Indirect Fashion Research Articles

고려인삼의 방사선 방어효과에 대한 연구현황과 전망

Pharmacological effects of Panax ginseng have been demonstrated in cardiovascular system, endocrine secretion and immune system, together with antitumor, anti-stress and anti-oxidant activities. Modern scientific data show protective effect of ginseng against bone marrow cell death, increased survival rate of experimental animals, recovery of hematopoietic injury, immunopotentiation, reduction of damaged intestinal epithelial cells, inhibition of mutagenesis and effective protection against testicular damages, caused by radiation exposure. And also, ginseng acts in indirect fashion to protect radical processes by inhibition of initiation of free radical processes and thus reduces the radiation damages. The research has made much progress, but still insufficient to fully uncover the action mechanism of ginseng components on the molecule level. This review provides the usefulness of natural product, showing no toxic effects, as an radioprotective agent. Furthermore, the further clinical trials on radioprotection of ginseng need to be highly done to clarify its scientific application. The effective components of ginseng has been known as ginsenosides. Considering that each of these ginsenosides has pharmacological effect, it seems likely that non-saponin components might have radioprotective effects superior to those of ginsenosides, suggesting its active ingredients to be non-saponin series. These results also show that the combined effects of saponin and non-saponin components play an important role in the radioprotective effects of ginseng.

Solomon’s Temple, “The British Church,” and the Central Role of the Heart in The Temple

Solomon’s Temple, “The British Church,” and the Central Role of the Heart in The Temple Chauncey Wood In the stormy seas of seventeenth-century religious, political, and social controversy it was not only prudent but often necessary by indirections to find directions out. In fact, so compelling was the need for ambiguity and equivocation that it became second nature for writers to write in some sort of code. Annabel Patterson has studied this cultural phenomenon at length, and she concludes that what we find everywhere apparent and widely understood, from the middle of the sixteenth century in England, is a system of communication in which ambiguity becomes a creative and necessary instrument, a social and cultural force of considerable consequence. . . .Writers . . . gradually developed codes of communication, partly to protect themselves from hostile and hence dangerous readings of their work, partly in order to be able to say what they had to publicly without directly provoking or confronting the authorities.1 Herbert was nothing if not sensitive and perhaps he deleted the following lines from “The H. Communion” in the Williams MS in order to back away from a contentious controversy about what happens to the elements in communion: ffirst I am sure, whether bread stay Or whether Bread doe fly away Concerneth bread, not mee. (ll. 7–9)2 Fortunately for him, his audience, the coterie group so well described by Cristina Malcolmson, was made up of readers as sensitive to nuance and contemporary crosswinds as could be wished, so he could be confident that his ideas, some of which were very unconventional and controversial, would be discoverable even when not openly stated.3 [End Page 127] In The Country Parson, for example, Herbert sometimes writes very elliptically in order to avoid censure while expressing the thoughts he wanted to convey. Ronald Cooley has perfectly described the process in the way Herbert approaches the vexed issue of kneeling or sitting for communion. Herbert’s writing is “neither a simple statement of his own beliefs, nor a slavish formalism, but a complex negotiation among a range of possible formulations: what he thinks he must say, what he might like to say, and what different sorts of readers might need or want to hear.”4 Moreover, we may add to Cooley’s list that readers must pay attention to what is said, to how it is said, and to what is left unsaid. For illustration of these principles at work let us turn to an example of Herbert’s handling of a controversial issue of the time, the economic, political, and religious problems presented by poverty. The most elaborate reference to poverty in The Country Parson is in Herbert’s chapter “The Parson’s Charity,” in which he praises the major source of funds for the poor: tax money appropriated and distributed according to the Poor Law Act of 1601. Beyond the poor box and the Parson himself, the Parson can make use of that excellent statute [the Poor Law Act], which bindes all Parishes to maintaine their own. If his Parish be rich, he exacts this of them; if poor, and he able, he easeth them therein. But he gives no set pension to any; for this in time will lose the name and effect of Charity with the poor people, though not with God: for then they will reckon upon it, as on a debt; and if it be taken away, though justly, they will murmur, and repine as much, as he that is disseized of his own inheritance. (p. 244) In characteristically indirect fashion, Herbert first praises the statute, refers to its third paragraph on assessing the rich to maintain the poor; yet goes right on to ignore the Act to protest against set pensions, about which the Act is silent. Herbert’s praise of the named, national statute is made equivocal by his rejection of a key part of the unnamed, uncited local statute. Clearly, Herbert took issue with the local Salisbury pension scheme. Did he take issue with “that excellent statute” as well? Yes. He goes on to discuss the social benefits of set pensions versus the spiritual benefits of the Parson’s charity, arguing that...

