Coping through emotional approach: Scale construction and validation.

Four studies demonstrate the psychometric adequacy and validity of scales designed to assess coping through emotional approach. In separate undergraduate samples, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of dispositional (Study 1) and situational (Study 3) coping item sets yielded 2 distinct emotional approach coping factors: emotional processing (i.e., active attempts to acknowledge and understand emotions) and emotional expression. The 2 scales yielded high internal consistency and test-retest reliability, as well as convergent and discriminant validity. A study (Study 2) of young adults and their parents established the scales' interjudge reliabilities. Longitudinal (Study 3) and experimental (Study 4) research supported the predictive validity of the emotional approach coping scales with regard to adjustment to stressful encounters. Findings highlight the utility of functionalist theories of emotion as applied to coping theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An examination of nonresponse in a work environment questionnaire mailed to psychiatric health care personnel.

Nonresponse to surveys, which seems to plague work environment studies and studies of health care personnel in particular, may pose problems of generalizability and validity. The aim of this study was to provide an estimate of nonresponse error in a self-administered survey concerning the work environment of psychiatric health care personnel. A random sample of 10% of the original survey population (N?=?693) was selected to participate in a telephone follow-up of a postal survey that had a response rate of 51%. There were no differences between the responders and nonresponders to the postal survey on the exposure or outcome variables. There was no evidence of nonresponse bias in this study, although recall bias may have been a problem. In those cases in which generalizability is deemed important, it is recommended that nonresponse studies be regularly carried out when response rates are less than 100%. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Liquefaction of coal using supercritical fluid mixtures

Powhatan No. 5 and Bruceton coals were liquefied for 15–60 min at 653 K and 30 MPa in supercritical aqueous mixtures containing 10–20 wt% tetrahydroquinoline (THQ), quinoline or tetralin. The THQ-water mixtures produced the highest conversion to tetrahydrofuran (THF) soluble products (up to 74%). Tetralin-water, quinoline-water and pure water solvents gave increasingly lower yields of THF solubles. Addition of hydrogen to the quinoline-water solvent mixture increased yields slightly, but not to the level obtained using the THQ-water mixture.The yields of THF solubles in all instances depended upon the concentration of solvent in the mixture, with the 10 wt% THQ and 10 wt% tetralin (in water) giving higher yields than either 0 or 20 wt% concentrations. The nitrogen-containing solvents were chemically bonded to the THF-soluble product, as observed by g.p.c.     

The influence of delaying judgments of learning on metacognitive accuracy: A meta-analytic review.

Many studies have examined the accuracy of predictions of future memory performance solicited through judgments of learning (JOLs). Among the most robust findings in this literature is that delaying predictions serves to substantially increase the relative accuracy of JOLs compared with soliciting JOLs immediately after study, a finding termed the delayed JOL effect. The meta-analyses reported in the current study examined the predominant theoretical accounts as well as potential moderators of the delayed JOL effect. The first meta-analysis examined the relative accuracy of delayed compared with immediate JOLs across 4,554 participants (112 effect sizes) through gamma correlations between JOLs and memory accuracy. Those data showed that delaying JOLs leads to robust benefits to relative accuracy (g = 0.93). The second meta-analysis examined memory performance for delayed compared with immediate JOLs across 3,807 participants (98 effect sizes). Those data showed that delayed JOLs result in a modest but reliable benefit for memory performance relative to immediate JOLs (g = 0.08). Findings from these meta-analyses are well accommodated by theories suggesting that delayed JOL accuracy reflects access to more diagnostic information from long-term memory rather than being a by-product of a retrieval opportunity. However, these data also suggest that theories proposing that the delayed JOL effect results from a memorial benefit or the match between the cues available for JOLs and those available at test may also provide viable explanatory mechanisms necessary for a comprehensive account. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Warm homes: Drivers of the demand for heating in the residential sector in New Zealand

New Zealand houses are large, often poorly constructed and heated, by OECD standards, and consequently are colder and damper indoors than recommended by the World Health Organisation. This affects both the energy consumption and the health of households. The traditional New Zealand household pattern of only heating one room of the house has been unchanged for decades, although there has been substantial market penetration of unflued gas heaters and more recently heat pumps. This paper describes the residential sector and the results of two community-based trials of housing and heating interventions that have been designed to measure the impact of (1) retrofitting insulation and (2) replacing unflued gas heaters and electric resistance heaters with heat pumps, wood pellet burners and flued gas heaters. The paper describes findings on the rebound effect or ‘take-back’—the extent to which households take the gains from insulation and heating improvements as comfort (higher temperatures) rather than energy savings, and compares energy-saving patterns with those suggested by an earlier study. Findings on these aspects of household space heating are discussed in the context of the New Zealand government's policy drive for a more sustainable energy system, and the implications for climate change policy.     

Breakage of an artificial crushable material under loading

The mechanical behaviour of granular materials depends on their grading. Crushing of particles under compression or shear modifies the grain size distribution, with a tendency for the percentage of fine material to increase. It follows that the frictional properties of the material and the critical states are modified as a consequence of the changes in grain size distribution and the available range of packing densities. This paper illustrates an extended experimental investigation of the evolution of the grading of an artificial granular material, consisting of crushed expanded clay pellets under different loading conditions. The changes of grading of the material after isotropic, one-dimensional and constant mean effective stress triaxial compression were described using a single parameter based on the ratio of the areas under the current and an ultimate cumulative particle size distribution, which were both assumed to be consistent with self similar grading with varying fractal dimension. Relative breakage was related to the total work input for unit of volume. For poorly graded samples, the observed maximum rate of breakage is practically independent of initial uniformity. Further experiments at higher confining stress are required to investigate the mechanics of breakage of better graded samples.     

Contribution of equal-sign instruction beyond word-problem tutoring for third-grade students with mathematics difficulty.

Elementary school students often misinterpret the equal sign (=) as an operational rather than a relational symbol. Such misunderstanding is problematic because solving equations with missing numbers may be important for the development of higher order mathematics skills, including solving word problems. Research indicates equal-sign instruction can alter how typically developing students use the equal sign, but no study has been conducted on the effects of such instruction for students with mathematics difficulty (MD) or how equal-sign instruction contributes to word-problem-solving skill for students with or without MD. In the present study, the authors assessed the efficacy of equal-sign instruction within word-problem tutoring. Third-grade students with MD (n = 80) were assigned to word-problem tutoring, word-problem tutoring plus equal-sign instruction (combined) tutoring, or no-tutoring control. Combined tutoring produced greater improvement on equal sign tasks and open equations than did the other 2 conditions. On certain forms of word problems, combined tutoring, but not word-problem tutoring alone, produced more improvement than did the control condition. When compared at posttest with 3rd-grade students without MD on equal-sign tasks and open equations, only combined tutoring students with MD performed comparably. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)