Monocular transparency is not a new form of unpaired stereopsis

Howard and Duke (2003) generated stereograms with a grey transparent square offset from a vertical bar in one eye, and a vertical bar with a gap in the other eye. They argued that these displays were 'without conventional disparity' and that the metrical depth experienced was a new form of unpaired stereopsis due to 'transparency rather than occlusion'. Another possibility is that the perceived depth in these displays was obtained from horizontal contours. To test this possibility, we generated three displays that contained similar horizontal contourterminations, but were inconsistent with transparency. Reliable depth was seen in all stimuli. We conclude that in our stimuli, and those of Howard and Duke, transparency is not responsible for the perception of depth, which appears to be based instead on disparate horizontal contour terminations. Our results also show that disparate contours of opposite contrast polarity can generate depth.

Teen Triple P: A universal approach to reducing risk factors for behavioural and emotional problems in adolescents at the transition to high school

Teen Triple P is a multilevel system of intervention that is designed to provide parents with specific strategies to promote the positive development of their teenage children as they make the transition into high school and through puberty. The program is based on a combination of education about the developmental needs of adolescents, skills training to improve communication and problem-solving, plus specific modules to deal with common problems encountered by parents and adolescents that can escalate into major conflict and violence. It is designed to increase the engagement of parents of adolescent and pre-adolescent children by providing them with easy access to evidencebased parenting advice and support. This paper presents data collected as part of a survey of over 1400 students in first year high school at 9 Brisbane schools. The survey instrument was constructed to obtain students' reports about behaviour which is known to be associated with their health and wellbeing, and also on the extent to which their parents promoted or discouraged such behaviour at home, at school, and in their social and recreational activities in the wider community. Selected data from the survey were extracted and presented to parents at a series of parenting seminars held at the schools to promote appropriate parenting of teenagers. The objectives were to provide parents with accurate data about teenagers' behaviour, and about teenagers' reports of how they perceived their parents' behaviour. Normative data on parent and teenager behaviour will be presented from the survey as well as psychometric data relating to the reliability and validity of this new measure. Implications of this strategy for increasing parent engagement in parenting programs that aim to reduce behavioural and emotional problems in adolescents will be discussed.

Suppressing the negative effect of devaluation on group identification: The role of intergroup differentiation and intragroup respect

We examined (N = 76) how social creativity strategies such as intergroup differentiation and intragroup respect suppress the negative impact of threat to an ingroup's value on group identification. Threat was manipulated through false feedback concerning how other groups perceived an ingroup. Both intergroup differentiation and intragroup respect were higher when participants learned that the ingroup was devalued compared to when it was valued. Mediational analyses demonstrated that these factors suppressed the direct negative relationship between value threat and group identification. Discussion focused on the consequences of these social creativity strategies for group identification and collective action. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

How Much Older Do You Get When a Wrinkle Appears on Your Face? Modifying Age Estimates by Number of Wrinkles

The present study investigated the influence of wrinkles on facial age judgments. In Experiment 1, preadolescents, young adults, and middle-aged adults made categorical age judgments for male and female faces. The qualitative (type of wrinkle) and quantitative (density of wrinkles and depth of furrows) contributions of wrinkles were analyzed. Results indicated that the greater the number of wrinkles and the depth of furrows, the older a face was rated. The roles of the gender of the face and the age of the participants were discussed. In Experiment 2, participants performed relative age judgments by comparing pairs of faces. Results revealed that the number of wrinkles had more influence on the perceived facial age than the type of wrinkle. A MDS analysis showed the main dimensions on which participants based their judgments, namely, the number of wrinkles and the depth of furrows. We conclude that the quantitative component is more likely to increase perceived facial age. Nevertheless, other variables, such as the gender of the face and the age of the participants, also seem to be involved in the age estimation process.