Quantification of amorphous content in starch granules

Starch has always been an important ingredient in human food, but increasingly it is being used for nonfood purposes. The amorphous content of starch granules is one of the major factors controlling food processing conditions and accounting for the quality of end products such as starchy foods and biodegradable plastics. However, the amorphous content of starch granules is usually estimated in an indirect fashion, by means of the determination of the degree of crystallinity. Here we show that due to the increased sensitivity of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) at high scanning rates, (sometimes known as Hyper DSC), we can apply a direct method to quantify the amorphous content in waxy maize starch. These results show that Hyper-DSC has potential as a rapid and reliable technique to quantify the amorphous content of starch.

Measuring the Market Value of Non-Market Goods: The Case of Conspicuous Consumption

Although non-market goods are not directly allocated through markets, some of these goods are allocated through markets in an indirect fashion. Such is the case with conspicuous consumption: people buy market goods (e.g., clothing) to signal their wealth and then increase the probability of obtaining some non-market goods (e.g., admiration). We are the first to exploit that relationship to measure the market value of those non-market goods by using a revealed-preference approach. We estimate a signaling model using nationally representative data on consumption in the US. We then use this model to obtain welfare implications and perform a counterfactual analysis. Our estimates suggest that for each dollar spent on clothing and cars, the average household obtains approximately 35 cents in net benefits from non-market goods. The signaling mechanism seems to be a relatively efficient allocation mechanism because it attains almost 90% of the full potential benefits from non-market goods. The unattained benefits give an upper bound to the potential gains from economic policy (e.g., a tax on observable goods). The counterfactual analysis suggests that the proportional tax rate on observable goods that would correct the positional externality is in the order of 40%. Additionally, we calculate the unique non-linear tax schedule that would fully correct the externality. Finally, we show that accounting for the consumption of these non-market goods increases the Gini index of consumption inequality by almost 4%.

The Flagellar Protein FliL Is Essential for Swimming in Rhodobacter sphaeroides

In this work we characterize the function of the flagellar protein FliL in Rhodobacter sphaeroides. Our results show that FliL is essential for motility in this bacterium and that in its absence flagellar rotation is highly impaired. A green fluorescent protein (GFP)-FliL fusion forms polar and lateral fluorescent foci that show different spatial dynamics. The presence of these foci is dependent on the expression of the flagellar genes controlled by the master regulator FleQ, suggesting that additional components of the flagellar regulon are required for the proper localization of GFP-FliL. Eight independent pseudorevertants were isolated from the fliL mutant strain. In each of these strains a single nucleotide change in motB was identified. The eight mutations affected only three residues located on the periplasmic side of MotB. Swimming of the suppressor mutants was not affected by the presence of the wild-type fliL allele. Pulldown and yeast two-hybrid assays showed that that the periplasmic domain of FliL is able to interact with itself but not with the periplasmic domain of MotB. From these results we propose that FliL could participate in the coupling of MotB with the flagellar rotor in an indirect fashion.

