Psychologists in practice with older adults: Current patterns, sources of training, and need for continuing education.

Rapid population growth among older adults means an increased need for psychologists prepared to provide mental health services to this population. A representative survey of 1,227 practitioner members of the American Psychological Association yielded information about current patterns of practice with older adults, sources of training in geropsychology, perceived need for continuing education (CE) in geropsychology, and preferred CE formats. Most respondents provided some services to older adults, but typically very little. The services provided are inadequate to meet projected demand. Most respondents lacked formal training in geropsychology and perceived themselves as needing additional training. CE workshops at the regional level and distance education were the most popular formats. These data serve as a call to the field to expand training opportunities at all levels of training, with an emphasis on the need for empirically based, broadly accessible CE offerings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Local measurements in turbulent bubbly flows

Local measurements methods in bubbly flows are discussed. Concerning liquid velocity measurement, problems linked to HFA and LDA are first analysed. Then simultaneously recorded velocity signals obtained by both anemometers are compared. New signal processing is developed for the two techniques. Bubble sizes and velocities measurements methods using intrusive double optical sensor probe are presented. Plane bubbly mixing layer has been investigated. Local measurements using the described methods are presented as examples.     

Taste responses in the greater superficial petrosal nerve: Substantial sodium salt and amiloride sensitivities demonstrated in two rat strains.

A great quantity of research has focused on neural responses of the chorda tympani nerve (CT) to taste stimuli. This report examined salt and sugar sensitivity of the greater superficial petrosal nerve (GSP) and the effect of amiloride on these neural responses. In addition to Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats that have CT responses typical of most rat strains, we included Fischer 344 (F344) rats whose CT responses to sodium chloride (NaCl) are higher than those of other strains. After a stimulation series in which water served as the rinse, a series of stimuli was presented in 100 μM amiloride. The GSP was highly responsive to NaCl, sodium acetate (NaAc), ammonium chloride, and sucrose; NaCl and NaAc responses were strongly suppressed by amiloride. Relative responses to NaCl were significantly higher in F344 than in SD rats. In summary, the GSP is highly sensitive to salt and sugar stimulation, and palatal taste receptors have a considerable degree of amiloride sensitivity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ground Water Flow Modelling Applications in Mining Hydrogeology

Some specific features and problems of numerical modelling applications in mining environment are briefly discussed and three modelling case studies are presented. Two of the applications are aimed at mine dewatering problems in active coal mines. The first represents the underground hard coal mining region in the Czech part of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin. The second example is focussed on optimisation of the dewatering regime of open pit mining of brown coal in the Most sub-basin of the North Bohemian Coal Basin. The third example describes how mathematical modelling can be applied to solve issues associated with the intensive use of mine waters from the flooded Olsi-Drahonin mine as a source of uranium to shorten the time necessary for the purification of mine waters discharged into watercourses.     

A concurrent rule scheduling algorithm for active rules

The use of rules in a distributed environment creates new challenges for the development of active rule execution models. In particular, since a single event can trigger multiple rules that execute over distributed sources of data, it is important to make use of concurrent rule execution whenever possible. This paper presents the details of the integration rule scheduling (IRS) algorithm. Integration rules are active database rules that are used for component integration in a distributed environment. The IRS algorithm identifies rule conflicts for multiple rules triggered by the same event through static, compile-time analysis of the read and write sets of each rule. A unique aspect of the algorithm is that the conflict analysis includes the effects of nested rule execution that occurs as a result of using an execution model with an immediate coupling mode. The algorithm therefore identifies conflicts that may occur as a result of the concurrent execution of different rule triggering sequences. The rules are then formed into a priority graph before execution, defining the order in which rules triggered by the same event should be processed. Rules with the same priority can be executed concurrently. The IRS algorithm guarantees confluence in the final state of the rule execution. The IRS algorithm is applicable for rule scheduling in both distributed and centralized rule execution environments.     

Health-Related Stress, Affect, and Depressive Symptoms Experienced by Caregiving Mothers of Adults With a Developmental Disability.

The interrelationships among health-related stress, positive and negative affect, and depressive symptoms patterned in the dynamic model of affect (J. Reich, A. Zautra, & M. Davis, 2003) were examined using data from 932 women having an adult child with a developmental disability. Results indicate that women experience a moderate inverse correlation between positive and negative affect under conditions of low levels of health-related stress, whereas at high levels of stress, positive and negative affect become more strongly inversely correlated. Under high-stress conditions, both negative affect and positive affect have a stronger relationship to depressive symptoms than they do under low-stress conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Art, wellness, and innovation: Heads up Kentucky! Puts psychology's contribution to healthy living in the public eye.

The Kentucky Psychological Association (KPA) Foundation is an organization that 2 years ago had little name recognition in its community or the state. In the past year, the KPA Foundation has contributed a major public art project to the city in which it resides, enhanced its financial assets, introduced educational material on the mind-body connection to public forums across the community, been the subject of feature articles in some of the community's major publications, taken health promotion curriculum to public elementary schools, and achieved national recognition for its public education campaign. This article describes the successful "Heads Up Kentucky!" campaign and the mobilization of the membership in the state's psychological association to make the fruits of psychological science accessible to members of the public. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Questioning the Living/Nonliving Dichotomy: Evidence From a Patient With an Unusual Semantic Dissociation.

In this article the authors describe a patient (J.P.) whose category-specific naming deficit eluded the classical dichotomies between living versus nonliving items or visual versus functional attributes. At age 22, he had herpes simplex encephalitis followed by a left temporal lobectomy. J.P. was tested on measures of visual perception, category naming, fluency, and name-picture matching. He showed a severe impairment naming and identifying fruits, vegetables, and musical instruments. His performance with animals and birds was spared inconsistently, meaning that even the preserved categories were, at some point, affected. J.P.'s unusual deficit supports the hypothesis that semantic knowledge is organized in the brain on the basis of object properties, which can cut across the living-nonliving categorical distinction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assessment and treatment of sleep disorders in older adults: A review for rehabilitation psychologists.

Recent research has led to significant progress in the assessment and treatment of sleep disturbance in older adults. Similar advances have been made with sleep disorders secondary to age-related chronic illness. The assessment and treatment of sleep disorders encompasses numerous behavioral aspects. Thus, rehabilitation psychologists are ideally positioned to help apply these new advances to the growing number of older adult patients in the rehabilitation setting. The authors provide an overview of age and disease-related sleep disorders. They provide details for implementation of behavioral treatments for geriatric insomnia that is comorbid with chronic illness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)