5% false compliant results for a given concentration level according to Commission Decision 2002/657/EC and was determined to be 0.3 µg kg^?1 with a respective limit of detection of 0.13 µg kg^?1. A validated LC–MS/MS method was used for the analysis of incurred egg samples and the results compared with ELISA. A good correlation between the results obtained from ELISA and LC–MS/MS within the concentration range 0.12–20.3 µg kg^?1 was observed in samples collected from chickens fed with a medicated ration of nitrofurazone (r?=?0.992, n?=?14). Validated ELISA enabled reliable monitoring of SEM levels in eggs collected from incurred chickens over a 90-day period.     

Influence of taste disorders on dietary behaviors in cancer patients under chemotherapy

Objectives  

To determine the relationship between energy and nutrient consumption with chemosensory changes in cancer patients under chemotherapy.     

Functional,biochemical and pasting properties of extruded bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) cotyledons

Response surface methodology was used to investigate the effects of extrusion conditions – namely moisture content (12.3–23.7 g 100 g^?1) and temperature (150–178 °C) – on physicochemical, antinutritional compounds, functional and pasting properties of extruded bean cotyledons. Results indicated that extrusion cooking did not change the chemical composition of bean flours, but completely eliminated the activity of the trypsin and α‐amylase inhibitors and haemagglutinins. The extrusion significantly improved starch and protein digestibility, water solubility and absorption of bean cotyledon. In addition, extrusion conditions significantly affected pasting properties, resulting in extrudate flours with different peaks and final viscosity values. From the results obtained in this work, it is possible to design a product with specific physicochemical, functional and nutritional properties using the appropriate moisture and temperature during extrusion.     

Nanoplates forced alignment of multi-walled carbon nanotubes in alumina composite with high strength and toughness

Although the strengthening and toughening effects on ceramic composites are expected to be maximized by alignment of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) in matrices, this concept has been rarely realized in practice due to the lack of convenient processing strategy. Here, the alignment of MWCNTs in alumina composite can be readily obtained by using α-Al₂O₃ nanoplates as raw powder. With the assistance of vacuum filtration and pressure in sintering, the highly aligned MWCNTs in alumina matrix are formed in in-plane direction. Accordingly, the strength and toughness in 1.5 wt% MWCNTs/alumina composite are improved by 58 % and 66 % with respect to monolithic alumina, respectively. Transmission electron microscopy observation reveals that the MWCNTs under great compressive residual stress are mainly embedded inside the grains, leading to much stronger grain boundaries. Meanwhile, the toughening effect is mainly attributed to the highly energy dissipating bridging and pullout, owing to the very effective load transfer.     

Inverse jerk analysis of symmetric zero-torsion parallel manipulators

In this work the inverse velocity, acceleration and jerk analyses of a class of three-degrees-of-freedom parallel manipulators are approached by means of the theory of screws. The concept of reciprocal screws allows to obtain simple and decoupled expressions to compute the joint rates, up to the third time derivative, of the class of manipulators under study given the instantaneous kinematic properties of the center of the moving platform. The interdependency between the angular and linear kinematic properties of the moving platform is also derived. A case study is included.