Influences during adolescence on perceptions and behaviour related to alcohol use and unsafe driving as young adults

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether aggression, parent and peer influences, and previous traffic-related experiences at ages 15 and 18 impacted on (a) differences between the perceived safe and estimated legal alcohol consumption limit, and (b) driving while impaired (DWI) behaviour at age 21. METHOD: The study population was a birth cohort involved in a longitudinal investigation of health and development. At the ages of 15 and 18, study members completed questionnaires assessing parent and peer attachment, experience travelling with an alcohol impaired adult or youth, aggression, and previous crash experience. At age 21, study members were questioned about how much alcohol they perceived they could drink and still drive safely, and whether they had driven after 'perhaps consuming too much alcohol'. For each participant their legal alcohol consumption limit was estimated using their height and weight. Path analysis was used to determine whether variables measured at ages 15 and 18 predicted differences between the perceived safe and estimated legal alcohol consumption limit and driving while impaired, both measured at age 21. RESULTS: Insufficient females drove while impaired at age 21, who also had complete data on all other variables, to conduct path analysis for this outcome. For males, aggression at ages 15 and 18, travelling with an impaired youth at age 18, and previous crash experience at age 18 predicted DWI behaviour at age 21. Only aggression at age 15 predicted the difference between perceived safe and estimated legal alcohol consumption limit for the males. For females, aggression at ages 15 and 18, and travelling with an impaired adult at age 15 predicted the difference between perceived safe and estimated legal alcohol consumption limit. CONCLUSION: The results show that aggressive behaviours and adult and/or youth modelling of drink driving behaviours in mid- to late-adolescence are related to differences between perceived safe and estimated legal alcohol consumption limit for both genders and driving while impaired for males.     

Review of Gestalt psychotherapy: Concepts and demonstrations in stress, relationships, hypnosis and addiction.

Reviews the book, Gestalt psychotherapy: Concepts and demonstrations in stress, relationships, hypnosis and addiction by Richard E. Hardy (1991). This work provides a basic explanation of the concepts of Gestalt psychotherapy. As an introductory work, the book provides clear explanations of key concepts, but errs in the direction of oversimplifying the complexities of Gestalt thinking. The author acknowledges these complexities without fully capturing them. It is obvious that Richard Hardy really knows Gestalt therapy, but if the reader is not well grounded in Gestalt theory and Gestalt psychotherapy, the depth of the concepts would easily be lost. A strength of Hardy's book is his presentation of ways in which Gestalt therapy can be utilized in areas not normally associated with Gestalt, such as hypnosis, pain management, intimate relationships, and addictions. An important criticism of Hardy's work is that he fails to follow the APA guidelines for the use of nonsexist language. Overall, the limitations of the book outweigh the strengths. Hardy appears to have difficulty choosing his audience. Beginning psychotherapists would need more basic information and case examples. Advanced psychotherapists would seek more depth and new information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Primacy of perception in family stress theory and measurement.

A selection of interdisciplinary family stress literature is cited to illustrate that perceptions, even more than resources, predict which families manage high stress and which fall into crisis. Paraphrasing symbolic interactionist W. I. Thomas (1928), if family members define their helplessness as real, then their helplessness is real in its consequences. Cautions are given about measuring only shared common perceptions. Giving preeminence to a common perception may obscure gender and generational differences in families and could be ethically problematic. Research on boundary ambiguity is presented as 1 example of measuring individual and shared perceptions in distressed families. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitudes of psychotherapists toward the 1970 APA standards for psychotherapy training.

518 members of the American Psychological Association, Division 29, were sent a questionnaire asking them to review each of the recommendations of the Psychotherapy Curriculum and Consultation Committee on Psychotherapy Training. Recommendations were evaluated along 3 dimensions: (a) the extent to which these recommendations were present in doctoral training, (b) the extent to which the recommendations were considered to facilitate therapeutic competence, and (c) whether the respondents would include the recommendations in an ideal psychotherapy training program. Half of the Ss indicated that the recommendations were prevalent in their training. A majority found that the recommendations facilitated competence and would include them in ideal training. An important implication of the study is that even though all the recommendations are not prevalent in clinical psychology graduate programs, Ss think they ought to be. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Comparison of the Work of Adhesion Obtained from Wetting and Vapor Adsorption Measurements

Some of the limitations to determining experimental values of the work of adhesion are discussed. Wetting measurements appear to provide the most direct means of assessing the work of adhesion for a solid-liquid system, but they require the formation of a finite contact angle by the liquid against the solid of interest, and the need for independent knowledge of the equilibrium spreading pressure of the liquid's vapor on the solid further limits their applicability. Vapor adsorption measurement using the technique of inverse gas chromatoraphy (IGC) provides a promising alternative means of determining the work of adhesion not subject to these limitations. The measurements are, furthermore, amenable to solids which are difficult to use with wetting measurements, e.g., those which are porous or granular. An attempt is made here to compare values of the work of adhesion determined using both wetting and vapor adsorption measurements. Good agreement is attained between the two methods for diiodomethane in contact with poly (vinyl chloride), poly (methyl methacrylate), and chemi-thermo-mechanical wood pulp fibers, suggesting that the technique of IGC is particularly well-suited for rapid determination of the work of adhesion.     

