Achievement of 100% Removal of Oil from Feathers Employing Magnetic Particle Technology

Iron powder has previously been demonstrated to be a potential dry cleansing agent for oiled feathers, whereby both the oil ad(b)sorbing particles and the contaminant may be harvested magnetically. Previous studies on feather clusters have only been able to achieve 97.4% removal. While impressive, this is not considered to be entirely satisfactory for wildlife rehabilitation in practice. Reported in this Technical Note is a series of experiments designed to establish whether a grade of iron powder can be identified that is capable of achieving 100% removal and to identify those characteristics responsible for such improvement. To this end, the abilities of nine different grades of iron powder to remove four different contaminants (three crude oils and a crude oil/seawater emulsion) from feather clusters have been compared, as have the relative physical characteristics of the different iron powders. It has been established that the efficiency of remediation is indeed related to certain physical attributes of the particles (the “grade”). Specifically, a spongy superfine iron powder has been identified that is capable of achieving 100% removal (within experimental error) for all four contaminants tested. This represents an important proof of principle that makes the development of a practical field device a real possibility.     

Using implementation intentions to increase attendance for cervical cancer screening.

This article evaluates an intervention based on P. A Gollwitzer's (1993) concept of implementation intentions. Women registered at a medical practice in rural England (N?=?114) completed measures of the theory of planned behavior variables before a manipulation that induced one half of the sample to form implementation intentions specifying when, where, and how they would make the appointment. Subsequent attendance was determined from medical records. Findings show that the theory of planned behavior variables and previous delay behavior provided good prediction of attendance. However, despite equivalent motivation to attend, participants who formed implementation intentions were much more likely to attend for screening compared with controls (92% vs. 69%). Evidence also suggests that implementation intentions attenuated the relationship between previous delay behavior and subsequent attendance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social-cognitive determinants of hoist usage among health care workers.

Injuries caused by unsafe manual handling of patients are a major source of ill health in health care workers. The present study evaluated the ability of 4 classes of variable to predict use of a hoist when moving a heavily dependent patient. Variables examined were occupational role characteristics, such as hours of work and type of shift worked; biographics, including age and height; aspects of occupational context, such as number of hoists available and number of patients; and motivational variables specified by the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1985) and protection motivation theory (Rogers, 1983). Regression analyses showed that background and social-cognitive variables were able to account for 59% of variance in intention to use a hoist and 41% of variance in use of the hoist assessed 6 weeks later. Height, hoist availability, coworker injunctive norm, perceived behavioral control, response cost, response benefits, and social and physical costs of not using the hoist each explained independent variance in motivation to use a hoist at work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Mechanical Properties,Migration, and Potential Applications in Active Food Packaging Systems Containing Nanoclays and Nanosilver

The incorporation of nanomaterials into a range of polymeric materials shows great potential for developing new active food packaging systems. Although there are many suggested benefits of nanoparticles (NPs) in food packaging, there are also potential risks due to the possibility of such particles migrating into foodstuffs. This has obvious implications for human health and it may also negatively impact on marketing and consumer confidence. This review focuses on 2 particular types of nanomaterials: nanoclays and nanosilver, with a view to examining the effects of these on system mechanical properties (nanoclays) and antimicrobial efficacy (nanosilver). It further reports on the various migration studies, techniques for characterization, and measurement of NPs as well as the potential migration of NPs from packaging into foodstuffs. Assessment of the literature to date suggests there is an urgent need for further research in order to devise better NP detection methods and to determine the likelihood of their migration from packaging materials into foodstuffs.     

Temporal framing and the decision to take part in type 2 diabetes screening: Effects of individual differences in consideration of future consequences on persuasion.

Reliable individual differences in the extent to which people consider the long- and short-term consequences of their own behaviors are hypothesized to influence the impact of a persuasive communication. In a field experiment, the time frame of occurrence of positive and negative consequences of taking part in a proposed Type 2 diabetes screening program was manipulated in a sample of 210 adults with a mean age of 53 years. Individual differences in consideration of future consequences (CFC; A. Strathman, F. Gleicher, D. S. Boninger, & C. S. Edwards, 1994) moderated (a) the generation of positive and negative thoughts and (b) the persuasive impact of the different communications. Low-CFC individuals were more persuaded when positive consequences were short term and negative consequences were long term. The opposite was true of high-CFC individuals. Path analyses show that net positive thoughts generated mediated the effect of the CFC × Time Frame manipulations on behavioral intentions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychosocial correlates of heterosexual condom use: a meta-analysis

