Family process and adaptation to children with mental retardation: Disruption and resilience in family problem-solving interactions.

Family problem-solving interactions were examined in families (N?=?165) of school-aged children with mild or moderate mental retardation (MR) and a comparison sample (N?=?52). The results demonstrated a disruptive impact of children with MR in the form of more directiveness by mothers and fathers, less supportive problem solving by single mothers, and less active problem solving by the target children in the MR group. Nevertheless, the absence of high rates of aversive behaviors in the MR group and the similarities in siblings' behaviors across the groups suggested that the MR families were also resilient in the face of special demands. Role differences among mothers, fathers, and siblings also were highly consistent in the two groups. Evidence of difficulties for single mothers and problem behaviors by other children in the family suggested that mental retardation is one of many challenges that families learn to cope with successfully. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of β-alanine supplementation and high-intensity interval training on endurance performance and body composition in men; a double-blind trial

Background  

Intermittent bouts of high-intensity exercise result in diminished stores of energy substrates, followed by an accumulation of metabolites, promoting chronic physiological adaptations. In addition, β-alanine has been accepted has an effective physiological hydrogen ion (H⁺) buffer. Concurrent high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and β-alanine supplementation may result in greater adaptations than HIIT alone. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effects of combining β-alanine supplementation with high-intensity interval training (HIIT) on endurance performance and aerobic metabolism in recreationally active college-aged men.     

Processing causally relevant information.

Two experiments tested an information-processing model of causal judgment proposed by D. L. Hamilton, P. D. Grubb, D. A. Acorn, T. K. Trolier, and S. Carpenter (1990). In Exp 1 the explanatory quality (plausibility, sufficiency, and likelihood) of context information pertaining to a behavioral event was varied independently of its implications for internal or external causality. In Exp 2 perceivers performed tasks requiring either item-specific elaboration or relational encoding of the information in addition to making external versus internal causal attributions. Results imply that (a) perceivers encode the causal potency of individual information items even when the judgment task requires only a general internal versus external attribution and (b) perceivers engage in multiple modes of encoding information, depending on the implicational structure of the information array and on the explanatory quality of the context items. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Word frequency effects on recall, recognition, and word fragment completion tests.

In 3 experiments, the effect of word frequency on an indirect word fragment completion test and on direct free-recall and Yes–no recognition tests was investigated. In Experiment 1, priming in word fragment completion was substantially greater for low-frequency words than for high-frequency words, but free recall was unaffected. Experiment 2 replicated the word fragment completion result and showed a corresponding effect in recognition. Experiment 3 replicated the low-frequency priming advantage in word fragment completion with the set of words that P. L. Tenpenny and E. J. Shoben (1992) had used in reporting the opposite pattern in word fragment completion. Using G. Mandler's (1980) dual-process theory, the authors argue that recognition and word fragment completion tests both rely on within-item integration that influences familiarity, whereas recall hinges on elaboration that influences retrievability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The happy personality: A meta-analysis of 137 personality traits and subjective well-being.

This meta-analysis used 9 literature search strategies to examine 137 distinct personality constructs as correlates of subjective well-being (SWB). Personality was found to be equally predictive of life satisfaction, happiness, and positive affect, but significantly less predictive of negative affect. The traits most closely associated with SWB were repressive-defensiveness, trust, emotional stability, locus of control-chance, desire for control, hardiness, positive affectivity, private collective self-esteem, and tension. When personality traits were grouped according to the Big Five factors, Neuroticism was the strongest predictor of life satisfaction, happiness, and negative affect. Positive affect was predicted equally well by Extraversion and Agreeableness. The relative importance of personality for predicting SWB, how personality might influence SWB, and limitations of the present review are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Establishing the social impact of individuation.

The present research examined relations between individuation, the willingness to publicly differentiate oneself from others, and three dimensions that may lead to high social impact: creativity, leadership, and nonverbal expressiveness. Study 1 describes the development of a Q-sort prototype of the high individuator. In Study 2 the prototype was used to construct a new measure of individuation; individuation showed predicted relations with creativity, leadership, and nonverbal expressiveness. In Study 3 the prototype measure was used to examine the behavioral expression of individuation within the context of a combined managerial and personality assessment center. High individuators engaged in more creativity, leadership, and nonverbal expressiveness; they were more willing to express dissenting opinions; and they contributed more to a group discussion task than did low individuators. The results clarify the link between high individuation and high social impact. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Resource Allocation in the Grid with Learning Agents

