Possible explanations for social class differences in cancer patient survival

Social class differences in cancer patient survival have been reported for most cancer types and for a number of countries. The etiology of these differences has been studied less thoroughly and less systematically than social class differences in cancer occurrence. Stage of disease at diagnosis appears to be the most important factor contributing to the social class differences in cancer patient survival. This has been observed most clearly for gastrointestinal and gynaecological cancers. Social class differences in survival are generally wider for patients diagnosed with cancer at local stages than for those diagnosed with cancer at advanced stages. The reasons why cancers are more frequently diagnosed at a local stage in high than in low social classes in not properly understood at the moment. Of other potential contributing factors, the role of treatment and psychosocial factors has scarcely been studied. Biological indicators of tumour aggressiveness have failed to explain the social class differences.     

Ethological remarks on mannerisms. Conceptualisation and proposal for a definition. off

Mannerisms are symptoms of various psychiatric disorders. The term has not been defined thoroughly and is often confused with stereotypies or the more generally used term 'bizarreness'. From an ethological perspective, mannerisms may be regarded as pathologically altered forms of ritualised behaviour that serve a communicative purpose. Mannerisms are maladaptive behaviours since they lead to withdrawal of and rejection by the socially interacting partner, or even induce aggressive behaviour due to the pathologically exaggerated and overdrawn appearance. The behaviour-physiology interactions of manneristic behaviour are not fully understood. Altered brain metabolism and disturbed perceptivity of social signals may be involved.     

Constraints on View Combination: Effects of Self-Occlusion and Differences Among Familiar and Novel Views.

The use of multiple familiar views of objects to facilitate recognition of novel views has been addressed in a number of behavioral studies, but the results have not been conclusive. The present study was a comprehensive examination of view combination for different types of novel views (internal or external to the studied views) and different objects (amoeboid objects and objects composed of geons; objects with and without self-occlusion across rotation). The authors found that the advantage gained from the study of 2 views was more than the generalization from each of the studied views presented alone. This facilitation occurred only for internal views but not external views. In addition, the benefits from the study of 2 views diminished when (a) the studied views did not share the same visible features and when (b) the studied views were separated by a small angular difference. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

External and internal memory aids: When and how often do we use them?

Examined, in 3 experiments with a total of 489 undergraduates, the kinds of memory aids people use to help them remember in their daily lives. Depending on the situation, they may use internal aids (e.g., mental rehearsal, imagery) of the types usually studied in the laboratory or external aids (e.g., reminder notes, asking someone else), which are rarely investigated but may be often used. Ss' ratings and task performance indicated that they used external memory aids more often than internal aids (a) to prepare for future remembering than to remember past situations, (b) to remember spatial tasks than to remember verbal tasks, and (c) to remember to do things in the past than to remember information from the past. External aids were rated as more dependable, easier to use, more accurate, and more preferred than internal ones. Results indicate that at least 1 external aid, taking notes, affects encoding and not just retrieval, as shown by its facilitation of remembering even when the notes were not available as retrieval cues and its induction of greater categorization of the to-be-remembered items than the use of some other memory aids. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The terminal solubility of hydrogen in niobium-tantalum alloys

The terminal solubility of hydrogen (TSH) in equilibrium with hydride in the Nb-Ta system is known to show a large intermediate maximum at temperatures in the region of 250 K. The origin of this “abnormal” behavior has not been successfully explained previously. In the temperature range of the TSH measurements, pseudo-binary (para-equilibrium) behaviour may be expected. Using the thermodynamic data available for the two pure metal-hydrogen systems, together with reasonable assumptions concerning the ternary mixtures, phase diagrams corresponding to complete equilibrium and paraequilibrium have been constructed for this system. It is clear from the phase diagrams that, rather than being anomalous, a large intermediate maximum in the TSH is the expected behaviour. It is suggested that an increase in the TSH on alloying is likely to be fairly general, irrespective of the relative affinity of solute and solvent for hydrogen.     

Priming effects in successive episodic tests.