Dignity and Economic Survival: Women in Latin America and the Caribbean and the Work of Helen I. Safa

Notions of dignity underpin the ways women, men and children deal and maneuver through their inequitable and often oppressive social situations in the Caribbean and Latin America. How they manage to garner food, shelter and clothing, as well as educate themselves, and work on behalf of others around them are central themes of Helen I. Safa’s career and are echoed by scholars whose work appears here. There is nothing like working towards a common goal as members of a network of scholars committed to economic justice, human rights and gender equality. Further, the contributors to this issue were drawn to this project by their relationship to their mutual mentor and or life-long friend Helen I. Safa. Like the workers, miners, community leaders, and peasant and poor women, men and children they studied, this assembly of scholars both women and men, differing in age, race and national origin, understand the imperatives of collective action and collective consciousness. These necessary elements bring about social change in social movements, and are critical analytic tools for considering the lives of people represented in scholarly production. The ideologies of social change expressed here are merged with feminism—a woman-centered/gender-centered view that actively seeks justice, human rights and gender equality. This perspective is exemplified in Safa’s career as a scholar, leader, mentor and “networker” par excellence. Safa serves as the lynchpin, or resource, for this network as the members who are represented illustrate. Some of the articles in this special issue are devoted to Safa as a person and as an expert in the area of women, work, and family studies. Other contributions acknowledge Safa’s expertise in an indirect fashion. Nonetheless, there is a distinctive emphasis on the role that feminist social science/anthropology and political economy plays when gender relations are used as explanatory mechanisms for women’s inequality in culture and society in the region. This Introduction provides a map by which to navigate the multiple layers of gender relations, social inequality, economic survival and women’s activism in both Safa’s scholarship and in her scholarly life more

Determinants of Myosin II Cortical Localization during Cytokinesis

Myosin II is an essential component of the contractile ring that divides the cell during cytokinesis. Previous work showed that regulatory light chain (RLC) phosphorylation is required for localization of myosin at the cellular equator. However, the molecular mechanisms that concentrate myosin at the site of furrow formation remain unclear. By analyzing the spatiotemporal dynamics of mutant myosin subunits in Drosophila S2 cells, we show that myosin accumulates at the equator through stabilization of interactions between the cortex and myosin filaments and that the motor domain is dispensable for localization. Filament stabilization is tightly controlled by RLC phosphorylation. However, we show that regulatory mechanisms other than RLC phosphorylation contribute to myosin accumulation at three different stages: (1) turnover of thick filaments throughout the cell cycle, (2) myosin heavy chain-based control of myosin assembly at the metaphase-anaphase transition, and (3) redistribution and/or activation of myosin binding sites at the equator during anaphase. Surprisingly, the third event can occur to a degree in a Rho-independent fashion, gathering preassembled filaments to the equatorial zone via cortical flow. We conclude that multiple regulatory pathways cooperate to control myosin localization during mitosis and cytokinesis to ensure that this essential biological process is as robust as possible.

Monitoring of diguanylate cyclase activity and of cyclic-di-GMP biosynthesis by whole-cell assays suitable for high-throughput screening of biofilm inhibitors

In Gram-negative bacteria, production of bis-(3',5')-cyclic diguanylic acid (c-di-GMP) by diguanylate cyclases (DGCs) is the main trigger for production of extracellular polysaccharides and for biofilm formation. Mutants affected in c-di-GMP biosynthesis are impaired in biofilm formation, thus making DGCs interesting targets for new antimicrobial agents with anti-biofilm activity. In this report, we describe a strategy for the screening for DGC inhibitors consisting of a combination of three microbiological assays. The primary assay utilizes an Escherichia coli strain overexpressing the adrA gene, encoding the DGC protein AdrA, and relies on detection of AdrA-dependent cellulose production as red colony phenotype on solid medium supplemented with the dye Congo red (CR). Presence of DGC inhibitors blocking AdrA activity would result in a white phenotype on CR medium. The CR assay can be performed in 96-well microtiter plates, making it suitable for high-throughput screenings. To confirm specific inhibition of c-di-GMP biosynthesis, chemical compounds positive in the CR assay are tested for their ability to inhibit biofilm formation and in a reporter gene assay which monitors expression of curli-encoding genes as a function of DGC activity. Screening of a chemical library using the described approach allowed us to identify sulfathiazole, an antimetabolite drug, as an inhibitor of c-di-GMP biosynthesis. Sulfathiazole probably affects c-di-GMP biosynthesis in an indirect fashion rather than by binding to DGCs; however, sulfathiazole represents the first example of drug able to affect biofilm formation by interfering with c-di-GMP metabolism.

