Miniature temperature-insensitive Fabry-Pe/spl acute/rot fiber-optic pressure sensor

We present a miniature fiber-optic pressure sensor with a diameter of only 125 /spl mu/m. The sensor works as an extrinsic Fabry-Pe/spl acute/rot interferometer and the cavity length can be controlled with a resolution of about several nanometers. Also the sensor sensitivity can be easily adjusted by controlling the sensor gauge length. A passive temperature compensation scheme was used to reduce most of the sensor's temperature dependence. Since the sensor is composed entirely of fused silica, it is reliable, biocompatible, corrosion resistant, and immune to electromagnetic interference and has high-temperature capability.     

Research on love: Does it measure up?

Assessed 5 measures of love: the Love Attitudes Scale, the Triangular Theory of Love Scale, the Passionate Love Scale, the Relationship Rating Form, and a measure of love and attachment (Shaver & Hazan, 1987). The measures were given to 391 unmarried college students. Correlations revealed predictable relations among the subscales; however, psychometric analyses revealed problems in some of the measures. Factor analysis yielded 6 factors for the Love Attitudes Scale and 1 for the Passionate Love Scale, similar to previous research. Results for the Triangular Theory of Love Scale and for the Relationship Rating Form suggest strong interdependency among each measure's subscales. Factors analysis of all subscales together yielded 5 distinct factors, reflecting themes of passionate love, closeness, ambivalence, secure attachment, and practicality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Victimization, self-monitoring, and eyewitness identification.

38 undergraduate low self-monitors and 42 undergraduate high self-monitors (as determined by a scale of self-monitoring of expressive behavior) witnessed in small groups a staged crime of either their own wristwatches or a laboratory calculator. Campus police detectives took individual witness statements as if a real crime had occurred, and using biased or unbiased instructions, police administered a suspect-present photospread. Results show that victim witnesses who had been given biased instructions gave the least accurate identifications and that high self-monitoring Ss were least likely to reject the lineup when instructions were biased. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ether lipids inhibit the effects of phorbol diester tumor promoters

Recent studies have shown that the tumor promoter 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate (TPA) stimulates protein kinase C (PKC), whereas the ether-linked phospholipid 1-O-octadecyl-2-O-methyl-rac-glycerol-3-phosphocholine (ET-18-OCH₃) inhibits PKC activity in vitro. Therefore, the antitumor effects of ET-18-OCH₃ could be due to its inhibition of PKC activity and the effects of tumor promotion. TPA stimulates arachidonic acid release, prostaglandin synthesis, phosphatidylcholine synthesis and the degradation of phosphatidylcholine by phospholipase C in Madin Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells. Therefore, we have determined the effects of ET-18-OCH₃ on these consequences of TPA stimulation. Preliminary experiments determined that ET-18-OCH₃ inhibited PKC partially purified from MDCK cells by ion-exchange chromatography on DEAE-cellulose. In addition, ET-18-OCH₃, inhibited the TPA-stimulated phosphorylation of a 40,000-dalton protein in intact MDCK cells. These data indicate that ET-18-OCH₃ is an effective inhibitor of PKC activity in MDCK cells. In addition, ET-18-OCH₃ was found to inhibit arachidonic acid release and prostaglandin synthesis. The inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis appears to be secondary to inhibition of arachidonic acid release, since ET-18-OCH₃ does not inhibit TPA-stimulated synthesis of prostaglandin H synthase or the activity of the enzyme directly (Parker, J., Daniel, L. W., and Waite, M. [1987]J. Biol. Chem. 262, 5385–5393). ET-18-OCH₃ also inhibits TPA-stimulated phosphatidylcholine synthesis and phosphatidylcholine degradation by phospholipase C. These data provide evidence that the antineoplastic ether lipids inhibit the biochemical effects of the tumor promoter TPA in intact cells and indicate that this inhibition may have a role in their biological activities.     

The working self-concept in transference: Significant-other activation and self change.

This research tested the hypothesis that changes in the working self-concept emerge in transference, defined as the activation and application of a significant-other representation to a new person and indexed by relevant inferences and memory (e.g., S. M. Andersen & A. Baum, see record 82-21185; S. M. Andersen et al, see record 82-40398). In an idiographic-nomothetic design, participants learned of a target person who resembled their own or a yoked participant's positively or negatively toned significant other. Results replicated the basic memory effect verifying transference. As predicted, the working self-concept changed in the transference condition. After learning about the new person, participants' freely listed self features shifted; the working self-concept became more infused with aspects of the self reflecting the self when with this significant other. Relevant changes in self evaluation were observed. Hence, changes in the working self-concept occurred in transference. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of therapeutic group programs in a nursing home.

Notes that nursing homes have traditionally focused their care on 3 areas—basic custodial services (e.g., food and shelter), physical health care, and personal care (e.g., grooming and toileting). Psychosocial services have been absent from the long-term care setting. A range of group therapeutic options is available, including activities therapy, occupational therapy, reality orientation, remotivation, and behavioral therapy; these and other approaches are discussed. (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Superior colliculus and active navigation: role of visual and non-visual cues in controlling cellular representations of space

To begin investigation of the contribution of the superior colliculus to unrestrained navigation, the nature of behavioral representation by individual neurons was identified as rats performed a spatial memory task. Similar to what has been observed for hippocampus, many superior collicular cells showed elevated firing as animals traversed particular locations on the maze, and also during directional movement. However, when compared to hippocampal place fields, superior collicular location fields were found to be more broad and did not exhibit mnemonic properties. Organism-centered spatial coding was illustrated by other neurons that discharged preferentially during right or left turns made by the animal on the maze, or after lateralized sensory presentation of somatosensory, visual, or auditory stimuli. Nonspatial movement-related neurons increased or decreased firing when animals engaged in specific behaviors on the maze regardless of location or direction of movement. Manipulations of the visual environment showed that many, but not all, spatial cells were dependent on visual information. The majority of movement-related cells, however, did not require visual information to establish or maintain the correlates. Several superior collicular cells fired in response to multiple maze behaviors; in some of these cases a dissociation of visual sensitivity to one component of the behavioral correlate, but not the other, could be achieved for a single cell. This suggests that multiple modalities influence the activity of single neurons in superior colliculus of behaving rats. Similarly, several sensory-related cells showed dramatic increases in firing rate during the presentation of multisensory stimuli compared to the unimodal stimuli. These data reveal for the first time how previous findings of sensory/motor representation by the superior colliculus of restrained/anesthetized animals might be manifested in freely behaving rats performing a navigational task. Furthermore, the findings of both visually dependent and visually independent spatial coding suggest that superior colliculus may be involved in sending visual information for establishing spatial representations in efferent structures and for directing spatially-guided movements.