Collaboration of a university and state mental health agency: Curriculum for improving services for children.

We describe the collaboration of a state university and a state mental health agency in implementing training to improve skills of community mental health center staff for working with children, adolescents, and their families. The project consisted of three phases: (a) a needs assessment survey was conducted, (b) a series of written instructional modules were developed, and (c) workshops were conducted in six locations across the state. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of religious affiliation, religious involvement, and sex on the social desirability ratings of MMPI religion items.

Because efforts to account for individual differences in social desirability responding have been largely unsuccessful, an investigation was undertaken to determine whether meaningful relationships can be found if S characteristics relevant to the items being rated are selected. Religion items from the MMPI were rated by 90 Ss classified by religious affiliation, degree of religious participation, and sex. The 1st 2 factors and item content markedly influenced Ss' perception of the statements, attesting to the effectiveness of this more precise approach. (15 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Infrared measurement of total fatty acids in blood serum

Quantitative determination of total fatty acids in rabbit blood serum is achieved using the infrared absorption band, associated with the C = O stretching vibration at 1713 cm^?1 (5.84 μm). Different tests are described to show the validity of this method for a wide range of variation in total concentration and in individual percentages of any one fatty acid. The results are treated by statistical methods, and it is found that infrared analysis is five times more sensitive than methods described previously. This accurate technique, which can be applied to other serums has, for example, been applied to disclose a systematic error in the preparation of total fatty acid samples when nitrogen flushing is not used.     

Counselor race and power base: Effects on attitudes and behavior.

Assessed the effects of expert and referent power bases and counselor race on Ss' attitude and behavior change. 32 White undergraduates who identified themselves as having procrastination and career-planning problems were divided into internal or external groups on the basis of their scores on Rotter's Internal–External Locus of Control Scale. Four female interviewers, 2 Black and 2 White, portrayed either an expert or referent role and attempted to influence Ss to use a problem-solving process and perform a career-planning activity. Dependent variables included a measure of attitude change, a measure assessing knowledge of the problem-solving process, and 2 behavioral measures. Results show that (a) the roles were perceived as intended, (b) Ss of expert interviewers recalled more of the problem-solving process, and (c) significant interactions of race and role were obtained such that Black-expert and White-referent interviewers were most influential both in attitude and behavior change. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spontaneous prejudice in context: Variability in automatically activated attitudes.

The goal of the research reported in this article was to examine whether automatic group attitudes and stereotypes, commonly thought to be fixed responses to a social category cue, are sensitive to change in the situational context. Two experiments demonstrated such variability of automatic responses due to changes in the stimulus context. In Study 1 White participants' implicit attitudes toward Blacks varied as a result of exposure to either a positive (a family barbecue) or a negative (a gang incident) stereotypic situation. Study 2 demonstrated similar context effects under clearly automatic processing conditions. Here, the use of different background pictures (church interior vs. street corner) for Black and White face primes affected participants' racial attitudes as measured by a sequential priming task. Implications for the concept of automaticity in social cognition are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-term trends in accumulated metals (Cd, Cu and Zn) and metallothionein in bivalves from lakes within a smelter-impacted region

Temporal monitoring studies are needed to detect long-term trends in ecosystem health. In the present study, we tested metallothionein (MT) as a potential biomarker for long-term variations in trace metal levels in lakes subject to atmospheric metal inputs from a nearby copper smelter. Over a 13-year period, we estimated on several occasions ambient free Cd2+, Cu2+ and Zn2+ concentrations at the sediment-water interface in six lakes with contrasting metal levels, and measured metal and metallothionein concentrations in gills of bivalves (Pyganodon grandis) living in these lakes. All but one of the study lakes had comparable drainage ratios, so inter-lake differences in hydrological export of metals from contaminated watersheds to receiving waters were likely minimal. Declines in the metal emissions from the smelter (especially for Cd and Zn) during the 1980s led to appreciable decreases in both calculated free Cd2+ ion concentrations in the study lakes (-59+/-21% between 1989 and 1998) and accumulated Cd levels in their clam populations (-46+/-12% between 1989 and 2002). Taking all lakes into account, MT concentrations in bivalves have comparatively dropped by 44% (+/-10%) since 1989. In contrast to what we found for Cd, there were no significant reductions in the calculated free Cu2+ and Zn2+ concentrations in the various lakes during our study period (-2 and -10%, respectively, with 95% confidence intervals spanning zero). Overall, observed decreases in MT in bivalves over time were best correlated with similar decreases in both ambient and accumulated Cd levels (r = 0.77, P = 0.0003 and r = 0.79, P < 0.0001, respectively, both P-values corrected for temporal autocorrelation), suggesting that long-term trends in gill MT concentrations in P. grandis may be useful as predictors of temporal changes in environmental Cd contamination in lakes.     