This article describes two experiments that investigated primed facilitation in cued recall, in a situation in which a recognition test was followed by a cued-recall test. Subjects were tested at six intervals, ranging from an immediate test to a maximum delay of 4 weeks. With retention intervals of 2 or 4 weeks, the recall of studied but subsequently unrecognized words was higher than the recall of initially studied words that had not been presented to subjects on the preceding recognition test. This clearly indicates that unrecognized words can be primed, resulting in facilitation in subsequent cued recall. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of postural changes of the upper limb on reflex transmission in the lower limb. Cervicolumbar reflex interactions in man

The influence of passive changes in upper limb position on the excitability of three myotatic arc reflexes (soleus, quadriceps, and biceps femoris) of the lower limb has been explored on 42 volunteers. The results indicate that the excitability of the three myotatic arcs can be influenced at a distance by postural modifications of the upper limb. When the ipsilateral upper limb is forwards or the contralateral backwards, a facilitation of both soleus and quadriceps tendon reflexes is observed while the biceps femoris reflexes are reduced. This pattern of facilitation and inhibition is reversed when the ipsilateral upper limb is backwards or the contralateral forwards. The facilitations as well as inhibitions of proximal myotatic arc reflexes are quantitatively more marked than that of the soleus reflex. Facilitation and inhibition are not linearly related to the angle of the arm with the trunk. Effects begin at a considerable angle, become maximal at 45 degrees, and progressively disappear for greater values. It is suggested that the distinct pattern of facilitation and inhibition which is exerted in reciprocal fashion on extensor and flexor motor nuclei might depend on the long propriospinal neurones connecting cervical and lumbar enlargements.     

Is facilitation responsible for the "motion induction" effect

When a horizontal bar is presented after a single dot is shown at one of its ends, an illusory motion is seen which has been dubbed "motion induction" in the literature. The phenomenon has been attributed to a facilitation process which asymmetrically modulates the inputs to motion detectors, for instance by some sort of changes in processing speed. Computer simulations of motion detector arrays show, however, that this basic effects has to be expected from the properties of simple motion detectors. It has been recently reported that the strength of the illusory motion increases with the subjective salience of the inducing element. New computer simulations demonstrate that this observation can be related to the control of the local gain of motion detector input signals by the feature contrast in a particular region of the stimulus. High-level attentional mechanisms or changes in transmission speed are not required to explain these phenomena. The implications of such local gain-control mechanisms for our understanding of second-order motion perception are discussed.     

Not on my shift

In screening for breast cancer, the discovery of screening positive cases can be carried out either with screening mammographic examination, with breast physical examination, or with breast self-examination. The screening positive cases should be examined with diagnostic mammographic examination. In BSE-screening, one-way communication about BSE does not influence health behaviour like e.g. monthly BSE-performance, followed by self-referral to a physician if breasts change from normal. Aimed at behavioural change, two-way communication strategies are needed in comprehensive program designs. The finnish Mama Program Screening is based on delivery of the message with two-way communication and the use of specially designed Mama-calenders for follow-up of the health behaviour of the participants during the continuous program. In a cohort, exposed to the Mama Program, compliance with BSE increased from 2% to 55% monthly performance. Two percent self-referred to the diagnostic mammographic examinations arranged within public health care facilities. In a 14 years follow-up of the complying women, 20% more breast cancers were detected than expected and mortality from breast cancer was 29% less than expected in all age groups. The Mama Program Screening has been implemented in public health care in Finland on a voluntary basis as an easy and inexpensive basic screening for women in all ages. It can be implemented in different PHC and private health care systems.     

Review of The complete social scientist: A Kurt Lewin reader.

Reviews the book, The complete social scientist: A Kurt Lewin reader edited by Martin Gold (1999). Although he is often acknowledged as one of the primary founders of American social psychology, and despite frequent (seemingly routine and obligatory) citations in the literature, the actual ideas of Kurt Lewin seem to have been—more often than not—ignored or disregarded by most psychologists over the course of the last half century. Fortunately, there are a number of indications that this clearly unacceptable, decades-long neglect of Lewin is being rectified. One such indication is this very thoughtfully and comprehensively assembled volume published by APA books and edited by Martin Gold. Offered as a companion volume to the also recently issued one-volume edition of two previous Lewin anthologies, Resolving Social Conflicts and Field Theory in Social Science, this anthology brings together fifteen additional articles that have been until now especially difficult for scholars to obtain. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distinguishing contextual performance from task performance for managerial jobs.

