Normalizing Behavior of Unsaturated Granular Pavement Materials

One of the important components of a flexible pavement structure is granular material layers. Unsaturated granular pavement materials (UGPMs) in these layers influence stresses and strains throughout the pavement structure, and have a large effect on asphalt concrete fatigue and pavement rutting (two of the primary failure mechanisms for flexible pavements). The behavior of UGPMs is dependent on water content, but this effect has been traditionally difficult to quantify using either empirical or mechanistic methods. This paper presents a practical mechanistic framework for determining the behavior of UGPMs within the range of water contents, densities, and stress states likely to be encountered under field conditions. Both soil suction and generated pore pressures are determined and compared to confinement under typical field loading conditions. The framework utilizes a simple soil suction model that has three density-independent parameters, and can be determined using conventional triaxial equipment that is available in many pavement engineering laboratories.     

Associations in the Course of Personality Disorders and Axis I Disorders Over Time.

In this study, the authors examined time-varying associations between schizotypal (STPD), borderline (BPD), avoidant (AVPD), or obsessive-compulsive (OCPD) personality disorders and co-occurring Axis I disorders in 544 adult participants from the Collaborative Longitudinal Personality Disorders Study. The authors tested predictions of specific longitudinal associations derived from a model of crosscutting psychobiological dimensions (L. J. Siever & K. L. Davis, 1991) with participants with the relevant Axis I disorders. The authors assessed participants at baseline and at 6-, 12-, and 24-month follow-up evaluations. BPD showed significant longitudinal associations with major depressive disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder. AVPD was significantly associated with anxiety disorders (specifically social phobia and obsessive-compulsive disorder). Two of the four personality disorders under examination (STPD and OCPD) showed little or no association with Axis I disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Scientific Attack on Brown v. Board of Education, 1954-1964.

Psychologists' work was cited in the Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education (1954). One criticism of the citation was that psychology could be used to overturn the Brown decision and return the country to segregation. A historical examination of such an attempt to overturn Brown in the early 1960s on the basis of new psychological knowledge shows that psychology was not persuasive in the face of the civil rights movement. The failure of segregationists to overturn Brown with psychological experts underscores how psychology is ineluctably bound to the larger society. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Two-Year Stability and Change of Schizotypal, Borderline, Avoidant, and Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorders.

The authors examined the stability of schizotypal (STPD), borderline (BPD), avoidant (AVPD) and obsessive-compulsive (OCPD) personality disorders (PDs) over 2 years of prospective multiwave follow-up. Six hundred thirty-three participants recruited at 4 collaborating sites who met criteria for 1 or more of the 4 PDs or for major depressive disorder (MOD) without PD were assessed with semistructured interviews at baseline, 6, 12, and 24 months. Lifetable survival analyses revealed that the PD groups had slower time to remission than the MDD group. Categorically, PD remission rates range from 50% (AVPD) to 61% (STPD) for dropping below diagnostic threshold on a blind 24-month reassessment but range from 23% (STPD) to 38% (OCPD) for a more stringent definition of improvement. Dimensionally, these findings suggest that PDs may be characterized by maladaptive trait constellations that are stable in their structure (individual differences) but can change in severity or expression over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

'It's the end of the world as we know it': Threat and the spatial-symbolic self": Correction to Burris and Rempel (2004).

Reports an error in 'It's the End of the World as We Know It': Threat and the Spatial-Symbolic Self" by Christopher T. Burris and John K. Rempel (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2004[Jan], Vol 86[1], 19-42). The article contained two errors. On page 35, second column, line 14, two of the word fragments are notated incorrectly. The word shown as s[k]ull should be sk[u]ll, and the word shown as as[h]es should be as[h]e[s]. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2003-11198-002.) According to amoebic self theory, the boundary defining the self encompasses 3 levels of self-representation--bodily, social, and spatial-symbolic. Study 1 related a newly developed measure of individual differences in sensitivity to boundary threat across these 3 domains to values and disgust sensitivity. Four subsequent studies focused on spatial-symbolic threat sensitivity and related it to right-wing authoritarianism, aversive reactions to unfamiliar out-groups, and revulsion to vermin. A final experiment illustrates how a salient spatial-symbolic threat (dust mites) can elicit reactions toward out-groups that closely parallel mortality salience effects observed in research inspired by terror management theory, even though dust mites do not elicit mortality concerns. The importance of preserving the familiar in order to preserve the self is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Objective Measurement of Cognitive Fatigue in Multiple Sclerosis.

