The language of motivational interviewing and feedback: Counselor language, client language, and client drinking outcomes.

Previous research has suggested that motivational interviewing (MI) may affect client language, which in turn predicts client drinking outcome. In this study, we examined the relationship between counselor language and client language, personalized feedback and client language, and client language and client drinking outcome, in a sample of heavy-drinking college students. MI was delivered in a single session with or without a personalized feedback report (MI with feedback [MIF]; MI only). Sessions were coded using the Motivational Interviewing Skill Code 2.1. A composite drinking outcome score was used, consisting of drinks per week, peak blood alcohol concentration, and protective drinking strategies. We found three main results. First, in the MIF group, MI consistent counselor language was positively associated with client change talk. Second, after receiving feedback, MIF clients showed lower levels of sustain talk, relative to MI only clients. Finally, in the MIF group, clients with greater change talk showed improved drinking outcomes at 3 months, while clients with greater sustain talk showed poorer drinking outcomes. These results highlight the relationship between counselor MI skill and client change talk, and suggest an important role for feedback in the change process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Borderline personality features moderate the effect of a fear induction on impulsivity.

This study examined the effects of laboratory-induced fear on impulsivity among participants who were high (n = 28) or low (n = 44) in borderline personality (BP) features. Participants were randomly assigned to complete a laboratory measure of impulsivity (passive avoidance learning task) following either a neutral mood induction or a fear induction. BP features moderated the association of the emotion condition (fear vs. neutral) with impulsivity: High-BP participants, but not low-BP participants, committed a greater number of impulsive responses in the fear condition compared with the neutral condition. Findings indicated that impulsivity among persons with BP features may not be a trait-like deficit, but rather, depends on emotional context. These findings suggest that future research should examine impulsivity under differing emotional conditions, and that clinical interventions to reduce impulsivity among persons with BP features should focus on responses to emotional contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Frying Oil Temperature: Impact on Physical and Structural Properties of French Fries During the Par and Finish Frying Processes

The physical, mechanical, and structural changes in French fries at different frying temperatures (170, 180, and 190 °C) during par and finish frying were investigated. The experimental frying process includes blanching, par frying, freezing, and finish frying at the point of consumption. Par frying temperature had a greater effect on moisture reduction than on processing time with the greatest moisture loss at 180 °C after 160 s. At 180 °C, fries had the highest total oil uptake (29.56 % wb). Frying caused a significant change in color with the greatest effect at 190 °C. Micro-CT scan images showed structural changes in French fries over the course of the frying process. Frying time increased the volume of the pores relative to the size of the crust, and this was positively correlated with the hardness and shear cutting force. Overall, within the range of frying conditions studied, the higher temperature (190 °C) resulted in the lowest amount of oil uptake and the crispiest texture.     

Extracting Constitutive Stress–Strain Behavior of Microscopic Phases by Micropillar Compression

The macroscopic behavior of metallic materials is a complex function of microstructure. The size, morphology, volume fraction, crystallography, and distribution of a 2nd phase within a surrounding matrix all control the mechanical properties. Understanding the contributions of the individual microconstituents to the mechanical behavior of multiphase materials has proven difficult due to the inability to obtain accurate constitutive relationships of each individual constituent. In dual-phase steels, for example, the properties of martensite or ferrite in bulk form are not representative of their behavior at the microscale. In this study, micropillar compression was employed to determine the mechanical properties of individual microconstituents in metallic materials with “composite” microstructures, consisting of two distinct microconstituents: (I) a Mg–Al alloy with pure Mg dendrites and eutectic regions and (II) a powder metallurgy steel with ferrite and martensite constituents. The approach is first demonstrated in a Mg–Al directionally solidified alloy where the representative stress–strain behavior of the matrix and eutectic phases was obtained. The work is then extended to a dual-phase steel where the constitutive behavior of the ferrite and martensite were obtained. Here, the results were also incorporated into a modified rule-of-mixtures approach to predict the composite behavior of the steel. The constitutive behavior of the ferrite and martensite phases developed from micropillar compression was coupled with existing strength–porosity models from the literature to predict the ultimate tensile strength of the steel. Direct comparisons of the predictions with tensile tests of the bulk dual-phase steel were conducted and the correlations were quite good.     

