Response of depressed adolescents to cognitive-behavioral treatment: Do differences in initial severity clarify the comparison of treatments?

Evaluated the impact of pretreatment depression severity and functional impairment on the response of 2 samples of older depressed adolescents (115 Ss total divided into low-severity groups and high-severity groups) to 2 group cognitive-behavioral treatments. Differences between the 2 active treatments and between active treatment and a waiting-list control condition were expected to be greater in the more severely depressed-impaired group. Improvement for the 2 active treatments in comparison to the control condition was greater in the more severely depressed group in one of the samples but not the other. The prediction that the relative effectiveness of the 2 treatments would be accentuated in the more severely depressed adolescents received no support in either sample. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Models of visual word recognition: Sampling the state of the art.

A classification of models of visual word recognition is presented that facilitates formal comparisons between models of different formats. In light of the theoretical contributions to this special section, sets of criteria for the evaluation of models and strategies for model construction are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescent psychopathology: II. Psychosocial risk factors for depression.

In a prospective study of adolescent depression, adolescents (N?=?1,508) were assessed at Time 1 and after 1 yr (Time 2) on psychosocial variables hypothesized to be associated with depression. Most psychosocial variables were associated with current (n?=?45) depression. Formerly depressed adolescents (n?=?217) continued to differ from never depressed controls on many of the psychosocial variables. Many of the depression-related measures also acted as risk factors for future depression (n?=?112), especially past depression, current other mental disorders, past suicide attempt, internalizing behavior problems, and physical symptoms. Young women were more likely to be, to become, and to have been depressed. Controlling for the psychosocial variables eliminated the gender difference for current and future but not for past depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What studies of communication with infants ask us about psychology: Baby-talk and other speech registers.

Reviews the research concerning the possible functional roles of the prosodic aspects of infant-directed speech ("baby-talk"), and shows that this style of speaking could have both attentional and affective functions (in addition to linguistic ones). Studies of other speech registers could profit from taking similar approaches and even using similar techniques to those used in infant-directed speech research to tease apart the linguistic, attentional, and affective components of these other speaking styles. Nursing-home register is used to exemplify the importance of examining the social, emotional, and linguistic ramifications of a communication style separately. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

XIV. Yeast sequencing reports. Sequence of MKT1, needed for propagation of M2 satellite dsRNA of the L-A virus of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

MKT1 is required for m aintenance of K₂ above 30°C in strains with the L-A-HN variant of the L-A double-stranded RNA virus of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We report that MKT1 encodes a 92 979 Da protein with serine-rich regions and the retroviral protease signature, DTG, but with no substantial homology to proteins presently in the databases. This sequence is available from GenBank under Accession Number U09129.     

A dual read-out model of word context effects in letter perception: Further investigations of the word superiority effect.

A dual read-out model of context effects in letter perception is described that predicts forced-choice accuracy in the Reicher paradigm and its relation to word reportability. It is hypothesized that a correct choice to a letter in a word context is made when either the correct letter representation or a word representation containing the correct letter in the correct position reaches a response threshold (a criterion level of activation). This hypothesis was implemented using the basic architecture of the interactive activation model (J. L. McClelland & D. E. Rumelhart, 1981) in its semistochastic variant (A. M. Jacobs & J. Grainger, 1992). The model successfully captures the data of J. C. Johnston (1978), otherwise thought to be critically damaging for this type of model, and accurately predicts performance in a series of new experiments using the Reicher paradigm. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Charge transfer resistance of spray deposited and compressed counter electrodes for dye-sensitized nanoparticle solar cells on plastic substrates

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was used to determine the effective charge transfer resistances of porous dye-sensitized solar cell counter electrodes prepared by low-temperature spray deposition and compression of conductive carbon and platinized Sb-doped SnO₂ powders on indium tin oxide-coated plastic substrates. The charge transfer resistances were 0.5–2 and 8–13 Ω cm², respectively, when using 3-methoxypropionitrile as the electrolyte solvent. The manufacturing method used lends itself to produce mechanically stable and even-quality electrodes in an easy and fast manner.     

Scanning probe microscopy: Materials analysis with an added dimension

Encompassing such versatile analytical techniques as scanning tunneling microscopy and atomic (or scanning) force microscopy, scanning probe microscopes produce high-resolution three-dimensional images. Because of their power as quantitative tools for three-dimensional surface measurement and analysis, the techniques are being used in materials science and engineering for the study of a variety of advanced materials and for investigations into numerous phenomena, including reaction chemistry, crystallinity, kinetics, equilibrium processes, tribology, and conductivity.