The purpose of this study was to extend previous research on the contextual and task performance distinction to managerial jobs. It was hypothesized that, unlike results for nonmanagerial work, the job dedication facet of contextual performance would contribute uniquely to overall managerial performance. The interpersonal facilitation facet of contextual performance was expected to be redundant with leadership task performance and therefore not to make a unique contribution. A multitrait-multirater correlation matrix was developed on the basis of meta-analysis. Structural equation modeling results generally supported the hypotheses, although there was some evidence of a unique contribution by interpersonal facilitation. Results also suggested that peers paid more attention to interpersonal facilitation when making overall performance ratings, whereas supervisors paid more attention to task performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Combined expectancies: Event-related potentials reveal the early benefits of spatial attention that are obscured by reaction time measures.

Visual spatial attention has been likened to a "spotlight" that selectively facilitates the perceptual processing of events at covertly attended locations. However, if participants have advance knowledge of the likely location of an impending target and the likely response it will require, facilitation in response performance does not occur for targets at the expected (or attended) location that require an unexpected response. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during a discrimination task in which the most likely target location and target response were simultaneously cued prior to target onset. The ERPs showed evidence of enhanced perceptual-level processing for all targets at attended locations. These results suggest that the lack of response facilitation for unexpected targets at attended locations is likely due to postperceptual processes that are activated by the inclusion of nonspatial stimulus expectancies, response expectancies, or both. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Health seeking behaviour and self-treatment for common childhood symptoms in rural Guatemala

This study was conducted in the Guatemalan highland department of Sacatepequez, in a sample of 146 rural women insured by the Social Security system. It examined their health care behaviour when their children presented common childhood symptoms such as diarrhoea, fever, cough and worms. The mothers generally sought help and treatment advice from an older woman in the family, and did so more often for diarrhoea (82%) and fever (64%) than for cough (43%) or worms (28%). Obtaining advice in a pharmacy or from a drug seller ranked second (range: 8%-38%, depending on the symptom), before the procurement of professional help at a medical service (range: 8%-23%). Traditional healers were hardly consulted (range: 0%-3%). In the case of self-treatment the women predominantly relied on Western drugs: around 80% in diarrhoea and fever, and above 50% in cough. Herbs and traditional external remedies were little used, except in cough (27% herbs) and worms (58% external remedies). None of the mothers reported ORS as home treatment for diarrhoea. Problems of geographical or financial accessibility could not explain the low utilisation of the Western health care system. The acceptability of public services, however, was poor. Largely because the Social Security clinic did not prescribe the "potent" modern drugs mothers preferred for the treatment of childhood symptoms--at least, not for uncomplicated illness episodes. Women hence turned to the--partially informal--private sector, which unabashedly responds to their demands. Clear away the discrepancy between the "rational" needs perceived by the official health sector and the demands of the population is one of the bigger challenges to health care planning in transitional communities such as the one studied.     

The influence of tail autotomy on agonistic behaviour in a territorial salamander

Assessment of potentially asymmetrical characters (such as fighting ability and resident advantage) is often important in determining the outcome of agonistic interactions. Loss of body parts, a predator defence mechanism used by many animals, may lead to a reduction in fighting ability and may be easily assessed by competitors. We investigated the influence of tail loss on the expression of agonistic behaviour in the territorial red-backed salamander, Plethodon cinereus. Residents and intruders were matched for body size, and pairs were tested in all combinations of tailed or tailless residents with tailed or tailless intruders. Neither residents nor intruders altered their behaviour based on their own tail condition, but they did alter their behaviour based on the tail condition of their opponents. Intruders showed more aggression or less submission towards tailless residents than towards tailed residents. When contests were between residents and intruders of the same tail condition (both tailed or tailless), intruders were more aggressive towards residents when both were tailless than when both were tailed, indicating that tail loss does not directly hamper aggressive displays. In contests where the asymmetry between residents and intruders was small (based on tail condition and residency status), intruders showed more aggression and less submission than in contests where the asymmetry was large. Residents did not differ in their behaviour for most comparisons. Thus, for intruders, the tail condition of residents is an important determinant of agonistic behaviour displayed in territorial contests. For residents, factors other than tail condition (such as resource value) may be more likely to influence their behaviour. Copyright 1998 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Copyright 1998 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.     

