17,200 research outputs found
Visuospatial tasks suppress craving for cigarettes.
The Elaborated Intrusion (EI) theory of desire posits that visual imagery plays a key role in craving. We report a series of experiments testing this hypothesis in a drug addiction context. Experiment 1 showed that a mental visual imagery task with neutral content reduced cigarette craving in abstaining smokers, but that an equivalent auditory task did not. The effect of visual imagery was replicated in Experiment 2, which also showed comparable effects of non-imagery visual working memory interference. Experiment 3 showed that the benefit of visual over auditory interference was not dependent upon imagery being used to induce craving. Experiment 4 compared a visuomotor task, making shapes from modeling clay, with a verbal task (counting back from 100), and again showed a benefit of the visual over the non-visual task. We conclude that visual imagery supports craving for cigarettes. Competing imagery or visual working memory tasks may help tackle craving in smokers trying to quit
Emotional and behavioral reaction to intrusive thoughts.
A self-report measure of the emotional and behavioral reactions to intrusive thoughts was developed. The article presents data that confirm the stability, reliability, and validity of the new seven-item measure. Emotional and behavioral reactions to intrusions emerged as separate factors on the Emotional and Behavioral Reactions to Intrusions Questionnaire (EBRIQ), a finding confirmed by an independent stress study. Test-retest reliability over 30 to 70 days was good. Expected relationships with other constructs were significant. Stronger negative responses to intrusions were associated with lower mindfulness scores and higher ratings of experiential avoidance, thought suppression, and intensity and frequency of craving. The EBRIQ will help explore differences in reactions to intrusive thoughts in clinical and nonclinical populations, and across different emotional and behavioral states. It will also be useful in assessing the effects of therapeutic approaches such as mindfulness
Analytical approach to directed sandpile models on the Apollonian network
We investigate a set of directed sandpile models on the Apollonian network,
which are inspired on the work by Dhar and Ramaswamy (PRL \textbf{63}, 1659
(1989)) for Euclidian lattices. They are characterized by a single parameter
, that restricts the number of neighbors receiving grains from a toppling
node. Due to the geometry of the network, two and three point correlation
functions are amenable to exact treatment, leading to analytical results for
the avalanche distributions in the limit of an infinite system, for .
The exact recurrence expressions for the correlation functions are numerically
iterated to obtain results for finite size systems, when larger values of
are considered. Finally, a detailed description of the local flux properties is
provided by a multifractal scaling analysis.Comment: 7 pages in two-column format, 10 illustrations, 5 figure
Basin entropy behavior in a cyclic model of the rock-paper-scissors type
We deal with stochastic network simulations in a model with three distinct
species that compete under cyclic rules which are similar to the rules of the
popular rock-paper-scissors game. We investigate the Hamming distance density
and then the basin entropy behavior, running the simulations for some typical
values of the parameters mobility, predation and reproduction and for very long
time evolutions. The results show that the basin entropy is another interesting
tool of current interest to investigate chaotic features of the network
simulations that are usually considered to describe aspects of biodiversity in
the cyclic three-species model.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables. To appear in EP
Multiple Invaded Consolidating Materials
We study a multiple invasion model to simulate corrosion or intrusion
processes. Estimated values for the fractal dimension of the invaded region
reveal that the critical exponents vary as function of the generation number
, i.e., with the number of times the invasion process takes place. The
averaged mass of the invaded region decreases with a power-law as a
function of , , where the exponent . We
also find that the fractal dimension of the invaded cluster changes from
to . This result confirms that the
multiple invasion process follows a continuous transition from one universality
class (NTIP) to another (optimal path). In addition, we report extensive
numerical simulations that indicate that the mass distribution of avalanches
has a power-law behavior and we find that the exponent
governing the power-law changes continuously as a
function of the parameter . We propose a scaling law for the mass
distribution of avalanches for different number of generations .Comment: 8 pages and 16 figure
Preparation and characterization of methacrylate hydrogels for zeta potential control
A technique based on the measurement of streaming potentials has been developed to evaluate the effects of hydrophilic coatings on electroosmotic flow. The apparatus and procedure are described as well as some results concerning the electrokinetic potential of glass capillaries as a function of ionic strength, pH, and temperature. The effect that turbulence and entrance flow conditions have on accurate streaming potential measurements is discussed. Various silane adhesion promoters exhibited only a slight decrease in streaming potential. A coating utilizing a glycidoxy silane base upon which methylcellulose is applied affords a six-fold decrease over uncoated tubes. Hydrophilic methacrylate gels show similar streaming potential behavior, independent of the water content of the gel. By introduction of positive or negative groups into the hydrophilic methacrylate gels, a range of streaming potential values are obtained having absolute positive or negative signs
Memory effects on the statistics of fragmentation
We investigate through extensive molecular dynamics simulations the
fragmentation process of two-dimensional Lennard-Jones systems. After
thermalization, the fragmentation is initiated by a sudden increment to the
radial component of the particles' velocities. We study the effect of
temperature of the thermalized system as well as the influence of the impact
energy of the ``explosion'' event on the statistics of mass fragments. Our
results indicate that the cumulative distribution of fragments follows the
scaling ansatz , where is
the mass, and are cutoff parameters, and is a scaling
exponent that is dependent on the temperature. More precisely, we show clear
evidence that there is a characteristic scaling exponent for each
macroscopic phase of the thermalized system, i.e., that the non-universal
behavior of the fragmentation process is dictated by the state of the system
before it breaks down.Comment: 5 pages, 8 figure
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