Associations between tobacco smoking and illicit drug use among methadone-maintained opiate-dependent individuals.

Tobacco chippers are individuals who smoke regularly yet are not nicotine dependent. In the present study, the authors examined the prevalence of tobacco chipping among methadone-maintained opiate abusers. Furthermore, the authors examined associations between tobacco and illicit substance use by comparing heavy smokers, tobacco chippers, and nonsmokers. Results demonstrate that tobacco chipping occurs among methadone-maintained individuals. Illicit substance use, measured through urine toxicology, was found to increase in a stepwise fashion from nonsmokers, to chippers, to heavy smokers. Smoking status (nonsmoker, chipper, heavy smoker) proved a more powerful predictor of cocaine and opiate use than daily methadone dose. Findings lend support to existing evidence suggesting associations between tobacco and opiate and cocaine use and strongly suggest that smoking cessation should be offered to all methadone-maintained individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Exhibiting Leadership and Facilitation Behaviors in NPD Project-Based Work: Does Team Personal Style Composition Matter?

Abstract:

Teams are increasingly becoming primary in the way employees in organizations conduct work. Understanding what makes teams effective is especially important for new product development (NPD) teams, whose members often have diverse backgrounds and competencies. The effects of similarities and differences among team members in NPD project-based work influence every aspect of that work. We explored the relationship between project team composition attributes and project team members' team leadership and facilitation behaviors, drawing from the literature on similarity-attraction effect.

Data from two time points that were 12-weeks apart were collected from 144 professional employees working in 48 project teams to test the study's hypotheses. Using HLM 6.0 (Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002), findings show that when it comes to project team composition, members of a team, who are similar on affective personal style traits, demonstrate greater team leadership and facilitation behaviors. We identify implications for generating productive team leadership and facilitation behaviors in NPD project-based work.     

Client attachment to therapist: Relation to client personality and symptomatology, and their contributions to the therapeutic alliance.

This study examined the relation of client attachment to the therapist to diverse facets of the therapeutic alliance, client personality, and psychopathological symptoms, as well as the relative importance of therapeutic attachments, personality, and symptomatology in predicting the alliance. Eighty clients in ongoing therapy completed measures of client attachment to therapist (CATS), personality (6FPQ), psychopathological symptoms (BSI), and therapeutic alliance (WAI–Short, CALPAS, HAQ). Secure and Avoidant–Fearful attachment to the therapist correlated positively and negatively, respectively, with total and subscale alliance scores. Preoccupied-Merger therapeutic attachment was unrelated to the alliance. Exploratory analyses suggested however that the relationship between Preoccupied–Merger attachment and the alliance was moderated by the extent to which clients were distressed. Clients' therapeutic attachments were unrelated to basic personality dimensions. Preoccupied–Merger attachment to the therapist correlated significantly with several symptom dimensions. Clients' therapeutic attachments emerged as superior and more consistent predictors, relative to client personality and symptomatology, of the therapeutic alliance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interannual variations in PM2.5 due to wildfires in the Western United States

In this study we have evaluated the role of wildfires on concentrations of fine particle (d < 2.5 microm) organic carbon (OC) and particulate mass (PM2.5) in the Western United States for the period 1988-2004. To do this, we examined the relationship between mean summer PM2.5 and OC concentrations at 39 IMPROVE sites with a database of fires developed from federal fire reports. The gridded database of area burned was used to generate a database of biomass fuel burned using ecosystem-specific fuel loads. The OC, PM2.5, and fire data were evaluated for five regions: Northern Rocky Mountains (Region 1), Central Rocky Mountains (Region 2), Southwest (Region 3), California (Region 4), and Pacific Northwest (Region 5). In Regions 1, 2, and 5, we found good correlations of seasonal mean PM2.5 concentrations among the sites within each region. This indicates that a common influence was important in determining the PM concentration at all sites across each region. In Regions 1 and 2, we found a significant correlation between PM2.5 and both the area burned and biomassfuel burned in each region. This relationship is statistically significant using either the area burned or fuel burned, but the correlations are stronger using the biomass fuel burned. In all five regions we found a statistically significant relationship between biomass burned and organic carbon. Using these relationships, we can estimate the amount of PM2.5 due to fires in each region during summer. For the Regions 1 through 5, the average summer-long enhancement of PM2.5 due to fires is 1.84, 1.09, 0.61, 0.81, and 1.21 microg/m3, respectively, and approximately twice these values during large fire years.     

Assessing the scholarly impact of health psychology: A citation analysis of articles published from 1993 to 2003.

