Neighborhood, family, and subjective socioeconomic status: How do they relate to adolescent health?

This study investigated the role of neighborhood, family, and individual subjective socioeconomic status (SES) in predicting adolescent physical health and psychological characteristics. Three hundred fifteen adolescents completed assessments of blood pressure, cortisol, and body mass index (BMI). Results revealed that lower neighborhood SES was associated with higher BMI and lower basal cortisol levels and that these effects persisted after controlling for family SES. Both family SES and neighborhood SES predicted negative psychological characteristics and experiences such as hostility and discrimination. In contrast, only subjective SES predicted positive psychological characteristics. These findings suggest the importance of understanding influences at the individual, family, and neighborhood levels for optimally targeting interventions to reduce health disparities earlier in life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Joining separate spheres: Christine Ladd-Franklin, woman-scientist (1847–1930).

The life and career of Christine Ladd-Franklin (1847–1930), a psychologist remembered principally for her theory of color vision, are the focus of this article. Attention is paid both to the gender-linked societal forces that operated to exclude her from a career in science and to the numerous enabling influences in her life (such as female relatives who advocated women's rights and a supportive spouse) that served to counter them. The exclusionary forces included the doctrine of separate spheres of activity for men and women and the institutionalization of science during the 19th century. The strategies that Ladd-Franklin used to negotiate the boundaries between women's traditional domestic sphere and the "men's world" of scientific psychology are also examined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Screening for trauma histories, posttraumatic stress disorders (PTSD) and subthreshold PTSD in psychiatric outpatients.

The ability of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) module's screening question to identify individuals with PTSD or subthreshold PTSD was examined. First, the screen's sensitivity for detecting a trauma history was determined. Second, the incremental validity of a more thorough trauma assessment was examined by determining how many individuals responded negatively to the screen but then were diagnosed with PTSD or subthreshold PTSD. Last, the optimal SCID termination point for assessing subthreshold PTSD was determined. Using a trauma list increased the number of participants reporting a trauma; however, the SCID screen captured almost all individuals who had PTSD or subthreshold PTSD. When one screens for subthreshold PTSD, the SCID can be terminated on failure to meet Criterion B. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Outcome measurement in career counseling research.

Increased interest in career counseling has led to the need for measuring the impact of career counseling in a more precise and meaningful way. This article discusses some of the issues raised by a survey of career counseling outcome research. The implications of these issues are presented in the form of a set of recommendations for researchers. The recommendations concern criteria, instruments, and design and analysis. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Career-intervention outcome: What contributes to client gain?

An earlier research integration of the career-counseling literature (Oliver & Spokane, 1981; Spokane & Oliver, 1983) found moderate effect sizes for various career interventions but did not explore the relations between specific study characteristics. The present study extended the data base of Spokane and Oliver and used more sophisticated coding and analysis procedures to examine the relations between study characteristics and outcomes. Two hundred forty treatment–control comparisons resulted from 58 studies containing 7,311 subjects. Class interventions were the most effective but required the greatest number of intervention hours. Four indexes of the relative efficacy of different career intervention modes revealed that individual counseling produced more client gain per hour (or session) than any other intervention mode. Intensity of treatment was the only significant contributor to outcome magnitude. Contrary to earlier reviews, there were clear differences in effectiveness among intervention modes, a finding that ought to be considered in treatment selection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Automatic identification of gray matter structures from MRI to improve the segmentation of white matter lesions

The segmentation of MRI scans of patients with white matter lesions (WML) is difficult because the MRI characteristics of WML are similar to those of gray matter. Intensity-based statistical classification techniques misclassify some WML as gray matter and some gray matter as WML. We developed a fast elastic matching algorithm that warps a reference data set containing information about the location of the gray matter into the approximate shape of the patient's brain. The region of white matter was segmented after segmenting the cortex and deep gray matter structures. The cortex was identified by using a three-dimensional, region-growing algorithm that was constrained by anatomical, intensity gradient, and tissue class parameters. White matter and WML were then segmented without interference from gray matter by using a two-class minimum-distance classifier. Analysis of double-echo spin-echo MRI scans of 16 patients with clinically determined multiple sclerosis (MS) was carried out. The segmentation of the cortex and deep gray matter structures provided anatomical context. This was found to improve the segmentation of MS lesions by allowing correct classification of the white matter region despite the overlapping tissue class distributions of gray matter and MS lesion.     

Continuously variable solid state delay circuits

A circuit using the properties of c.m.o.s. logic gates is described, which yields continuously variable delay over a range exceeding 3:1. Advantage is taken of the dependence of pulse transition time on supply voltage, and applications are suggested in digital transmission compensation as well as in the generation of variable frequency square waves.     

Excitation-calcium release uncoupling in aged single human skeletal muscle fibers

The principal objective of this communication has been to determine the manner in which two tissue culture substrata (plastic dishes and type I collagen gels) modulate the response of adult skin fibroblasts to TGF-beta 1 with respect to hyaluronan (HA) synthesis. Our results indicate that (a) fibroblasts cultured on collagen gels synthesised more HA compared to cells plated at the same density on plastic dishes, (b) this up-regulation in total HA synthesis by collagen-cultured cells was accompanied by an increase in the relative proportion of high molecular mass species of newly synthesised HA, and (c) the specific effect of TGF-beta 1 on HA synthesis was dependent upon the substratum: i.e. TGF-beta 1 inhibited HA synthesis by subconfluent fibroblasts cultured on both substrata, had no apparent effect on confluent cells cultured on collagen gels, and stimulated HA synthesis by confluent cells cultured on plastic dishes. The TGF beta-stimulated of HA synthesis by confluent fibroblasts cultured on plastic dishes persisted when these cells were transferred to collagen gels in the absence of further TGF-beta 1: interestingly, a second exposure of these plastic pre-incubated cells to TGF-beta 1 whilst growing on collagen resulted in a down-regulation in HA synthesis. Confluent fibroblasts pre-incubated with TGF-beta 1 for 24 h on plastic dishes (i.e. under conditions which stimulate HA synthesis) also displayed an HA-dependent stimulation in cell migration when subsequently plated onto collagen gels in the absence of further cytokine.     

Memory-based logic sequence generation

Simple methods of producing single or repetitive logic patterns entirely by RAM or PROM are described. These allow software loading and alteration of logic functions. It is shown that memories can emulate and, indeed, replace sequential logic circuits such as delay generators, binary counters, shift registers and multiple latches at frequencies in excess of 10 MHz. Examples of memory logic and free-running pattern generators are illustrated. Applications are suggested.