Impaired control of visual attention in schizophrenia.

To investigate attentional impairment in schizophrenia, the authors examined the performance of 22 patients with schizophrenia and 16 healthy control subjects in 4 visual search tasks that varied in perceptual requirements and in the need for precise attentional control. The rate of search was slowed in the patients in all tasks. However, the degree of slowing was largest in tasks requiring precise attentional control and smallest in tasks that were perceptually difficult but required less attentional control. This pattern of results indicates that the primary impairment of attention in schizophrenia lies in the control of attention and not in the selection processes that operate once attention has been directed to an object. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intact attentional control of working memory encoding in schizophrenia.

This study reports evidence that individuals with schizophrenia (SC) demonstrate intact attentional selection for visual working memory (WM) storage. A group of 62 participants with SC and 55 control participants without SC were studied in a series of 5 experiments that examined the ability to use top-down and bottom-up cues to guide WM encoding, as well as the ability to spontaneously select a subset of representations for storage. Participants with SC exhibited a consistent and robust ability to use selective attention in the control of WM in all 5 experiments, demonstrating a remarkable island of preserved functioning given the broad spectrum of impairments of attention and WM that have been widely reported in those with SC. These findings indicate that attention is not globally impaired in SC and make it possible to delineate more precisely the nature of the specific impairment of attention in this disorder. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Flexible production,electronic linkages,and large firms: evidence from the automobile industry

At the beginning of the 1980s, a reverse trend in local economic development began, supporting old urban industrial areas in whichlarge firms represented the most competitive territorial and industrial systems. Using the case of the automobile industry as an example, this paper argues that contrary to what is anticipated by some researchers, the new flexible organization of the large firm will support neither an asymmetrical relationship of control between spatially decentralized firms nor a spatial reconcentration of activities toward industrialized countries. On the contrary, flexible production will support symmetrical networks that bind together spatially decentralized firms in a web of two-way partnership interactions. As space reflects changes in the organization of production, we anticipate greater coordination and interaction between spaces. This process would not be determined, butfacilitated by electronic linkages through technologies such as international EDI systems and groupware designed to increase cooperative work and joint decision-making.The author is indebted to the Bureau of Business Research in the Graduate School of Business of the University of Texas at Austin and to the Foreign Economic Research Office of the United States Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. for financial support. This paper benefited from helpful comments from an unknown referee.     

Synthesis of a novel series of 2-methylsulfanyl fatty acids and their toxicity on the human K-562 and U-937 leukemia cell lines

The hitherto unknown 2-methylsulfanyldecanoic acid and 2-methylsulfanyldodecanoic acid were synthesized from methyl decanoate and methyl dodecanoate, respectively, through the reaction of lithium diisopropylamide and dimethyldisulfide in THF followed by saponification with potassium hydroxide in ethanol. Both α-methylsulfanylated FA were cytotoxic to the human chronic myelogenous leukemia K-562 and the human histiocytic lymphoma U-937 cell lines with EC₅₀ values in the 200–300 μM range, which makes them more cytotoxic to these cell lines than decanoic and/or dodecanoic acid. The cytotoxicity of the studied FA toward K-562 followed the order 2-SCH₃-12∶0>2-SCH₃-10∶0>10∶0>12∶0>2-OCH₃-12∶0, whereas toward U-937 the cytotoxicity was 2-SCH₃-10∶0>2-SCH₃-12∶0>12∶0>10∶0>2-OCH₃-12∶0. These results indicate that the α-methylsulfanyl substitution increases the cytotoxicity of the C₁₀ and C₁₂ FA toward the studied leukemia cell lines.     

Effects of perceptual training on unmatched samples of brain-injured and familial retarded children.