Religious Communication and Epistemic Authority of Leaders in Wired Faith Organizations

The mediation of communication has raised questions of authority shifts in key social institutions. This article examines how traditional sources of epistemic power that govern social relations in religious authority are being amplified or delegitimized by Internet use, drawing from in‐depth interviews with protestant pastors in Singapore. Competition from Internet access is found to delocalize epistemic authority to some extent; however, it also reembeds authority by allowing pastors to acquire new competencies as strategic arbiters of religious expertise and knowledge. Our study indicates that although religious leaders are confronted with proletarianization, deprofessionalization, and potential delegitimization as epistemic threats, there is also an enhancement of epistemic warrant as they adopt mediated communication practices that include the social networks of their congregation.     

2D-LC analysis of BRP 3 erythropoietin N-glycosylation using anion exchange fractionation and hydrophilic interaction UPLC reveals long poly-N-acetyl lactosamine extensions

Post-translational modifications, in particular glycosylation, represent critical structural attributes that govern both the pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic properties of therapeutic glycoproteins. To guarantee safety and efficacy of recombinant therapeutics, characterization of glycosylation present is a regulatory requirement. In the current paper, we applied a multidimensional strategy comprising a shallow anion exchange gradient in the first dimension, followed by analysis using the recently introduced 1.7 μm HILIC phase in the second dimension for the comprehensive separation of complex N-glycans present on the European Biological Reference Preparation (BRP) 3 erythropoietin standard. Tetra-antennary glycans with multiple sialic acids and poly-N-acetyl lactosamine extensions were the most abundant oligosaccharides present on the molecule. Site-specific glycan analysis was performed to examine microheterogeneity. Tetra-antennary glycans with up to four sialic acids and up to five poly-N-acetyl lactosamine extensions were observed at asparagine 24 and 83, while biantennary glycans were the major structures at asparagine 38. The combined AEC x UPLC HILIC allows for the rapid and comprehensive analysis of complex N-glycosylation present on therapeutic glycoproteins, such as BRP3 erythropoietin.     

NO Relaxation Approach (NORA) to predict thermal NO in combustion chambers

In combustion models employing tabulated or global kinetics, the prediction of thermal NO is usually performed by either the direct resolution of Zel’dovich mechanism or the tabulation of the NO reaction rate using a laminar flamelet database and a progress variable representative of the fuel oxidation reactions, for instance temperature or a linear combination of major products mass fractions. It is known that the first method lacks accuracy if radical species such as N or O appearing in the NO reaction rate are not correctly estimated. The second method cannot lead to accurate predictions because NO reactions take place essentially when the fuel oxidation is over, therefore the NO reaction rate shows a very weak correlation with the progress variable. In this paper a new approach called NO Relaxation Approach (NORA), is proposed for the modeling of thermal NO. It allows a high accuracy when coupled with this type of combustion models. With NORA, the NO reaction rate is written as a linear relaxation towards the equilibrium value with a characteristic time τ. Both parameters are tabulated as functions of equivalence ratio, pressure, temperature and dilution mass fraction. NORA is first validated on homogeneous internal combustion engine cases, where it closely fits the complex chemistry results. It is then integrated into the turbulent combustion model ECFM3Z dedicated to piston engine applications. In this model a mixed tabulated (TKI) and global kinetics (CORK) approach is used to describe turbulent combustion. First applications on eight Diesel engine operating points show a good improvement with NORA compared to a classical resolution of Zel’dovich mechanism.     

Air classification of flours of three legume species: Effect of starch granule size distribution

The effect of starch granule size distribution on separation behaviour of whole starchy grain legume flours during air classification was studied, using laboratory-scale equipment and two varieties each of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), faba bean (Vicia faba) and pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan). Cut points at a range of classifier settings were calculated from particle-size analysis of the fines and coarse fractions using a Coulter counter. The whole flours varied considerably in starch granule size distribution between species and varieties. Cowpea, which contained a high proportion of small starch granules, yielded fines with a higher starch content and a greater dry weight yield than the other species studied.