Objective: Objective examination of cognitive fatigue in persons with multiple sclerosis (MS). Participants: Fifty-six individuals with MS and 39 age- and education-matched healthy control subjects. Main Outcome Measures: Cognitive fatigue, operationalized as the failure to sustain effort over the course of a continuous working memory task; performance on the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test was examined, with number of correct responses generated and responses produced under conditions of sustained central executive load as the dependent variables. Results: Cognitively impaired MS subjects produced significantly fewer correct responses than either nonimpaired MS subjects or healthy control subjects, who performed at a comparable level. Both MS groups, however, showed susceptibility to cognitive fatigue significantly earlier in time than the healthy group. Conclusions: Fatigue can influence performance even in the absence of cognitive impairment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Longitudinal Examination of Causal Attributions and Depression Symptomatology in Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Objective: Examine longitudinal relationships between causal attributions and depression symptoms in adults with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Study Design: Cross-lagged panel correlations tested the temporal precedence of attributions relative to depression symptoms over 1 year. Participants: Forty-two participants completed self-report instruments on 2 occasions. Main Outcome Measures: The Inventory to Diagnose Depression and the Attributional Style Questionnaire. Results: Time 1 attributions predicted increased levels of depression symptoms at Time 2 after perceived pain and disability were controlled: Time 1 depression symptoms were unrelated to Time 2 attributions. Cross-lagged correlation comparisons revealed statistical dominance for attribution-depression relationships relative to depression-attribution relationships. Conclusions: Results support cognitive diathesis conceptualizations of depression and support cognitive-behavioral treatments for depression in RA. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

How Many Selves in Emotion Experience? Reply to Dalgleish and Power (2004).

T. Dalgleish and M. J. Power (see record 2004-15929-012) suggest that J. A. Lambie and A. J. Marcel's (2002) article implicitly presents a unitary view of self in emotion experience and propose that certain clinical phenomena require multiple selves. This reply summarizes Lambie and Marcel's usages of the term self and examines both Dalgleish and Power's gloss of these and their own usages. This indicates that their own central usage of the term misrepresents Lambie and Marcel and is itself an improper usage. More important, examination of the phenomena claimed to require multiple selves suggests that they do not and that Dalgleish and Power may have misread the relevant clinical literature. Finally, Lambie and Marcel's own conception of dissociative phenomena and multiple selves are outlined, and alternative approaches are sketched. In discussing the usages of the term self and interpretation of cognitive and affective disorders, this reply attempts to clarify certain confusions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Category Learning in Rhesus Monkeys: A Study of the Shepard, Hovland, and Jenkins (1961) Tasks.

In influential research, R. N. Shepard, C. I. Hovland, and H. M. Jenkins (1961) surveyed humans' categorization abilities using tasks based in rules, exclusive-or (XOR) relations, and exemplar memorization. Humans' performance was poorly predicted by cue-conditioning or stimulus-generalization theories, causing Shepard et al. to describe it in terms of hypothesis selection and rule application that were possibly supported by verbal mediation. The authors of the current article surveyed monkeys' categorization abilities similarly. Monkeys, like humans, found category tasks with a single relevant dimension the easiest and perceptually chaotic tasks requiring exemplar memorization the most difficult. Monkeys, unlike humans, found tasks based in XOR relations very difficult. The authors discuss the character and basis of the species difference in categorization and consider whether monkeys are the generalization-based cognitive system that humans are not. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Satellite radar remote sensing of seasonal growing seasons for boreal and subalpine evergreen forests

We evaluated whether satellite radar remote sensing of landscape seasonal freeze-thaw cycles provides an effective measure of active growing season timing and duration for boreal and subalpine evergreen forests. Landscape daily radar backscatter measurements from the SeaWinds scatterometer on-board the QuikSCAT satellite were evaluated across a regional network of North American coniferous forest sites for 2000 and 2001. Radar remote sensing measurements of the initiation and length of the growing season corresponded closely with both site measurements and ecosystem process model (BIOME-BGC) simulations of these parameters because of the sensitivity of the K_u-band scatterometer to snow cover freeze-thaw dynamics and associated linkages between growing season initiation and the timing of seasonal snowmelt. In contrast, remote sensing estimates of the timing of growing season termination were either weakly or not significantly associated with site measurements and model simulation results, due to the relative importance of light availability and other environmental controls on stand phenology in the fall. Regional patterns of estimated annual net primary production (NPP) and component photosynthetic and autotrophic respiration rates for the evergreen forest sites also corresponded favorably with remote sensing estimates of the seasonal timing of spring thaw and associated growing season length, indicating the importance of these parameters in determining spatial and temporal patterns of NPP and the potential utility of satellite radar remote sensing for regional monitoring of the terrestrial biosphere.