Psychological Response to Test Results in an Ovarian Cancer Screening Program: A Prospective, Longitudinal Study.

To identify the psychological impact of receipt of an abnormal yet benign screening test result, the authors examined the response to a transvaginal ultrasound screening (TVS) test for ovarian cancer (OC) in asymptomatic women (N=540) undergoing an initial TVS screening test. Interviews were conducted prior to undergoing TVS screening and at 2 weeks and 4 months following this baseline. Women receiving an abnormal yet benign TVS test result (n=33) reported elevated OC-specific, but not general, distress at 2-week follow-up. Distress returned to baseline levels at 4-month follow-up. Consistent with the monitoring process and cognitive-social health information processing models, response to an abnormal TVS result was moderated by a monitoring coping style, low optimism, and a family history of OC. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impaired Higher Order Implicit Sequence Learning on the Verbal Version of the Serial Reaction Time Task in Patients With Parkinson's Disease.

Although neuroimaging studies have strongly implicated basal ganglia involvement in implicit sequence learning, serial reaction time (SRT) studies with Parkinson's disease (PD) patients have yielded mixed results. The present research sought to examine the ability of people with PD to implicitly learn sequences with different sequential structures and to objectively assess explicit knowledge. A version of the SRT task that reduces motor demands was used to compare 19 patients with PD but not dementia and 37 matched controls. PD patients showed less implicit sequence-specific learning for both sequences and reduced response time improvement over sequential trials for the more complex sequence. A closer examination revealed that the deficit involved higher order sequential associations as well as the learning of pairwise information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

In situ Sea Ice Experiments in McMurdo Sound: Cyclic Loading, Fracture, and Acoustic Emissions

The breakup of first-year sea ice plays an important role in the dynamics and thermodynamics of polar ice covers. A recent research program has studied the in situ mechanical properties of the annual ice in Antarctica to support the development of physically based models of the breakup process. As part of this effort, two field trips were conducted to McMurdo Sound, and the present paper describes the experimental work and presents selected results. The in situ experiments investigated the constitutive and fracture behavior of edge-notched, square plate specimens of first-year ice and involved a detailed characterization of the physical properties and thermal state of the ice. Acoustic emissions, which are generated by microcracking, were monitored in the crack tip vicinity and provide insight regarding the size of the process zone. The paper describes the physical properties and microstructure of the sheet, the cyclic-loading response, and the acoustic emissions activity from an extensive series of experiments conducted on one of the in situ specimens. Varying the cyclic-loading frequency and amplitude provided a means to examine rate effects on the anelastic and viscous components of strain and the extent of microcracking near the crack tip. The viscous deformation rate estimated from the experiments exhibited an increasing power-law exponent with values between one and three. Acoustic emissions monitoring indicated that microcracking occurred in a process zone near the crack tip, and the size of the process zone increased with decreasing cyclic loading frequency. Practical aspects of the experiments are considered, and the results are put into context with the overall modeling goals of the project.     

Adsorption Characteristics of Oxide Coated Buoyant Media (ρs<1.0) for Storm Water Treatment. I: Batch Equilibria and Kinetics

Urban rainfall-runoff mobilizes and transports significant loads of metal species. Promulgation of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Phase II regulations has spurred development of Unit Operations and Processes (UOPs) Best Management Practices (BMPs) for control of metal species. Recent UOP designs provide both adsorption and filtration using engineered media such as manganese oxide coated polymeric media (MOPM). Divalent metal species adsorption onto a manganese oxide coated polymeric medium was evaluated through batch adsorption experiments using a flowthrough batch reactor. Freundlich isotherms were utilized to fit the experiment data. For the media examined, MOPM, adsorption is pH dependent and results indicate a favorable solute pH range of >6 for metal species adsorption. The relative adsorption affinity of MOPM for four divalent metal species typically found in storm water is Pb(II)>Cu(II)>Cd(II)>Zn(II). Adsorption rates were rapid for this flowthrough batch system with over 50% removal in the first 30 min and over 90% removal within 5 h at a surface loading rate of 500 mL/cm2?min. The pH drift patterns, due to surface complexation, during each experiment, coincided with the metal species removal rate curve. Study results indicated that the inclusion of a thin manganese coating can significantly increase media adsorption capacity. MOPM has a comparable adsorption capacity for the divalent metal species compared to other commercial and research media.     

Adsorption Characteristics of Oxide Coated Buoyant Media (ρs<1.0) for Storm Water Treatment. II: Equilibria and Kinetic Models

Divalent metal species adsorption onto a manganese oxide coated polymeric medium (MOPM) was evaluated through batch adsorption experiments using a flow-through batch reactor. In this paper, Part II, the batch equilibrium and kinetic data examined in Part I are modeled using a triple layer surface complexation model and a potential driving second order kinetic model. Surface complexation modeling using FITEQL-TLM generated intrinsic surface acidity constants for the MOPM of log?K?a1int = 3.196 and log?K?a2int = ?5.802. The intrinsic surface reaction constants for Pb(II), Cu(II), and Zn(II) were log?K?Pbint = ?1.91, log?K?Cuint = ?2.53, and log?K?Znint = ?4.45, respectively. A potential driving second order kinetic model was developed to predict sorption of the divalent metal ions onto the MOPM. The general adsorption kinetics for MOPM can be described as a fast reaction occurring within 30 min and a slower reaction continuing from 5 to 15 h. Kinetic results can be interpreted using assumptions of the potential driving second order model that the dominant control forces are the chemical potential of the MOPM activated surface sites and chemical potential of sorbate in the solution.     

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)