"Canadian professional psychology and empirically supported treatments": Commentary.

The impact on Canadian professional psychological treatment practices of the American Psychological Association's Division 12 (Clinical Psychology) Task Force's development of criteria and listings for empirically supported psychological treatments, along with other industrial efforts to standardize the identification of treatments with established efficacy is described in the article by J. Hunsley et al (see record 1999-01869-001). D. L. Chambless comments on the importance of having empirically supported treatments (ESTs) because many clients will not have the specific problems for which ESTs have been developed. In such cases, clinicians need to decide whether they are warranted in generalizing from the samples on which an EST is based, or whether they need to devise a novel approach. Also of importance is the therapeutic relationship or working alliance: a focus on ESTs should not be taken to mean that foundational issues such as the alliance can be forgotten. Training therapists should first learn basic therapeutic skills before learning more specialized ESTs. Other comments concern traditional training in Canada and a US trend of rejecting ESTs until more efficacy studies are completed of research-to-treatment generalizability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotional distress regulation takes precedence over impulse control: If you feel bad, do it!

Why do people's impulse controls break down during emotional distress? Some theories propose that distress impairs one's motivation or one's ability to exert self-control, and some postulate self-destructive intentions arising from the moods. Contrary to those theories, three experiments found that believing that one's bad mood was frozen (unchangeable) eliminated the tendency to eat fattening snacks (Experiment 1), seek immediate gratification (Experiment 2), and engage in frivolous procrastination (Experiment 3). The implication is that when people are upset, they indulge immediate impulses to make themselves feel better, which amounts to giving short-term affect regulation priority over other self-regulatory goals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development and Analysis of Three Diesel Particulate-Related Standard Reference Materials for the Determination of Chemical,Physical, and Biological Characteristics

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has recently issued three Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) related to diesel particulate matter: SRM 1650a, Diesel Particulate Matter; SRM 2975, Diesel Particulate Matter (Industrial Forklift); and SRM 1975, Diesel Particulate Extract. These three materials have certified and reference concentrations for selected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) including many alkyl-substituted compounds. SRM 1650a is the reissue of an existing material and SRMs 2975 and 1975 represent new materials. The characterization of the PAH content of these three diesel particulate-related SRMs is presented with a discussion of the approach for the certification of PAH concentrations. In addition, the physical and biological characterization of these materials is discussed. A review of customer reported uses of these SRMs in the chemical, physical, and biological sciences is also provided.     

Newcasters' facial expressions and voting behavior of viewers: Can a smile elect a president?

Two studies examined the association between newscasters' facial expressions and the voting behavior of viewers. In Exp I, with 45 undergraduates, the facial expressions exhibited by network newscasters while referring to the 1984 presidential candidates prior to the election were investigated. Results indicate that 1 of the 3 newscasters exhibited significantly more positive facial expressions when referring to Reagan than when referring to Mondale. In Exp II, a telephone survey of approximately 200 individuals was conducted to determine whether voting behavior was associated with the nightly news program watched. It was found that voters who regularly watched the newscaster who exhibited the biased facial expressions were significantly more likely to vote for the candidate that the newscaster had smiled upon. Three explanations for the results are discussed: (1) Viewing the newscasters' biased facial expressions caused the viewers' voting preferences; (2) the viewers' voting preferences determined their viewing of biased newscasters' facial expressions; or (3) some other variable accounted for the findings. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictors of fear of falling in dizzy and nondizzy elderly.

Fear of falling may constitute an independent risk factor for disability, leading older people to unnecessarily restrict their activity. Sixty older adults with chronic dizziness and 66 healthy controls were studied to help clarify the interrelationships among demographic factors, psychological status, physical health, and fear of falling. Chronic dizziness was strongly associated with fear of falling; among dizzy patients, nearly half (47%) expressed fear of falling, in comparison with 3% of controls. In participants with dizziness, 3 factors predicted fear of falling: an activity of daily living score, the revised Symptom Checklist 90 Depression (L. R. Derogatis, 1983) score, and stability when standing with feet together. These results support the concept that fear of falling is multiply determined and that psychological factors play a major role in influencing the symptoms and responses in many older patients with dizziness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maternal folate supply and sex influence gene‐specific DNA methylation in the fetal gut

Scope : Epidemiological evidence supports the developmental origins of health and disease hypothesis that developmental under/over‐nutrition increases adulthood disease risk. Epigenetic markings are one potential mechanism mediating these effects. Altered folate supply may influence methyl group availability for DNA methylation. We reported low folate supply in utero was associated with reduced global DNA methylation in the murine small intestine of adult offspring. We hypothesised that aberrant methylation would be observed during early development. Methods and results : Female C57BL/6J mice were fed diets containing 2 mg folic acid/kg or 0.4 mg folic acid/kg 4 wk before mating and during pregnancy. At 17.5 day gestation, gene methylation in fetal gut was analysed by Pyrosequencing^®. Low folate reduced overall methylation of Slc394a by 3.4% (p=0.038) but did not affect Esr1 or Igf2 differentially methylated region (DMR) 1. There were sex‐specific differences in Slc394a and Esr1 methylation (2.4% higher in females (p=0.002); 4% higher in males (p=0.0014), respectively). Conclusion : This is the first study reporting causal effects of maternal folate depletion on gene‐specific methylation in fetal gut. These observations support reports that altered methyl donor intake during development affects DNA methylation in the offspring. The consequences of epigenetic changes for health throughout the life course remain to be investigated.     

Consistency,availability, and partition tolerance in blockchain: a survey on the consensus mechanism over peer-to-peer networking

Annals of Telecommunications - Blockchain is a disruptive technology that relies on the distributed nature of the peer-to-peer network while performing an agreement, or consensus, a mechanism to...     

A naturalistic decision-making perspective on anaesthetists’ rule-related behaviour

As a widely recognised feature of work activity, procedural violations have been of considerable interest to human factors specialists, and several models have been proposed to aid in understanding their occurrence. A common feature of these models is that they depict violations as being, to a greater or lesser extent, intentional; therefore, rule-related behaviour could be reconceptualised as an exercise in decision-making. In this paper, we examine anaesthetists’ use of rules from the perspective of naturalistic decision-making. Doing so suggests that their rule-related behaviour is a product of the extent to which following a rule is consistent with other principles that guide their decision-making. Observational and interview data from 23 consultant anaesthetists indicated the presence of three such principles: “doing the right thing”; “doing what works in the circumstances”; and “using one’s skills and expertise”. Hence, rule-related behaviour in this setting is better understood as a form of situated action than as the following or breaking of rules per se. We discuss the implications of this view for understanding why violations occur, and how to address them.