Patterns of brain asymmetry in the perception of positive and negative facial expressions

The divided visual field technique was used to investigate the pattern of brain asymmetry in the perception of positive/approach and negative/withdrawal facial expressions. A total of 80 undergraduate students (65 female, 15 male) were distributed in five experimental groups in order to investigate separately the perception of expressions of happiness, surprise, fear, sadness, and the neutral face. In each trial a target and a distractor expression were presented simultaneously in a computer screen for 150 ms and participants had to determine the side (left or right) on which the target expression was presented. Results indicated that expressions of happiness and fear were identified faster when presented in the left visual field, suggesting an advantage of the right hemisphere in the perception of these expressions. Fewer judgement errors and faster reaction times were also observed for the matching condition in which emotional faces were presented in the left visual field and neutral faces in the right visual field. Other results indicated that positive expressions (happiness and surprise) were perceived faster and more accurately than negative ones (sadness and fear). Main results tend to support the right hemisphere hypothesis, which predicts a better performance of the right hemisphere to perceive emotions, as opposed to the approach-withdrawal hypothesis.

Can exocentric direction be dissociated from its exocentric distance in virtual environments?

We conducted two psychophysical experiments to investigate the relationship between processing mechanisms for exocentric distance and direction. In the first experiment, the task was to discriminate exocentric distances. In the second one, the task was to discriminate exocentric directions. The individual effects of distance and direction on each task were dissociated by analyzing their corresponding psychophysical functions. Under stereoscopicviewing conditions, distancejudgments of excentric intervals were not affected by exocentric direction. However, directionjudgments were influenced by the distance between the pair of stimuli. Therefore, the mechanism processing exocentric direction is dependent on exocentric distance, but the mechanism processing exocentric distance does not require exocentric: direction measures. As a result, we suggest that exocentric distance and direction are hierarchically processed, with distance preceding direction. Alternatively, and more probably, a necessary condition for processing the exocentric direction between two stimuli may be to know the location of each of them.

Tonal Modulation and Subjective Time

This work investigated listeners` sense of the temporal expression of tonal modulation. One experiment described the effects on retrospective reproductions of sudden and gradual modulations to close and distant keys. The results showed that modulations elicit time underestimations as an inverse function of interkey distances, with a major impact for sudden modulations. A proposed vectorial model - ""Expected Development Fraction"" (EDF) - describes the development of expectations when an interkey distance is traversed during a certain time interval. This expected development is longer than the perceived duration, leading to underestimation of the time.

How configurations of binocular disparity determine whether stereoscopic slant or stereoscopic occlusion is seen

A partially occluded contour and a slanted contour may generate identical binocular horizontal disparities. We investigated conditions promoting an occlusion resolution indicated by an illusory contour in depth along the aligned ends of horizontally disparate line sets. For a set of identical oblique lines with a constant width added to one eye's view, strength, depth, and stability of the illusory contour were poor, whereas for oblique lines of alternating orientations the illusory contours were strong, indicating a reliance on vertical size disparities rather than vertical positional disparities in generating perceived occlusion. For horizontal lines, occlusion was seen when the lines were of different lengths and absolute width disparity was invariant across the set. In all line configurations, when the additional length was on the wrong eye to be attributed to differential occlusion, lines appeared slanted consistent with their individual horizontal disparities. This rules out monocular illusory contours as the determining factor.

Prostatic Artery Embolization as a Primary Treatment for Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia: Preliminary Results in Two Patients

Symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) typically occurs in the sixth and seventh decades, and the most frequent obstructive urinary symptoms are hesitancy, decreased urinary stream, sensation of incomplete emptying, nocturia, frequency, and urgency. Various medications, specifically 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors and selective alpha-blockers, can decrease the severity of the symptoms secondary to BPH, but prostatectomy is still considered to be the traditional method of management. We report the preliminary results for two patients with acute urinary retention due to BPH, successfully treated by prostate artery embolization (PAE). The patients were investigated using the International Prostate Symptom Score, by digital rectal examination, urodynamic testing, prostate biopsy, transrectal ultrasound (US), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Uroflowmetry and postvoid residual urine volume complemented the investigation at 30, 90, and 180 days after PAE. The procedure was performed under local anesthesia; embolization of the prostate arteries was performed with a microcatheter and 300- to 500-mu m microspheres using complete stasis as the end point. One patient was subjected to bilateral PAE and the other to unilateral PAE; they urinated spontaneously after removal of the urethral catheter, 15 and 10 days after the procedure, respectively. At 6-month follow-up, US and MRI revealed a prostate reduction of 39.7% and 47.8%, respectively, for the bilateral PAE and 25.5 and 27.8%, respectively, for the patient submitted to unilateral PAE. The early results, at 6-month follow-up, for the two patients with BPH show a promising potential alternative for treatment with PAE.

