Stationary Items Research Articles

Beliefs and practices of physicians in Lebanon regarding promotional gifts and interactions with pharmaceutical companies.

Pharmaceutical companies invest greatly in promotional gifts to influence prescription of medications by physicians, yet there is limited published information evaluating its impact on healthcare. This study aimed to assess the beliefs and practices of physicians in Lebanon regarding promotional gifts and their interactions with representatives of pharmaceutical companies. This cross-sectional study was conducted between December 2019 and January 2020 through an email-based questionnaire sent to 5936 physicians of different specialties registered in the Lebanese Order of Physicians. Assessment was done using a validated tool and data analysis was conducted using SPSS version 26.0. Of the 268 respondents, 188 (70.4%) reported that physicians in Lebanon accepted gifts from representatives of pharmaceutical companies. Most of the physicians (31.7%) interacted with company representatives more than once a week. Medication samples (251 respondents) and stationary items (222 respondents) were the most common gifts accepted by physicians who admitted accepting gifts. Overall, 225 (84.9%) respondents believed that prescriptions by physicians in Lebanon were influenced by the gifts. Only 74 (40.0%) of those who accepted gifts from pharmaceutical companies believed that it was unethical, and around half did not know if the Lebanese Code of Medical Ethics allowed them to accept gifts from pharmaceutical companies. Although physicians in Lebanon were aware of the effect that gifts from pharmaceutical companies could have on their prescription behaviours, many of them still accepted the gifts. This study provides evidence to policymakers for decision-making regarding ethical guidance on interactions between physicians and pharmaceutical companies in Lebanon.

Optimal Policies for Price Sensitive Quadratic Demand with Preservation Technology Investment Under Inflationary Environment

The proposed EOQ model is a genuine attempt to manage retailer’s inventory when retailer’s stock is comprised of defective as well as constantly deteriorating items. Defective items in inventory are managed by selling them at discounted rate after a quality check process. Deterioration of items is controlled by investing suitable amount in preservation technology. The study assumes price sensitive quadratic demand incorporating the effect of inflation leading to a realistic situation. The objective of this paper is to maximize the retailer’s total profit with respect to cycle time, selling price, and preservation technology investment. Numerical examples are given to validate the model, and sensitivity analysis of inventory parameters is done to understand their effect. The outcome of this paper is applicable to goods like utility vehicles, stationary items, Fashion accessories, Cloths, Footwears, etc.

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE WRITING PROCESS IN TEACHING WRITING FOR YOUNG LEARNERS

In writing class, young learners need the guidance from the teacher to express their ideas to do the writing task. This study is intended to observe how the teacher implemented the writing process in teaching writing. The implementation of the writing process includes three important things - the techniques, teaching aids, and the teaching procedures. This study was a case study. It was conducted in twelve meetings at Primary 3 Class where the researcher was the non-participant observer so she did not take any participation in the teaching-learning activities. The researcher obtained the data from classroom observations, pictures taking, field notes, and interviews. The results showed that the teacher implemented the writing process in teaching writing by using seven kinds of teaching techniques, eight kinds of teaching aids and different teaching procedures for each technique. The seven techniques were brainstorming, mind mapping, drawing, reading activities, browsing on the internet, pair or group work, and individual writing. The techniques were supported by eight kinds of teaching aids such as storybooks, journal books, whiteboard, workbooks, some stationary items, computers, a laptop, and a LCD projector. The reason for using the techniques, the teaching aids and the procedures were to guide and motivate the students to write better in class. In conclusion, the teaching techniques, teaching aids, and teaching procedures used by the teacher made the students become more active and the students were encouraged to express their ideas in the written work in class

Generalised inhibitory impairment to appetitive cues: From alcoholic to non-alcoholic visual stimuli

