Undesirable Feedback Research Articles

Crop-raiding by wildlife and cropland abandonment as feedback from nature-based solutions: Lessons from case studies in China and Nepal

Abstract Conservation efforts under the nature-based solutions (NbS) framework aim at better management of ecosystems and improvement of human well-being. Policies targeting forest-based livelihoods align well with the NbS principles, but their social-ecological outcomes are often confounded by complex human-environment interactions. In this study, we identify one major feedback effect of the ecosystem dynamic on people’s livelihoods based on datasets collected from two study areas in China and Nepal. Our methodology integrates satellite remote sensing, household surveys, and statistical models to investigate households’ cropland abandonment decisions under the influence of crop-raiding by wildlife. Results show that cropland parcels that have experienced crop-raiding are more likely to be abandoned in the following years. The more damage the crops have suffered on a given parcel, the more likely it is that the parcel will be abandoned. Parcels in proximity to natural forests, farther away from the house location, and with poorer access to paved roads bear a higher risk of being abandoned. These effects are robust and consistent after controlling for multiple parcel features and household characteristics at different levels and using the dataset from each study area separately. We conclude that policymakers need to consider this undesirable feedback of the ecological system to the livelihoods of local people to better achieve co-benefits for ecosystems and human society.

Near Infrared-Fluorescent Dinuclear Iridium(III) Nanoparticles for Immunogenic Sonodynamic Therapy.

Dinuclear iridium(III) complexes activated by light-inducible spatiotemporal control are emerging as promising candidates for cancer therapy. However, broader applications of current light-activated dinuclear iridium(III) complexes are limited by the ineffective tissue penetration and undesirable feedback on guidance activation. Here, an ultrasound (US) triggered near infrared-fluorescent dinuclear iridium(III) nanoparticle, NanoIr, is first reported to precisely and spatiotemporally inhibit tumor growth. It is demonstrated that reactive oxygen species can be generated by NanoIr upon exposure to US irradiation (NanoIr + US), thereby inducing immunogenic cell death. When combined with cisplatin, NanoIr + US elicits synergistic effects in patient-derived tumor xenograft mice models of ovarian cancer. This work first provides a design of dinuclear iridium(III) nanoparticles for immunogenic sonodynamic therapy.

Plant Synthetic Promoters

This article examines the structure and functions of the plant synthetic promoters frequently used to precisely regulate complex regulatory routes. It details the composition of native promoters and their interacting proteins to provide a better understanding of the tasks associated with synthetic promoter development. The production of synthetic promoters is performed by relatively small libraries produced generally by basic molecular or genetic engineering methods such as cis-element shuffling or domain swapping. The article also describes the preparation of large-scale libraries supported by synthetic DNA fragments, directed evolution, and machine or deep-learning methodologies. The broader application of novel, synthetic promoters reduces the prevalence of homology-based gene silencing or improves the stability of transgenes. A particularly interesting group of synthetic promoters are bidirectional forms, which can enable the expression of up to eight genes by one regulatory element. The introduction and controlled expression of several genes after one transgenic event strongly decreases the frequency of such problems as complex segregation patterns and the random integration of multiple transgenes. These complications are commonly observed during the transgenic crop development enabled by traditional, multistep transformation using genetic constructs containing a single gene. As previously tested DNA promoter fragments demonstrate low complexity and homology, their abundance can be increased by using orthogonal expression systems composed of synthetic promoters and trans-factors that do not occur in nature or arise from different species. Their structure, functions, and applications are rendered in the article. Among them are presented orthogonal systems based on transcription activator-like effectors (dTALEs), synthetic dTALE activated promoters (STAPs) and dCas9-dependent artificial trans-factors (ATFs). Synthetic plant promoters are valuable tools for providing precise spatiotemporal regulation and introducing logic gates into the complex genetic traits that are important for basic research studies and their application in crop plant development. Precisely regulated metabolic routes are less prone to undesirable feedback regulation and energy waste, thus improving the efficiency of transgenic crops.