Spatial bias and temporal lag in tactile space perception

Constructing a veridical spatial map by touch poses at least two problems for a perceptual system. First, as the hand is moved through space, the locations of features may be displaced if there is an uncorrected lag between the moment the hand encounters a feature and the time that feature is encoded on a spatial map. Second, due to the sequential nature of the process, some form of memory, which itself may be subject to spatial distortions, is required for integration of spatial samples. We investigated these issues using a task involving active haptic exploration with a stylus swept back and forth in the horizontal plane at the wrist. Remembered locations of tactile targets were shifted towards the medial axis of the forearm, suggesting a central tendency in haptic spatial memory, while evidence for a displacement of perceived locations in the direction of sweep motion was consistent with processing delays.

The response of native Australian rodents to predator odours varies seasonally: a by-product of life history variation?

Small mammals are subject to predation from mammalian, avian and reptilian predators. There is an obvious advantage for prey species to detect the presence of predators in their environment, enabling them to make decisions about movement and foraging behaviour based on perceived risk of predation. We examined the effect of faecal odours from marsupial and eutherian predators, and a native reptilian predator, on the behaviour of three endemic Australian rodent species (the fawn-footed melomys, Melomys cervinipes, the bush rat, Rattus fuscipes, and the giant white-tailed rat, Uromys caudimaculatus) in rainforest remnants on the Atherton Tableland, North Queensland, Australia. Infrared camera traps were used to assess visit rates of rodents to odour stations containing faecal and control odours. Rodents avoided odour stations containing predator faeces, but did not avoid herbivore or control odours. The responses of the three prey species differed: in the late wet season U. caudimaculatus avoided predator odours, whereas R. fuscipes and M. cervinipes did not. In contrast, in the late dry season all three species avoided odour stations containing predator odours. We speculate that these different responses may result from variation in life history traits between the species. (c) 2006 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The aversiveness of specific emotional states associated with binge-eating in obese subjects

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the hypothesis that non-purge-related binge-eating in obesity is maintained by a 'trade-off' in which a highly aversive emotional state is exchanged for a less aversive state. Method: Ninety-eight obese binge-eaters meeting the DSM-IV criteria for binge-eating disorder [1] were contrasted with 65 non-binge-eating controls on their perceived distress associated with negative mood states usually experienced before and after binges. Results: Binge-eaters reported significantly greater distress and lower tolerance of negative mood compared to controls. Furthermore, when compared with controls, binge-eaters reported that emotions typically reported before binges (e.g. anger) were more aversive than those reported after (e.g. guilt). Conclusions: These results were interpreted as supporting the 'trade-off' theory and have implications for the treatment of binge-eating disorder.

The role of physiological understanding in plant breeding; From a breeding perspective