BackgroundPrior research demonstrates that individuals who consume alcohol show diminished inhibitory control towards alcohol-related cues. However, such research contrasts predominantly alcoholic appetitive cues with non-alcoholic, non-appetitive cues (e.g., stationary items). As such, it is not clear whether it is specifically the alcoholic nature of the cues that influences impairments in inhibitory control or whether more general appetitive processes are at play. AimsThe current study examined the hitherto untested assertion that the disinhibiting effects of alcohol-related stimuli might generalise to other appetitive liquid stimuli, but not to non-appetitive liquid stimuli. MethodFifty-nine participants (Mage=21.63, SD=5.85) completed a modified version of the Stop Signal Task, which exposed them to visual stimuli of three types of liquids: Alcoholic appetitive (e.g., wine), non-alcoholic appetitive (e.g., water) and non-appetitive (e.g., washing-up liquid). ResultsConsistent with predictions, Stop-signal reaction time was significantly longer for appetitive (alcoholic, non-alcoholic) compared to non-appetitive stimuli. Participants were also faster and less error-prone when responding to appetitive relative to non-appetitive stimuli on go-trials. There were no apparent differences in stop signal reaction times between alcoholic and non-alcoholic appetitive products. ConclusionsThese findings suggest that decreases in inhibitory control in response to alcohol-related cues might generalise to other appetitive liquids, possibly due to evaluative conditioning. Implications for existing research methodologies include the use of appetitive control conditions and the diversification of cues within tests of alcohol-related inhibitory control.

When are abrupt onsets found efficiently in complex visual search? Evidence from multielement asynchronous dynamic search.

Previous work has found that search principles derived from simple visual search tasks do not necessarily apply to more complex search tasks. Using a Multielement Asynchronous Dynamic (MAD) visual search task, in which high numbers of stimuli could either be moving, stationary, and/or changing in luminance, Kunar and Watson (M. A Kunar & D. G. Watson, 2011, Visual search in a Multi-element Asynchronous Dynamic (MAD) world, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, Vol 37, pp. 1017-1031) found that, unlike previous work, participants missed a higher number of targets with search for moving items worse than for static items and that there was no benefit for finding targets that showed a luminance onset. In the present research, we investigated why luminance onsets do not capture attention and whether luminance onsets can ever capture attention in MAD search. Experiment 1 investigated whether blinking stimuli, which abruptly offset for 100 ms before reonsetting--conditions known to produce attentional capture in simpler visual search tasks--captured attention in MAD search, and Experiments 2-5 investigated whether giving participants advance knowledge and preexposure to the blinking cues produced efficient search for blinking targets. Experiments 6-9 investigated whether unique luminance onsets, unique motion, or unique stationary items captured attention. The results found that luminance onsets captured attention in MAD search only when they were unique, consistent with a top-down unique feature hypothesis.

Impact of the motion and visual complexity of the background on players' performance in video game-like displays

The visual interfaces of virtual environments such as video games often show scenes where objects are superimposed on a moving background. Three experiments were designed to better understand the impact of the complexity and/or overall motion of two types of visual backgrounds often used in video games on the detection and use of superimposed, stationary items. The impact of background complexity and motion was assessed during two typical video game tasks: a relatively complex visual search task and a classic, less demanding shooting task. Background motion impaired participants' performance only when they performed the shooting game task, and only when the simplest of the two backgrounds was used. In contrast, and independently of background motion, performance on both tasks was impaired when the complexity of the background increased. Eye movement recordings demonstrated that most of the findings reflected the impact of low-level features of the two backgrounds on gaze control.

Stationery injuries in the upper aerodigestive system: Results from the Susy Safe Project