Additive Slack-Based Measure for a Two-Stage Structure with Shared Inputs and Undesirable Feedback

The two-stage data envelopment analysis models are among the widely used mathematical programming approaches to evaluate the performance of two-stage structures. In this paper, a two-stage structure with shared inputs and feedback is studied. To reduce undesirable outputs, an additive slack-based measure model is proposed to evaluate the stages and overall efficiencies, while undesirable outputs are weakly disposable. As it does not require determining the weights for combining stages’ efficiencies, all Pareto optimal stages’ efficiencies can be gained. In addition, the proposed approach can identify desirable outputs from undesirable outputs, thereby avoiding the need for weighting. This advantage from the aspect of multiobjective programming helps internal evaluation of the network model to match priorities of managers. The proposed nonlinear model is reformulated as a second-order cone program, which is a convex optimization problem that can be solved to global optimality. This is a computational improvement over the parametric models in the literature. Furthermore, the proposed model is applied for country-wise and area-wise performance evaluations of a real industrial application dataset in mainland China. Results show that the efficiency of the overall system relies between the efficiencies of the two stages and for all DMUs, the first stage’s efficiency scores are always higher than the second stage ones in both evaluations. Also, the Pearson correlation coefficient test results show that the overall efficiency is more correlated with the waste disposal stage. Finally, to show the effect of the decision maker’s preference, a detailed sensitivity analysis is performed.

Discrimination Improvement Through Undesirable Feedback in Coupling Object Manipulation Tasks.

Subjective effort can significantly affect the ability of humans to act optimally in dynamic manipulation tasks. In a previous study, we designed a complex object coupling manipulation task that required tight performance and induced high cognitive workload. We hypothesize that strong-effort-related physiological reactivity during the dynamic manipulation task improves the user performance in an undesired task feedback situation. To test this hypothesis, using the motor intentions' discrimination from electroencephalogram (EEG) measurements, we evaluate the effort expended by 20 participants in a controlling task with constraints involving complex coupling objects. Specifically, the finer motor decisions are obtained from the controlling information in EEG by using two fingers from the same hand rather than two hands. The motor intention is decoded from a task-dependent EEG through a regularized discriminant analysis, and the area under the curve is [Formula: see text]. Furthermore, we compare the undesired and desired task feedback conditions along with the individual's effort dynamic adjustment, and investigate whether the undesired task feedback improved the discrimination of the motor activities. A stronger effort to attain the desired feedback state corresponds to improved motor activity discrimination from the EEG in the undesired task feedback scenario. The differences in the brain activities under the undesired and desired task feedback conditions are analyzed using brain-network-based topographical scalp maps. Our experiment provides preliminary evidence that inducing strong effort can improve discrimination performance during highly demanding tasks. This finding can advance our understanding of human attention, potentially improve the accuracy of intention recognition, and may inspire better EEG acquisition contexts.

Optimistic amnesia: how online and offline processing shape belief updating and memory biases in immediate and long-term optimism biases.

When people are confronted with feedback that counters their prior beliefs, they preferentially rely on desirable rather than undesirable feedback in belief updating, i.e. an optimism bias. In two pre-registered EEG studies employing an adverse life event probability estimation task, we investigated the neurocognitive processes that support the formation and the change of optimism biases in immediate and 24 h delayed tests. We found that optimistic belief updating biases not only emerged immediately but also became significantly larger after 24 h, suggesting an active role of valence-dependent offline consolidation processes in the change of optimism biases. Participants also showed optimistic memory biases: they were less accurate in remembering undesirable than desirable feedback probabilities, with inferior memories of undesirable feedback associated with lower belief updating in the delayed test. Examining event-related brain potentials (ERPs) revealed that desirability of feedback biased initial encoding: desirable feedback elicited larger P300s than undesirable feedback, with larger P300 amplitudes predicting both higher belief updating and memory accuracies. These results suggest that desirability of feedback could bias both online and offline memory-related processes such as encoding and consolidation, with both processes contributing to the formation and change of optimism biases.

Acute obstructing left-sided colonic lesions: Role of preoperative endoscopic colonic stent insertion

Background: Malignant obstruction due to left-sided colonic malignant lesions is an acute emergent situation which is always dealt with by emergent celiotomy and colostomy for salvage of patient life. Colostomy is considered life-saving in such situations, yet it is of undesirable psychological feedback impressions for patients. The aim of this work is to describe our experience with the use of colonic stent in left-sided malignant obstruction, as a good step to relieve the obstruction, and hence to proceed for one-step resection anastomosis with primary repair without the need for colostomy, which is in itself of good impact for psychological satisfaction and salvage of patient. Patients and Methods: Out of 20 patients with left-sided colonic obstruction, 9 patients were dealt with colonic stent, of them 7 patients had one-step procedure with either left hemicolectomy or sigmoidectomy, and 11 had emergent surgical interference with colostomy. Results: Seven of nine patients had a successful laparoscopic colonic stent, and followed by a successful one-step surgical procedure, two of nine patients had unsuccessful laparoscopic stent with emergent exploration and colostomy. Conclusion: Colonic stent for the left malignant obstruction represents a valuable procedure for one-step resection and primary anastomosis without the need for colostomy.

