Experimental analysis of the role of expectancy in nicotine withdrawal.

Manipulated the withdrawal symptoms experienced by 62 cigarette smokers during a 48-hr smoking abstinence period. Ss were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 expectancy manipulation groups (psychological complaints, somatic complaints, no complaints, and no-expectancy control), and withdrawal symptoms were measured during 48 hrs of ad libitum smoking and 48 hrs of abstinence. The expectancy manipulation consisted of placebo nicotine gum and specific instructions as to the type of withdrawal symptoms to expect during smoking abstinence. Ss instructed to expect no complaints during abstinence reported fewer somatic complaints and less mood disturbance than the no-expectancy controls. Ss instructed to expect somatic, but not psychological, complaints reported more numerous and severe somatic withdrawal symptoms than did Ss instructed not to expect such symptoms. Results suggest expectancy may play a role in nicotine withdrawal experiences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Factors Affecting the Permanence of Occupational Health and Safety Topics in Engineering Courses

This paper presents an evaluation of the permanence of changes introduced within the curriculum of the College of Engineering at Tufts University. These changes involved the integration of occupational health and safety engineering resource materials into existing course work. Employing this model, Tufts faculty members developed their own lectures, case studies and laboratory materials for integration into existing courses. The evaluation, that was based on structured interviews of participating faculty and the Dean of the College, suggests that the permanence of changes to curriculum is influenced by a set of intramural parameters within the academic milieu (student interest, available class time, interest on the part of the faculty and administration) as well as by extramural factors such as the increasing prominence of legal liability of practitioners, growing interest on the part of employers and lack of readily usable materials in standard texts concerning occupational health and safety. Recommendations for future activities in these areas are offered and discussed.     

Multitask investigation of individual differences in hemispheric asymmetry.

Right-handed subjects (N?=?120) participated in four different laterality tasks designed to measure aspects of cerebral hemisphere asymmetry: identification of dichotically presented consonant-vowel syllables (CVs), examination of the effects of concurrent repetition of CVs and concurrent anagram solution on finger-tapping by the right and left hands, lateralized identification of CVs presented tachistoscopically to the left and right visual fields, and left/right biases on a free-vision face task involving judgments of emotion. Ear differences in the dichotic listening task were related to the pattern of lateralized interference in the dual-task finger-tapping paradigm. There were no other significant relations between pairs of tasks, but when the present results are considered in the light of other recent experiments, there appears to be a relation between lateral bias on the free-vision face task and visual field differences in tachistoscopic identification. The pattern of results has implications for hypothesized individual differences among right-handers in cerebral dominance for verbal processes, input pathway dominance, and asymmetric arousal of the two cerebral hemispheres. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Physical violence and other forms of marital aggression: Links with children's behavior problems.

Two studies examined whether physical marital violence and other forms of marital aggression (e.g., threats, throwing objects) correlate with children's behavior problems in families marked by recent spousal violence. Study 1 included 55 families seeking marital therapy. Study 2 included 199 families at battered women's shelters. In the marital therapy sample, both physical marital violence and other forms of marital aggression correlated positively with children's externalizing problems. In the women's shelter sample, physical violence and other forms of marital aggression correlated positively with children's externalizing and internalizing problems. After accounting for the frequency of physical marital violence, forms of marital aggression other than physical violence still related to children's externalizing problems in the marital therapy sample and to children's internalizing problems in the women's shelter sample. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An optimisation strategy in a digital environment applied to neonatal chest imaging

The aim of this study was to find the optimum tube voltage for neonatal chest imaging in computed radiography. The study was designed to take full advantage of the benefits of digital imaging, for example, by comparing the tube voltages at constant effective dose. A phantom study using a living rabbit was first conducted. Images were collected at tube voltages ranging from 40 to 90 kV(p). The reproduction of four structures (central vessels, peripheral vessels, carina and thoracic vertebrae) was rated by 10 radiologists. The reproduction of both central and peripheral vessels was relatively independent of tube voltage. The carina was better reproduced at higher tube voltages whereas the opposite was true for the thoracic vertebrae. Based on the higher importance of the reproduction of the carina it was decided that 90 kV(p) was the optimal tube voltage. To validate the result from the phantom study, a follow-up study was conducted in which images of neonates collected at the tube voltage regularly used at Sahlgrenska University Hospital (70 kV(p)) were compared with images collected at the tube voltage proposed by the phantom study. The follow-up study confirmed the results from the phantom study that the reproduction of the carina was better at 90 than at 70 kV(p). In conclusion, for neonatal chest imaging-given the same effective dose-90 kVp gives better reproduction of important structures than the regularly used 70 kV(p).     

Analysis of free hormone fractions by an ultrafast immunoextraction/displacement immunoassay: studies using free thyroxine as a model system

A system was developed for measuring the noncomplexed or free fraction of a hormone in serum based on the combined use of ultrafast immunoextraction with a chromatographic displacement immunoassay. This approach was tested using L-thyroxine as a model analyte. Items considered in the development of this technique included the choice of immunoassay format and the selection of conditions for removal of thyroxine's free fraction from samples without significant interference from its protein-bound fraction. The final method had an effective extraction time of 90 ms and allowed the amount of free thyroxine to be determined within 30 s after sample injection. The limit of detection was 6 pM (S/N = 3) for a 100-microL sample, and the linear response extended up to at least 100 pM. This technique gave good correlation versus reference methods when used for the determination of free thyroxine in serum samples. Advantages of this method included its speed and its ability to analyze a sample with no pretreatment other than standard filtration. The same approach could be adapted for other hormones or drugs by using appropriate antibodies and labeled analogues for such agents.