Prediction of violence and self-harm in mentally disordered offenders: A prospective study of the efficacy of HCR-20, PCL-R, and psychiatric symptomatology.

The efficacy of the Historical, Clinical, and Risk Management Scales (HCR-20; C. D. Webster, D. Eaves, K. S. Douglas, & A. Wintrup, 1995), Psychopathy Checklist--Revised (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 1991), Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS; A. T. Beck, A. Weissman, D. Lester, & L. Trexler, 1974), and Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) to predict violence and self-harm in 34 institutionalized mentally disordered offenders was assessed. Both the HCR-20 and BPRS were strong predictors of violence whereas the PCL-R had moderate predictive ability. BHS was the only variable predictive of self-harm. Although risk assessment measures were successful at predicting in-patient violence, a clinical measure of mental state was at least as effective in these mentally disordered offenders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Families of the baby boom: Parents' division of labor and children's adjustment.

Assessed lesbian couples' division of labor, their satisfaction with division of labor and with their relationships, and their children's psychosocial adjustment. The 26 participating families were headed by lesbian couples, each of whom had at least 1 child between 4 and 9 yrs of age. Parents' relationship satisfaction was generally high but was unrelated to measures of parental division of labor or of children's adjustment. Although both parents reported sharing household tasks and decision making equally, biological mothers reported greater involvement in child care, and nonbiological mothers reported spending longer hours in paid employment. Parents were more satisfied and children were more well-adjusted when labor involved in child care was more evenly distributed between the parents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Removal of cyanobacterial metabolites by nanofiltration from two treated waters

Cyanobacterial metabolites, both toxic and non-toxic, are a major problem for the water industry. Nanofiltration (NF) may be an effective treatment option for removing organic micropollutants, such as cyanobacterial metabolites, from drinking water due to its size exclusion properties. A rapid bench scale membrane test (RBSMT) unit was utilised to trial four NF membranes to remove the cyanobacterial metabolites, microcystin, cylindrospermopsin (CYN), 2-methylisoborneol (MIB) and geosmin (GSM) in two treated waters sourced from the Palmer and Myponga water treatment plants. Membrane fouling was observed for both treated waters; however, only minor differences were observed between feed waters of differing natural organic matter (NOM) concentration. Low molecular weight cut-off (MWCO), or 'tight' NF, membranes afforded average removals above 90% for CYN, while removal by higher MWCO, or 'loose' NF membranes was lower. MIB and GSM were removed effectively (above 75%) by tight NF but less effectively by loose NF. Microcystin variants (MCRR, MCYR, MCLR, MCLA) were removed to above 90% by tight NF membranes; however, removal using loose NF membranes depended on the hydrophobicity and charge of the variant. Different NOM concentration in the treated waters had no effect on the removal of cyanobacterial metabolites.     

Reduction of Campylobacter jejuni by natural antimicrobials in chicken meat-related conditions

Nowadays it is essential to test new preservation and decontamination procedures using naturally occurring chemicals against important pathogenic bacteria in meat. We tested the antimicrobial effect of rosemary extracts and the bacteriocin nisin against Campylobacter jejuni at a low storage temperature (8 °C) with or without short-term pre-freezing. The antimicrobial effect of rosemary extract was four times greater in laboratory media than in chicken meat juice. Furthermore, low temperature storage conditions prolonged the survival of C. jejuni in chicken meat juice. Nisin, with an approximately 1.0 log reduction was neither effective alone nor in combination with the extract. Pre-freezing with plant extract addition proved to be effective treatment by more than 3.0 log reduction in 48 h. The results in chicken meat food model again showed the synergistic effect of freezing and plant extract antimicrobial activity. As the combination of pre-freezing and plant extract treatment reduced the cell number by more than 2.0 log reduction, studies should be conducted to further evaluate this promising treatment for Campylobacter reduction in the poultry meat supply.     

Mutual Comprehensibility of Written Afrikaans and Dutch: Symmetrical or Asymmetrical?

