Self-determination and conflict in romantic relationships.

Four studies examined associations between E. L. Deci and R. M. Ryan's (1985, 2000) construct of autonomy, responses to relationship disagreements, and dissatisfaction after conflict. In Study 1, diary data showed that trait autonomy predicted relationship autonomy, which in turn predicted relative satisfaction after disagreements. In Study 2, trait autonomy predicted relationship autonomy, which was associated with less defensive and more understanding responses to conflict. Studies 3 and 4 examined whether one's partner's relationship autonomy uniquely predicted reported and observed behavior during conflict. Autonomous reasons for being in the relationship (of both self and partner) predicted both reported and observed responses to conflict and feelings of satisfaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Twelve-Week Outcomes From an Investigation of High-Dose Nicotine Patch Therapy for Heavy Smokers With a Past History of Alcohol Dependence.

This study reports findings from an investigation of the efficacy of high-dose nicotine patch (NP) therapy for heavy smokers with a past history of alcohol dependence. One hundred thirty participants were randomly assigned to 42 mg or 21 mg of transdermal nicotine for 4 weeks, followed by an 8-week dose titration. Follow-up assessments were conducted at 4 and 12 weeks. Differences between dose conditions were nonsignificant, although unexpectedly, outcomes favored participants in the 21-mg NP condition. Nicotine abstinence at follow-up was related to longer length of alcohol abstinence at time of enrollment. Future research should investigate ways to improve smoking quit rates in this population, including more frequent counseling sessions and/or other pharmacotherapies. These investigations should focus primarily on smokers in early alcohol recovery. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maternal Regulation of Infant Reactivity From 2 to 6 Months.

Previous research has investigated the effect of maternal soothing behaviors on reducing infant reactivity but not the differential effects of specific maternal behaviors on infant stress responses. The present study investigated maternal regulation of 2- and 6-month-olds' responses to an inoculation and found a significant decline with age in both the intensity and duration of infants' crying. Maternal affection and touching decreased from 2 to 6 months, whereas maternal vocalizing and distraction behaviors increased. At both ages, the combination of maternal holding/rocking and vocalizing was associated with decreases in all levels of infant reactivity. Neither strategy alone, however, was found to be effective. Feeding/ pacifying behaviors were effective only when initial distress was at a low or moderate level, which suggests that the effectiveness of maternal regulatory behaviors may depend on the intensity of infants' crying. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conducting Psychological Research in Medical Settings: Challenges, Limitations, and Recommendations for Effectiveness Research.

Efficacy research is insufficient and ineffective in changing practice, despite a large supporting psychotherapy efficacy literature. Concurrently, demand for supporting data and the burden on everyday practice for generating these data is increasing. The disconnect between efficacy and effectiveness is due to a lack of conceptual and methodological tools for testing efficacious procedures in real-world settings, particularly medical contexts. This article articulates the position that effectiveness studies pose more complex questions that require an alteration of conceptual and methodological frames of reference in order to make behavioral services available to the broadest patient base. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of inhomogeneous static magnetic field-exposure on patients with erosive gastritis: a randomized,self- and placebo-controlled,double-blind,single centre,pilot study

This pilot study was devoted to the effect of static magnetic field (SMF)-exposure on erosive gastritis. The randomized, self- and placebo-controlled, double-blind, pilot study included 16 patients of the 2nd Department of Internal Medicine, Semmelweis University diagnosed with erosive gastritis. The instrumental analysis followed a qualitative (pre-intervention) assessment of the symptoms by the patient: lower heartburn (in the ventricle), upper heartburn (in the oesophagus), epigastric pain, regurgitation, bloating and dry cough. Medical diagnosis included a double-line upper panendoscopy followed by 30 min local inhomogeneous SMF-exposure intervention at the lower sternal region over the stomach with peak-to-peak magnetic induction of 3 mT and 30 mT m⁻¹ gradient at the target site. A qualitative (post-intervention) assessment of the same symptoms closed the examination. Sham- or SMF-exposure was used in a double-blind manner. The authors succeeded in justifying the clinically and statistically significant beneficial effect of the SMF- over sham-exposure on the symptoms of erosive gastritis, the average effect of inhibition was 56% by p = 0.001, n = 42 + 96. This pilot study was aimed to encourage gastroenterologists to test local, inhomogeneous SMF-exposure on erosive gastritis patients, so this intervention may become an evidence-based alternative or complementary method in the clinical use especially in cases when conventional therapy options are contraindicated.     

