The young infant's ability to produce discrete emotion expressions.

Five studies investigated the young infant's ability to produce identifiable emotion expressions as defined in differential emotions theory. Trained judges applied emotion-specific criteria in selecting expression stimuli from videotape recordings of 54 1–9 mo old infants' responses to a variety of incentive events, ranging from playful interactions to the pain of inoculations. Four samples of untrained Ss (130 undergraduates and 62 female health service professionals) confirmed the social validity of infants' emotion expressions by reliably identifying expressions of interest, joy, surprise, sadness, anger, disgust, contempt, and fear. Brief training resulted in significant increases in the accuracy of discrimination of infants' negative emotion expressions for low-accuracy Ss. Construct validity for the 8 emotion expressions identified by untrained Ss and for a consistent pattern of facial responses to unanticipated pain was provided by expression identifications derived from an objective, theoretically structured, anatomically based facial movement coding system. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cover Picture: Functionalization of Crystalline Colloidal Arrays through Click Chemistry (Adv. Mater. 21/2007)

Photonic crystals based on electrostatically‐stabilized colloidal arrays dispersed in a liquid medium are of interest to materials scientists partly because of the optical tuning afforded to theses systems with a variation in interparticle distance. On p. 3507, Stephen Foulger and co‐workers from Clemson University, USA report on a general strategy for the preparation of well‐defined and regioselectively functionalized ordered colloidal particles through the exploitation of “click” chemistry. Click transformations have found utility in the synthesis and/or functionalization of a range of systems. In addition, the solvochromic tuning of the ordered arrays is employed to modify the emission spectra of the surface‐attached photoluminescent dyes.     

Does life satisfaction moderate the effects of stressful life events on psychopathological behavior during adolescence?

Psychologists within a positive psychology framework have proposed the existence of a set of psychological strengths that buffer against the development of psychopathology. To date, most research efforts in positive psychology have focused on adults. This longitudinal study tested the prediction that adolescents' judgments of life satisfaction moderate the influence of stressful life events on the subsequent development of psychopathological behavior. Using a sample of 816 middle and high school students, the study demonstrated support for the moderational model for externalizing behavior outcomes, but not internalizing behavior problems. Specifically, adolescents with positive life satisfaction (vs. those who were dissatisfied with their lives) were less likely to develop later externalizing behaviors in the face of stressful life events. The study also revealed that adolescent life satisfaction reports show moderate stability across a one-year time frame and independently predict subsequent externalizing behavior even while controlling for prior levels of externalizing behavior... (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychologists in secondary schools in the 1990s: Current functions, training, and job satisfaction.

Surveyed 173 school psychologists serving secondary schools concerning their current roles and functions, training needs, and general job satisfaction. Results revealed that many school psychologists in secondary schools are providing a wide variety of services, including direct (e.g., counseling) and indirect (e.g., consultation) services. Approximately three-quarters of the Ss reported being satisfied with their work in secondary schools. Job satisfaction was related to increased time spent in intervention-related activities and decreased time spent in psychological assessment activities. Data reflected encouraging findings regarding the scope of school psychological services in secondary settings but also underscored the need for diversified training of school psychologists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Risk factors for adverse drug reactions during thiacetazone treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis in human immunodeficiency virus infected adults

It is well established that many continuously distributed traits have a heritable component. However, it is often difficult to communicate to the general public the meaning of quantitative estimates of heritability. To address this problem, the present paper introduces a heuristic for communicating heritability to nonscientific audiences. This heuristic involves adopting an extremely simplified model of inheritance and artificially (and somewhat arbitrarily) defining a cutoffs of "low environmental risk" and "affectation status." Using body weight and obesity as an example, we present a table which gives estimates of the proportion of obese persons who are "genetically obese" assuming varying levels of "environmental risk" for obesity and relative body weight scores for defining obesity. The resulting statistic may prove useful for lay audiences in understanding a heritability estimate.     

Preliminary development and validation of a multidimensional life satisfaction scale for children.

Two studies describe the development and preliminary validation of a multidimensional measure of children's life satisfaction, the Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS). In the 1st study, a preliminary version of the MSLSS was administered to a sample of 312 elementary school students. The final version of the scale demonstrated a 5-factor solution and acceptable internal consistency for the total and subscale scores. In the 2nd study, the factor structure findings were cross-validated with an independent sample of 413 elementary school students. Acceptable internal consistency estimates were obtained again for total and subscale scores. For the most part, MSLSS subscales correlated in expected ways with various criterion measures. Total satisfaction scores also related predictably to demographic variables. The MSLSS appears useful for research purposes with preadolescent students (Grades 3–5). Suggestions for further research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of therapeutic concentrations of nitric oxide on bacterial growth in vitro

OBJECTIVES: Besides its vasodilative actions, nitric oxide (NO) is also involved in host defense on a cellular level. We studied the antimicrobial properties of NO in concentrations used with inhaled NO therapy for the treatment of pulmonary hypertension in neonates. DESIGN: In vitro study of bacterial growth of five species, with and without NO exposure. SETTING: Level IV neonatal intensive care unit at a university children's hospital. SUBJECTS: In vitro bacterial cultures. INTERVENTIONS: We tested ten different strains of five bacterial species (Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, group B streptococcus [GBS/Streptococcus agalactiae], Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa), derived from the tracheal isolates of ventilated premature and term infants. Cultures were exposed to three different concentrations of NO (40, 80, and 120 parts per million [ppm]) and bacterial growth was compared with the same strains incubated in ambient air for 24 hrs. After incubation (with or without NO), colony-forming units were counted. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Bacterial growth of S. aureus, E. coli, and P. aeruginosa was not reduced with the NO concentrations applied. The number of colony-forming units of S. aureus increased at 80 ppm of NO. Growth of S. epidermidis and GBS was significantly affected at 120 ppm, resulting in decreased numbers of colony-forming units as compared with controls exposed to ambient air. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that NO has a selective bacteriostatic effect on some of those bacteria most commonly cultured in tracheal specimens of premature infants and neonates. This effect appears to be dose-dependent and occurs in the upper range of dosages used with inhaled NO therapy. However, in the range of dosages applied in ongoing controlled trials of inhaled NO in neonates and premature infants (1 to 80 ppm), a bacteriostatic effect of NO is not to be expected.     

On permutor designs based on cycles for serially concatenated convolutional codes

A new permutor design for serially concatenated convolutional codes is presented. It is based on the construction of a permutation matrix without short cycles of special types. For such a permutor, we give a lower bound on the minimum distance of the overall code that is significantly larger than that achievable with first-order separation (spreading factors). Additionally, the minimum distance can be attuned to the permutation length. This property may be useful for the construction of codes with moderate block lengths.