Despite increasing incidence of HIV/AIDS, there has been no systematic review of correlates of condom use among heterosexual samples. To rectify this, the present study used meta-analysis to quantify the relationship between psychosocial variables and self-reported condom use. Six hundred sixty correlations distributed across 44 variables were derived from 121 empirical studies. Variables were organized in terms of the labeling, commitment, and enactment stages of the AIDS Risk Reduction Model (Catania, Kegeles, & Coates, 1990). Findings showed that demographic, personality, and labeling stage variables had small average correlations with condom use. Commitment and enactment stage variables fared better, with attitudes toward condoms, behavioral intentions, and communication about condoms being the most important predictors. Overall, findings support a social psychological model of condom use highlighting the importance of behavior-specific cognitions, social interaction, and preparatory behaviors rather than knowledge and beliefs about the threat of infection.     

Social–cognitive beliefs, alcohol, and tobacco use: A prospective community study of change following a ban on smoking in public places.

Objective: To examine social–cognitive change associated with behavior change after the introduction of a smoke-free public places policy. Design: Adults (N = 583) who use public houses licensed to sell alcohol (pubs) completed questionnaires assessing alcohol and tobacco consumption and social–cognitive beliefs 2 months prior to the introduction of the smoking ban in England on July 1, 2007. Longitudinal follow-up (N = 272) was 3 months after the introduction of the ban. Main outcome measures: Social–cognitive beliefs, daily cigarette consumption, and weekly alcohol consumption. Results: Smokers consumed considerably more alcohol than did nonsmokers at both time points. However, a significant interaction of Smoking Status × Time showed that while smokers had consumed fewer units of alcohol after the ban, nonsmokers showed an increase over the same period. There was a significant reduction in number of cigarettes consumed after the ban. Subjective norms concerning not smoking, and perceived severity of smoking-related illness increased across time. Negative outcomes associated with not smoking were reduced among former smokers and increased across time among smokers. Regression analyses showed that changes in subjective norm and negative outcome expectancies accounted for significant variance in change in smoking across time. Conclusion: Results suggest that the smoking ban may have positive health benefits that are supported by social–cognitive change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mathematical Model for the Sequestering of Chemical Contaminants by Magnetic Particles

A mathematical model is developed and implemented to characterize the pickup of various liquid chemical contaminants by polyethylene-coated magnetic particles. The model and its associated experimental and analytical protocols were applied to a wide range of liquid chemicals in order to gain insights into the physical basis for the pickup phenomenon. The characteristics of the pickup isotherms range between “ideal” and “nonideal” behaviors that are reflected in the mathematical model by a single parameter, α0, where α0 = 1 corresponds to ideal behavior and α0>1 corresponds to a departure from idealized behavior that is directly quantified by the magnitude of α0. The parameter α0 is also related to the efficiency of pickup, and since most isotherms observed in the study deviate from ideality, the high efficiency of pickup observed in these systems has been attributed in part to this deviation. The proposed model and its associated experimental and analytical protocols demonstrate great potential for the systematic evaluation of the uptake of chemical contaminants using magnetic particle technology.     

Illness schema activation and attentional bias to coping procedures.

Objective: Relatively little research to date has directly addressed the schematic nature of illness representations proposed by H. Leventhal, J. Weinman, and L. A. Phillips' (1980) common sense model of illness. The present experiments tested the hypothesis that coping information is schematically encoded within the representations of a specific illness. Design: A 2 (primed vs. control) × 2 (past user of coping strategy vs. nonuser of coping strategy) design was used in 2 experiments with independent samples. A subliminal prime was used to activate a common cold schema outside of conscious awareness. Main Outcome Measures: Response latencies in milliseconds for correct responses to a target common cold remedy word on a grammatical decision task served as the dependent measure in each experiment. Target words were Lemsip in Experiment 1 and lozenge in Experiment 2. Results: In each experiment, a significant interaction of Prime × Past Strategy Use was obtained. Participants in whom the "common cold" schema was activated and who also reported high past strategy use demonstrated attentional bias to the name of a popular common cold remedy. Conclusion: Activation of a schematic representation of illness may automatically activate information related to coping procedures encoded in memory with the illness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)