Kayed, Nanna Sønnichsen; van der Meer, Audrey. Infants' timing strategies to optical collisions: A longitudinal study. Infant behavior & development 2007;30:50-59

Blinking is a good indication of awareness to optical collisions in early infancy. In the current longitudinal study, infants were presented with the image of a looming object approaching on a collision course under different constant velocities and constant accelerations. The aim was to investigate which timing strategies the infants used to determine when to make the defensive blink. Blinking when the virtual object reaches a threshold visual angle (angle-strategy) or angular velocity would result in difficulties with accelerating approaches, while blinking when the object is a certain time away (time-strategy) would enable successful responses to all approaches. Eleven infants were tested longitudinally at 22, 26, and 30 weeks. Five infants switched from an angle- to a time-strategy, while one infant switched from using angular velocity to a time-strategy. Five infants used a time-strategy already at 22 weeks. These findings show that with age there is an attunement in the perceptual systems of infants which makes them switch to better specifying variables, enabling them to successfully time their defensive blinking to impending optical collisions.

Wang, Yue; Behne, Dawn Marie. Temporal remnants from Mandarin in nonnative English speech. I: Language Experience in Second Language Speech Learning: John Benjamins Publishing Company 2007. ISBN 978 90 272 1973 2. s. 167-184

Second language (L2) production can take on the form of an interlanguage, a relatively stable system bearing the nature of both the native language (L1) and L2. Within such a system, acoustic-phonetic components of a syllable are known to bear interlanguage characteristics, but how do these interlanguage components interact within the syllable? The present study investigates temporal patterns of L1 and L2 in interaction within a syllable. Audio recordings were made of English stop-vowel syllables produced by native speakers of Mandarin who were fluent in English (ChE). Native English productions (AmE) of these syllables, and native productions of comparable Mandarin (ChM) stop-vowel syllables were also recorded. Temporal measures included stop closure duration, voiceonset time (VOT), vowel duration, and syllable duration. Results show that the internal timing of syllable components in ChE productions often deviates from ChE in the direction of AmE, with the closure duration, VOT, and vowel duration being intermediate to ChM and AmE. These temporal deviations of individual components were also compensated by temporal adjustments of other components in the syllable, maintaining a balanced distribution between the consonant and vowel. These findings are discussed in the context of previous research on interlanguage behavior and the gradual process of acquiring a target language.

Aanondsen, Chris Margaret; van der Meer, Audrey; Brubakk, Ann-Mari; Evensen, Kari Anne Indredavik; Skranes, Jon; Myhr, Gunnar; Weel, Frederikus van der. Differentiating prospective control information for catching in at-risk and control adolescents. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology 2007;49:112-116

This paper investigated the use of prospective control in catching and how the results can be used as a sensitive tool to detect diffuse signs of brain dysfunction. A detailed analysis on a total of 286 catching movements of eight adolescents (two males, six females [four very-low-birthweight {VLBW}, one small for gestational age {SGA}, and three appropriate for gestational age]; mean age 14y 5mo [SD 6 mo]; range 14-15 y) was performed blind for this purpose. The moving target approached the participants from the side at three different, non-constant accelerations. The results showed that three adolescents used less advanced timing strategies that involved the lower-order variables of distance or velocity to govern movement initiation of at least one of their hands. Two of these were preterm VLBW and one was term SGA. The remaining adolescents, on the other hand, all relied on the higher-order variable of time-to-contact to initiate their hand movements, and were, therefore, considered low-risk. These results were compared with the cerebral magnetic resonance imaging results of the adolescents. The findings show that timing strategy pinpoints successfully those adolescents at risk of neurological problems. It was, therefore, concluded that the skill of using prospective information for catching can be used as a tool to detect diffuse signs of motor dysfunction, which are not readily detected by standard behavioural tests alone.

Berg, Bente Gunnveig; Schachtner, J; Utz, Sandra; Homberg, Uwe. Distribution of neuropeptides in the primary olfactory centre of the heliothine moth Heliothis virescens. Cell and Tissue Research 2007;327:385-398

Nevropeptider utgjør en mangfoldig og utbredt samling av signalsubstanser i nervesystemet hos ulike organismer. I denne artikkelen beskrives distribusjon av nevropeptider i hjernens primære luktsenter hos en liten modellorganisme, en nattsvermer.

Christensen, Marit. How do external changes in a community and internal reorganisation influence employees? A study of local health and labour administration services. International Journal of Risk Assessment and Management 2007;7(2):180-188

The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of demands on professionals working in the health sector and the labour market administrationwhen a major local company downsizes. Thirty semi-structured interviews wereconducted in three municipalities with the downsizing of a cornerstone industry.The overall hypotheses, which were largely supported by the study and the existing literature in the field, were that downsizing and job insecurity affect the employees’ physical and psychological health. Downsizing also had moreindirect effects on the families and the community as a whole, as well as for thelocal services generally. The latter expected to be faced with an increase in work demands and workload affecting the service they give to their clients and their experience of health risks and low job satisfaction. Internal reorganisation to meet the demands seemed to have either multiplicative or additive effects depending on variations in the restructuring process.