The Effectiveness of Early Head Start for 3-Year-Old Children and Their Parents: Lessons for Policy and Programs.

Early Head Start, a federal program begun in 1995 for low-income pregnant women and families with infants and toddlers, was evaluated through a randomized trial of 3,001 families in 17 programs. Interviews with primary caregivers, child assessments, and observations of parent-child interactions were completed when children were 3 years old. Caregivers were diverse in race-ethnicity, language, and other characteristics. Regression-adjusted impact analyses showed that 3-year-old program children performed better than did control children in cognitive and language development, displayed higher emotional engagement of the parent and sustained attention with play objects, and were lower in aggressive behavior. Compared with controls, Early Head Start parents were more emotionally supportive, provided more language and learning stimulation, read to their children more, and spanked less. The strongest and most numerous impacts were for programs that offered a mix of home-visiting and center-based services and that fully implemented the performance standards early. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

正则化方法及非刚体匹配在医学动态图象分析中的应用

为了给医生利用医学图象进行诊断和分析心血管疾病提供一个有效的工具和途径，利用计算机视觉中的正则化方法，结合心脏和心血管动态特征的临床知识，对两种医学动态图象(超声心动图和心血管造影图)进行了定量的运动分析，并完成了一套应用软件．实验结果证明，该方法明显优于以往的图象分析方法。     

Ethnicity, Expressed Emotion, Attributions, and Course of Schizophrenia: Family Warmth Matters.

The authors examined the role of family factors and the course of schizophrenia by carrying out additional assessments and analyses in 2 previously published studies of Mexican American and Anglo American patients and families. The authors found partial support for an attributional model of relapse for families who are low in emotional overinvolvement. Attributions of control, criticism, and warmth together marginally predicted relapse. The data also indicated that for Mexican Americans, family warmth is a significant protective factor, whereas for Anglo Americans, family criticism is a significant risk factor. These findings suggest that the sociocultural context shapes the pathways by which family processes are related to the course of illness. Moreover, the warmth findings suggest that families may contribute to preventing relapse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Comparison of Narrative Exposure Therapy, Supportive Counseling, and Psychoeducation for Treating Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in an African Refugee Settlement.

Little is known about the usefulness of psychotherapeutic approaches for traumatized refugees who continue to live in dangerous conditions. Narrative exposure therapy (NET) is a short-term approach based on cognitive-behavioral therapy and testimony therapy. The efficacy of narrative exposure therapy was evaluated in a randomized controlled trial. Sudanese refugees living in a Ugandan refugee settlement (N = 43) who were diagnosed as suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) either received 4 sessions of NET, 4 sessions of supportive counseling (SC), or psychoeducation (PE) completed in 1 session. One year after treatment, only 29% of the NET participants but 79% of the SC group and 80% of the PE group still fulfilled PTSD criteria. These results indicate that NET is a promising approach for the treatment of PTSD for refugees living in unsafe conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What results when firms implement practices: The differential relationship between specific practices, firm financial performance, customer service, and quality.

Previous research on organizational practices is replete with contradictory evidence regarding their effects. Here, the authors argue that these contradictory findings may have occurred because researchers have often examined complex practice combinations and have failed to investigate a broad variety of firm-level outcomes. Thus, past research may obscure important differential effects of specific practices on specific firm-level outcomes. Extending this research, the authors develop hypotheses about the effects of practices that (a) enable information sharing, (b) set boundaries, and (c) enable teams on 3 different firm-level outcomes: financial performance, customer service, and quality. Relationships are tested in a sample of observations from over 200 Fortune 1000 firms. Results indicate that information-sharing practices were positively related to financial performance 1 year following implementation of the practices, boundary-setting practices were positively related to firm-level customer service, and team-enabling practices were related to firm-level quality. No single set of practices predicted all 3 firm-level outcomes, indicating practice-specific effects. These findings help resolve the theoretical tension in the literature regarding the effects of organizational practices and offer guidance as to how to best target practices to increase specific work-related outcomes. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fitting in and feeling fine: Conformity and coping motives as mediators of the relationship between social anxiety and problematic drinking.

