Graduate admissions criteria of leading psychology departments.

As a follow-up to a previous comment by J. E. Purdy et al (see record 1988-02765-001), the authors present the responses of 78% of the directors of top graduate programs to a questionnaire assessing the importance of information in applications for admission to graduate study, of the Graduate Record Examination scores, grade point average (GPA), letters of recommendation, research and clinical experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fee assessment and outpatient psychotherapy.

To test the widely held belief that fee assessment policy affects the psychotherapeutic process, data were gathered from the records of 434 clients who had received individual outpatient psychotherapy at a mental health center in 1972. The 3 predictor variables were fee (no payment, welfare, insurance, scaled payment, and full payment), diagnosis (psychosis, neurosis, personality disorder, transient situational disturbance, and other), and socioeconomic status (5 levels). A least-squares multivariate analysis of variance found only diagnosis to be significantly related to the outcome, number of appointments, and attendance of individual outpatient psychotherapy. Failure to find significant effects of fee assessment categories on therapeutic process suggests the invalidity of therapeutic purposes as a rationale to charge fees for psychotherapy. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Single- Versus Dual-Drug Target: Effects in a Brief Abstinence Incentive Procedure.

The number of drugs targeted may have an important influence on the ability of drug abusers to abstain during motivational incentive procedures. The authors investigated outcomes in methadone maintenance patients (n = 58), who had evidence of both opiate and cocaine use, when continuous abstinence from cocaine only (single target) or from both cocaine and heroin (dual target) was required to earn $200 in voucher incentives over a 4-day period. Study patients were equally likely to initiate and sustain abstinence from cocaine under the single- versus the dual-drug target. They were more likely to initiate opiate abstinence under the dual-target condition, demonstrating sensitivity to reinforcer effects. Results suggest that adding a second drug target does not impede short-term cocaine abstinence initiation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reflex modification in the rat: The inhibitory effects of intensity and frequency changes in steady tones.

Four experiments with 50 male albino Charles River rats investigated the relation between the inhibitory effects of tonal frequency change and the length of the silent period (gap) preceding it. It is noted that, in both laboratory rats and in humans, a low-intensity tone that precedes a high-intensity burst of noise by approximately 100 msec can reduce the amplitude of the startle reaction elicited by the burst of noise. Overall results show that a gap in an otherwise continuous pure tone inhibited startle when the gap occurred approximately 100 msec prior to the noise burst. Although an increase in gap duration increased the inhibition afforded by the gap, the maximum inhibition was yielded by gaps of 100 msec and greater; this maximum was equivalent to the inhibition yielded by the presentation of a postgap tone alone. A shift in tonal frequency across a 10-msec gap yielded more inhibition than did the same gap with no frequency shift; again, the shift yielded equivalent inhibition to the presentation of the postgap tone alone. An increase in the frequency shift increased inhibition when the shift occurred across a 10-msec gap but not across a 100-msec gap. It is concluded that the amount of inhibition afforded by a complex acoustic event is more than a mere additive function of the inhibitory effects of the different elements that make up the event. For example, a tonal onset is just as inhibitory as a frequency shift across a gap, which includes a tonal onset, tonal offset, and frequency shift. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using Absolute Metric Maps to Close Cycles in a Topological Map

In simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) the correspondence problem, specifically detecting cycles, is one of the most difficult challenges for an autonomous mobile robot. In this paper we show how significant cycles in a topological map can be identified with a companion absolute global metric map. A tight coupling of the basic unit of representation in the two maps is the key to the method. Each local space visited is represented, with its own frame of reference, as a node in the topological map. In the global absolute metric map these local space representations from the topological map are described within a single global frame of reference. The method exploits the overlap which occurs when duplicate representations are computed from different vantage points for the same local space. The representations need not be exactly aligned and can thus tolerate a limited amount of accumulated error. We show how false positive overlaps which are the result of a misaligned map, can be discounted.     

Vernonia anthelmintica (L.) Willd. trivernolin, 1,3-divernolin and vernolic (Epoxyoleic) acid from the seed oil

The epoxy fatty acid components isolated from the seed oil ofV. anthelmintica, Indian ironweed, where the seed had been allowed to undergo lipolysis after grinding, were trivernolin, 1,3-divernolin, and vernolic acid. By inactivation of the hydrolytic enzyme system present in the seed, oil containing more than 50% trivernolin may be obtained. This species has potentialities as a replacement crop for those now in surplus; its seed contains 20 to 26% of an oil rich in epoxyoleic (vernolic) acid combined as glycerides amounting to 70 to 75%. Presented at the A.O.C.S. meeting in St. Louis, 1961. Eastern Utilization Research and Development Division, Agricultural Research Service, U.S.D.A.