Controlled prospective study of postpartum mood disorders: Psychological, environmental, and hormonal variables.

Demographic, psychiatric, social, cognitive, and life stress variables were used to determine the etiology of depression in childbearing (CB; n?=?182) and nonchildbearing (NCB; n?=?179) women. Hormonal variables in postpartum depression were also evaluated. In the CB group predictors of depression diagnosis were previous depression, depression during pregnancy, and a Vulnerability (V)?×?Life Stress (LS) interaction; predictors of depressive symptomatology were previous depression, depressive symptoms during pregnancy, life events, and V?×?LS. Only estradiol was associated with postpartum depression diagnosis. In the NCB group V?×?LS was the only predictor of depression diagnosis; depressive symptoms during pregnancy and life events were predictors of depressive symptomatology. Previous findings about depression vulnerability were replicated. The significant V?×?LS interactions support the vulnerability-stress model of postpartum depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's use of frequency information for trait categorization and behavioral prediction.

Two experiments examined young children's use of behavioral frequency information to make behavioral predictions and global personality attributions. In Experiment 1, participants heard about an actor who behaved positively or negatively toward 1 or several recipients. Generally, children did not differentiate their judgments of the actor on the basis of the amount of information provided. In Experiment 2, the actor behaved positively or negatively toward a single recipient once or repeatedly. Participants were more likely to make appropriate predictions and attributions after exposure to multiple target behaviors and with increasing age. Overall, children's performance was influenced by age-related positivity and negativity biases. These findings indicate that frequency information is important for personality judgments but that its use is affected by contextual complexity and information-processing biases. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of a system for categorizing client reactions to therapist interventions.

We developed a measure of client reactions to therapist interventions. The 21 categories of the measure were divided into 14 positive and 7 negative reactions, which differed significantly from each other on client helpfulness ratings. Preliminary validity data indicated that therapist intentions were related to client reactions more for successful cases than unsuccessful cases, pretreatment symptomatology was highly predictive of which reactions the clients reported, there were some predictable changes in reactions across time in treatment, and within-case correlations of reactions with client-rated session depth and smoothness indicated some similarities across cases. We discuss the case-specific nature of client reactions, methodological issues, and the need for greater therapist awareness of client reactions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Therapist perspectives on countertransference: Qualitative data in search of a theory.

A consensual qualitative research strategy was used to examine data from 127 interviews conducted with 8 psychologists immediately following their sessions of brief therapy with 8 clients. Analyses revealed 3 domains relevant to countertransference: origins (including categories of family issues, needs and values, therapy specific issues, and cultural issues), triggers (including categories of content of client material, therapist comparing client with others, change in therapy structure or procedures, therapist assessing progress of therapy, therapist perception of client, and emotions), and manifestations (including categories of approach, avoidance, negative feelings, and treatment planning). The frequency of categories within and across cases was classified, and relationships among categories from the 3 domains were detected, generating hypotheses for future empirical research. Implications for practice, training, and continued research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social scientists and decision makers look at the usefulness of mental health research.

Interviewed 100 social scientists and 155 decision makers in mental health about what makes social research useful for public policy. Contrary to the expectations of the social scientists, the 2 groups evaluated research and the research-to-policy connection in much the same ways. Where there were disagreements, social scientists overestimated the role of political considerations and underestimated the role of scientific merit in decision makers' judgments of what is useful. The pattern of results suggests that the most important difference between groups lies in their notions of what it means to use research. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Optimization of System Reliability by Branch-and-Bound

This paper compares two approximation procedures with the implicit enumeration technique for solving reliability optimization problems. The integer nature of the problem is stressed and suggestions are made for evaluating future efforts to solve the problem.     

Directional guidance from audible pedestrian signals for street crossing

Typical audible pedestrian signals indicate when the pedestrian walk interval is in effect but provide little, or even misleading information for directional alignment. In three experiments, blind and blindfolded sighted adults crossed a simulated crossing with recorded traffic noise to approximate street sounds. This was done to investigate how characteristics of signal presentation affected usefulness of the auditory signal for guiding crossing behaviour. Crossing was more accurate when signals came only from the far end of the crossing rather than the typical practice of presenting signals simultaneously from both ends. Alternating the signal between ends of the crossing was not helpful. Also, the customary practice of signalling two parallel crossings at the same time drew participants somewhat toward the opposite crossing. Providing a locator tone at the end of the crossing during the pedestrian clearance interval improved crossing accuracy. These findings provide a basis for designing audible pedestrian signals to enhance directional guidance. The principal findings were the same for blind and sighted participants and applied across a range of specific signals (e.g. chirps, clicks, voices).     

Humidification of chilled fruit and vegetables on retail display using an ultrasonic fogging system with water/air ozonation

The effects of an ultrasonic humidification system were assessed during retail display of unwrapped chilled fruit and vegetable produce. Produce and equipment factors were compared during two consecutive 7-day trials, one with fogging (termed ‘wet’) and one without (termed ‘dry’).

No appreciable differences in mean product temperatures were found (4.6 °C for wet, 4.3 °C for dry), but there were slight differences in cabinet performance in terms of air temperatures and refrigeration effect. Despite a considerable increase in drainage water from the cabinet (53 l per day for wet, 30 for dry), no change to the cabinet's defrost schedule was required.

Humidification reduced weight loss with all products. After 7 days of display the highest reduction, almost 50%, was achieved with mushrooms. Humidification also reduced the rate of deterioration in the appearance of the produce on display.

No adverse effects on the microbial quality of samples of produce were found. Slightly higher numbers of airborne microbes were sampled from the air circulating in the cabinet during the wet trial, but there was no significant increase in numbers of microbes landing on settle plates on the display shelves. Numbers of bacteria in the water sterilisation system were low and no Legionella species were isolated from either the wet or the dry trial water samples.