The present research was conducted to clarify the relationships among social anxiety, alcohol consumption, alcohol-related problems, and negative-reinforcement drinking motives among college students. Heavy drinking students (N = 316, 53.80% female) completed self-report measures of social anxiety, alcohol consumption, alcohol-related problems, and drinking motives. Findings indicated that students higher in social anxiety consumed less alcohol but experienced more negative consequences. Moreover, the relationship between social anxiety and negative consequences was mediated by coping and conformity drinking motives in addition to alcohol consumption. In the context of social anxiety, the current research demonstrates the importance of examining problematic drinking as distinct constructs: alcohol consumption and negative consequences. Findings are also discussed in terms of implications for interventions with socially anxious students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Computer use in the elementary classroom: A survey of computer contact persons in four school districts

This article investigates the use of computers in the elementary classroom. The research involved a review of some literature and field research done at schools in four chosen school districts in Toronto and Vancouver. A questionnaire was distributed and interviews were conducted with elementary school teachers and district consultants. From this field research, information was collected on the availabilities of hardware, software, teacher implementation, as well as on teachers' perceptions on computer use in the classroom. The survey results illustrate the state of computer use in some elementary schools. The findings provide implications for integrating computer use into the curriculum, and lays the groundwork for further research on how best to use the technology for elementary education.     

Automated Hybridization of X-ray Absorber Elements A Path to Large Format Microcalorimeter Arrays

We have developed an automated die-scale process for the attachment of X-ray absorbers onto microcalorimeters. Here, we describe the process for the production of absorber tiles on a handle wafer, their attachment to the microcalorimeter, and the removal of the supporting handle wafer. The process is shown to be a robust path to large format arrays of microcalorimeters.      

Regulation and Release of Vasoactive Endoglin by Brain Endothelium in Response to Hypoxia/Reoxygenation in Stroke

In large vessel occlusion stroke, recanalization to restore cerebral perfusion is essential but not necessarily sufficient for a favorable outcome. Paradoxically, in some patients, reperfusion carries the risk of increased tissue damage and cerebral hemorrhage. Experimental and clinical data suggest that endothelial cells, representing the interface for detrimental platelet and leukocyte responses, likely play a crucial role in the phenomenon referred to as ischemia/reperfusion (I/R)-injury, but the mechanisms are unknown. We aimed to determine the role of endoglin in cerebral I/R-injury; endoglin is a membrane-bound protein abundantly expressed by endothelial cells that has previously been shown to be involved in the maintenance of vascular homeostasis. We investigated the expression of membranous endoglin (using Western blotting and RT-PCR) and the generation of soluble endoglin (using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay of cell culture supernatants) after hypoxia and subsequent reoxygenation in human non-immortalized brain endothelial cells. To validate these in vitro data, we additionally examined endoglin expression in an intraluminal monofilament model of permanent and transient middle cerebral artery occlusion in mice. Subsequently, the effects of recombinant human soluble endoglin were assessed by label-free impedance-based measurement of endothelial monolayer integrity (using the xCELLigence DP system) and immunocytochemistry. Endoglin expression is highly inducible by hypoxia in human brain endothelial monolayers in vitro, and subsequent reoxygenation induced its shedding. These findings were corroborated in mice during MCAO; an upregulation of endoglin was displayed in the infarcted hemispheres under occlusion, whereas endoglin expression was significantly diminished after transient MCAO, which is indicative of shedding. Of note is the finding that soluble endoglin induced an inflammatory phenotype in endothelial monolayers. The treatment of HBMEC with endoglin resulted in a decrease in transendothelial resistance and the downregulation of VE-cadherin. Our data establish a novel mechanism in which hypoxia triggers the initial endothelial upregulation of endoglin and subsequent reoxygenation triggers its release as a vasoactive mediator that, when rinsed into adjacent vascular beds after recanalization, can contribute to cerebral reperfusion injury.