The two West-Germanic languages Dutch and Afrikaans are so closelyrelated that they can be expected to be mutually intelligibleto a large extent. The present investigation focuses on writtenlanguage. Comprehension was established by means of cloze testson the basis of two newspaper articles. Results suggest thatit is easier for Dutch subjects to understand written Afrikaansthan it is for South African subjects to understand writtenDutch. In order to explain the results, attitudes as well asseveral types of linguistic distances were assessed. The relationsbetween attitude scales and intelligibility scores were fewand weak. Asymmetries in the linguistic relationships betweenthe two languages are probably more important, especially theasymmetries in the number of noncognates and the opacity ofthe relatedness of cognates. These asymmetries are caused byhistorical developments in Dutch and Afrikaans, with respectto the lexicon, grammar, and spelling.     

Smokeless tobacco topography and toxin exposure.

This study examined the relationship between oral smokeless tobacco (ST) topographical measures and biomarkers of tobacco and carcinogen exposure. During 2 weeks of baseline ad libitum ST use, 54 male participants (mean age=32.1+/-7.5 years) were required to record the time each dip was placed in and removed from their mouths. Urine samples were collected twice during baseline and analyzed for nicotine, cotinine, and their glucuronides (total nicotine and total cotinine) and for metabolites of the tobacco-specific carcinogen 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK), 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanol and its glucuronides (total NNAL). The results suggest that frequency and duration measures of ST use (p<.01 to p<.001), particularly total dip duration, are significantly correlated with total cotinine, total nicotine, and total NNAL. These results suggest that how long a ST user has tobacco in his mouth is most predictive of tobacco toxin exposure.     

Oxidative stability of structured lipids produced from sunflower oil and caprylic acid

Traditional sunflower oil (SO), randomized lipid (RL) and specific structured lipid (SL), both produced from SO and tricaprylin/caprylic acid, respectively, were stored for up to 12 wk to compare their oxidative stabilities by chemical and sensory analyses. Furthermore, the effect of adding a commercial antioxidant blend Grindox 117 (propyl gallate/ citric acid/ascorbyl palmitate) or gallic acid to the SL was investigated. The lipid type affected the oxidative stability: SL was less stable than SO and RL. The reduced stability was most likely caused by both the structure of the lipid and differences in production/ purification, which caused lower tocopherol content and higher initial levels of primary and secondary oxidation products in SL compared with RL and SO. Grindox 117 and gallic acid did not exert a distinct antioxidative effect in the SL oil samples during storage.     

Profitability of sparse district heating

The expansion of district heating into areas of low heat densities (heat sparse areas) constitutes a challenge due to the higher distribution costs. The profitability of sparse district heating has been analysed from actual investments in 74 areas with 3227 one-family houses connected to district heating between 2000 and 2004 in Göteborg, Sweden. The profitability was estimated from a probable price model, a typical marginal heat generation cost, and the investments from the actual connections made. The analysis identified factors as the linear heat density and heat sold per house explaining the main variations in profitability. The profitability analysis was concluded with a competition analysis. The main conclusion is that sparse district heating is possible when reaching low investment costs for the local distribution network and low marginal costs for the heat generation. In Sweden, the general competitiveness of sparse district heating is facilitated by the high consumption taxes for fuel oil, natural gas, and electricity. Hence, it should be more difficult to introduce sparse district heating in other countries with low energy taxes.     

"Evolutionary" stable strategy of handedness in major league baseball.

Evolutionary stable strategy (ESS) theory was tested on the handedness composition of major league baseball (MLB) players. The throwing handedness of pitchers and the hitting handedness of batters were sampled over 110 yrs and their proportions analyzed over decades. Then, to predict steady-state laterality levels, ESS equations were derived from a payoff matrix of hitting performances for left-right pitcher-batter confrontations (J. Thorn and P. Palmer, 1985). The equations successfully predicted a pitcher-batter invasion in which left-handed pitchers would stabilize at about 31% of the population. For batters, the predictions were 27% left-handed, 11% bats with both hands, and 63% right-handed, accurate within a 3% margin of error. These successful predictions, based on nonarbitrary common-currency values in the payoff matrix, support the validity of ESS, while the use of handedness, a behavior influenced by phylogenetic, ontogenetic, and cultural factors, establishes its generality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)