Cognitive–behavioral therapy to reduce weight concerns improves smoking cessation outcome in weight-concerned women.

Women smokers concerned about weight gain (N?=?219) were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 adjunct treatments accompanying group smoking cessation counseling: (a) behavioral weight control to prevent weight gain (weight control); (b) cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT) to directly reduce weight concern, in which dieting was discouraged; and (c) standard counseling alone (standard), in which weight gain was not explicitly addressed. Ten sessions were conducted over 7 weeks, and no medication was provided. Continuous abstinence was significantly higher at posttreatment and at 6 and 12 months of follow-up for CBT (56%, 28%, and 21%, respectively), but not for weight control (44%, 18%, and 13%, respectively), relative to standard (31%, 12%, and 9%, respectively). However, weight control, and to a lesser extent CBT, was associated with attenuation of negative mood after quitting. Prequit body mass index, but not change in weight or in weight concerns postquit, predicted cessation outcome at 1 year. In sum, CBT to reduce weight concerns, but not behavioral weight control counseling to prevent weight gain, improves smoking cessation outcome in weight-concerned women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Causal attribution, perceived benefits, and morbidity after a heart attack: An 8-year study.

In a sample of 287 heart attack victims who were interviewed 7 weeks and 8 years after their attack or who were known to have died during follow-up, interrelations among causal attributions for the attack, perceived benefits of the attack, survivor morbidity, and heart attack recurrence were explored. Analyses focused on early cognitive predictors of heart attack recurrence and 8-year morbidity and on the effects of surviving another heart attack on cognitive appraisals. Independently of sociodemographic characteristics and physicians' ratings of initial prognosis, patients who cited benefits from their misfortune 7 weeks after the first attack were less likely to have another attack and had lower levels of morbidity 8 years later. Attributing the initial attack to stress responses (e.g., worrying, nervousness) was also predictive of greater morbidity in 8-year survivors and blaming the initial attack on other people was predictive of reinfarctions. Men who survived a subsequent heart attack were more likely than men who did not have additional attacks to cite benefits and made more attributions 8 years after the initial attack. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Importance sampling for the random phase Gaussian channel

Importance sampling (IS) is developed as a variance reduction technique for Monte Carlo simulation of data communications over random phase additive white Gaussian noise channels. The binary problem (with known performance) is examined initially to determine parameter values and estimate the performance gain of IS. These results can then be applied to intractable m-ary signaling problems through composite IS. An example compares the performance of linear, square-law, and optimum receivers for binary block coded data     

Role of the pituitary-adrenal hormones in the acquisition of schedule-induced polydipsia.

Adrenalectomized female rats failed to develop schedule-induced polydipsia (SIP). Dexamethasone (DEX) injections failed to reinstate SIP in adrenalectomized rats. They did not prevent intact rats from acquiring SIP but interfered with subsequent expression of this behavior. In contrast, corticosterone, the rats' normally occurring glucocorticoid, fully restored the acquisition and subsequent expression of SIP in adrenalectomized rats. This strongly suggests that corticosterone plays an essential role in the normal acquisition and development of this behavior. Data are interpreted in the context of current information concerning adrenal hormone receptors. It is hypothesized that SIP acquisition is at least partly regulated by the Type I (mineralocorticoid) receptor. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bandwidth selection for a class of difference-based variance estimators in the nonparametric regression: A possible approach

A possible approach to bandwidth selection for difference-based variance estimators in the nonparametric regression is proposed. The approach is based on the crossvalidation-type idea modified for the case of correlated data. The method is compared to an alternative plug-in style method. Difficulties in implementing the latter are highlighted and it is argued that the proposed method represents a better alternative. Simulations for several models are given that illustrate good practical performance of the proposed method.