Objective: We conducted a citation analysis to explore the impact of articles published in Health Psychology and determine whether the journal is fulfilling its stated mission. Design: Six years of articles (N = 408) representing three editorial tenures from 1993–2003 were selected for analysis. Main Outcome Measures: Articles were coded for several dimensions enabling examination of the relationship of article features to subsequent citations rates. Journals citing articles published in Health Psychology were classified into four categories: (1) psychology, (2) medicine, (3) public health and health policy, and (4) other journals. Results: The majority of citations of Health Psychology articles were in psychology journals, followed closely by medical journals. Studies reporting data collected from college students, and discussing the theoretical implications of findings, were more likely to be cited in psychology journals, whereas studies reporting data from clinical populations, and discussing the practice implications of findings, were more likely to be cited in medical journals. Time since publication and page length were both associated with increased citation counts, and review articles were cited more frequently than observational studies. Conclusion: Articles published in Health Psychology have a wide reach, informing psychology, medicine, public health and health policy. Certain characteristics of articles affect their subsequent pattern of citation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Channel-Forming Discharge Selection in River Restoration Design

The concept of channel-forming (Qcf) or dominant discharge is now a cornerstone of river channel restoration design. Three measures of channel-forming discharge are most commonly applied: effective discharge (Qeff), bankfull discharge (Qbf), and a discharge of a certain recurrence interval (Qri), which theoretically are similar in geomorphically stable channels. The latter two measures have become particularly widely applied in some channel restoration design procedures, often to the exclusion of Qeff analyses, despite the additional utility of Qeff analysis for most channel design problems. We quantify the three measures of Qcf for four case studies and then follow this with a synthesis of previously published studies to illustrate sources of variability. This synthesis suggests that agreement among the three measures of Qcf is best for snowmelt-hydrology, nonincised channels with coarse substrate. Departures from these conditions result in greater discrepancy between the measures. Channel incision produces Qbf far greater than Qeff, and flashy hydrology is associated with generally larger, briefer, and more frequent Qeff. Regional mean or median values for the relative magnitudes of the three measures can be tightly constrained, but site to site variation is quite large. The construction of a cumulative sediment discharge curve and associated determination of Qeff allows quantification of the sediment budget of a channel for a given hydrologic regime, which provides process-based insight of drivers of current and future trajectories of channel stability, and is thus the recommended measure of channel-forming discharge. Reliance on only return-interval or bankfull discharge for channel design is not recommended for channel design activities.     

Mechanism of a Standalone β-Lactone Synthetase: New Continuous Assay for a Widespread ANL Superfamily Enzyme

Enzyme-catalyzed β-lactone formation from β-hydroxy acids is a crucial step in bacterial biosynthesis of β-lactone natural products and membrane hydrocarbons. We developed a novel, continuous assay for β-lactone synthetase activity using synthetic β-hydroxy acid substrates with alkene or alkyne moieties. β-Lactone formation is followed by rapid decarboxylation to form a conjugated triene chromophore for real-time evaluation by UV/Vis spectroscopy. The assay was used to determine steady-state kinetics of a long-chain β-lactone synthetase, OleC, from the plant pathogen Xanthomonas campestris. Site-directed mutagenesis was used to test the involvement of conserved active site residues in Mg²⁺ and ATP binding. A previous report suggested OleC adenylated the substrate hydroxy group. Here we present several lines of evidence, including hydroxylamine trapping of the AMP intermediate, to demonstrate the substrate carboxyl group is adenylated prior to making the β-lactone final product. A panel of nine substrate analogues were used to investigate the substrate specificity of X. campestris OleC by HPLC and GC-MS. Stereoisomers of 2-hexyl-3hydroxyoctanoic acid were synthesized and OleC preferred the (2R,3S) diastereomer consistent with the stereo-preference of upstream and downstream pathway enzymes. This biochemical knowledge was used to guide phylogenetic analysis of the β-lactone synthetases to map their functional diversity within the acyl-CoA synthetase, NRPS adenylation domain, and luciferase superfamily.     

Using latent-variable models to analyze smoking cessation clinical trial data: An example among the methadone maintained.

The relationship between tobacco and illicit drug use was examined among 166 methadone-maintained persons participating in a smoking cessation intervention. Latent-growth latent-variable models showed a significant relationship during treatment between rates of change in heroin and rates of change in tobacco use, with increased heroin use corresponding with increased tobacco use. Although levels of cocaine use were related to levels of tobacco use, there was no significant relationship between the rates of change of the 2 substances. A more traditional longitudinal structural equation model demonstrated a significant relationship between more heroin use during treatment and negative smoking cessation outcomes at 6-month follow-up. Findings demonstrate the utility of latent-growth models for analyzing short-term clinical trial data and strongly suggest that successful smoking cessation in this population requires a concurrent focus on reducing heroin use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Formulation of blends of precolored nylon fiber

Two-constant Kubelka-Munk formalism was used to describe the color of blends of precolored nylon fibers. Pseudo-Kubelka-Munk absorption constants K and pseudo-Kubelka-Munk scattering constants S were calculated using masstone samples and blends of colored fiber with white. A masstone means 100% colored fiber in which no white or black is mixed. Various mixtures with white were tried and no systematic dependence of the calculated optical parameters on composition was discernable. With some colors, notably yellow and orange, mixtures with black were required for the calibration. Accurate color matches were obtained using the two-constant formalism especially when the proposed match contained the same primary fibers as did the standard. For matches in which the primary fibers used in the sample differed from those in the standard, the closeness of the visual match depended on how closely the primary colors in the sample resembled those in the standard. Since the eye can discern individual colors in a fiber blend, it was possible to have a visual mismatch despite colorimetric equivalence. With a large enough group of primary colors, it was generally possible to find one or more alternative formulations which matched the standard. Sample-preparation and measurement errors were found to be critical for determining color-matching accuracy. All of the color-matching error could be accounted for in terms of the sample-preparation and measurement errors alone. This suggests that the sampling error was, in fact, a limiting factor in determining color-matching accuracy.