A novel cellular automata based approach to storm sewer design

Optimal storm sewer design aims at minimizing capital investment on infrastructure whilst ensuring good system performance under specified design criteria. An innovative sewer design approach based on cellular automata (CA) principles is introduced in this paper. Cellular automata have been applied as computational simulation devices in various scientific fields. However, some recent research has indicated that CA can also be a viable and efficient optimization engine. This engine is heuristic and largely relies on the key properties of CA: locality, homogeneity, and parallelism. In the proposed approach, the CA-based optimizer is combined with a sewer hydraulic simulator, the EPA Storm Water Management Model (SWMM). At each optimization step, according to a set of transition rules, the optimizer updates all decision variables simultaneously based on the hydraulic situation within each neighbourhood. Two sewer networks (one small artificial network and one large real network) have been tested in this study. The CA optimizer demonstrated its ability to obtain near-optimal solutions in a remarkably small number of computational steps in a comparison of its performance with that of a genetic algorithm.     

Effect of chemical drying agents on alfalfa hay and milk production response when fed to dairy cows in early lactation

Third-cutting alfalfa hay cut at bud stage was treated with a drying agent consisting of potassium carbonate, sodium carbonate, and citric acid at the rate of 280.6 L/ha (1 kg/37.47 L water) to alternate swaths 4.27-m wide. Hay samples were taken at cutting and at 4-h intervals during daylight until baling was initiated. Twenty lactating Holstein cows were randomly assigned to untreated and treated alfalfa hay treatments in a switch-back design. Individual feed intakes and milk yields were recorded daily. Milk composition was analyzed once weekly. Drying rates were: .40 and .48% moisture/h for control and Na2-K2CO3-citrate treatments, respectively. There was no significant difference between treatments in feed composition parameters nor in vitro DM digestibility parameters. Cows fed the hay treated with Na2-K2CO3-citrate had a higher mean daily milk yield, adjusted for feed intake, compared with cows fed untreated hay (33.0 versus 32.5 kg/d). There were no significant differences in milk composition between treatments.     

Parity-related changes in bovine follicle and oocyte populations,oocyte quality,and hormones to 90 days postpartum

Ultrasound-guided transvaginal follicular aspiration was used to obtain oocytes from Holstein cows to study follicular development and oocyte morphology during early lactation. A single aspiration was conducted on each of the 120 cows during wk 1 to 12 postpartum. On the day of aspiration, the number of follicles and their sizes were recorded. The collected oocytes were morphologically classified into four grades. Blood and follicular fluid samples were collected for hormone and metabolite assays. Greater serum nonesterified fatty acids concentrations for first- and second-parity cattle on d 7 implied a more negative energy balance status than for third-parity cattle. The numbers of follicles and oocytes retrieved were affected by linear days postpartum x parity interactions, with second-parity cattle having increases compared with decreases for third-parity cattle. Oocyte quality score was affected by the quadratic days postpartum x parity interaction. First- and second-parity cattle had greater oocyte quality scores from d 20 to 70 postpartum compared with third-parity cattle, but third-parity cattle had greater quality oocytes near the end of the 12-wk period. In contrast to cattle subjected to multiple aspirations, first- and second-parity cattle had higher estradiol and insulin-like growth factor I concentrations in follicular fluid associated with greater numbers of oocytes retrieved than third-parity cattle. This study demonstrated that conditions related to early lactation have a negative effect on oocyte quality and endocrine measures of dairy cattle and that animals of various parities may be differentially affected.     

Attaining and measuring physical fitness in dairy cattle

Research with dairy cows was to determine whether dairy cows in confinement are in poor physical condition, if programmed exercise improves physical fitness, and which physiological measures are most useful indicators of physical fitness. If maintenance of physiologic homeostasis when an animal is under a work load is a valid criterion of physical fitness, dairy cows in confinement are in poor physical condition, and physical fitness can be improved by programmed exercise. Walking cows at 4 km/h for a distance of 8 km daily for 5 days per wk for 8 wk prepartum improved their physical fitness. Useful hemic indicators of improved fitness were less increase in erythrocyte numbers and hemoglobin concentration and less decrease in oxygen tension, carbon dioxide, carbonic acid contents, and base excess than in poorly conditioned cattle under work load. Venous blood was satisfactory for these measurements. Also valued were heart and respiratory rates, except these rates being sensitive to extraneous disturbances may be less reliable.