The expression of determination: Similarities between anger and approach-related positive affect.

In this set of studies, we examine the perceptual similarities between emotions that share either a valence or a motivational direction. Determination is a positive approach-related emotion, whereas anger is a negative approach-related emotion. Thus, determination and anger share a motivational direction but are opposite in valence. An implemental mind-set has previously been shown to produce high-approach-motivated positive affect. Thus, in Study 1, participants were asked to freely report the strongest emotion they experienced during an implemental mind-set. The most common emotion reported was determination. On the basis of this result, we compared the facial expression of determination with that of anger. In Study 2, naive judges were asked to identify photographs of facial expressions intended to express determination, along with photographs intended to express basic emotions (joy, anger, sadness, fear, disgust, neutral). Correct identifications of intended determination expressions were correlated with misidentifications of the expressions as anger but not with misidentifications as any other emotion. This suggests that determination, a high-approach-motivated positive affect, is perceived as similar to anger. In Study 3, naive judges quantified the intensity of joy, anger, and determination expressed in photographs. The intensity of perceived determination was directly correlated with the intensity of perceived anger (a high-approach-motivated negative affect) and was inversely correlated with the intensity of perceived joy (a low-approach-motivated positive affect). These results demonstrate perceptual similarity between emotions that share a motivational direction but differ in valence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Real estate bubbles in China: a tale of two cities

As housing markets have overheated recently in urban China, housing price bears substantial risk. The issue of housing price bubbles in these markets has become a popular and significant topic among consumers, policymakers and academia alike. In particular, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, as the most important markets for revealing the condition of the housing market in the Pearl River Delta, have attracted much attention in the period of prosperity. As such, an investigation into the bubble issue in these two cities is conducted by using an improved model, the time-varying risk model. The empirical work reveals that explosive bubbles did periodically (2003 Q1 to 2006 Q2 and 2009 Q2 to 2010 Q1) have an impact on the two markets. For the rest of the period, housing markets in both Guangzhou and Shenzhen are found to be significantly influenced by macro adjustments and various economic events. The implication of the research provides a reference for policymaking in addressing the issue of softening in China’s real estate market.     

使用仿真和虚拟化的嵌入式设计

虚拟化通过提供灵活性、便捷性以及增强的IT基础设施鲁棒性，为IT带来了巨大的变革。与物理目标硬件相比，虚拟化为那些面向普通计算机的软件开发人员带来了更大的帮助，其中包括下列功能：     

Job demands, decisional control, and cardiovascular responses.

The demand-control model for coronary heart disease was tested using ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. Male patrol officers (N = 118) wore ambulatory blood pressure monitors during 1 of their day shifts with readings taken every 30 min. Following each reading, officers completed a questionnaire using a handheld computer. Significant interactions were obtained between job demands and decisional control for heart rate and pressure rate product such that both variables were highest under conditions of high demand and low control. Main effects were obtained for control such that diastolic blood pressure and mean arterial pressure were significantly higher under conditions of low control. These results support the demand-control model and emphasize the importance of psychological control in cardiovascular responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nigeria's potential supply of natural gas

This note is concerned with Nigeria's natural gas potential, which may be as great as 102.0 × 10¹² m³.     

Behavioral activation sensitivity and resting frontal EEG asymmetry: Covariation of putative indicators related to risk for mood disorders.

Dispositional tendencies toward appetitive motivation have been hypothesized to be related to the development of psychopathology. Moreover, decreased left-frontal cortical activity has been reported in depression and has been related to low-trait positive affect and high-trait negative affect. The present study tested the hypothesis that relatively greater left- than right-frontal cortical activity would be related to heightened approach related dispositional tendencies. Resting frontal cortical asymmetrical activity, as measured by electroencephalographic activity in the alpha band, was examined in relation to the motivational response tendencies of a behavioral activation system (BAS) and a behavioral inhibition system (BIS), as measured by C. S. Carver and T. L. White's (see record 1995-00067-001) BIS-BAS self-report questionnaire. Results supported the hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Periodic solutions and their bifurcations in a non-smooth second-order delay differential equation

We consider a non-smooth second order delay differential equation (DDE) that was previously studied as a model of the pupil light reflex. It can also be viewed as a prototype model for a system operated under delayed relay control. We use the explicit construction of solutions of the non-smooth DDE hand-in-hand with a numerical continuation study of a related smoothed system. This allows us to produce a comprehensive global picture of the dynamics and bifurcations, which extends and completes previous results. Specifically, we find a rich combinatorial structure consisting of solution branches connected at resonance points. All new solutions of the smoothed system were subsequently constructed as solutions of the non-smooth system. Furthermore, we show an example of the unfolding in the smoothed system of a non-smooth bifurcation point, from which infinitely many solution branches emanate. This shows that smoothing of the DDE may provide insight even into bifurcations that can only occur in non-smooth systems.     

Electric short circuits help the investigator determine where the fire started

Most short circuits are the results of a fire rather than its cause. However, the systematic mapping of the locations of short circuits, at the site of a fire, can help trace the point of origin of the fire. Consulting Engineers     

Terahertz imaging system performance model for concealed-weapon identification

The U.S. Army Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD) and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory have developed a terahertz (THz) -band imaging system performance model for detection and identification of concealed weaponry. The MATLAB-based model accounts for the effects of all critical sensor and display components and for the effects of atmospheric attenuation, concealment material attenuation, and active illumination. The model is based on recent U.S. Army NVESD sensor performance modeling technology that couples system design parameters to observer-sensor field performance by using the acquire methodology for weapon identification performance predictions. This THz model has been developed in support of the Defense Advanced Research Project Agencies' Terahertz Imaging Focal-Plane Technology (TIFT) program and is currently being used to guide the design and development of a 0.650 THz active-passive imaging system. This paper will describe the THz model in detail, provide and discuss initial modeling results for a prototype THz imaging system, and outline plans to calibrate and validate the model through human perception testing.     

Impact of treated wastewater irrigation on antibiotic resistance in agricultural soils

Antibiotic resistance (AR) is a global phenomenon with severe epidemiological ramifications. Anthropogenically impacted natural aquatic and terrestrial environments can serve as reservoirs of antibiotic resistance genes (ARG), which can be horizontally transferred to human-associated bacteria through water and food webs, and thus contribute to AR proliferation. Treated-wastewater (TWW) irrigation is becoming increasingly prevalent in arid regions of the world, due to growing demand and decline in freshwater supplies. The release of residual antibiotic compounds, AR bacteria, and ARGs from wastewater effluent may result in proliferation of AR in irrigated soil microcosms. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of TWW-irrigation on soil AR bacterial and ARG reservoirs. Tetracycline, erythromycin, sulfonamide, and ciprofloxacin resistance in soil was assessed using standard culture-based isolation methods and culture-independent molecular analysis using quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). High levels of bacterial antibiotic resistance were detected in both freshwater- and TWW-irrigated soils. Nonetheless, in most of the soils analyzed, AR bacteria and ARG levels in TWW-irrigated soils were on the whole identical (or sometimes even lower) than in the freshwater-irrigated soils, indicating that the high number of resistant bacteria that enter the soils from the TWW are not able to compete or survive in the soil environment and that they do not significantly contribute ARG to soil bacteria. This strongly suggests that the impact of the TWW-associated bacteria on the soil microbiome is on the whole negligible, and that the high levels of AR bacteria and ARGs in both the freshwater- and the TWW-irrigated soils are indicative of native AR associated with the natural soil microbiome.