Constructing female identities through feminine hygiene TV commercials

In this paper we report the results of a qualitative multimodal analysis of a corpus of Spanish and British TV ads featuring female hygiene products such as tampons, liners and sanitary towels/pads. We contend that advertisers of menstruation-related products employ a wide range of strategies to convey both overt information about the products advertised, as well as to – and more importantly – indirectly transmit stereotypical beliefs of women which inevitably helps reproduce and sometimes perpetuate a gender-biased type of discourse ( Holmes and Marra, 2005). Crook's (2004) distinction between the product-claim and the reward dimension in ads has been taken as the starting point for our analysis. Within the product-claim dimension we have focused on what information is transmitted through the application of some of Brown and Levinson's (1987) generic positive and off-record politeness strategies. On the other hand, within the reward dimension attention is shifted to how information surfaces the language in an indirect fashion through attention to different format types, visual imagery, voices and music. Results indicate that ads either tend to focus on the product, its advantages and practicality as the solution to women's worries during menstruation, something that brings the negative aspects of this biological activity to prominence; whereas a second group of ads is constructed as a celebration of womanhood and the creation of a certain female identity whereby women are endowed with their ability to break with old myths and taboos.

Differential Roles of Direct and Indirect Allorecognition Pathways in the Rejection of Skin and Corneal Transplants

It is generally accepted that all transplants are not rejected in the same fashion. However, the extrinsic and intrinsic factors that control the recognition and rejection of a particular allograft by the host are not well characterized. We compared the mechanisms underlying the response with donor antigens by T cells activated after transplantation of fully allogeneic skin and corneal grafts in mice. In corneal-transplanted mice, the CD4+ T-cell response was exclusively mediated by T cells recognizing minor antigens in an indirect fashion and producing low levels of interleukin-2. In contrast, skin grafts elicited both direct and indirect CD4+ T-cell responses primarily directed to major histocompatibility complex antigens and characterized by high interleukin-2 levels. Although CD8+ T-cells producing gamma interferon were activated directly in both skin- and corneal-grafted mice, only CD8+ T cells from skin-transplanted mice mounted a cytotoxic response. Next, we investigated whether failure of corneal transplants to induce a CD4+ direct alloresponse is due to their poor immunogenicity or due to the site of placement (eye). We observed that corneas transplanted under the skin and splenocytes transplanted in the eye were both capable of inducing direct CD4+ T-cell alloreactivity. This shows that failure of orthotopic corneal allotransplants to elicit a CD4+ T-cell direct alloresponse is associated with the combination of two factors, their low immunogenicity and the immune-privileged properties of the eye.

Tissue harmonic depletion imaging

The inhomogeneous imaging advantages offered by finite amplitude distortion appear to be obtainable in an indirect fashion. Instead of acquiring images based on the accretion of amplitude in a higher harmonic bandwidth, comparable images could be obtained using the corresponding depletion of amplitude from a lower harmonic bandwidth. Such an approach offers some advantages over traditional harmonic imaging, including reduced bandwidth demands, and more generally could be a useful complement to the traditional approach.

Power in mixed-sex stranger interactions

The authors tested the approach/inhibition theory of power by examining teasing interactions between women and men in conditions in which either one was given elevated power or they were in an equal-power control condition. Consistent with hypotheses, high-power individuals behaved in a disinhibited fashion and were less accurate judges of their partner's emotion, whereas low-power individuals behaved in a more inhibited, indirect fashion and reported more self-conscious/anxiety-related emotion. Additional contrast analyses revealed only modest support for the claim that men would act in powerful fashion in the absence of explicit power differences, and that power-based differences were greatest when the man had power over the woman. Discussion focuses on different perspectives on the interaction between power and gender.