A Joint Evaluation of Energy-Efficient Downlink Scheduling and Partial CQI Feedback for LTE Video Transmission

A green cellular technology is proposed to optimize the energy and spectrum resources. Such optimization will require perfect channel state information at the transmitting base station. However, reporting the channel status of the entire bandwidth requires huge undesirable feedback overhead. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to optimize the energy and bandwidth resources while maintaining quality-of-service at the downlink when a partial feedback is considered. In this paper, a modified downlink scheduler based on a Packet Prediction Mechanism (PPM) is conducted at the eNodeB to optimize the energy and spectrum resources. On the user equipment side, a partial channel feedback scheme based on an adaptive feedback threshold is developed. A primary concern of this feedback scheme is to reduce the uplink signaling overhead without a substantial loss in downlink performances. Finally, the downlink packet scheduling and the partial feedback are jointly evaluated to further enhance the system performance. Based on a system-level simulation results, the proposed energy-efficient scheduling with partial feedback has achieved an improvement in EE of up to 79% compared to the PPM scheduler. Besides, it minimizes the degradation caused by the partial channel quality indicator feedback. Thus, the proposed two-sided algorithm gives the best tradeoff between uplink and downlink performances.

Characterization of the Dominant Structural Vibration of Hearing Aid Receivers

Results are presented of an analysis and characterization of the mechanical vibration of hearing aid receivers, a key electroacoustic component of hearing aids. The function of a receiver in a hearing aid is to provide an amplified sound signal into the ear canal. Unfortunately, as the receiver produces sound, it also undergoes vibration which can be transmitted through the hearing aid package to the microphones, resulting in undesirable feedback oscillations. To better understand and control this important source of feedback in hearing aids, a rigid body model is proposed to describe the essential dynamic features of the system. The receiver is represented by two hinged rigid bodies, under an equal and opposite dynamic moment load, and connected to each other by a torsional spring and damper. A method is presented to estimate the parameters for the proposed model using experimental data. The data were collected from translational velocity measurements using a scanning laser vibrometer of a Knowles ED-series receiver supported on a complaint foundation. Excellent agreement is shown between results obtained using the analytical model and the measured translation and rotation of an independent receiver. It is concluded that a dynamic model of the receiver must account for both rotation and translation of the structure in order to properly describe its motion due to an input current.

Distinct oxytocin effects on belief updating in response to desirable and undesirable feedback

Humans update their beliefs upon feedback and, accordingly, modify their behaviors to adapt to the complex, changing social environment. However, people tend to incorporate desirable (better than expected) feedback into their beliefs but to discount undesirable (worse than expected) feedback. Such optimistic updating has evolved as an advantageous mechanism for social adaptation. Here, we examine the role of oxytocin (OT)-an evolutionary ancient neuropeptide pivotal for social adaptation-in belief updating upon desirable and undesirable feedback in three studies (n = 320). Using a double-blind, placebo-controlled between-subjects design, we show that intranasally administered OT (IN-OT) augments optimistic belief updating by facilitating updates of desirable feedback but impairing updates of undesirable feedback. The IN-OT-induced impairment in belief updating upon undesirable feedback is more salient in individuals with high, rather than with low, depression or anxiety traits. IN-OT selectively enhances learning rate (the strength of association between estimation error and subsequent update) of desirable feedback. IN-OT also increases participants' confidence in their estimates after receiving desirable but not undesirable feedback, and the OT effect on confidence updating upon desirable feedback mediates the effect of IN-OT on optimistic belief updating. Our findings reveal distinct functional roles of OT in updating the first-order estimation and second-order confidence judgment in response to desirable and undesirable feedback, suggesting a molecular substrate for optimistic belief updating.