A Decision-Theoretic Approach to Network Fault Diagnosis and Follow-up Action

Fault management and security of computer networks present new challenges of increasing complexity. Decision procedures for fault diagnosis, security-related threats, and follow-up actions must, however, be evaluated on the basis of sound theoretical foundations and economic costs of various strategies. This paper presents a minimum expected cost solution for fault diagnosis and corrective actions. Several notions new to fault management are introduced. The methodology is applicable to both non-malicious and malicious faults. As a novel security-related application, the problem of choosing between two strategies for containing the spread of network worms is discussed.     

Controlling Exchange Coupling Strength in Ni x Cu1−x Thin Films

The thickness (d _F) and concentration (x) dependence of the Curie temperature of Ni _x Cu_1?x (d _F) ferromagnetic alloy layers (x=0.55, 0.65, d _F=[4.5 nm÷12 nm]) in contact with a vanadium layer was studied. The Curie temperature of the ferromagnetic layers depends on the thickness when it is comparable with the transition layer between the F and the vanadium layers, which is attributed to the proximity coupling of the interface region with the rest of the F layer. The present study provides valuable information for fabrication of samples with controlled exchange coupling strength for studies of superconductor/ferromagnet proximity effects.     

Stimulatory effect of ascorbate,the alternative electron donor of photosystem II,on the hydrogen production of sulphur-deprived Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

The green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is capable of photoproducing molecular hydrogen following sulphur deprivation, which results in anaerobiosis and a suppression of oxygen evolution and thus an alleviation of the inhibitory effect of oxygen on the hydrogenase. At the same time it transiently maintains a limited supply of electrons arising from photosystem II (PSII) to the hydrogenase (Melis and Happe Plant Physiol 2001; 127:740–748). In this work, using fast chl a fluorescence and P700 measurements, we show that ascorbate (Asc), a naturally occurring PSII alternative electron donor, is capable of donating electrons to PSII in heat-treated and sulphur-deprived cells and this can be significantly accelerated by supplementing the culture with 10 mM Asc. It also enhances, about three-fold, the photoproduction of hydrogen in cells subjected to sulphur deprivation as shown by gas chromatography. Similar stimulation was obtained in the presence of diphenylcarbazide (DPC), an artificial PSII electron donor. Asc and DPC also facilitated the anaerobiosis of cells, probably via super reducing the oxygen evolving complex while feeding electrons to PSII reaction centres and the linear electron transport chain, and ultimately to the hydrogenase – as shown by the significant DCMU-sensitivity of the light-induced Asc- and DPC-dependent re-reduction of P700⁺ and hydrogen evolution.     

Electrospun poly(aspartic acid) gel scaffolds for artificial extracellular matrix

Biocompatible synthetic polymer gel scaffolds for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine were prepared by reactive electrospinning. Protein‐like nano‐ and microfibres from chemically crosslinked polysuccinimide were obtained. Fibrous poly(aspartic acid) gels with size similar to that of extracellular matrix were obtained by hydrolysis of the polysuccinimide gel fibres. The effects of process parameters on fibre morphology (diameter, swelling degree) and chemical structure were investigated. Sub‐micrometre‐sized biocompatible fibrous scaffolds from a poly(amino acid) is a novel approach with great promise in several biomedical applications due to the tailor‐made synthetic nature, extreme purity and possibility of production on a large scale. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry     

Converting heterogeneous statistical tables on the web to searchable databases

Much of the world’s quantitative data reside in scattered web tables. For a meaningful role in Big Data analytics, the facts reported in these tables must be brought into a uniform framework. Based on a formalization of header-indexed tables, we proffer an algorithmic solution to end-to-end table processing for a large class of human-readable tables. The proposed algorithms transform header-indexed tables to a category table format that maps easily to a variety of industry-standard data stores for query processing. The algorithms segment table regions based on the unique indexing of the data region by header paths, classify table cells, and factor header category structures of two-dimensional as well as the less common multidimensional tables. Experimental evaluations substantiate the algorithmic approach to processing heterogeneous tables. As demonstrable results, the algorithms generate queryable relational database tables and semantic-web triple stores. Application of our algorithms to 400 web tables randomly selected from diverse sources shows that the algorithmic solution automates end-to-end table processing.