On priming by a sentence context.

Previous investigations of sentence context effects (SCEs) on word-naming time have uncovered a pattern of facilitation dominance. Another finding has been that words that are more difficult to recognize in isolation display larger SCEs than easier words. The present experiments with 384 undergraduates showed SCEs to be robust and eliminated several alternative explanations. Two experiments demonstrated the appropriateness of the neutral condition used to assess facilitation and inhibition. Another showed that SCEs did not depend on the procedure used. It was shown that manipulations that were designed to affect S strategies did not change the pattern of results. In 3 experiments, an interaction between stimulus quality and content condition was obtained. The interaction replicated across 2 forms of stimulus degradation, but only 1 form increased inhibition effects as well as facilitation effects. Other inconsistencies between previous SC experiments in the magnitude of the inhibition effects observed were resolved by showing that an SC produced more inhibition in the lexical decision task than in the naming task. It was demonstrated that the 2 tasks produced different amounts of inhibition when the same stimuli were used. Sentence integration processes that occurred after lexical access appeared to be responsible for some of the inhibition observed in lexical decision tasks. (85 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Work ability of young adults

This paper reviews the themes related to work ability of young adults. Premature working discapacity causes significant economical and social costs in Finland compared to other Nordic countries and has for that reason been studied most intensively there. Work ability is an interaction of social, environmental and individual factors such as physical fitness, coping skills, social support behaviour and health behaviour. Environmental factors influencing work ability can be concrete, like physical and chemical exposures or more abstract like unemployment. The work ability of ageing people has been studied intensively, while work ability of young adults has not been properly evaluated so far. The worsened economic situation in Finland has meant an excessive work load for those who still have work. At the same time the risk of permanent unemployment is increasing. This polarizationing affects especially the young because they may fail to enter the working life. Also factors related to childhood may affect and even determine work ability in adulthood.     

Long-term priming of neighbours biases the word recognition process: Evidence from a lexical decision task.

The role of orthographically similar words (i.e., neighbours) in the word recognition process has been studied extensively using short-term priming paradigms (e.g., Colombo, 1986). Here we demonstrate that long-term effects of neighbour priming can also be obtained. Experiment 1 showed that prior study of a neighbour (e.g., TANGO) increased later lexical decision performance for similar words (e.g., MANGO), but decreased performance for similar pseudowords (e.g., LANGO). Experiment 2 replicated this bias effect and showed that the increase in lexical decision performance due to neighbour priming is selectively due to words from a relatively sparse neighbourhood. Explanations of the bias effect in terms of lexical activation and episodic memory retrieval are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Characterization of methemoglobin formation induced by 3,5-dichloroaniline, 4-amino-2,6-dichlorophenol and 3,5-dichlorophenylhydroxylamine

Studies of the psychological and sexual outcome of hysterectomy have often arrived at conflicting conclusions and this has resulted in some confusion among health professionals as well as among women themselves. This situation should cause concern, since the incidence of this surgery is high in most countries of the western world. The confusion about outcome arises out of the methodological problems that plagued earlier research. Some of the more recent studies using prospective design, standardized measures and appropriate statistical analysis have not implicated hysterectomy with increased psychological or sexual disorders. However, both before and after hysterectomy in samples studied, the rate of psychological disorder was higher than would have been expected in a normal population, although a clearer picture has emerged from the most recent study. In this paper, risk factors are identified, and the need to include women's own evaluation of the procedure is emphasized.     

Implications of Work and Community Demands and Resources for Work-to-Family Conflict and Facilitation.

Based on a differential salience approach, this article examines the combined effects of work and community demands and resources on work-to-family conflict and facilitation. The study uses information from 2,507 employed respondents from the 1995 National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States. The findings indicate that work demands are relatively strongly related to work-to-family conflict, whereas work resources are relatively more important in relation to work-to-family facilitation. Social incoherence and friend demands are positively related to work-to-family conflict, whereas sense of community and support from friends have positive effects on facilitation. Community resources also show weak amplifying effects on some of the positive relationships between work resources and work-to-family facilitation. The findings provide modest support for the hypotheses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)