Examining Weibo posting anxiety among well-educated youth in China

This study extends the application of Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) to investigate the nature of Weibo posting anxiety and its determinants (i.e., micro-blogging self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and prior experience) among well-educated youth in China. Analyzing semi-structured interviews with Chinese Weibo users, this study identified four dimensions of microblogging posting anxiety, including social-, writing-, technology-, and safety-related anxiety. Fear of receiving negative evaluation from offline friends and leaking personal information to unknown/dangerous readers were the main reasons for their Weibo posting anxiety. Prior experiences of obtaining undesirable comments and disappointing feedback were found to create negative outcome expectations of Weibo usage (e.g., deteriorating self-presentation and causing misunderstanding), which may indirectly induce Weibo posting anxiety. However, self-efficacy did not play a significant role in generating anxious reactions towards Weibo posting. Theoretically, this study uses an SCT analytical lens to enhance the understanding of Weibo posting anxiety among Chinese users. Practically, the findings provide insights to services operators and system designers about users’ anxiety in using social media like Weibo so as to improve the service and boost the usage. Note: An oral presentation of this article was made at the 2014 annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), Montreal, Canada.

Optimization of a multiple pulse detonation engine-crossover system

A University of Cincinnati experimental study is conducted on a Pulse Detonation Engine (PDE)-Crossover System to investigate the feasibility of repeated, shock-initiated combustion as a means to generate detonation within an annular array of detonation tubes. An optimization study of the system finds that reducing driver PDE length increases auto-ignition failures in the driver PDE due to undesirable feedback of hot products from the driven PDE. Initiation performance in the driven PDE is strongly dependent on initial driven PDE skin temperature in the shock wave reflection region. The optimum initiation performance is achieved within the driven PDE by filling the driver PDE with reactants past the crossover tube entrance. Increasing operating frequency negates the detrimental effect of increased nitrogen dilution. An array of detonation tubes connected with crossover tubes is developed using optimized parameters. Successful operation utilizing shock-initiated combustion through shock wave reflection is achieved and sustained. Results from this array show that if initially driven PDE tubes are operating successfully, all subsequently driven PDE tubes also operate successfully.

Social feedback processing in borderline personality disorder.

Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) show negative and unstable self- and other-evaluations compared to healthy individuals. It is unclear, however, how they process self- and other-relevant social feedback. We have previously demonstrated a positive updating bias in healthy individuals: When receiving social feedback on character traits, healthy individuals integrate desirable more than undesirable feedback. Here, our aim was to test whether BPD patients exhibit a more negative pattern of social feedback processing. We employed a character trait task in which BPD patients interacted with four healthy participants in a real-life social interaction. Afterwards, all participants rated themselves and one other participant on 80 character traits before and after receiving feedback from their interaction partners. We compared how participants updated their ratings after receiving desirable and undesirable feedback. Our analyses included 22 BPD patients and 81 healthy controls. Healthy controls showed a positivity bias for self- and other-relevant feedback as previously demonstrated. Importantly, this pattern was altered in BPD patients: They integrated undesirable feedback for themselves to a greater degree than healthy controls did. Other-relevant feedback processing was unaltered in BPD patients. Our study demonstrates an alteration in self-relevant feedback processing in BPD patients that might contribute to unstable and negative self-evaluations.

Cultural influences on social feedback processing of character traits.

Cultural differences are generally explained by how people see themselves in relation to social interaction partners. While Western culture emphasizes independence, East Asian culture emphasizes interdependence. Despite this focus on social interactions, it remains elusive how people from different cultures process feedback on their own (and on others') character traits. Here, participants of either German or Chinese origin engaged in a face-to-face interaction. Consequently, they updated their self- and other-ratings of 80 character traits (e.g., polite, pedantic) after receiving feedback from their interaction partners. To exclude potential confounds, we obtained data from German and Chinese participants in Berlin [functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)] and in Beijing (behavior). We tested cultural influences on social conformity, positivity biases, and self-related neural activity. First, Chinese conformed more to social feedback than Germans (i.e., Chinese updated their trait ratings more). Second, regardless of culture, participants processed self- and other-related feedback in a positively biased way (i.e., they updated more toward desirable than toward undesirable feedback). Third, changes in self-related medial prefrontal cortex activity were greater in Germans than in Chinese during feedback processing. By investigating conformity, positivity biases, and self-related activity in relation to feedback obtained in a real-life interaction, we provide an essential step toward a unifying framework for understanding the diversity of human culture.