One of the main challenges in Grid computing is efficient allocation of resources (CPU – hours, network bandwidth, etc.) to the tasks submitted by users. Due to the lack of centralized control and the dynamic/stochastic nature of resource availability, any successful allocation mechanism should be highly distributed and robust to the changes in the Grid environment. Moreover, it is desirable to have an allocation mechanism that does not rely on the availability of coherent global information. In this paper we examine a simple algorithm for distributed resource allocation in a simplified Grid-like environment that meets the above requirements. Our system consists of a large number of heterogenous reinforcement learning agents that share common resources for their computational needs. There is no explicit communication or interaction between the agents: the only information that agents receive is the expected response time of a job it submitted to a particular resource, which serves as a reinforcement signal for the agent. The results of our experiments suggest that even simple reinforcement learning can indeed be used to achieve load balanced resource allocation in large scale heterogenous system.     

Antifeedants against <Emphasis Type="Italic">Hylobius abietis</Emphasis> Pine Weevils: An Active Compound In Extract of Bark of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Tilia cordata</Emphasis> Linden

Linden (Tilia cordata) bark was shown to contain an antifeedant effective against the large pine weevil, Hylobius abietis. Soxhlet extraction of inner and outer bark resulted in an extract that showed antifeedant activity in a microfeeding assay. The extract was fractionated by chromatography on silica gel using gradient elution with solvents of increasing polarity. The content of the fractions obtained was monitored by thin layer- and gas chromatography. Fractions of similar chemical composition were merged. Two of the 17 fractions showed antifeedant activity in the microfeeding assay. Nonanoic acid was identified in both of these fractions. Subsequent testing in the microfeeding assay showed that nonanoic acid possessed strong antifeedant activity against H. abietis adults.     

Attribution and alcohol-mediated aggression.

48 males participated in an aggression task after receiving either alcoholic or placebo beverages and after being told that they had received either a high or a low dose of alcohol. All Ss in the alcohol group actually received the same dose. Measures of aggression were the intensity and duration of shock given to a bogus partner in a RT-pain perception task and a score on a posttask attitude questionnaire. Blood alcohol readings were taken 3 times during the session, and a locus of control scale was administered before and after drinking. For Ss in the alcohol conditions, blood alcohol levels averaged .079% before the task and .085% afterwards. Alcohol resulted in higher aggression scores only on the questionnaire measure, and an interaction between drug and attribution was found for the measure of shock duration. Attribution alone resulted in greater aggression on the measure of shock intensity. Ss in groups where the attribution was discrepant with the drug condition were the most aggressive on the measures of shock intensity and duration. These Ss became more external, reflecting a high correlation between their aggression and a stimulus tone. Results suggest that a person's increased aggressiveness when intoxicated results from an interaction between alcohol and an altered responsivity to provoking stimuli. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Potential controlled anion absorption in a novel high surface area composite of Cladophora cellulose and polypyrrole

The electrochemical properties of a novel composite paper material of high surface area consisting of polypyrrole (PPy) deposited on cellulose derived from Cladophora sp. algae have been investigated in electrolytes containing different concentrations of nitrate, chloride and p-toluene sulfonate, as well as in solutions containing both p-toluene sulfonate and chloride. The oxidation mechanism and the dependence of the oxidation behavior of the polypyrrole, which was obtained by oxidation of pyrrole with iron(III) chloride, on the anion type and concentration have been studied. Current nucleation maxima, appearing at different times depending on the anion concentration, were obtained during the oxidation of the reduced polymers as a result of the combined action of the formation and growth of conducting polymer strands and anion diffusion. No loss of capacity was seen during repeated oxidation and reduction of the polymer indicating that trapping of anions in the reduced polymer did not limit the electroactivity of the present material. The latter can be explained by the thin polymer layer present on the cellulose substrate. During the oxidation of the polymer, the anions most likely first cover most of the surface of the composite before diffusing into the bulk of the polymer. The estimated distance between these surface sites was also found to match the size of the anions. For electrolytes containing a mixture of anions, the oxidation charge depends on the concentration and size of the different anions.The combination of the thin polymer coating and the large specific surface area of the composite give rise to a high ion absorption capacity even for large anions. Hence, the investigated material should be well-suited for use in biotechnological applications involving, e.g., desalting and extraction of proteins and DNA from biological samples.