Comparing professional and lay expectations of psychotherapy.

Compared 25 mental health professionals whose primary duties involved psychotherapy with 52 laypersons aged 18–51 yrs to determine similarities and differences in their expectations of psychotherapy. Ss were administered the Therapy Expectations Scale. Differences between the 2 groups were found in degree of expected change, importance of self in problem-solving, financial emphasis, and expected duration of psychotherapy. Similarities were found in socioenvironmental areas and in emphasis on the early years of life. Laypersons tended to appreciate the active role of the client in psychotherapy and viewed therapists as experts in problem-solving. It is suggested that greater efforts be made to educate the general public as well as individual clients about the realities of psychotherapy. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Decision theory and artificial intelligence: I. A semantics-based region analyzer

Mathematical decision theory can be combined with heuristic techniques to attack Artificial Intelligence problems. As a first example, the problem of breaking an image into meaningful regions is considered. Bayesian decision theory is seen to provide a mechanism for including problem dependent (semantic) information in a general system. Some results are presented which make the computation feasible. A programming system based on these ideas and its application to road scenes is described.     

Reality testing by schizophrenics.

Compared 15 schizophrenics with 15 controls of similar mental test status and educational background on 2 classes of elementary problems from a series of artifact testing tasks monitored by an automatic problem programing machine called the Heuristic Evaluation Problem Programmer. In terms of an index that reflects the ability to conduct the required inquiry efficiently, the groups did not differ significantly on statistical tests that employed between-Ss differences as the error variance. Repeated measures of group differences showed a small, but statistically significant, superiority for the control Ss. Intercorrelations between scores on various problem sets indicated that the tests were reliable. During the 1st 3/4 of the problem series, there was a marked inefficiency of performance in a small group of paranoid schizophrenics as compared with a group of chronic undifferentiated schizophrenics. (17 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of type of social reinforcement on the intelligence performance of lower-class Black children.

Examined the effects of different types of reinforcement on the performance of 80 Black 2nd grade males on the WISC-R. Ss given candy or culturally relevant social reinforcement obtained significantly higher scores than Ss given either no reinforcement or traditional social reinforcement. (2 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Visualization of primate high density lipoproteins isolated by density gradient ultracentrifugation

High density lipoproteins (HDL) isolated by density gradient ultracentrifugation from the plasma of monkeys ingesting semipurified diets are barely visible. This creates difficulty in separating HDL from other lower density lipoproteins following centrifugation and necessitates collecting large quantities of background density solution to insure complete recovery of the HDL fraction. A simple procedure is described involving the addition of β-carotene to nonhuman primate plasma prior to centrifugation which results in the delineation of HDL as a discrete yellow-orange band without affecting certain physical properties of HDL or interfering with standard lipid and protein assays.     

Non-linear approximation method by an approach in stages

This work presents a new methodology of approximation of functions. The identification is done graphically, stage-by-stage, taking into account the form of the generating functions. The above method is developed in this article within the scope of an efficient tool for modeling physical systems and as a reliable curve-fitting method that can use any basic function. Thus, it represents a non-linear identification procedure. On the one hand, simulated cases that do not represent any physical model are studied, and on the other hand, real cases that model physical systems as rubber behavior law are illustrated. The Ogden hyperelastic and the extended Gent–Thomas models for rubber materials are shown to give an accurate prediction of Treloars classical data with the help of mechanical parameters evaluated by the stage approach. Critical and comparative analyses of the stage approach are presented with the usual non-linear iterative procedures such as the non-linear least squares.     

Microchip-based purification of DNA from biological samples

A microchip solid-phase extraction method for purification of DNA from biological samples, such as blood, is demonstrated. Silica beads were packed into glass microchips and the beads immobilized with sol-gel to provide a stable and reproducible solid phase onto which DNA could be adsorbed. Optimization of the DNA loading conditions established a higher DNA recovery at pH 6.1 than 7.6. This lower pH also allowed for the flow rate to be increased, resulting in a decrease in extraction time from 25 min to less than 15 min. Using this procedure, template genomic DNA from human whole blood was purified on the microchip platform with the only sample preparation being mixing of the blood with load buffer prior to loading on the microchip device. Comparison between the microchip SPE (microchipSPE) procedure and a commercial microcentrifuge method showed comparable amounts of PCR-amplifiable DNA could be isolated from cultures of Salmonella typhimurium. The greatest potential of the microchipSPE device was illustrated by purifying DNA from spores from the vaccine strain of Bacillus anthracis, where eventual integration of SPE, PCR, and separation on a single microdevice could potentially enable complete detection of the infectious agent in less than 30 min.     

Thorium in the workplace: results from a European-based measurement comparison project

A Series of comparisons were conducted to test the capabilities of a range of metrological techniques and analytical laboratories engaged in the assay of thorium in the workplace. The results of these exercises are presented together with the decision criteria used to determine whether results are significantly different from the true value. The discussion highlights those aspects which warrant closer and further attention.     

Correlation model to predict residual immiscible organic contaminants in sandy soils

Researchers in both environmental and petroleum engineering have conducted studies in one-dimensional columns to quantify the amount of residual nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPL) trapped in the porous media as a function of capillary, viscous and buoyancy forces. From these previous studies, it is proven that significant amounts of the original NAPL spill remain as a trapped residual. The objective of this research was to extend this body of work and to develop a correlation model that could predict residual NAPL saturation as a function of common soil characteristics and fluid properties. These properties include parameters derived from sieve analysis, namely, the uniformity coefficient (C(u)), the coefficient of gradation (C(c)), as well as fluid properties (interfacial tension, viscosity and density). Over 100 column experiments were conducted across a range of nine different soil gradations. The data produced by these tests, along with measured soil and fluid properties, were used to generate correlation models to predict residual NAPL saturation (S(rn)). The first correlation model predicts S(rn) for the region where residual NAPL saturation is independent of the capillary number, and dependent on C(u), C(c) and the Bond number. The second correlation model predicts S(rn) for the region where residual NAPL saturation is dependent on capillary number, as well as C(u), C(c) and the Bond number. The third correlation model predicts S(rn) over the entire region as a function of C(u), C(c) and the total trapping number. The correlation models have a R(2) value of 0.972, 0.934 and 0.825, respectively. Hence, the models may potentially be integrated into site characterization approaches.