Positively Biased Processing of Self-Relevant Social Feedback

Receiving social feedback such as praise or blame for one's character traits is a key component of everyday human interactions. It has been proposed that humans are positively biased when integrating social feedback into their self-concept. However, a mechanistic description of how humans process self-relevant feedback is lacking. Here, participants received feedback from peers after a real-life interaction. Participants processed feedback in a positively biased way, i.e., they changed their self-evaluations more toward desirable than toward undesirable feedback. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging we investigated two feedback components. First, the reward-related component correlated with activity in ventral striatum and in anterior cingulate cortex/medial prefrontal cortex (ACC/MPFC). Second, the comparison-related component correlated with activity in the mentalizing network, including the MPFC, the temporoparietal junction, the superior temporal sulcus, the temporal pole, and the inferior frontal gyrus. This comparison-related activity within the mentalizing system has a parsimonious interpretation, i.e., activity correlated with the differences between participants' own evaluation and feedback. Importantly, activity within the MPFC that integrated reward-related and comparison-related components predicted the self-related positive updating bias across participants offering a mechanistic account of positively biased feedback processing. Thus, theories on both reward and mentalizing are important for a better understanding of how social information is integrated into the human self-concept.

Impacts of Assimilating AMMA Soundings on ECMWF Analyses and Forecasts

Abstract The field experiment of the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA) project during the 2006 wet monsoon season provided an unprecedented amount of radiosonde/dropsonde data over the West African region. This paper explores the usage and impacts of this invaluable dataset in the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts analyses and forecasts. These soundings are the only source of data that can provide 3D information on the thermodynamic and dynamic structures of the lower troposphere over continental West Africa. They are particularly important for the Sahel region located between 12° and 20°N, which is characterized by large gradients in temperature and moisture in the lower troposphere. An assimilation experiment comparison between the pre-AMMA and AMMA radiosonde networks shows that the extra AMMA soundings have a significant analysis impact on the low-level temperature over the Sahel and on the structure of the African easterly jet. However, the impacts of the extra AMMA data on the forecast disappear after 24 h. The soundings reveal large model biases in boundary layer temperature over the northern and eastern Sahel, which are consistent with the well-known model biases in cloud, rainfall, and radiation. Large analysis increments in temperature lead to increments in divergence and subsidence, which act to suppress convection. Thus, the analysis increments appear to have an undesirable feedback on the cloud and temperature model biases. The impact of the AMMA soundings on the African easterly jet is to enhance and extend the jet streak to 15°E, that is, toward the eastern part of the Sahel. No observations are assimilated east of 15°E at the level of the African easterly jet to support the jet enhancement farther east. Comparisons with independent atmospheric cloud motion vectors indicate that the African easterly jet in the analysis is too weak over this data-sparse region. This could have implications for the development of African easterly waves in the model forecast. Further experimentation by assimilating atmospheric motion vectors—currently not used—could address this problem.

Positively Biased Processing of Social Feedback as Basis of Self-Esteem

Event Abstract Back to Event Positively Biased Processing of Social Feedback as Basis of Self-Esteem Christoph Korn1, 2*, Kirsten Prehn1, 3, Henrik Walter2, 4 and Hauke R. Heekeren1, 3, 5 1 Freie Universität Berlin, Department of Eduation and Psychology, Germany 2 Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Germany 3 Freie Universität Berlin, Cluster of Excellence "Languages of Emotion", Germany 4 Charité University Medicine Berlin, Department of Psychiatry, Germany 5 Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Research Group "Neurocognition of Decision-Making", Germany To successfully engage in everyday social interactions humans have to assess how they are judged by others. A well-established finding in social psychology states that humans process self-related feedbackin a biased way, i.e. they tend to accept desirable social feedback such as praise uncritically while they receive undesirable social feedback such as blame with mistrust. This positively biased processing of social feedback is an important mechanism by which humans can maintain and enhance their self-esteem (Taylor & Brown, 1989). Here, we devise a novel fMRI-compatible task in which we quantitatively manipulate the amount of desirable and undesirable social feedback and measure the amount by which participants update their beliefs according to the feedback provided. To get to know each other, five participants play the board game “monopoly”. Afterwards they rate each other on 80 trait adjectives such as modest, friendly, arrogant, and hypocritical. On the next day in the scanner, each participant first rates herself and then sees how the others have rated her. To assess how this feedback changes self-perception, participants rate themselves a second time outside the scanner. If the others’ rating is more desirable than expected participants change their self-ratings and see themselves in a more positive way. However, if the others’ rating is less desirable than expected participants do not update their self-ratings. Interestingly, a similar pattern of preferential updating for desirable versus undesirable information has recently been identified for optimism regarding future life events (Sharot, Korn, Dolan, in progress).Currently, we are analysing how brain activity mediates this positively biased processing of desirable and undesirable feedback. On the basis of previous studies on social learning (Behrens, Hunt, Rushworth, 2009), we expect striatal and prefrontal cortex activity to correlate with the numerical differences between self-rating and feedback. Keywords: Belief updating, PFC, Positivity bias, Social feedback, Striatum Conference: Decision Neuroscience From Neurons to Societies, Berlin, Germany, 23 Sep - 25 Sep, 2010. Presentation Type: Poster Topic: Abstracts Citation: Korn C, Prehn K, Walter H and Heekeren HR (2010). Positively Biased Processing of Social Feedback as Basis of Self-Esteem. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Decision Neuroscience From Neurons to Societies. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.82.00013 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 13 Aug 2010; Published Online: 07 Sep 2010. * Correspondence: Dr. Christoph Korn, Freie Universität Berlin, Department of Eduation and Psychology, Berlin, Germany, christoph.korn@fu-berlin.de Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Christoph Korn Kirsten Prehn Henrik Walter Hauke R Heekeren Google Christoph Korn Kirsten Prehn Henrik Walter Hauke R Heekeren Google Scholar Christoph Korn Kirsten Prehn Henrik Walter Hauke R Heekeren PubMed Christoph Korn Kirsten Prehn Henrik Walter Hauke R Heekeren Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF U-Mo/Al DISPERSION FUEL BY CONSIDERING A FUEL-MATRIX INTERACTION

