Sex stereotyping in Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins..

Comments on the article by S. T. Fiske et al (see record 1992-07509-001) praising the American Psychological Association's (APA's) amicus brief intended to inform the Supreme Court of current scientific thinking regarding gender stereotyping. A balanced perspective, it is argued, should include both research supporting an argument and findings that are inconsistent with that argument. The APA brief gave no indication of contradictory findings. Moreover, review of the research cited indicates that more than half of the studies do not support the argument for which they were cited. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Implant-supported prostheses for treatment of adults with cleft palate

Six adult patients with cleft palate, ranging in age from 47 to 78 years, were treated with self-tapping titanium implants. Twenty-three implants, 7 to 15 mm in length, were placed. Of these, one (4%) was 7 mm, eight (35%) were 10 mm, nine (39%) were 13 mm, and five (22%) were 15 mm. Time between stage I and stage II implant surgeries was 5 to 14 months, averaging 8.3 months. Time from stage II surgery to the present is 1.5 to 5 years, averaging 3 years. Of the 23 implants placed, 21 (91%) achieved osseointegration. One (4%) implant was not used prosthetically. Two (9%) 10 mm implants failed to integrate in one patient. All patients were treated with a maxillary complete denture or overdenture. Five (83%) required the addition of a pharyngeal section for speech enhancement.     

Interoceptive Sensitivity and Self-Reports of Emotional Experience.

People differ in the extent to which they emphasize feelings of activation or deactivation in their verbal reports of experienced emotion, termed arousal focus (AF). Two multimethod studies indicate that AF is linked to heightened interoceptive sensitivity (as measured by performance on a heartbeat detection task). People who were more sensitive to their heartbeats emphasized feelings of activation and deactivation when reporting their experiences of emotion over time more than did those who were less sensitive. This relationship was not accounted for by several other variables, including simple language effects. Implications for the role of interoception in experienced emotion and the validity of self-reported emotion are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Surface electronic structure of rare earth metals

Angle-resolved UV photoemission has been used to investigate the electronic structure of the (0001) surfaces of scandium, yttrium, praseodymium and gadolinium. Off-normal emission spectra were recorded with high angular resolution, enabling detailed mapping of the dispersion of valence band features. Yttrium and gadolinium show similar results to published data from Ho(0001), suggesting minimal 4f influence in the lanthanide bandstructures. Differences seen on praseodymium and scandium may be due to 4f derived states and surface states respectively.     

Moving towards a fuel cell vision for the UK

A new national initiative, Fuel Cells UK, has been established to act as a focus for the development of a fuel cell industry in Britain, and to liaise and partner more effectively with national and regional initiatives around the world. The first step is to create a ‘unified vision’ for the UK fuel cell sector, for both the short term and the long term, to guide industry, academia and government on the way to a world-class fuel cell industry.     

Benefits of collecting local data on breast cancer and mammography practices in northwestern Pennsylvania

OBJECTIVES: A randomized trial was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a work-site health promotion program in reducing obesity and the prevalence of cigarette smoking. METHODS: Thirty-two work sites were randomized to treatment or no treatment for 2 years. Treatment consisted of health education classes combined with a payroll-based incentive system. Evaluation was based on cohort and cross-sectional surveys. RESULTS: Of 10,000 total employees in treatment work sites, 2041 and 270 participated in weight control and smoking cessation programs, respectively. Weight losses averaged 4.8 lbs, and 43% of smoking participants quit. Net 2-year reductions in smoking prevalence in treatment vs control work sites were 4.0% and 2.1% in cross-sectional and cohort surveys, respectively. No treatment effect was found for weight. Treatment effects for smoking prevalence and weight were both positively correlated with participation rates in the intervention programs (r = .45 for smoking and r = .55 for weight). CONCLUSIONS: This work-site health promotion program was effective in reducing smoking prevalence at a cost that is believed to make the investment worthwhile.     

Serum lipids and incidence of coronary heart disease. Findings from the Systolic Hypertension in the Elderly Program (SHEP)

BACKGROUND: The association of serum lipids with coronary heart disease has been studied extensively in middle-aged men and, to a lesser extent, in similar women. Less well defined are lipid variables predictive of CHD in individuals of age > or = 60 years. METHODS AND RESULTS: The Systolic Hypertension in the Elderly Program recruited 4736 persons (mean age, 72 years; 14% were black; and 43% were men). Mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures were 170 and 77 mm Hg, respectively. Baseline mean total cholesterol was 6.11 mmol/L (236 mg/dL); HDL cholesterol, 1.39 mmol/L (54 mg/dL); and non-HDL cholesterol, 4.72 mmol/L (182 mg/dL). Triglyceride levels were 1.62 mmol/L (144 mg/dL) for fasting participants and 1.78 mmol/L for the total group. LDL cholesterol, estimated in fasting samples with triglycerides of < 4.52 mmol/L, averaged 3.98 mmol/L (154 mg/dL). Mean follow-up was 4.5 years. In multivariate Cox regression analyses, baseline total, non-HDL, and LDL cholesterol levels and the ratios of total, non-HDL, and LDL to HDL cholesterol were significantly related to CHD incidence. HDL cholesterol and triglycerides were not significant in these analyses. In fasting participants with triglyceride levels of < 4.52 mmol/L, a 1.03 mmol/L (40 mg/dL) higher baseline total, non-HDL, or LDL cholesterol was associated with a 30% to 35% higher CHD event rate. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study support the concept that serum lipids are CHD risk factors in older Americans.     

Late cytomegalovirus disease in marrow transplantation is predicted by virus load in plasma

Late occurrence of cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease after day 100 after bone marrow transplantation has become an increasing problem; whether a quantitative measurement of CMV DNA in plasma by polymerase chain reaction (P-PCR) could be predictive of such disease was investigated. In a prospective study, 117 subjects undergoing allogeneic marrow transplantation were followed for 120 days with weekly CMV blood cultures, with day 35 bronchoalveolar lavage CMV cultures, with weekly CMV P-PCR, and with clinical follow-up for an additional 1-2 years. Despite preemptive ganciclovir, CMV disease occurred in 9% of subjects, with a median time of onset of 176 days. Quantitative CMV P-PCR was associated with the late development of CMV disease (P = .01). Of 43 subjects with positive P-PCR results, 23% developed CMV disease, but no disease occurred in the 74 subjects with negative P-PCR (P < .001), despite the fact that 22% had CMV isolated from lung lavage fluid and 32% had CMV isolated from blood.