Psychological impact of benign breast biopsy: A longitudinal, comparative study.

The impact of benign breast biopsy (BBB) on distress and perceptions of risk for breast cancer (BC) was examined. Interviews were conducted with 100 women shortly after notification of biopsy results and 4 and 8 months post-BBB. Compared with matched healthy comparison (HC) women without BBB, the BBB group evidenced greater BC-specific distress at baseline. BC-specific distress declined after BBB, remaining elevated relative to the HC group at the 8-month follow-up. Dispositional (optimism, informational coping style), demographic (education), clinical (family history of BC), and cognitive (BC risk perception) variables were associated with baseline levels of BC-specific distress or persistence of distress. Results support the monitoring process model (S. M. Miller, 1995) and the cognitive social health information processing model (S. M. Miller, Y. Shoda, & K. Hurley, 1996). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Information processing speed and sentence comprehension in Parkinson's disease.

This study tests the hypothesis that sentence comprehension difficulty in Parkinson's disease (PD) is related in part to altered information processing speed that plays a crucial role in grammatical processing. The authors measured information processing speed in 32 PD patients without dementia using a lexical list-priming paradigm in which the interstimulus interval (ISI) between the prime and the target varied. Sentence comprehension accuracy was also assessed in 22 of these patients. Sentence comprehension accuracy for object-relative center-embedded sentences was impaired in a subgroup of PD patients. This subgroup of PD patients primed at an abnormally long ISI. Similarly, only PD patients who primed at a long ISI had greater difficulty understanding sentences with an object-relative clause than a subject-relative clause. Findings suggest that slowed information processing speed contributes to sentence comprehension difficulty in PD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the complexities of measuring naming.

The aims of this study were to investigate the adequacy of electronic voice keys for the purpose of measuring naming latency and to test the assumption that voice key error can be controlled by matching conditions on initial phoneme. Three types of naming latency measurements (hand-coding and 2 types of voice keys) were used to investigate effects of onset complexity (e.g., sat vs. spat) on reading aloud (J. R. Frederiksen & J. F. Kroll, 1976, A. H. Kawamoto & C. T. Kello, 1999). The 3 measurement techniques produced the 3 logically possible results: a significant complexity advantage, a significant complexity disadvantage, and a null effect. Analyses of the performance of each voice key are carried out, and implications for studies of naming latency are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Five-Parameter Grain Boundary Inclination Recovery with EBSD and Interaction Volume Models

While electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) patterns are often used to present two-dimensional information about a material microstructure, they are in fact a product of the three-dimensional electron interaction volume. Consequently, 3D spatial information exists in EBSD images, which is generally not accessed. Specifically, the inclination of the grain boundary plane may be observed in EBSD patterns taken near grain boundaries. If, at the same time, the shape of an electron interaction volume in the material is known, a grain boundary plane normal direction can be obtained from a sequence of EBSD images taken stepwise in a line crossing the grain boundary. Here, these two principles are used for demonstrating the determination of grain boundary normal vectors from EBSD images. Coherent twin boundaries and focused ion beam serial scan data are used for validation. Results indicate a mean error for this approach of 3 deg with a standard deviation of 3.8 deg.     

Local dopamine production in the dorsal striatum restores goal-directed behavior in dopamine-deficient mice.

To determine whether dopamine signaling in the dorsal striatum is sufficient for performance of goal-directed behaviors, local dopamine production was restored in the dorsal striatum of dopamine-deficient (DD) mice through viral-mediated gene therapy. Virally rescued DD (vrDD) mice were tested for learning of an appetitive T-maze task designed to measure goal-directed behavior. The results indicate that in contrast with the performance of DD mice that have dysregulated dopamine signaling, vrDD mice were able to perform the T-maze task and reverse their behavior as well as sham-operated control mice. The authors conclude that finely tuned dopaminergic signaling within the dorsal striatum is sufficient for performance of goal-directed behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluating Ozone as a Remedial Treatment for Removing RDX from Unsaturated Soils