Because the interaction layers that form between U-Mo particles and the Al matrix degrade the thermal properties of U-Mo/Al dispersion fuel, an investigation was undertaken of the undesirable feedback effect between an interaction layer growth and a centerline temperature increase for dispersion fuel. The radial temperature distribution due to interaction layer growth during irradiation was calculated iteratively in relation to changes in the volume fractions, the thermal conductivities of the constituents, and the oxide thickness with the burnup. The interaction layer growth, which is estimated on the basis of the temperature calculations, showed a reasonable agreement with the post-irradiation examination results of the U-Mo/Al dispersion fuel rods irradiated at the HANARO reactor. The U-Mo particle size was found to be a dominant factor that determined the fuel temperature during irradiation. Dispersion fuel with larger U-Mo particles revealed lower levels of both the interaction layer formation and the fuel temperature increase. The results confirm that the use of large U-Mo particles appears to be an effective way of mitigating the thermal degradation of U-Mo/Al dispersion fuel.

A harmonic model of hydrodynamic forces produced by a flapping fin

The hydrodynamic control laws of unsteady fins inspired by swimming and flying animals are considered. A controller based on cycle-averaged forces requires a bandwidth lower than the flapping frequency, with correspondingly slow reactions to disturbances or commands in order to avoid undesirable feedback from the oscillating fins. A harmonic model of the periodic thruster forces was empirically found using a mechanical fin flapping in roll and pitch in hover, in uniform flow, and under various kinematic conditions. A multi-fin vehicle could use this model to account for the dominant non-linearities and minimize undesirable motions through coordinated control of individual fins.

In Defense of The Self

Onceuponatime,thetopicofself-defense wasconsideredtheexclusiveprovinceofpsychodynamicapproaches.Notanymore.Today,theareasofsocialcognitionandself-defensehavegrownintonaturalallies,fertil-izing each otherwith ideas and methods.From a theoretical standpoint,both areas are concerned with people’s impressions of themselves andothers, with basic memorial and judgmental processes, and with the in-terplay among cognition and motivation on one hand and self-regula-tion on the other. From a methodological standpoint, social cognitionhas been a consistent supplier of inventive experimental paradigms,whileself-defense has notonlyservedas anavid consumerofthesepar-adigms but also has qualified them, extended them, and even added afew of its own.Indeed, several laboratories, on both sides of the Atlantic, are in-tenselybusyconductingresearchon,anddevelopingtheoriesabout,thephenomenon of psychological self-defense (Koole & Kuhl, 2003;Sedikides&Gregg,2003). Amongthecriticalquestionsbeingaddressedare: How do people protect the self against undesirable feedback? Howdo they weigh their self-defense needs against the need to perceivethemselves accurately? How effective are the self-defense strategiesthey employ and in what context do they deploy them? How do peoplediffer in their use of such strategies and what personal or interpersonalconsequences are entailed by these differences?These questions, along with an emphasis on the cognitive underpin-nings of self-defense, both explicit and implicit, are the guiding themesof this special issue. The eight articles represent some cutting-edge re-search on the topic, and feature both substantive theoretical contribu-tions and innovative experimental paradigms.