3,861 research outputs found
DNA adducts in peripheral blood lymphocytes from aluminum production plant workers determined by 32P-postlabeling and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
32P-Postlabeling analysis and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) have been used to detect DNA adducts in peripheral blood lymphocytes from primary aluminum production plant workers who were exposed occupationally to a mixture of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Preliminary results reported here are from a comparative study being performed in two aluminum plants. The levels of aromatic DNA adducts have been determined by the 32P-postlabeling assay in samples collected on two occasions, 1 year apart. PAH-DNA adduct levels have also been determined by competitive ELISA in the second set of DNA samples. The results show the necessity of follow-up biomonitoring studies to detect possible alterations in biological effect induced by changing exposures. The comparison of the results obtained by 32P-postlabeling and ELISA may lead to a better understanding of the power and weaknesses of the two methods applied in these studies
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Dissociating visuo-spatial and verbal working memory: Itâs all in the features
Echoing many of the themes of the seminal work of Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968), this paper uses the Feature Model (Nairne, 1988, 1990; Neath & Nairne, 1995) to account for performance in working memory tasks. The Brooks verbal and visuo-spatial matrix tasks were performed alone, with articulatory suppression, or with a spatial suppression task; the results produced the expected dissociation. We used Approximate Bayesian Computation techniques to fit the Feature Model to the data and showed that the similarity-based interference process implemented in the model accounted for the data patterns well. We then fit the model to data from Guérard and Tremblay (2008); the latter study produced a double dissociation while calling upon more typical order reconstruction tasks. Again, the model performed well. The findings show that a double dissociation can be modelled without appealing to separate systems for verbal and visuo-spatial processing. The latter findings are significant as the Feature Model had not been used to model this type of dissociation before; importantly, this is also the first time the model is quantitatively fit to data. For the demonstration provided here, modularity was unnecessary if two assumptions were made: (1) the main difference between spatial and verbal working memory tasks is the features that are encoded; (2) secondary tasks selectively interfere with primary tasks to the extent that both tasks involve similar features. It is argued that a feature-based view is more parsimonious (see Morey, 2018) and offers flexibility in accounting for multiple benchmark effects in the field
The kinetics of homogeneous melting beyond the limit of superheating
Molecular dynamics simulation is used to study the time-scales involved in
the homogeneous melting of a superheated crystal. The interaction model used is
an embedded-atom model for Fe developed in previous work, and the melting
process is simulated in the microcanonical ensemble. We study
periodically repeated systems containing from 96 to 7776 atoms, and the initial
system is always the perfect crystal without free surfaces or other defects.
For each chosen total energy and number of atoms , we perform several
hundred statistically independent simulations, with each simulation lasting for
between 500 ps and 10 ns, in order to gather statistics for the waiting time
before melting occurs. We find that the probability distribution
of is roughly exponential, and that the mean value depends strongly on the excess of the initial steady temperature of the
crystal above the superheating limit identified by other researchers. The mean
also depends strongly on system size in a way that we have
quantified. For very small systems of atoms, we observe a persistent
alternation between the solid and liquid states, and we explain why this
happens. Our results allow us to draw conclusions about the reliability of the
recently proposed Z method for determining the melting properties of simulated
materials, and to suggest ways of correcting for the errors of the method.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figure
Memory strategies mediate the relationships between memory and judgment
In the literature, the nature of the relationships between
memory processes and summary evaluations is still a debate.
According to some theoretical approaches (e.g., âtwo-memory
hypothesisâ; Anderson, 1989) retrospective evaluations are
based on the impression formed while attending to the to-be assessed stimuli (on-line judgment) â no functional
dependence between information retrieval and judgment is
implied. Conversely, several theories entail that judgment
must depend, at least in part, on memory processes (e.g.,
Dougherty, Gettys, & Ogden, 1999; Schwarz, 1998; Tversky
& Kahneman, 1973). The present study contributes to this
debate by addressing two important issues. First, it shows
how more comprehensive memory measures than those used
previously (e.g., Hastie & Park, 1986) are necessary in order
to detect a relationship between memory and retrospective
evaluations. Secondly, it demonstrates how memory strategies
influence the relationship between memory and judgment.
Participants recalled lists of words, after having assessed each of them for their pleasantness. Results showed a clear
association between memory and judgment, which was
mediated by the individual strategies participants used to
recall the items
A comparison between detailed and configuration-averaged collisional-radiative codes applied to non-local thermal equilibrium plasma
A collisional-radiative model describing nonlocal-thermodynamic-equilibrium
plasmas is developed. It is based on the HULLAC (Hebrew University Lawrence
Livermore Atomic Code) suite for the transitions rates, in the zero-temperature
radiation field hypothesis. Two variants of the model are presented: the first
one is configuration averaged, while the second one is a detailed level
version. Comparisons are made between them in the case of a carbon plasma; they
show that the configuration-averaged code gives correct results for an
electronic temperature Te=10 eV (or higher) but fails at lower temperatures
such as Te=1 eV. The validity of the configuration-averaged approximation is
discussed: the intuitive criterion requiring that the average
configuration-energy dispersion must be less than the electron thermal energy
turns out to be a necessary but far from sufficient condition. Another
condition based on the resolution of a modified rate-equation system is
proposed. Its efficiency is emphasized in the case of low-temperature plasmas.
Finally, it is shown that near-threshold autoionization cascade processes may
induce a severe failure of the configuration-average formalism.Comment: 9
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Brief Report: Impaired Temporal Reproduction Performance in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Although temporal processing has received little attention in the autism literature, there are a number of reasons to suspect that people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may have particular difficulties judging the passage of time. The present study tested a group of 20 high-functioning adults with ASD and 20 matched comparison participants on a temporal reproduction task. The ASD group made reproductions that were significantly further from the base durations than did the comparison group. They were also more variable in their responses. Furthermore the ASD group showed particular difficulties as the base durations increased, tending to underestimate to a much greater degree than the comparison group. These findings support earlier evidence that temporal processing is impaired in ASD
An effect of semantic memory on immediate memory in the visual domain
The present study extends the findings of Hemmer and
Steyvers (2009a) by investigating the influence of semantic
memory on short-term visual memory. In an experiment we
tested how prior knowledge moderates serial position effects,
using familiar (vegetables) and non-familiar stimuli (random
shapes). Participants (Ps) saw lists of six images; each list
held images of vegetables or random shapes. Immediately
after list presentation, one of the items was presented again, in a new, randomly determined size. Ps were asked to resize the image so that it was as close as possible to the size of the just presented item. Results showed that, for the familiar items (vegetables), memory for the itemâs size was supported by prior knowledge of the normal size of the objects; this was not the case for the random shapes. Moreover, there was a stronger serial position effect for random shapes than vegetables suggesting that for the serial positions where memory is typically lowest, the serial position effect was moderated through the support from long-term knowledge
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