Years of wastewater discharge at the Department of Energy’s Pantex Plant have contaminated the vadose zone and underlying perched aquifer with hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX). Because the vadose zone is acting as a continual source of groundwater contamination, removing RDX from the unsaturated zone is paramount to prevent further contamination. We determined the efficacy of ozone to degrade and mineralize RDX. Solution experiments showed that ozone (27?mg?L?1; 150?mL?min?1) was effective in mineralizing 80% of the RDX (30?mg?RDX?L?1) provided that some Pantex soil was present to buffer the solution pH. Soil columns treated with ozone produced 50% RDX mineralization within 1 day and >80% within 7 day. Experiments designed to evaluate aerobic biodegradation following partial ozonation of a RDX solution showed that ozone-generated RDX products were much more biodegradable than untreated controls in aerobic microcosms (35 versus <0.3% cumulative mineralization). These results support the use of ozone as a remedial treatment for the contaminated vadose zone at the Pantex facility.     

Content analysis of research in the Journal of Counseling Psychology (1973–1998).

A content analysis of the research published in the Joumal of Counseling Psychology (JCP) was conducted for a 26-year period (1973–1998). A total of 2,027 articles were classified into 14 substantive content categories. Frequency distributions were used to identify the most frequently published authors and institutional affiliations, as well as the gender and ethnic characteristics reported. The principal areas of research activity and publication in the JCP were process only, process and outcome, vocational behavior research, and the development and evaluation of tests and measures. These 4 categories accounted for 55.2% of the articles examined. Typical reported samples contained college students of both genders. This content analysis revealed that over this 26-year time span, the research reported in the JCP has remained consistent with the mission statement of the journal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Puberty and the genetic diathesis of disordered eating attitudes and behaviors.

Twin studies from the Minnesota Twin Family Study (MTFS) suggest negligible genetic effects on eating pathology before puberty but increased genetic effects during puberty. However, an independent study found no pubertal differences in genetic and environmental effects (R. Rowe, A. Pickles, E. Simonoff, C. M. Bulik, & J. L. Silberg, 2002). Discrepant results may be due to methodological differences. The MTFS studies divided twins at mid-puberty, whereas R. Rowe et al. (2002) divided twins based on menarche alone. In the present study, the authors aimed to reconcile discrepant findings by examining differences in etiologic effects for disordered eating attitudes and behaviors (i.e., levels of weight preoccupation, body dissatisfaction, binge eating, compensatory behaviors) using both classification methods in a new sample of 656 female twins. Using the MTFS method (i.e., K. L. Klump, M. McGue, & W. G. Iacono, 2003), the authors observed nominal genetic effects in prepubertal twins but significant genetic effects in pubertal and young adult twins. Conversely, genetic effects were moderate and equal in all groups using the R. Rowe et al. (2002) method. Findings highlight the potentially important role of puberty in the genetic diathesis of disordered eating attitudes and behaviors and the need to use early indicators of pubertal status in studies of developmental effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Gambling Craving Scale: Psychometric validation and behavioral outcomes.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 23(4) of Psychology of Addictive Behaviors (see record 2009-24023-002). Some data in Table 4 was inadvertently omitted. The complete Table 4 is presented in the erratum.] Although craving is an important feature of problem gambling, there is a paucity of research investigating craving to gamble. A major stumbling block for craving research in gambling has been the lack of a methodologically sound, multidimensional measure of gambling-related craving. This article reports the development of the Gambling Craving Scale (GACS). In Study 1 (N = 220), a factor analysis revealed the emergence of a 9-item scale with 3 factors: Anticipation, Desire, and Relief. An important finding was that the GACS predicted problem gambling severity, depression, and positive and negative affect. In Study 2 (N = 145), the factor structure of the GACS was confirmed using a community sample of gamblers. In Study 3 (N = 46), GACS scores significantly predicted persistence at play on a virtual slot machine in the face of continued loss. Specifically, the more participants craved to gamble, the longer they engaged in play. The implications of craving for the development and maintenance of problem gambling severity are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)