Clinical evaluation of technetium-99m-L,L-ethylenedicysteine in patients with chronic renal failure

1. Effects of feeding condition from birth were examined on the sensitivity of neuromuscular transmission to d-tubocurarine (dTc) in vitro in male mice of the ddY strain. 2. Mice were trained to climb two separated cylindrical steel-wire tubes for feeding and drinking, respectively, from 16 days of age. Some mice were conventionally fed, from 99 days of age. Nerve-muscle preparations were made from the left phrenic nerve diaphragm muscle (DPH), the sciatic nerve soleus muscle (SOL), and the sciatic nerve extensor digitorum longus muscle (EDL) of 99-day-old and 155-day-old mice. The nerve trunk was electrically activated with trains of four pulses and tetanic pulses. 3. The sensitivity to the effects of dTc decreased in the order EDL, SOL, and DPH. This result held true in all mice tested. 4. This sensitivity was significantly potentiated by the compulsory movement. 5. The supersensitivity remained even when mice were conventionally fed after 99 days of age. 6. The compulsion rendered EDL antifatigable on tetanic stimulation. This property was also retained after a return to conventional feeding. 7. These results suggest that the effects of feeding condition from birth might remain on neuromuscular functions after termination of the conditioning.     

Short cue presentations encourage advance task preparation: A recipe to diminish the residual switch cost.

In the task-switching literature, it has frequently been demonstrated that although advance task preparation reduces the switch cost, it never really eliminates the switch cost. This remaining residual switch cost received much attention, and it has been argued that advance preparation is restricted in nature. In the present study, the role of task-cue presentation in the establishment of the residual switch cost was investigated. In 4 experiments, the cue was removed during the preparation interval, and it was hypothesized that this would encourage participants to complete advance task preparation. The results of all 4 experiments provided support for this hypothesis: When the cue was presented for a short time and then removed, the residual switch cost completely disappeared. This was found for different cue types. Furthermore, Experiment 3 demonstrated that it was not the presence of the cue itself but merely differences in advance task preparation that caused the effects. This suggests that advance task preparation is not as restricted in nature as previously assumed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of CHP generation on CO2 emissions

The combined generation of heat and power (cogeneration) is praised by many as a technique for reducing the emissions of CO₂ in industrialized nations. This is generally true but not always. In this article we discuss the impact of some major variables on the CO₂ emission reduction capacity of cogeneration. Two sets of variables are predominant: the characteristics of the CHP process and the composition of the electricity generation sector. We highlight the interaction between the two sets of variables with the help of diagrams.     

Is cheating a human function? The roles of presence,state hostility,and enjoyment in an unfair video game

In sports and board games, when an opponent cheats, the other players typically greet it with disdain, anger, and disengagement. However, work has yet to fully address the role of the computer cheating in video games. In this study, participants played either a cheating or a non-cheating version of a modified open-source tower-defense game. Results indicate that when a computer competitor cheats, players perceive the opponent as being more human. Cheating also increases player aggravation and presence, but does not affect enjoyment of the experience. Additionally, players that firmly believed that their opponent was controlled by the computer exhibited significantly less state hostility compared to players that were less certain of the nature of their competitor. Game designers can integrate subtle levels of cheating into computer opponents without any real negative responses from the players. The results indicate that minor levels of cheating might also increase player engagement with video games.     

A Quality Software Process for Rapid Application Development

Software organizations can significantly improve the quality of their output if they have a defined and documented software process, together with the appropriate techniques and tools to measure its effectiveness. Without a defined process it is impossible to measure success or focus on how development capability can be enhanced. To date, a number of software process improvement frameworks have been developed and implemented. However, most of these models have been targeted at large-scale producers. Furthermore, they have applied to companies who use traditional development techniques. Smaller companies and those operating in development areas where speed of delivery is paramount have not, as yet, had process improvement paradigms available for adoption.This study examined the software process in a small company and emerged with the recommendation of the use of the Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) and the Personal Software Process (PSP) for achieving software process improvement.     

Effective optimization for fuzzy model predictive control

This paper addresses the optimization in fuzzy model predictive control. When the prediction model is a nonlinear fuzzy model, nonconvex, time-consuming optimization is necessary, with no guarantee of finding an optimal solution. A possible way around this problem is to linearize the fuzzy model at the current operating point and use linear predictive control (i.e., quadratic programming). For long-range predictive control, however, the influence of the linearization error may significantly deteriorate the performance. In our approach, this is remedied by linearizing the fuzzy model along the predicted input and output trajectories. One can further improve the model prediction by iteratively applying the optimized control sequence to the fuzzy model and linearizing along the so obtained simulated trajectories. Four different methods for the construction of the optimization problem are proposed, making difference between the cases when a single linear model or a set of linear models are used. By choosing an appropriate method, the user can achieve a desired tradeoff between the control performance and the computational load. The proposed techniques have been tested and evaluated using two simulated industrial benchmarks: pH control in a continuous stirred tank reactor and a high-purity distillation column.     

EU renewable energy support policy: Faith or facts?

The recent EU Commission proposal for promoting the supply of power from renewable energy sources was originally based on a pan-European, harmonised tradable green certificate (TGC) scheme. We suggest, on the basis of a multi-disciplinary analysis, that a pan-EU TGC system is not the way forward for Europe. It is vital that the Commission (and the majority of Member States) avoids implementation of such policy designs put forward by a coalition of vested interests. They should instead look at, and act upon, the available evidence from those countries that have experimented with TGCs (e.g. Flanders, UK and Sweden) and design policies that stand a better chance of meeting the criteria of effectiveness, efficiency and equity. In particular, the policies must enable EU to meet the immense innovation/industrialisation challenge by inducing the development of a capital goods industry that can, eventually, diffuse a broad range of technologies that use renewable energy sources. Only then we can acquire an ability to implement an industrial revolution in the energy system in a way that broadly meets the criteria of effectiveness and dynamic efficiency.     

Increasing the difficulty of response selection does not increase the switch cost.

Several theories of task switching assume that basic task processes such as stimulus identification and response selection do not contribute to task-switch costs. This conclusion is mainly based on the finding that stimulus-identification manipulations have no influence on the size of the switch cost. The present study tested the influence of response-selection manipulations on the size of the switch cost. The authors manipulated the difficulty of response selection by using a semantically based response-side effect that is associated with numerical-judgement tasks, namely the Spatial Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect. The authors observed a SNARC effect and a switch cost, but no interaction between the two: the task-switch cost did not differ between SNARC-compatible and -incompatible responses. The authors conclude that response selection does not contribute to the switch cost on the current trial, which provides further support for the idea that basic task processes and task-switch processes are separate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Proactive adjustments of response strategies in the stop-signal paradigm.

In the stop-signal paradigm, fast responses are harder to inhibit than slow responses, so subjects must balance speed in the go task with successful stopping in the stop task. In theory, subjects achieve this balance by adjusting response thresholds for the go task, making proactive adjustments in response to instructions that indicate that relevant stop signals are likely to occur. The 5 experiments reported here tested this theoretical claim, presenting cues that indicated whether or not stop signals were relevant for the next few trials. Subjects made proactive response-strategy adjustments in each experiment: Diffusion-model fits showed that response threshold increased when participants expected stop signals to occur, slowing go responses and increasing accuracy. Furthermore, the results show that subjects can make proactive response-strategy adjustments on a trial-by-trial basis, suggesting a flexible cognitive system that can proactively adjust itself in changing environments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)