Rationale and aimForeign body (FB) injuries are a relatively frequent event in young children. Clinical picture can be evidently affected from different variables. Among those size, shape, type and FB location cover an important issue. Increased attempts have been made in order to encourage normative interventions for products devoted to children's care and entertainment, reaching acceptable safety level; on the contrary, fewer efforts have been devoted to investigate the risk associated to objects that – even if not expressly created for children – are easy accessed by children, like stationery.The aim of the present study is to characterize the risk of complications and prolonged hospitalization due to stationery items according to age and gender of patients, FB characteristics and FB location, circumstances of the accident, as emerging from the Susy Safe Registry. MethodsFrom 2005 to 2010 case were collected from 70 centers in 32 different countries. Details on the injuries, identified by means of the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) codes listed on hospital discharge records, were gathered through a standardized case report form, that provides a full set of information on injuries, with specific details on age and gender of the child, location, shape, volume, consistency and ellipticity of the foreign body, behavioral aspects linked to the injury, like the supervision of the parents or the activity concomitant to the accident, any complication occurred, length of hospitalization. ResultsIn the years 2005–2010 a total of 17,205 FB injuries in children aged 0–14years were registered in Susy Safe Database. Among them 425 (2.5%) were due to a stationery item. The majority of FBs were retrieved in the nose (179, meaning 42.1%) and in the ears (176, 41.4%) only 5 cases were observed in children younger than 1year, while most of the cases, 80.6%, were recorded in children older than 3years. 193 patients (45.4%) were female, while 232 (54.6%) were male. Adult supervision was indicated in 212 cases. In 143 of these accidents the adult was present (33.6% of the whole group). The most frequent stationery retrieved was rubber, counting for 209 cases (49.2%). According to the FBs types, mostly all cases reported a 3D volume and a rigid or semirigid consistency (49.3%). Looking to the outcomes, 31 (7%) children needed hospitalization and complications were seen in 38 children (8.9%). No significant associations were seen between the outcomes and the FBs’ characteristics, excluded those between the consistency of the FB (rigid) and the necessity of hospitalization and the shape (2D) and the presence of complication. ConclusionsInjuries are events that in many cases can be prevented with appropriate strategies. Passive environmental strategies, including product modification by manufacturers, are the most effective. However, regulation regarding small parts of potentially dangerous objects covers products addressed to children use but objects not projected for children, such as stationary items, are excluded. Our study testifies that stationary is involved in a non-negligible percentage of FB injuries, mainly due to insertion in the ears. Frequently, injuries happen under adult supervision. These results confirm the fact that when passive preventive strategies are not practical, active strategies that promote behavior change are necessary and information about this issue should be included in all visits to family pediatricians.

Age-related decline in lateralised prey capture success in Garnett's bushbaby (Otolemur garnettii)

We examined differences in prey capture success when reaching for moving prey with the preferred and non-preferred hand (as determined previously using stationary food items) in 12 Garnett's bushbabies (Otolemur garnettii). Hand preference was determined by a test of simple reaching for stationary food items. We assessed both the frequency of hand use and success rates for each hand in capturing live mealworms. We also examined the effect of age on overall prey capture success. Subjects were individually presented with live mealworms in a cup partially filled with a cornmeal medium. The preferred hand was used significantly more often than the non-preferred hand to obtain the moving prey; however, no differences were found in the frequency of usage of the left vs the right hand. Furthermore, there were no differences in the success rates of the left vs the right hand, nor the preferred vs the non-preferred hand. There was a significant negative correlation between age and prey capture success. These data suggest that age, rather than preferred hand, may be the most relevant factor in the bushbabies’ prey capture success.

Risk posed to children by stationery items in the upper airways: evidence emerging from the ESFBI study

Rationale and aimThe insertion, inhalation, aspiration or ingestion of a foreign body (FB) is a relatively frequent event in young children. Some classes of objects such as stationery items (including...

Visual search for moving and stationary items in chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes) and humans ( Homo sapiens)

Four visual search experiments were conducted using human and chimpanzee subjects to investigate attentional processing of movement, and perceptual organization based on movement of items. In the first experiment, subjects performed visual searches for a moving target among stationary items, and for a stationary target among moving items. Subjects of both species displayed an advantage in detecting the moving item compared to the stationary one, suggesting the priority of movement in the attentional processing. A second experiment assessed the effect of the coherent movement of items in the search for a stationary target. Facilitative effects of motion coherence were observed only in the performance of human subjects. In the third and fourth experiments, the effect of coherent movement of the reference frame on the search for moving and stationary targets was tested. Related target movements significantly influenced the search performance of both species. The results of the second, third, and fourth experiments suggest that perceptual organization based on coherent movements is partially shared by chimpanzees and humans, and is more highly developed in humans.

Aging and visual marking: Selective deficits for moving stimuli.

