Formalized postdoctoral fellowships: A national survey for postdoctoral fellows.

Why do some recent doctoral graduates participate in formalized postdoctoral fellowship programs? What activities do fellows engage in, and are fellowships meeting their training needs? By analyzing a national survey of 204 fellows, the authors address these and other questions. Desire for advanced training, particularly psychotherapy and assessment, was the most common reason for seeking and accepting a postdoctoral fellowship. It is interesting to note that training focused on new and emerging areas in psychology were not highly rated. Fellows reported engaging in a variety of activities, with nearly half of their work week spent providing direct clinical services. The majority of fellows were highly satisfied with their fellowship experiences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A physiologically based typology of batterers—promising but preliminary: Comment on Gottman et al. (1995).

The typology of male battering based on accelerating versus decelerating heart rates presented by J. M. Gottman et al. (1995) is promising in its connections to both individual and interactional characteristics of batterers and its fit with other recently proposed typologies. This comment develops the theoretical context for the heart rate variable within the literature on arousal and attention. The meaning of directional heart rate changes is examined in view of anticipatory reactions, biphasic responses, and the complexities of studying heart rate during an interactional sample. It is argued that a physiologically based typology must be considered in the context of sociopolitical perspectives on men's battering and with attention to the role of cognitions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethical Issues in Couple and Family Research.

Federal regulations, ethical standards, and state laws governing ethics do not adequately address important issues in couple and family research. Including multiple family members, particularly dependent minors, in research requires the special application of fundamental ethical issues, such as confidentiality, privacy, and informed consent. The sensitive, commingled nature of couple and family information necessitates clear policies about data ownership and disclosure. Researchers need to have respect for the family as a unit and to evaluate benefits versus harms for the family as well as for individuals. This article highlights areas of potential concern and ambiguity related to abuse reporting and Certificates of Confidentiality and also addresses ethical issues with observational data, intervention studies, longitudinal designs, and computer-assisted research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Analysis of clonal diversity in mouse immunoglobulin heavy chain genes selected for size of the antigen combining site

Two consecutive phase II clinical studies were designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of bolus and continuous infusion (CI) mitoxantrone (MTZ) in 39 patients with newly diagnosed acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). MTZ was used as part of the classical ALL induction regimen. Twenty patients were treated with bolus MTZ (10 mg/m2 for 3 days) combined with vincristine and prednisone. The same regimen was given to a second set of 19 patients, except that MTZ was administered as a 24-hr CI. Both groups received bimonthly intensifications with vincristine and prednisone for 3 years, along with oral maintenance therapy. Patients in the CI-MTZ study arm received additional MTZ on the first day of intensification cycles. Seventeen patients (85%) in the bolus arm and 15 patients (79%) in the CI arm achieved complete remission (CR). Median disease-free survivals (DFS) in the bolus and CI groups were 11 and 15 months after median follow-ups of 16 (3.5-96) and 13 (2.3-32) months, respectively. At 2.5 years, DFS rates were 29.4% and 34.4% in the bolus and CI groups (p > 0.05). There were no significant differences between two groups in rates of early death, degree of organ toxicity, or duration of neutropenia and thrombocytopenia. Significant cardiac toxicity was not observed in either group. Bolus or CI administration of MTZ was equally effective and was well tolerated. Neither the mode of administration nor increasing the dose intensity of MTZ by incorporating intensification cycles reduced relapse rates. Development of new antileukemia agents and novel treatment approaches are still needed to improve the high relapse rates in adult ALL once a complete response is achieved.     

Cognitive–behavioral therapy versus usual clinical care for youth depression: An initial test of transportability to community clinics and clinicians.

Community clinic therapists were randomized to (a) brief training and supervision in cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT) for youth depression or (b) usual care (UC). The therapists treated 57 youths (56% girls), ages 8–15, of whom 33% were Caucasian, 26% were African American, and 26% were Latino/Latina. Most youths were from low-income families and all had Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) depressive disorders (plus multiple comorbidities). All youths were randomized to CBT or UC and treated until normal termination. Session coding showed more use of CBT by CBT therapists and more psychodynamic and family approaches by UC therapists. At posttreatment, depression symptom measures were at subclinical levels, and 75% of youths had no remaining depressive disorder, but CBT and UC groups did not differ on these outcomes. However, compared with UC, CBT was (a) briefer (24 vs. 39 weeks), (b) superior in parent-rated therapeutic alliance, (c) less likely to require additional services (including all psychotropics combined and depression medication in particular), and (d) less costly. The findings showed advantages for CBT in parent engagement, reduced use of medication and other services, overall cost, and possibly speed of improvement—a hypothesis that warrants testing in future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Combining flow and dependence analyses to expose redundant array accesses