A SACRAMENTAL JOURNEY TO THE BEATIFIC VISION: THE INTELLECTUALISM OF PIERRE ROUSSELOT1

This essay traces the intellectualist position of Pierre Rousselot (1878–1915) as he developed it in reaction to neo‐Thomist scholasticism, and argues that at the heart of Rousselot's approach lay a sacramental ontology. Rousselot's 1908 dissertations on St. Thomas's intellectualism and on love in the Middle Ages are best understood in the context of the 1907 condemnations of Modernism. Rousselot questioned the firmly entrenched rationalist approach of the neo‐Thomist revival. While continuing in the Thomist intellectualist tradition, he argued for a chastened epistemology in which the intellect aimed beyond discursive knowledge at union with God. The implication, for Rousselot, was that in its current condition, the human intellect could arrive at knowledge only in an indirect fashion. Accepting Thomas's view of the unity between love of desire and love of friendship, Rousselot emphasized the continuity between nature and the supernatural. Furthermore, his insistence that rational judgements of credibility were powerless without corresponding ‘eyes of faith’ implied a sacramental view of the natural order as pointing to the supernatural end of the beatific vision. His moderated intellectualism, with its implied sacramental ontology, would prove an attractive paradigm for the later movement of nouvelle théologie.

Dimensionalidad De La Responsabilidad Social Empresarial Percibida Y Sus Efectos Sobre La Imagen Y La Reputación: Una Aproximación Desde El Modelo De Carroll

Marketing literature suggests that consumer perceptions of corporate social responsibility's actions and programs could improve the image and the reputation of the firms. However, little is known about the issue. Hence to find it out, drawing from recent theoretical and empirical research, a structural relationship theoretical model was developed and subsequently empirically tested. The test was done in a mobile phone services consumption context through structural equations modeling using field survey collected data from 358 real young consumers from Valencia, Spain. Results indicate that the studied dimensions of corporate social responsibility do significantly and directly influence brand image, and that they also impacts on reputation but just in an indirect fashion. Results are discussed, and the conclusions include both academic and practitioners implications. Finally, research limitations and future research lines are presented.

Cooperation of Gata3, c-Myc and Notch in malignant transformation of double positive thymocytes

Gata transcription factors are critical regulators of proliferation and differentiation implicated in various human cancers, but specific genes activated by Gata proteins remain to be identified. We previously reported that enforced expression of Gata3 during T cell development in CD2-Gata3 transgenic mice induced CD4 +CD8 + double-positive (DP) T cell lymphoma. Here, we show that the presence of the DO11.10 T-cell receptor transgene, which directs DP cells towards the CD4 lineage, resulted in enhanced lymphoma development and a dramatic increase in thymocyte cell size in CD2-Gata3 transgenic mice. CD2-Gata3 DP cells expressed high levels of the proto-oncogene c-Myc but the Notch1 signaling pathway, which is known to induce c-Myc, was not activated. Gene expression profiling showed that in CD2-Gata3 lymphoma cells transcription of c-Myc and its target genes was further increased. A substantial fraction of CD2-Gata3 lymphomas had trisomy of chromosome 15, leading to an increased c-Myc gene dose. Interestingly, most lymphomas showed high expression of the Notch targets Deltex1 and Hes1, often due to activating Notch1 PEST domain mutations. Therefore, we conclude that enforced Gata3 expression converts DP thymocytes into a pre-malignant state, characterized by high c-Myc expression, whereby subsequent induction of Notch1 signaling cooperates to establish malignant transformation. The finding that Gata3 regulates c-Myc expression levels, in a direct or indirect fashion, may explain the parallel phenotypes of mice with overexpression or deficiency of either of the two transcription factors.

Social Disadvantage and the Mental Health of Military Personnel Returning from Iraq and Afghanistan