A survey on data fusion: what for? in what form? what is next?

Journal of Intelligent Information Systems - Data fusion is the process of merging records from multiple sources which represent the same real-world object into a single representation. This review...     

Mo-doped,Cr-Doped,and Mo–Cr codoped TiO2 thin-film photocatalysts by comparative sol-gel spin coating and ion implantation

Uniformly codoped anatase TiO₂ thin films of varying (equal) Mo and Cr concentrations (≤1.00 mol% for each dopant) were fabricated using sol-gel spin coating and deposited on fused silica substrates. All films were annealed at 450 °C for 2 h to recrystallise anatase. Undoped anatase films have been subjected to dual ion implantation for the first time, using Mo, Cr, and sequential Mo + Cr at 1 × 10¹⁴ atoms/cm². The films were characterised by GAXRD, AFM, SIMS, XPS, and UV–Vis and the performance was assessed by dye degradation. Despite the volumetric doping by sol-gel and the directional doping by ion implantation, neither method resulted in homogeneous dopant distributions. Both methods caused decreasing crystallinities and associated partial amorphisation. The XPS signal of the uniformly codoped films is dominated by undissolved dopant ions, which is not the case for the ion-implanted films. Increasing Ti valences are attributed to the fully oxidised condition of the Ti⁴⁺ ions that diffuse to the surface from Ti vacancy formation compared to the Ti valence of the bulk lattice, which contains Ti³⁺. Increasing O valence is attributed to the electronegativity of O^2?, which is higher than that of Ti⁴⁺. Detailed structural mechanisms for the solubility and energetics mechanisms involve the initial formation of Mo and Cr interstitials that fill the two voids adjacent to the central Ti ion in the TiO₆ octahedron, followed by integrated solid solubility (ISS) and intervalence/multivalence charge transfer (IVCT/MVCT). The sequential order of the last two is reversed for the two different doping methods. These two effects are likely to be the source of synergy, if any, between the two dopant ions. The photocatalytic performances of the uniformly codoped films are relatively poor and correlate well with the band gap (E_g). The performances of the ion-implanted films do not correlate with the E_g, where TiO₂–Mo performs poorly but TiO₂–Cr and TiO₂–Mo–Cr outperform the undoped film. These results are interpreted in terms of the competition between the effects of Mo doping, which causes partial amorphisation and/or blockage of active sites, and Cr doping, which may cause Mo–Cr synergism, Cr-based heterojunction formation, and/or improved charge-carrier separation owing to the surface-deposition nature of ion implantation.     

Heavy metals in marine fish meat and consumer health: a review

The numerous health benefits provided by fish consumption may be compromised by the presence of toxic metals and metalloids such as lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury, which can have harmful effects on the human body if consumed in toxic quantities. The monitoring of metal concentrations in fish meat is therefore important to ensure compliance with food safety regulations and consequent consumer protection. The toxicity of these metals may be dependent on their chemical forms, which requires metal speciation processes for direct measurement of toxic metal species or the identification of prediction models in order to determine toxic metal forms from measured total metal concentrations. This review addresses various shortcomings in current knowledge and research on the accumulation of metal contaminants in commercially consumed marine fish globally and particularly in South Africa, affecting both the fishing industry as well as fish consumers. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry