Psychosocial characteristics of adolescents who refuse cancer treatment.

Examined psychosocial variables by comparing 10 13–17 yr old adolescents (and their mothers) who had refused cancer treatment with a group of 10 consenting adolescents who were matched on age and demographic and illness variables. Adolescents completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children and measures of family characteristics, locus of control, religion, hopelessness, impact of event, and satisfaction with physician. Mothers completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and measures of coping and religion. Adolescent refusers scored lower on state anxiety and subjective distress but scored higher on trait anxiety, religiosity, and external locus of control. Their mothers also scored higher than did the consenting-group mothers on religiosity and trait anxiety. It is suggested that refusers are prone to anxiety and cope with their present distress by maintaining the belief that their lives are determined by fate or religious convictions. An intervention approach that fosters mastery over the cancer experience is advocated. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Glass fiber-filled thermoplastics. I. Wall and processing effects on rheological properties

A systematic study of wall effects on the shear viscosity of short glass fiber-filled polypropylene and polystyrene is presented. The dependence of these effects on capillary radius, shear rate, temperature, and polymer matrix is examined. The “true” viscosity curves of these materials (free from wall effects) can be obtained by an extrapolation procedure. Breakage of glass fibers in the high shear-rate processes of extrusion and injection molding lead to an appreciable reduction of the viscosity of these materials and is probably the more important effect to take into account in these processes.     

Aging and memory for words and action events: Effects of item repetition and list length.

We were concerned with the effects of item repetition, list length, and class of item on free recall in elderly as compared with young adults. In Experiment 1, samples of young and elderly adults recalled a list of 27 words and a list of 27 action events (minitasks performed by the subjects). Some items were presented once and some twice. Although the younger subjects showed better recall on both types of lists, the older sample benefited from item repetition as much as did the younger sample. This finding was replicated in Experiment 2. A second finding in Experiment 2 was a significant aging effect in the recall of long but not of short lists of both words and action events. The absence of an Age?×?Repetition Effect interaction was ascribed to the strength nature of the repetition manipulation. The age effects in the recall of the long lists were attributed to possible deficits in retrieval proficiency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measurement of serum levels of exogenously administered FSH and LH during ovulation induction therapy

The available surgical and non-surgical therapy options for treatment of gallstone disease are presented. Conventional cholecystectomy is regarded as standard therapy of symptomatic cholecystolithiasis. Other modes of therapy may be indicated under certain circumstances, depending on the results of imaging procedures. In this context conventional X-ray examination, oral and intravenous cholecystography, sonography, computed tomography, endoscopic retrograde cholangiography/cholecystography, and magnetic resonance imaging are discussed and their influence on therapeutic decisions is explained.