With attention in the United States now focused on the mental health of military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan (Hoge et al. 2004, 2006) clinical experience with Vietnam era veterans with PTSD should offer a cautionary tale. Frueh et al. (Frueh et al. 2007) have made the case that unlike other PTSD populations, Vietnam era veterans with PTSD are not only less responsive to psychotherapy, but also that their self reported symptoms get worse, not better with time. In addition, once they reach 100% disability there is a dramatic drop off in participation in treatment. They attribute these outcomes, in part, to flaws in the Department of Veterans Affairs disability compensation system that encourage dependence. But this unfortunate situation may be better understood in the context of the social disadvantage experienced by many of these veterans. From such a perspective, an increased pension, not mental health treatment addresses many veterans’ more pressing needs. The poor outcomes during treatment and withdrawal from treatment after maximizing pensions show what we already know, that mental health treatment has a limited ability to overcome social disadvantage (Draine et al. 2002). Social disadvantage has been strongly linked to PTSD in Vietnam era vets. The Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study (Kulka et al. 1990) found that rates of PTSD were roughly doubled in those who lacked a high school degree were unemployed, or had a low income with pre-military factors such as coming from a poor family, having childhood behavioral problems, and abuse of substance before entering the military, being strong predictors of subsequently developing PTSD. How much PTSD causes poverty or how much poverty causes PTSD will remain a subject of debate (Hudson 2005). But, without getting caught up in the chicken and egg conundrum we probably can all agree that at some point in their lives, for many Vietnam era veterans with chronic PTSD, psychiatric symptoms may be a lesser problem than their social disadvantage: years of homelessness, unemployment, erratic or non-existent relationships, and involvement in the criminal justice system. Not surprisingly, patients seek access to those interventions that at least indirectly address their needs (safety, housing, etc.,). But these are provided only as long as one remains in treatment. In lieu of a means test mental health workers are using DSM-IV criteria and willingness to participate in treatment to determine who should have their social disadvantage mitigated. Professionals have the choice of providing treatment, and therefore meeting the socially disadvantaged veterans’ needs in an indirect, expensive and temporary fashion or not providing treatment and not addressing these needs at all. This dilemma can be resolved by separating the provision of basic resources (such as safe housing) from participation in treatment. An example of this is the ‘‘Housing First’’ model in which mentally ill, substance abusing; homeless people are offered an apartment that is not contingent on their participation in treatment or staying abstinent. Assertive Community Treatment is readily available to those who might want it but is not a condition of participation. A randomized controlled study of this approach in New York City showed greater housing stability and no difference on D. J. Luchins (&) Jesse Brown VAMC, 820 S. Damen Ave, Chicago, IL 60612, USA e-mail: daniel.luchins@va.gov; danl@yoda.bsd.uchicago.edu

Modulation of 11β-Hydroxysteroid Dehydrogenase (11βHSD) Activity Biomarkers and Pharmacokinetics of PF-00915275, a Selective 11βHSD1 Inhibitor

11beta-Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11betaHSD1) is a promising target for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus. 11betaHSD1 catalyzes the intracrine conversion of inactive cortisone to the active glucocorticoid cortisol. Demonstrating inhibition of 11betaHSD1 is challenging because there is no accessible way to directly assess the enzyme activity in vivo. Thus, it was proposed to assess the enzyme activity, in an indirect fashion, using two biomarker methods: the prednisolone generation study (conversion of oral prednisone to prednisolone in plasma) and the ratio of cortisol and cortisone metabolites in urine. This was a phase 1, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, multiple-dose study. The study was conducted in a clinical research unit. Sixty healthy adult volunteers participated in the study. Oral doses of PF-00915275 (0.3-15 mg) and prednisone (10 mg) were administered during the study. Safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of PF-00915275, a selective 11betaHSD1 inhibitor, were measured. Overall, multiple oral doses of PF-00915275 were safe and well tolerated. After oral administration, PF-00915275 was rapidly absorbed, slowly eliminated, and generally displayed dose-proportional increases in exposure. At the 15-mg dose, mean exposure to prednisolone was reduced by 37%, and there was a dose-dependent fall in the 5alpha-tetrahydrocortisol + 5beta-tetrahydrocortisol to tetrahydrocortisone ratio with maximum inhibition of 26% after 14 d. The urinary free cortisol to urinary free cortisone ratio, an indicator of 11betaHSD2 inhibition, did not change. PF-00915275 was safe at all doses tested. The results of the prednisolone generation test and the urinary metabolite ratios confirm that PF-00915275 is a selective 11betaHSD1 inhibitor.