The selective processing of new visual information can be facilitated by the top-down inhibition of old stimuli already in the visual field, a capacity-limited process termed visual marking (D. G. Watson & G. W. Humphreys, 1997). Three experiments assessed the effects of aging on visual marking using stationary (Experiment 1) and moving (Experiments 2 and 3) items. For young participants, visual marking was observed in all experiments. For older participants, visual marking was observed only with stationary items. The results are not consistent with any simple account of general age-related decrements and provide further support for the deployment of different methods of visual marking depending on the properties of the old items and the current task demands.

Visual search for motion-form conjunctions: is form discriminated within the motion system?

Motion-form conjunction search can be more efficient when the target is moving (a moving 45 degrees tilted line among moving vertical and stationary 45 degrees tilted lines) rather than stationary. This asymmetry may be due to aspects of form being discriminated within a motion system representing only moving items, whereas discrimination of stationary items relies on a static form system (J. Driver & P. McLeod, 1992). Alternatively, it may be due to search exploiting differential motion velocity and direction signals generated by the moving-target and distractor lines. To decide between these alternatives, 4 experiments systematically varied the motion-signal information conveyed by the moving target and distractors while keeping their form difference salient. Moving-target search was found to be facilitated only when differential motion-signal information was available. Thus, there is no need to assume that form is discriminated within the motion system.

Perceptual integration of motion and form information: evidence of parallel-continuous processing.

In three visual search experiments, the processes involved in the efficient detection of motion-form conjunction targets were investigated. Experiment 1 was designed to estimate the relative contributions of stationary and moving nontargets to the search rate. Search rates were primarily determined by the number of moving nontargets; stationary nontargets sharing the target form also exerted a significant effect, but this was only about half as strong as that of moving nontargets; stationary nontargets not sharing the target form had little influence. In Experiments 2 and 3, the effects of display factors influencing the visual (form) quality of moving items (movement speed and item size) were examined. Increasing the speed of the moving items (> 1.5 degrees/sec) facilitated target detection when the task required segregation of the moving from the stationary items. When no segregation was necessary, increasing the movement speed impaired performance: With large display items, motion speed had little effect on target detection, but with small items, search efficiency declined when items moved faster than 1.5 degrees/sec. This pattern indicates that moving nontargets exert a strong effect on the search rate (Experiment 1) because of the loss of visual quality for moving items above a certain movement speed. A parallel-continuous processing account of motion-form conjunction search is proposed, which combines aspects of Guided Search (Wolfe, 1994) and attentional engagement theory (Duncan & Humphreys, 1989).

Visual Search for Conjunctions of Motion and Form: The Efficiency of Attention to Static versus Moving Items Depends on Practice

Visual search for some motion-form conjunctions can be performed in parallel. Yet, if the target is easy to discriminate from the nontargets (target line tilted 45 from the vertical), search can be easier for a moving than for a stationary target. Driver and McLeod (1992; Berger & McLeod, 1996) took this asymmetry to argue that gross aspects of form discrimination are performed within a motion filter thatrepresents only the moving items, whereas discrimination of stationary items (and all fine discrimination) relies on a static form system. However, recent (unsuccessful) attempts to replicate the asymmetry (Muller & Found, 1996; Muller & Maxwell, 1994) suggested that it may occur only early during task performance, due to participants having difficulty keeping the moving items out of the search for a stationary target (but not vice versa). This was confirmed by the present study, which investigated the effects of practice on search among the moving and stationary subset of items. The results suggest that attention to the stationary subsetis difficultinitially because participants cannotefficiently compensate for the natural bias of the motion filter to pass the moving items (rather than filter them out). This ability improves with practice. Thus, there is no fixed limit to performance with stationary targets and, consequently, no need to assume that any form discrimination is performed within the motion filter.

Segmentation on the basis of linear and local rotational motion: Motion grouping in visual search.

In 5 experiments using visual search procedures, grouping based on common motion was investigated Experiments 1-3 showed that items rotating locally about their center points could be segmented and selectively searched for among stationary distracters but not among distracters rotating in the opposite direction. Experiment 4 replicated previous findings showing that upward-moving items could be selectively searched for among stationary or downward-moving items. Experiment 5 showed that rotating items could be selected efficiently from among translating items and vice versa It is suggested that the visual system groups moving items only if they can feasibly belong to a single unique surface. Implications far current theories of visual attention are discussed.

