A new orthorhombic approximant of the icosahedral Al–Cu–Fe quasicrystal

We report on the formation of a new crystalline approximant phase of the icosahedral (i-)Al–Cu–Fe quasicrystal. This phase is formed during sintering of Al-based composites reinforced with i-AlCuFeB quasicrystalline particles. The structure of this phase has been characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high-resolution electron microscopy (HREM). TEM revealed that it is a B-centred orthorhombic phase with lattice parameters a = 1.166 nm, b = 1.195 nm and c = 3.44 nm. Its chemical composition, as determined by electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), is close to Al_76.9Cu_2.7Fe_20.4, with an average number of valence electrons per atom e/a of 1.92, similar to the value in all other approximants of the i-phase discovered thus far. Initial results on local atomic arrangements along one of its pseudo-5-fold axes are also presented.     

Context affects feeling-of-knowing accuracy in younger and older adults

In feeling of knowing (FOK) studies, participants predict subsequent recognition memory performance on items that were initially encoded but that cannot presently be recalled. Research suggests that FOK judgment magnitude may be influenced by the total amount, or quantity, of contextual information retrieved related to the unrecalled target (e.g., Koriat, 1993). The present study examined the contribution of quality of that information to episodic FOK judgments. In addition, we tested whether the episodic FOK deficit demonstrated by older adults could be reduced by encouraging retrieval of contextual information relevant to the target. Three experiments demonstrated that quality of the retrieved partial information influenced FOK judgments in both older and younger adults; however, the manifestation of that influence was age dependent. The results also indicated that older adults required explicit retrieval of contextual information before making FOK judgments in order to make accurate FOK predictions. The results suggest that FOK accuracy may be partially determined by search processes triggered when participants are queried for contextual information.     

Treating obsessive compulsive behavior and enhancing peer engagement in a preschooler with intellectual disability

Intellectual disability (ID) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairments in cognitive and adaptive functioning in social, practical, or conceptual domains. Individuals with ID present with higher‐order repetitive behaviors such as a need for sameness, ritualistic, and compulsive behaviors. Often referred to as obsessive compulsive behaviors (OCBs), these behaviors increase in prevalence between 2 and 5 years of age. The present study evaluated an exposure‐based behavioral intervention for decreasing OCBs and concomitantly increasing play skills in a 4‐year‐old boy with mild ID in an inclusive preschool setting. Using a multiple baseline across behaviors design, the intervention was associated with a decrease in target behaviors and an increase in the duration of peer social engagement, with results maintained at 3‐week follow‐up. The intervention consisted of exposure and response prevention with function‐based components. Procedures including prompting and reinforcement were generalized to parent and teacher mediators. This study provides preliminary support for the use of an exposure‐based behavioral intervention to treat OCBs in children of preschool age with ID.     

Screening for eating disorders in primary care: EDE-Q versus SCOFF

OBJECTIVE AND METHODS: The comparative validity of the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) (22 items) and SCOFF (five items) in screening for cases of the more commonly occurring eating disorders was examined in a primary care sample of young adult women (n=257). Diagnoses were confirmed in a sub-group of interviewed participants (n=147). RESULTS: Twenty-five cases, primarily variants of bulimia nervosa (BN) not meeting formal diagnostic criteria, were identified in the interviewed sample. An EDE-Q global score of >or= 2.80 yielded the optimal trade-off between sensitivity (Se) (0.80) and specificity (Sp) (0.80) (positive predictive value (PPV)=0.44), whereas a score of two or more positive responses on the SCOFF was optimal (Se=0.72, Sp=0.73, PPV=0.35). Validity coefficients for both measures varied as a function of participants' age and body weight, although these effects were more pronounced for the SCOFF. CONCLUSIONS: Both measures performed well in terms of their ability to detect cases and to exclude non-cases of the more commonly occurring eating disorders in a primary care setting. The EDE-Q performed somewhat better than the SCOFF and was more robust to effects on validity of age and weight. These findings need to be weighed against the advantage of the SCOFF in terms of its brevity.     

Contribution of facial and vocal cues in the still-face response of 4-month-old infants

The contribution of contingent facial and vocal information in the still-face effect was investigated. Four-month-old infants either saw and heard their mother, only saw their mother, or only heard their mother interacting with them. These interaction periods were followed by the cessation of the mother's interactive face and/or voice. Only infants who observed their mother's face become still and neutral, showed a still-face effect by decreasing their visual attention and positive affect. The findings provide further support that the mother's interactive voice does not contribute to the still-face effect. The developing sensitivity to vocal information in dyadic and triadic contexts is discussed.     

Coping with loneliness in old age: a cross-cultural comparison

The present study is an examination of the influence of cultural background on the ways in which the aged cope with loneliness. Thirty-six participants from Canada and 105 from Portugal (60-83 years old) answered an 86-item questionnaire which examined thebeneficial strategies which they used to cope with loneliness. The strategies which were examined included Acceptance and Reflection, Self-Development and Understanding, Social Support Network, Distancing and Denial, Religion and Faith, and Increased Activity. Results indicated that the elderly of the two cultures differ on three subscales. Gender differences between and within cultures were also examined.     

Visuospatial memory and phonological loop in learning from multimedia

The dual‐task paradigm was used to show how visuospatial working memory and the phonological loop are involved in processing scientific texts and illustrations presented via computer. In experiment 1, two presentation formats were compared: text‐only and text‐with‐illustrations. With a concurrent tapping task, the beneficial effect of illustrations disappeared, while a concurrent articulatory task impaired performance similarly in both presentation formats. An analysis of individual differences revealed that this pattern of results was present in high, but not low spatial span subjects. These results support the selective involvement of visuospatial working memory in processing illustrated texts. In Experiment 2, the text‐only presentation format was compared to an illustrations‐only format. The concurrent articulatory task selectively impaired text‐only processing, compared with processing illustrations‐only. In addition, this pattern of results was found for high, but not low digit span subjects. These results suggest that individual differences define the extent to which the two subsystems of working memory are involved in learning from multimedia. These two subsystems would be mainly involved in the maintenance of a visual trace of illustrations and of a verbatim representation of linguistic information respectively, these representations being the basis for higher‐level comprehension processes. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Some Syntactic Approaches to the Handling of Inconsistent Knowledge Bases: A Comparative Study Part 1: The Flat Case

This paper presents and discusses several methods for reasoning from inconsistent knowledge bases. A so-called argued consequence relation, taking into account the existence of consistent arguments in favour of a conclusion and the absence of consistent arguments in favour of its contrary, is particularly investigated. Flat knowledge bases, i.e., without any priority between their elements, are studied under different inconsistency-tolerant consequence relations, namely the so-called argumentative, free, universal, existential, cardinality-based, and paraconsistent consequence relations. The syntax-sensitivity of these consequence relations is studied. A companion paper is devoted to the case where priorities exist between the pieces of information in the knowledge base.