Accounting for changes in social support among married older adults: Insights from the MacArthur Studies of Successful Aging.

Using longitudinal, community-based data from the MacArthur Studies of Successful Aging, the authors examined determinants of changes in social support receipt among 439 married older adults. In general, social support increased over time, especially for those with many preexisting social ties, but those experiencing more psychological distress and cognitive dysfunction reported more negative encounters with others. Gender affected social support receipt: Men received emotional support primarily from their spouses, whereas women drew more heavily on their friends and relatives and children for emotional support. Discussion centers on the importance of social support provision to those with the greatest needs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Physicochemical, microbiological and coagulating properties of ewe's milk produced on the Calabrian Mount Poro plateau

Three hundred individual ewe's milks and six bulk milks were analysed over two seasons. The results show that in spring but not in winter the milks examined conform substantially to the standards laid down by Italian legislation. Nevertheless, the data acquired constitute a good starting point from which the quality of ewe's milk produced on the Calabrian Mount Poro plateau should be improved, by performing selection of sheep for mastitis resistance based on somatic cell count, improving the hygiene standards at the dairy, using selected autochthonous lactic starter cultures and, only if strictly necessary, thermal treatment of the milk.     

Effects of aging on absolute identification of duration.

Experiments to examine the effects of aging on the ability to identify temporal durations in an absolute identification task are reported. In Experiment 1, older adults were worse than younger adults in identifying a tone's position within a series of 6 tones of varied durations. In Experiment 2, participants were required to identify a tone's position in 9 tones of varied durations. Older adults' performance was again worse than that of younger adults; moreover, they showed a qualitatively different pattern of errors than younger adults. In Experiment 3, in which the tones varied in pitch, the performance of older adults was worse than that of younger adults, but the error patterns of the 2 groups were similar. The results suggest that older adults have distorted memory representations for durations but not for pitch. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The nature of Pr-ZrSiO4 yellow ceramic pigment

Pr-ZrSiO₄ yellow ceramic pigment is believed to be a solid solution of Pr⁴⁺ with the zircon lattice, but studies are poor and scarce. The aim of this paper is the synthesis of Pr-ZrSiO₄ yellow pigment in the presence of NaF by several non-conventional methods and to investigate the nature of the pigment. Results indicate that the formation of Pr-ZrSiO₄ yellow pigment must be explained by two simultaneous mechanisms: formation of a solid solution of Pr in a ZrSiO₄ network and an occlusion mechanism.     

An evaluation of parental problem-solving training in the behavioral treatment of childhood obesity.

The current investigation evaluated the efficacy of including parental problem-solving training in a behavioral weight-reduction program for obese children. Children and their parents were randomly assigned to a problem-solving, behavioral, or instruction-only weight-loss group. Children in the problem-solving group lost significantly more weight and decreased their percent overweight and body-mass indices significantly more during the 8-week treatment program than either behavioral or instruction-only subjects. These differences were maintained at the 3- and 6-month follow-up sessions. Only those parents in the problem-solving group significantly increased their problem-solving skills during the program. Child weight loss was significantly correlated with increases in parental problem-solving ability from pretreatment to posttreatment and from posttreatment to the 6-month follow-up. This evidence supports the conclusion that problem-solving training is a desirable addition to a behavioral weight-loss program for children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Investigation of cellulose convertibility and ethanolic fermentation of sugarcane bagasse pretreated by wet oxidation and steam explosion

Sugarcane bagasse was pretreated by wet oxidation (WO) at 195 °C for 15 min under either alkaline, neutral or acidic conditions, and by steam explosion (STEX) at 205 °C for 10 min. Alkaline WO was more favourable than neutral and acidic WO for the following enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose, giving 792 g kg^?1 glucose yield after 48 h. The enzymatic hydrolysis of the fibres in the whole slurry was inhibited by inhibitory compounds contained in the prehydrolysate in comparison with the hydrolysis of the washed solid fibres in buffer. The inhibition increased proportionally with formic acid concentration in the pretreated liquid fraction. Cellulose conversion was higher for simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) than for separate hydrolysis. The highest SSF conversion (829 g kg^?1) was obtained for the material treated by alkaline WO. The fermentability of the prehydrolysates by Saccharomyces cerevisiae was evaluated. Stronger inhibition of ethanolic fermentation was observed in the prehydrolysate obtained by steam explosion. The inhibition was more noticeable for the volumetric productivity than for the ethanol yield. The volumetric productivity was reduced by 94.5 and 91.2% for STEX and WO, respectively, whereas the ethanol yield was reduced only by 45.2 and 31.0%, correspondingly, for STEX and WO. Furan aldehydes seemed to be mainly responsible for the inhibition of the fermentation. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry     

Assessment of air pollution sources in an industrial atmosphere using principal component and multilinear regression analysis

Aerosol samples collected in the industrial area of Estarreja, Portugal, were used to assess the source classes responsible for the particulate levels observed in the local atmosphere. Principal Component Analysis was applied separately to the concentrations of aerosol constituents and meteorological variables to obtain the number of Principal Components and to verify the influence of weather conditions on ambient air quality. The technique led to the conclusion that soil and transport emissions represent important aerosol sources even in this industrial environment. The quantitative contribution of each source class was calculated using Multilinear Regression Analysis; 37% of the aerosol mass had a soil origin, 8% was from sea spray, 18% resulted from transport emissions and 24% contained ammonium salts. Twelve percent of total suspended particle (TSP) mass could not be explained by any of the six Principal Components retained. Ammonium salts and two other minor Principal Components seem to result mainly from industrial emissions. More specific information about the contribution of each particular source was not possible with this technique.     

Olfactory Sensitivity for Aliphatic Esters in Spider Monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi).

Using a conditioning paradigm, the authors investigated the olfactory sensitivity of 3 spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) for a homologous series of aliphatic esters (ethyl acetate to n-octyl acetate) and isomeric forms of some of these substances. With all odorants, the monkeys significantly discriminated concentrations below 1 ppm from the odorless solvent, and in several cases, individual monkeys even demonstrated thresholds below 1 ppb. The results showed spider monkeys to have a high olfactory sensitivity for aliphatic esters, which for the majority of substances matches or even is better than that of species such as the rat, the mouse, or the dog. These findings support the assumption that between-species comparisons of neuroanatomical features are poor predictors of olfactory performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Personal Functioning Inventory: A reliable and valid measure of adaptiveness in coping.

This article reports the development and validation of the Personal Functioning Inventory (PFI), a new measure of adaptiveness in coping. In Study 1, two adult samples (Ns of 105 and 101) showed the PFI to be highly reliable and to correlate substantially with a summed rating scale for adaptiveness. Study 2 with 140 undergraduates again showed the PH to be highly reliable and to relate positively to problem-solving confidence and negatively to perceived stress. Study 3, a two-wave longitudinal study with a three-week intersession interval, involved 149 undergraduates at Time 1 and retained 107 at Time 2. It demonstrated strong reliability and stability for the PFI, concurrent and predictive positive relations with selfrated adaptiveness and prolonged state anxiety, and discriminant validity against abstract curiosity. Factor analyses consistently supported a one-factor structure for the PFI. Possible applications for the scale are noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)