Perceptual Integration of Motion and Form in a Visual Search Task

Three visual search experiments were designed to investigate the processes involved in the efficient detection of motion - form conjunction targets. In experiment 1 the number of movement directions in the display were varied, and we tried to establish whether or not the target direction was predictable. Search was less efficient when items moved in multiple directions compared to just one direction; whether items moved in two, three, or four directions made relatively little difference. Pre-cuing of the target direction facilitated the search to a small, but non-negligible, extent; the facilitation was not due to better predictability of the display region that contained the target at the start of a trial. Experiment 2 was designed to estimate the relative contributions of stationary and moving nontargets to the search rate. Search rates were primarily determined by the number of moving nontargets; stationary nontargets sharing the target form also exerted a significant effect, but this was only about half as strong as that of moving nontargets; stationary nontargets not sharing the target form had little influence. In experiment 3 we examined the effects of movement speed and item size on search performance. Increasing the speed of the moving items (> 1.5 deg s−1) facilitated target detection when the task required segregation of the moving from the stationary items; when no segregation was necessary, increasing the movement speed impaired performance. When the display items were ‘large’, motion speed had little effect on target detection; but when the items were ‘small’, search efficiency declined with item movement faster than 1.5 deg s−1. A ‘parallel continuous processing’ account of motion form conjunction search is proposed.

Aging and Filtering by Movement in Visual Search

We examined the ability of younger and older adults to selectively process moving items and ignore stationary items in a task that required the search for a target defined by a conjunction of movement and form (i.e., search for a moving X among moving Os and stationary Xs) in displays of 5, 9, 17, and 25 stimuli (Experiment 1) and displays of 5, 10, and 20 stimuli (Experiment 2). We also investigated subjects' performance in two feature search tasks, the search for a target defined by movement or form. Finally, we examined the influence of practice on feature and conjunction search. Younger and older adults searched the displays at similar rates in the feature and conjunction search tasks. Older and younger adults also benefited equivalently from practice. These data suggest age-equivalence in the processes which underlie feature search in dynamic environments as well as those processes responsible for the segregation of moving and stationary objects in the visual field.

Visual search for conjunctions of motion and form: display density and asymmetry reversal.

In visual search for motion-form conjunctions, search rates have been reported to be faster for moving than for stationary targets if the target-nontarget discrimination is easy (45 degrees target line tilt from vertical), but this asymmetry is reversed if the discrimination is difficult (9 degrees tilt) (J. Driver & P. McLeod, 1992). Driver and McLeod proposed that gross aspects of form discrimination are performed within a motion filter that represents only the moving items, whereas fine discriminations rely on a stationary form system that is poor at filtering by motion. However, H. J. Müller and J. Maxwell (1994) failed to observe the asymmetry reversal, possibly because they used lower density displays. The study reported in this article also did not yield an effect due to varying display density. This lends support to the notion of a unitary form system, with the role of the motion filter being limited to guiding the search to the moving items or, if required by the task, the stationary items.

Perceptual integration of motion and form information: is the movement filter involved in form discrimination?

Seven experiments reinvestigated J. Driver and P. McLeod's (1992) report of a "visual search asymmetry reversal" in a task that required the integration of motion and form information. They found that, when the form discrimination was easy, search was more efficient for a moving rather than a stationary conjunction target; the reverse was true when form discrimination was difficult. J. Driver and P. McLeod proposed that 2 mechanisms are involved: a "stationary form system," which supports accurate form discrimination but is relatively insensitive to movement, and a "movement filter," which segregates the moving from the stationary items but is relatively insensitive to aspects of form. The present experiments failed to find the asymmetry reversal. The results agree with the (more parsimonious) proposal that the function of the movement filter is limited to separating moving from stationary items, whereas form discrimination is accomplished within a unitary form system.

Protection against goniostat collisions for the Huber 511 goniostat used in conjunction with the San Diego multiwire area detector system

An inexpensive system has been designed that eliminates most of the collisions that might occur between the goniostat and the stationary items and complements the Rigaku RU 200 X-ray generator, Huber goniostat, Blake Industries' 2θ mechanism and San Diego multiwire area detector used in the CABM/Waksman X-ray crystallography laboratory.