Veteran interest in family involvement in PTSD treatment.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 7(3) of Psychological Services (see record 2010-17074-004). The copyright for the article was listed incorrectly. This article is in the Public Domain. The online version has been corrected.] The present study examined interest in family involvement in treatment and preferences concerning the focus of family oriented treatment for veterans (N = 114) participating in an outpatient Veterans Affairs outpatient posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) program. Most veterans viewed PTSD as a source of family stress (86%) and expressed interest in greater family involvement in their treatment (79%). These results suggest the need to consider increasing family participation in the clinical care of individuals with PTSD and to develop specialized family educational and support services for this population. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Modulation of Viscoelasticity and HIV Transport as a Function of pH in a Reversibly Crosslinked Hydrogel

Materials that respond to physiological stimuli are important in developing advanced biomaterials for modern therapies. The reversibility of covalent crosslinks formed by phenylboronate (PBA) and salicylhydroxamate (SHA) has been exploited to provide a pH‐responsive gel for application to the vaginal tract. Dynamic rheology reveals that the gel frequency‐dependent viscoelastic properties are modulated by pH. At pH 4.8 the viscous component dominates throughout most of the frequency range. As the pH increases, the characteristic relaxation time continues to increase while the G′_Plateau levels off above pH 6. At pH 7.5, the elastic component dominates throughout the frequency sweep and is predominately independent of frequency. Particle tracking assesses the transport of both fluorescently labeled HIV‐1 and 100‐nm latex particles in the PBA–SHA crosslinked gel as a function of pH. At pH 4.8 the ensemble‐averaged mean squared displacement at lag times greater than three seconds reveals that transport of the HIV‐1 and 100‐nm particles becomes significantly impeded by the matrix, exhibiting diffusion coefficients less than 0.0002 µm² s^?1. This pH‐responsive gel thus displays properties that have the potential to significantly reduce the transport of HIV‐1 to susceptible tissues and thus prevent the first stage of male‐to‐female transmission of HIV‐1.     

Aqueous extract from the vegetative portion of Spanish black radish (Raphanus sativus L. var. niger) induces detoxification enzyme expression in HepG2 cells

The vegetative, or above ground, portion of radishes are not typically consumed and have not been characterized in terms of their phytochemical content or biological activity. The antioxidant capacity of the freeze-dried vegetative portion of mature Spanish black radishes (harvested 2 months after planting) was 3.7-, 3.6- and 2.9-fold greater than freeze-dried roots as assayed by ferric ion reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), total phenolics and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC), respectively. No carotenoids were detected in the roots, however the vegetative portion contained 905.0 and 421.2 μg/g of lutein and β-carotene, respectively. Despite differences in glucosinolate composition, a class of compounds related to the induction of detoxification enzymes, the aqueous extracts of roots and the vegetative portion similarly induced quinone reductase activity and the expression of multiple phase I and II detoxification enzymes in the HepG2 human hepatoma cell line. When juiced, the resulting freeze-dried juice and pulp of the vegetative portion maintained the ability to induce detoxification enzymes, although there were some differences in the phytochemical contents of these two dried materials. These data demonstrate that the ability of the vegetative portion of Spanish black radish, which has significantly greater antioxidant potential than roots, to induce detoxification enzyme expression was similar to that of the roots.     

Tenderness, ageing rate and meat quality of pork M. longissimus thoracis et lumborum after accelerated boning

The impact of accelerated boning on tenderness, ageing rate and meat quality of pork longissimus muscle was investigated. Accelerated boning of eight Large White×Landrace pork carcasses at 30 min post-mortem followed by chilling at 0°C resulted in tougher pork with higher drip loss and a darker surface lightness relative to conventional boning at 24 h post-mortem. The increased toughness was still observed at 4 days post-mortem, a time by which 80% of ageing generally had occurred as seen in experiment 2. The increased toughness could be attributed to cold shortening and a reduction in proteolysis.     

Detection and identification of aqueous saccharides by using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

The sensitive detection and characterization of carbohydrates by means of a strategy based on surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy is demonstrated. Spectra are obtained after injecting a small amount of saccharide solution onto a roughened silver substrate, with subsequent deposition of silver colloid. The sensitivity achieved by this two-step approach enables high-quality Raman spectra to be obtained for small amounts of aqueous saccharides (5 microL of a 10(-2) M solution) utilizing minimal laser power and small signal acquisition times (a few seconds). Spectral "fingerprints" obtained for seven structurally similar monosaccharides demonstrate clearly an effective means by which each sugar can be identified. The application to more complex analyses is demonstrated for monosaccharide mixtures and a disaccharide, whereby the SERS fingerprints aid in the determination of components.     

The relationship of ethnic identity and gender role attitudes to the development of career choice goals among black and Latina girls.

This study is a preliminary exploration of how individual differences in gender role attitudes and ethnic identity might be related to career decision self-efficacy and the gender traditionality of career choice goals in a sample of 102 9th-grade Black and Latina girls. Extending social-cognitive career theory, the authors examined 2 path models in which career decision self-efficacy mediated the effects of gender role attitudes and ethnic identity on the traditionality of the participants' career choice goals. Models depicting full and partial mediation were considered. The results of the path analyses provided confirmation for an extension of the social- cognitive career theory model, indicating that for this sample, career decision self-efficacy fully mediated the influence of egalitarian gender role attitudes and ethnic identity on gender traditionality in career choice goals. These findings offer support for consideration of the role of gender role attitudes and ethnic identity in career self-exploration and vocational guidance with Black and Latina girls. Limitations, implications for counseling, and suggestions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Being controlled by normative influences: Self-determination as a moderator of a normative feedback alcohol intervention.

The objectives of this research were to evaluate the efficacy of computer-delivered personalized normative feedback among heavy drinking college students and to evaluate controlled orientation as a moderator of intervention efficacy. Participants (N = 217) included primarily freshman and sophomore, heavy drinking students who were randomly assigned to receive or not to receive personalized normative feedback immediately following baseline assessment. Perceived norms, number of drinks per week, and alcohol-related problems were the main outcome measures. Controlled orientation was specified as a moderator. At 2-month follow-up, students who received normative feedback reported drinking fewer drinks per week than did students who did not receive feedback, and this reduction was mediated by changes in perceived norms. The intervention also reduced alcohol-related negative consequences among students who were higher in controlled orientation. These results provide further support for computer-delivered personalized normative feedback as an empirically supported brief intervention for heavy drinking college students, and they enhance the understanding of why and for whom normative feedback is effective. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parallel application performance on shared high performance reconfigurable computing resources

The use of a network of shared, heterogeneous workstations each harboring a reconfigurable computing (RC) system offers high performance users an inexpensive platform for a wide range of computationally demanding problems. However, effectively using the full potential of these systems can be challenging without the knowledge of the system's performance characteristics. While some performance models exist for shared, heterogeneous workstations, none thus far account for the addition of RC systems. Our analytic performance model includes the effects of the reconfigurable device, application load imbalance, background user load, basic message passing communication, and processor heterogeneity. The methodology proves to be accurate in characterizing these effects for applications running on shared, homogeneous, and heterogeneous HPRC resources. The model error in all cases was found to be less than 5% for application runtimes greater than 30 s, and less than 15% for runtimes less than 30 s.