Bimanual interference associated with the selection of target locations.

Four experiments were conducted to identify the locus of interference observed during the preparation of bimanual reaching movements. Target locations were specified by color, and the right-hand and left-hand targets could be either the same or a different color. Movements of different amplitudes (Experiment 1) or different directions (Experiment 2) to targets of the same color were initiated more quickly than symmetric movements to targets of different colors. These results indicate that costs observed during bimanual movements arise during target selection rather than during motor programming. Experiments 3 and 4 further examined the interference associated with target selection. Reaction time costs were found with unimanual movements when the target was presented among distractors associated with responses for the other hand. Interference observed during bimanual reaching appears to reflect difficulty in segregating the response rules assigned to each hand. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A new approach to the mechanism of chlorine evolution: Separate examination of the kinetic steps using ac impedance on a rotating thin ring electrode

In the absence of a bulk diffusion effect, it is shown for the first time that the impedance spectra for the chlorine evolution reaction on a rotating thin ring electrode comprise three consecutive semicircles in the capacitive half of the complex plane. The first (highest frequency) semicircle is due to the charge-transfer resistance for chloride discharge and the simultaneous chlorine adsorption coupled to the double-layer capacitance. The second semicircle (around 5 Hz) is due to the adsorption and desorption of a chlorine intermediate. The third (lowest frequency, around 0.5 Hz) semicircle is due to the relaxation of surface oxygen species. The impedance data allow the steps of the overall reaction to be examined individually. On a Pt surface the rate of chloride discharge and simultaneous chlorine adsorption (the admittance of the first semicircle) is first order with respect to chloride concentration and has a potential-dependence close to 58 mV/decade. The rate of the adsorption and desorption process (the admittance of the second semicircle) is second order with respect to chloride concentration, and has a potential dependence close to 30 mV/decade. The time constant for the adsorption/desorption processes is ca 20 ms, independent of electrode potential in the range studied. These features are consistent with a mechanism in which a faster discharge reaction (Cl⁻ Cl_ad + e) is followed by a slower surface combination reaction (2Cl_ad → Cl₂), but inconsistent with mechanisms in which ion + atom desorption is predominant, the initial chloride discharge is slow, or a unipositively charged chlorine species is involved.     

Third-Era Information Systems: Strategy Development Continued

Third-era information systems are end-user systems that support learning, increase organizational and employee effectiveness, and spur organizational change. The previous column in this series discussed the need for an end-user system review and over-viewed how this evaluation can be formulated into a third-era Information system strategy. This column examines the strategy development process in further detail.     

The confounded nature of angry men and happy women.

Findings of 7 studies suggested that decisions about the sex of a face and the emotional expressions of anger or happiness are not independent: Participants were faster and more accurate at detecting angry expressions on male faces and at detecting happy expressions on female faces. These findings were robust across different stimulus sets and judgment tasks and indicated bottom-up perceptual processes rather than just top-down conceptually driven ones. Results from additional studies in which neutrally expressive faces were used suggested that the connections between masculine features and angry expressions and between feminine features and happy expressions might be a property of the sexual dimorphism of the face itself and not merely a result of gender stereotypes biasing the perception. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A time aggregation approach to Markov decision processes

We propose a time aggregation approach for the solution of infinite horizon average cost Markov decision processes via policy iteration. In this approach, policy update is only carried out when the process visits a subset of the state space. As in state aggregation, this approach leads to a reduced state space, which may lead to a substantial reduction in computational and storage requirements, especially for problems with certain structural properties. However, in contrast to state aggregation, which generally results in an approximate model due to the loss of Markov property, time aggregation suffers no loss of accuracy, because the Markov property is preserved. Single sample path-based estimation algorithms are developed that allow the time aggregation approach to be implemented on-line for practical systems. Some numerical and simulation examples are presented to illustrate the ideas and potential computational savings.     

SCRATCH RESISTANT POLYIMIDE COATINGS FOR ALUMINOSILICATE GLASS SURFACES

Several polyimide resins were tested as possible scratch resistant coatings for aluminosilicate glass centrifuge tubes. Tubes with siloxane pretreatments provided the best adhesion between the polyimide and glass surface. Resins synthesized with an alkoxysilane group incorporated into the polyimide chain also showed improved adhesion, but the results were not as significant as when the pretreatment was used. Elastic recovery and effective Young's modulus of the polyimide coatings were calculated from nano-scratching. The results indicate that polyimides with a lower modulus, and higher elastic recovery, protected the glass surface best, exhibiting compression of the coating layer. An example was poly-4-4'-oxydiphenylene pyromellitimide (PMDA-ODA), whereas the coatings with a high effective Young's modulus and low elastic recovery ruptured. An example of a failed coating was poly-4,4'-carbonyldiphenylene 3,3',4,4'-biphenylenetetracarboximide (BPDA-DABP) which had low amount of elastic recovery, high effective Young's modulus and a large amount of flaking during macroscratch testing.