The success of large-scale, hierarchical and distributed shared memory systems hinges on our ability to reduce delays resulting from remote accesses to shared data. To facilitate this, we present a compile-time algorithm for analyzing programs with doall-style parallelism to determine when read and write accesses to shared data areredundant (unnecessary). One identified, redundant remote accesses can be replaced by local accesses or eliminated entirely. This optimization improves program performance in two ways. First, slow memory accesses are replaced by faster ones. Second, the time to perform other remote memory accesses may be reduced as a result of the decreased traffic level. We also show how the information obtained through redundancy analysis can be used for other compiler optimizations such as prefetching and cache management.     

Development and psychometric properties of the OCD Family Functioning (OFF) Scale.

Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) influences not only patients but also family members. Although the construct of family accommodation has received attention in OCD literature, no measures of overall family functioning are currently available. The OCD Family Functioning (OFF) Scale was developed to explore the context, extent, and perspectives of functional impairment in families affected by OCD. It is a three-part, self-report measure capturing independent perspectives of patients and relatives. A total of 400 subjects were enrolled between 2008 and 2010 from specialized OCD clinics and OCD research studies. Psychometric properties of this scale were examined including internal consistency, test–retest reliability, convergent and divergent validity, and exploratory factor analyses. Both patient and relative versions of the OFF Scale demonstrated excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha coefficient = 0.96). The test–retest reliability was also adequate (ICC = 0.80). Factor analyses determined that the OFF Scale comprises a family functioning impairment factor and four OCD symptom factors that were consistent with previously reported OCD symptom dimension studies. The OFF Scale demonstrated excellent convergent validity with the Family Accommodation Scale and the Work and Social Adjustment Scale. Information gathered regarding emotional impact and family role-specific impairment was novel and not captured by other examined scales. The OFF Scale is a reliable and valid instrument for the clinical and research assessment of family functioning in pediatric and adult OCD. This will facilitate the exploration of family functioning impairment as a potential risk factor, as a moderator and as a treatment outcome measure in OCD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conflict and love: Predicting newlywed marital outcomes from two interaction contexts.

Research on marital interaction has focused primarily on couples in conflict contexts to understand better processes associated with concurrent and longitudinal outcomes such as marital stability and quality. Although this work has consistently revealed particular emotions (e.g., contempt) or behavioral sequences (e.g., demand/withdraw) predictive of later marital distress, it largely has neglected to take positive contexts into consideration. The present longitudinal study begins to address this gap in the literature by directly comparing newlywed behaviors from a conflict-resolution interaction with those from a love-paradigm interaction to predict relationship satisfaction and divorce proneness approximately 15 months later. Results showed that actor and partner negative (contempt) and positive (affection) emotions elicited in both positive (i.e., love) and negative (i.e., conflict) interaction contexts emerged as unique predictors of relationship quality and stability for both husbands and wives. Moreover, using a linear growth model, the temporal course of positive emotion during the love context, but not the conflict context, was predictive of later relationship satisfaction. Implications for future marital research and intervention are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spatial Heterogeneity of Thermo‐Oxidative Degradation in Impact Poly(propylene) Copolymers

The spatial degradation in impact PP copolymers with different ethylene contents is studied by FTIR microscopy and layer‐by‐layer milling of the sample surfaces, followed by ATR‐FTIR, SEC, and CRYSTAF analysis. FTIR allows for tracking of the rate of degradation, providing information on the depth profiling of the degradation. Results show that samples with lower ethylene content degrade faster at all depths than those with higher ethylene content. The latter show a more uniform degradation from the surface to the bulk of the material at longer degradation times. This is ascribed to the higher amorphous content which results in a larger oxygen diffusion to the centre of the material while its slower rate of degradation is ascribed to the lower tertiary carbon content.

     

Using Crystallisation Fractionation to Monitor Thermo‐Oxidative Degradation of Impact Poly(propylene) Copolymers

ICPPs are complex materials that contain various ethylene/propylene copolymers in addition to the majority poly(propylene) phase. To understand their molecular structure, multiple fractionation and analysis techniques are used. In this study, TREF and CRYSTAF are used to study the difference in the thermo‐oxidative degradation of two grades of ICPPs with different ethylene contents. Direct correlations are drawn between the carbonyl index, molecular weight and crystallisability at various stages of degradation. The higher ethylene content sample shows increased thermal stability. This is due to the fact that the ethylene/propylene fraction is more stable due to the higher comonomer content and lower isotacticity as well as due to the higher amount of this fraction in the material.