Disentangling the Sources of Opioid Withdrawal Responses: Comment on McDonald and Siegel (2004).

R. V. McDonald and S. Siegel (see record 2004-10475-001) present new evidence for the idea that opioid drug-opposite responses can become conditioned to cues of initial drug onset and that they could, therefore, play a role in the development of tolerance of some drug effects and a role in the elicitation of withdrawal-like symptoms in cases in which addicted individuals are exposed to small doses of the drug they normally consume. In this comment, some puzzling features of the data are discussed, and alternative explanations are suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A connectionist implementation of the theory of planned behavior: Association of beliefs with exercise intention.

The theory of planned behavior suggests attitudes are a product of salient beliefs. This study examined whether aggregating salient beliefs was plausible within a more biologically centered information-processing environment. A neural network was used to examine associations among beliefs relating to exercise intention. Data on intentions and behavioral, normative, and control beliefs from 114 respondents were used to train (by error backpropagation) a neural network to associate beliefs with intention. The R2 between the network's estimated and self-reported intention was .66. The network's representation comprised 6 belief profiles associated with high, moderate, or low behavioral intention. The neural network accommodated complex relationships among beliefs and belief-intention associations and indicated how high-level constructs such as attitudes may be viewed as the best fit (compromise state) between aroused beliefs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

In-kind and out-of-kind penalties: Preference and valuation.

Utilitarian and economic theories of deterrence hold that the relation of the penalty to the misdeed should be irrelevant. In 5 experiments using hypothetical cases, judgments of penalties depended on whether this relation was in kind (IK) or out of kind (OK). When victims were identifiable, IK penalties were higher than OK and preferred to OK. Subjects seemed to confuse penalties and compensation. When there were no identifiable victims (e.g., environmental damage), IK penalties were preferred, but OK penalties were higher. Here, OK judgments were more uncertain, and subjects preferred to err on the side of overpunishing. The results can be explained in terms of overgeneralization of usually useful heuristics. Alternative hypotheses concerning aggression and scale compatibility are rejected. The findings have implications for the setting of penalties in legal cases (e.g., the Exxon Valdez) and for lay theories of punishment in nonlegal settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluating Community Safety Programmes and Community Engagement: The Role of Qualitative Methods and Collaborative Approaches to Policy Research

This article explores the role of qualitative and collaborative methods when undertaking evaluation research into local community safety partnerships and neighbourhood strategies. It draws on recent examples of research and evaluation studies of regeneration and community safety programmes in a number of cities and towns in England. The discussion is set against the background of the major changes in policy relating to crime and community safety, particularly the introduction of Crime and Disorder Partnerships and their engagement with local communities. The value of qualitative methods in exploring some key questions is discussed, particularly within a collaborative approach to policy research.     

Effects of linguistic structure on children's ability to isolate initial consonants.

In 4 experiments, preschoolers and kindergartners were asked to pronounce the initial consonants of spoken words. Children performed better on short words, such as bay, than on long words, such as bonus. Words with initial consonant clusters, such as brow, were more difficult for the children than words without initial consonant clusters, such as bar. A consonant cluster at the end of the word did not harm performance. Children did relatively well on words like suppose, for which the word's 1st syllable, /s/, constitutes a correct answer on the initial consonant isolation task. Children did more poorly on words like satin, for which this was not the case. Thus, the linguistic structure of a word affects children's ability to isolate the initial consonant. Implications for the design of phonemic awareness instruction are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging and prospective memory: Examining the influences of self-initiated retrieval processes.

Past research has frequently failed to find age differences in prospective memory. This article tested the possibility that age differences would be more likely to emerge on a prospective memory task that was high in self-initiated retrieval. In the 1st experiment, participants were asked to perform an action every 10 min (a time-based task presumed to be high in self-initiated retrieval); in the 2nd experiment, participants were asked to perform an action whenever a particular word was presented (an event-based task presumed to be relatively low in self-initiated retrieval). Age differences were found with the time-based task but not with the event-based task. This pattern of age differences was again found in a 3rd experiment in which a new experimental procedure was used and the nature of the prospective memory task was directly varied. Generally, the results suggest that self-initiated retrieval processes are an important component of age-related differences across both retrospective and prospective memory tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Immunoaffinity-chromatography purification of salbutamol in liver and HPLC-fluorometric detection at trace residue level

Summary A method combining immunoaffmity-chromatography (IAC) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for the analysis of Salbutamol in liver with a low quantification limit of 1 g/kg has been developed. Salbutamol was extracted with 0.01 mol/L HCl and purified by IAC. The samples were analysed on a liquid Chromatograph fitted with a C₁₈ -Bondapak column. A fluorometer was used for the detection of salbutamol. Recoveries of 67–80% could be obtained.

---

Immunoaffinitätschromatographische Reinigung von Salbutamol in Leber und Rückstandsbestimmung mittels HPLC und fluorimetrischer Detektion

Zusammenfassung Eine Methode, die Immunoaffinitäts-und Hochleistungsflüssigchromatographie verbindet, ist für die Analyse von Salbutamol in Leber entwickelt worden. Eine niedrige Bestimmungsgrenze von 1 g/kg Leber wurde erreicht. Salbutamol wurde mit 0,01 mol/L Salzsäure freigesetzt und durch Immunoaffinitätschromatographie gereinigt. Die Proben wurden durch Flüssigchromatographie auf einer C₁₈ -Bondapak-Säule analysiert. Ein Fluorimeter wurde für die Detektion von Salbutamol benutzt. Ausbeuten von 67 bis 80% konnten erreicht werden.

     

QUICK: a tool for graphical user-interface construction by non-programmers

The last decade has placed the superiority of graphical user interfaces over traditional text-based approaches beyond dispute. In almost all contexts, users have found graphical interfaces easier to learn, faster to use, and less error-prone. However, it has been shown that the creation of powerful graphical interfaces takes up to 80% of the time required to develop an application. In our work, we seek to extend the benefits of graphical interaction to the next layer of computer user—the interface designer. Our work in this area is distinguished from other efforts by two important differences. First, while other efforts focus primarily on the design of standard user interfaces, our approach emphasizes the creation of unique and innovative interfaces by supporting, among other things, arbitrary user-designed graphical representations, direct specification of animation, and digitized sound. Second, our goal is to cater to the nonprogrammer. Thus, we address a challenging trade-off: maximizing power and flexibility in an extremely simple environment. We explore the utility of the prototype object-oriented paradigm, a high-level userinterface language, and a direct-manipulation programming environment in this context.     

Effect of early postnatal dietary sterculate on the fatty acid composition of rat liver and brain lipids

Pregnant rats were fed a high carbohydrate diet containing either 1% trilinolein or 1% trilinolein with 0.2% methyl sterculate from 18 day gestation to 21 day postpartum. The pups were weaned at 21 days and continued on the same diet for an additional 10 days. The microsomal stearyl CoA desaturase activities of the liver were effectively inhibited. Liver triglycerides showed increases in the saturated fatty acids concentrations at the expense of the corresponding monoenes. The concentration ofcis 6–7 octadecenoic acid was elevated. In liver phospholipids, the concentration of stearic acid was increased without a corresponding decrease in the oleic acid content. A drastic decrease in the nervonic acid (24∶1, n−9) concentration of liver sphingomyelin was observed. The lipids of the brain did not contain sterculic acid, and brain desaturase activity was unaffected. There was no significant change in the concentration of monoenoic acids from 16∶1 to 22∶1. However, nervonic acid was decreased by 32%. These results suggest that brain nervonic acid may be derived from a precursor other than oleic acid.