The role of physiological understanding in improving the efficiency of breeding programs is examined largely from the perspective of conventional breeding programs. Impact of physiological research to date on breeding programs, and the nature of that research, was assessed from (i) responses to a questionnaire distributed to plant breeders and physiologists, and (ii) a survey of literature abstracts. Ways to better utilise physiological understanding for improving breeding programs are suggested, together with possible constraints to delivering beneficial outcomes. Responses from the questionnaire indicated a general view that the contribution by crop physiology to date has been modest. However, most of those surveyed expected the contribution to be larger in the next 20 years. Some constraints to progress perceived by breeders and physiologists were highlighted. The survey of literature abstracts indicated that from a plant breeding perspective, much physiological research is not progressing further than making suggestions about possible approaches to selection. There was limited evidence in the literature of objective comparison of such suggestions with existing methodology, or of development and application of these within active breeding programs. It is argued in this paper that the development of outputs from physiological research for breeding requires a good understanding of the breeding program(s) being serviced and factors affecting its performance. Simple quantitative genetic models, or at least the ideas they represent, should be considered in conducting physiological research and in envisaging and evaluating outputs. The key steps of a generalised breeding program are outlined, and the potential pathways for physiological understanding to impact on these steps are discussed. Impact on breeding programs may arise through (i) better choice of environments in which to conduct selection trials, (ii) identification of selection criteria and traits for focused introgression programs, and (iii) identifying traits for indirect selection criteria as an adjunct to criteria already used. While many breeders and physiologists apparently recognise that physiological understanding may have a major role in the first area, there appears to be relatively Little research activity targeting this issue, and a corresponding bias, arguably unjustified, toward examining traits for indirect selection. Furthermore, research on traits aimed at crop improvement is often deficient because key genetic parameters, such as genetic variation in relevant breeding populations and genetic (as opposed to phenotypic) correlations with yield or other characters of economic importance, are not properly considered in the research. Some areas requiring special attention for successfully interfacing physiology research with breeding are discussed. These include (i) the need to work with relevant genetic populations, (ii) close integration of the physiological research with an active breeding program, and (iii) the dangers of a pre-defined or narrow focus in the physiological research.

Interleukin-1 receptor antagonist gene (IL1RN) polymorphism possibly associated to severity of rheumatic carditis in a Brazilian cohort

Aims: To evaluate the IL1RN polymorphism as a possible marker for Rheumatic Fever (RF) susceptibility or disease severity. Methods: The genotypes of 84 RF patients (Jones criteria) and 84 normal race-matched controls were determined through the analysis of the number of 86-bp tandem repeats in the second intron of IL1RN. The DNA was extracted from peripheral-blood leukocytes and amplified with specific primers. Clinical manifestations of RF were obtained through a standardized questionnaire and an extensive chart review. Carditis was defined as new onset cardiac murmur that was perceived by a trained physician with corresponding valvae regurgitation or stenosis on echocardiogram. Carditis was classified as severe in the presence of congestive heart failure or upon the indication for cardiac surgery. The statistical association among the genotypes, RF and its clinical variations was determined. Results: The presence of allele I and the genotype A1/A1 were found less frequently among patients with severe carditis when compared to patients without this manifestation (OR = 0.11, p = 0.031; OR = 0.092, p = 0.017). Neither allele I nor allele 2 were associated with the presence of RF (p = 0.188 and p = 0.106), overall carditis (p = 0.578 and p = 0.767), polyarthritis (p = 0.343 and p = 0.313) and chorea (p = 0.654 and p = 0.633). Conclusion: In the Brazilian population, the polymorphism of the IL-1ra gene is a relevant factor for rheumatic heart disease severity. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Prediction of psychological adjustment to multiple sclerosis

This study examined the utility of self-efficacy as a predictor of social activity and mood control in multiple sclerosis (MS). Seventy-one subjects with MS were recruited from people attending an MS centre or from a mailing list and were examined on two occasions that were two months apart. Clinic patients were more disabled than patients who completed assessments by post, but they were of higher socioeconomic status and were less dysphoric; We attempted to predict self-reported performance of mood control and social activity at two months, from self-efficacy or performance on these tasks at pretest. Demographic variables, disorder status, disability, self-esteem and depression were also allowed to compete for entry into multiple regressions. Substantial stability in mood, performance and disability was observed over the two months. In both mood control and social activity, past performance was the strongest predictor of later performance, but self-efficacy also contributed significantly to the prediction. The disability level entered a prediction of social activity; but no other variables predicted either type of performance. A secondary analysis predicting self-esteem at two months also included self-efficacy for social activity, illustrating the contribution of perceived capability to later assessments of self-worth. The study provided support for self-efficacy as a predictor of later behavioural outcomes and self-esteem in multiple sclerosis. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.