A parametric study of the peel test

The force required to peel a film from a substrate is generally a complex function of geometry, the constitutive properties of the film and substrate, and the interfacial cohesive properties. In most analyses, the effects of the transverse shear force that is an integral aspect of almost any peel test are neglected, although they can be incorporated in an indirect fashion through models that invoke a root-rotation angle. In this study, a complete elastic solution that incorporates all the components contributing to crack-tip deformation, including bending moment, transverse shear force and axial force, is derived in a self-consistent way. In particular, it is shown that, for a strong interface that requires a reasonably large peel strain, the transverse shear results in a significant deviation of the phase angle from earlier analyses that neglected the shear term. The present analysis also links the transverse shear component to the root-rotation angle. A cohesive-zone analysis is presented for the peeling of an elastic–plastic film. In this analysis, the interface is modeled using cohesive elements, and the film is modeled by a full, two-dimensional, finite-element analysis. This analysis allows the full effects of bending, axial loading, and transverse shear to evolve, with no a-priori assumptions being made about their relative magnitudes. The numerical results show how the peel force depends on the film thickness. When the film is relatively thin, the peel force increases with an increase in thickness as the extent of plasticity increases. This increase in plasticity is associated with (i) an increase in the contribution of bending to the deformation at the crack tip, relative to the contribution of transverse shear, and (ii) an increase in the physical limits imposed by the dimensions of the film on the volume of any crack-tip plastic zone. When the film is relatively thick, elasticity dominates the deformation of the film, and small-scale yielding effects become important. The peel force is dictated by the toughness of the interface and by crack-tip plasticity (if any) induced by the cohesive stresses. Therefore, peel forces tend to minimum values for both thick and thin films. A maximum peel force is exhibited for films with an intermediate thickness.

Effects of the noradrenergic agonist clonidine on temporal and spatial attention

RationaleRecent theories posit an important role for the noradrenergic system in attentional selection in the temporal domain. In contrast, the spatially diffuse topographical projections of the noradrenergic system are inconsistent with a direct role in spatial selection.ObjectivesTo test the hypotheses that pharmacological attenuation of central noradrenergic activity should (1) impair performance on the attentional blink task, a task requiring the selection of targets in a rapid serial visual stream of stimuli; and (2) leave intact the efficiency of the search for a target in a two-dimensional visuospatial stimulus array.Materials and methodsThirty-two healthy adult human subjects performed an attentional blink task and a visual search task in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, between-subject study investigating the effects of the α2 adrenoceptor agonist clonidine (150 μg, oral dose).ResultsNo differential effects of clonidine vs placebo were found on the attentional blink performance. Clonidine slowed overall reaction times in the visual search task but did not impair the efficiency of the visual search.ConclusionsThe attentional blink results are inconsistent with recent theories about the role of the noradrenergic system in temporal filtering and in mediating the attentional blink. This discrepancy between theory and data is discussed in detail. The visual search results, in combination with previous findings, suggest that the noradrenergic system is not directly involved in spatial attention processes but instead can modulate these processes in an indirect fashion.

Use of Social Words in Autobiographies and Longevity

To analyze the relationship between social word use in autobiographies and longevity. Although there is substantial evidence that our social relationships are associated with mortality, interpretation of this work is weakened by the limitations of assessing the social environment with structured questionnaires and interviews. By analyzing the word content of autobiographies, we could assess spontaneous indicators of important social relationships and relate them to longevity. This technique is less subject to social desirability reporting biases and more sensitive to aspects of the social environment that are central to how one experiences his or her social world. The autobiographies of 96 psychologists and 220 literary writers were digitized and scanned for social relationship word frequency via a computerized word counting program. Archival data were collected on birth and death dates, year of publication, place of birth, age when the autobiography was written, and sex. After controlling for sex, year of birth, and age at the time of writing, we found that higher use of words indicating social roles/integration (e.g., father, sister, neighbor, co-worker) was associated with an increased lifespan in both samples. Specific social categories assessing the use of family role terms (e.g., aunt, family, brother) and references to other individuals (e.g., they, we, us, everyone) also predicted longer life, but only in the sample of psychologists. Assessing social word use in autobiographies provided an indirect measure of social relationships that predicted longevity. This technique of analyzing writing samples may be useful in future archival research as well as in studies where it is desirable to study social relationships in an indirect fashion.