41 brain-injured (Bl) and 39 familial retarded (FR) children matched for CA but not for MA were 1st tested on 1 set of ambiguous pictures, then trained on a 2nd set, and then retested on the 1st set both immediately and 1 mo. following training. Results showed that although the BI group had a significantly higher IQ than the FR group, they nevertheless took more trials to reach a lower level of post-training performance. The difference between the groups reached statistical significance, however, only when the MA differential favoring the BI group was controlled by the analysis of covariance procedure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vibrational Spectroscopic Investigation of Blood Plasma and Serum by Drop Coating Deposition for Clinical Application

In recent decades, vibrational spectroscopic methods such as Raman and FT-IR spectroscopy are widely applied to investigate plasma and serum samples. These methods are combined with drop coating deposition techniques to pre-concentrate the biomolecules in the dried droplet to improve the detected vibrational signal. However, most often encountered challenge is the inhomogeneous redistribution of biomolecules due to the coffee-ring effect. In this study, the variation in biomolecule distribution within the dried-sample droplet has been investigated using Raman and FT-IR spectroscopy and fluorescence lifetime imaging method. The plasma-sample from healthy donors were investigated to show the spectral differences between the inner and outer-ring region of the dried-sample droplet. Further, the preferred location of deposition of the most abundant protein albumin in the blood during the drying process of the plasma has been illustrated by using deuterated albumin. Subsequently, two patients with different cardiac-related diseases were investigated exemplarily to illustrate the variation in the pattern of plasma and serum biomolecule distribution during the drying process and its impact on patient-stratification. The study shows that a uniform sampling position of the droplet, both at the inner and the outer ring, is necessary for thorough clinical characterization of the patient’s plasma and serum sample using vibrational spectroscopy.     

Flexible and transparent capacitors based on gel-type natural polymers

In this work, we study the capacitive properties of gel-type natural abundant polymers without any dopants, mainly commercial gelatin and agar in deionized water. Here, we propose a facile fabrication of flexible, transparent, and planar electrolytic capacitors using these gel-type and indium tin oxide thin films as electrodes deposited on poly(ethylene terephthalate) substrates. Through cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge–discharge techniques, we found that the devices show a specific capacitance in the order of the millifarads per gram, a specific power of ~10 mW cm⁻², which is sufficient to active low-power devices, and a life cycle with nearly 100% efficiency after 1,000 cycles. We found that we do not need to add dopants that improve the ionic conductivity of the natural polyelectrolytes to obtain capacitances within the millifarads per gram. The flexibility of the capacitors was demonstrated by bending them, after which they exhibited the same electrochemical performance as the unbent devices. The optical transparency of the capacitors was measured by UV–V is spectroscopy showing a high transmittance in the visible region.     

Soil textural classification by a photosedimentation method

A photosedimentation technique is used to analyze the size composition of soil samples. The number and size of the particles are determined, respectively, by the Stokes formula and the Beer-Lambert law, measuring time-of-flight and laser light attenuation simultaneously and hence evaluating solution turbidity. A simple software procedure has been developed to obtain fractional volume size distribution, taking into account the particle's optical properties depending mainly on its size and refractive index. Laboratory measurements on calibrated particulates, showing their reproducibility and validation as well as a classification of ground samples, are presented. Size distribution data can then be utilized to obtain a textural classification of the soil samples for agricultural applications.     

Best management practices for corporate, academic and governmental transfer of sustainable technologies to developing countries

Innovations with respect to technologies that contribute to environmental sustainability have emerged within national government laboratories, international agencies and within academic research institutes. Since each of these entities is understandably more focused on ab initio research, conceptual development and proofs of concept, the production level manufacturing and broad dissemination of such technologies require development of best management practices (BMPs) for effective partnerships with and/or technology licensure to private sector industry. Alternatively, certain technologies that address specific environmental sustainability needs within the developing countries can be and have been transferred directly, either through bi-lateral transfers or through multi-lateral agencies, serving as intermediaries. The appropriateness of such transfers is contingent upon host country environmental, cultural and socio-political conditions, the type of technology involved, the “terms of transfer” and the relationships established between the technology conceivers and the end-users. The authors select examples of identified modes of sustainable technology transmission and derive experiential BMPs, which may be of some utility for future sustainable technology transfer. Moreover, in providing these BMPs, the historical record and contemporary caveats with respect to unregulated technology transfer, whether sustainable or otherwise, to developing countries and the array of corresponding proposed codes of conduct are examined, given the normative objective that such technologies should ultimately contribute to ecologically benign and societally beneficial objectives, such as environmental sustainability, equitable growth and poverty alleviation. These issues and the need to establish BMPs would be broadly relevant with the new focus on climate change-related technology funds and associated regional impact projects evolving across the globe and within the developing countries in particular.