How does coping help people resist lapses during smoking cessation?

Objectives: To determine whether types of coping strategies have differential effects on preventing lapses and lowering urge levels and to investigate mechanisms by which coping strategies prevent lapses during smoking cessation. Design: Sixty-one respondents performed ecological momentary assessment using palm-top computers and tape recorders to report their coping strategies and urge levels before and after temptations to smoke. Multilevel linear regression models were used to compare the effects of individual strategy types with the average strategy. Main Outcome Measures: Lapses versus resisted temptations and changes in urge levels. Results: Number of strategies significantly predicted resisting smoking and change in urge levels. Compared with the effect of the average strategy, movement/exercise was marginally worse at preventing lapses, and food/drink was marginally related to higher postcoping urge levels. Conclusion: Although using multiple coping strategies helps people resist the urge to smoke, no particular coping strategy works better than any other. Coping strategies prevent lapses by reducing high urge levels during temptations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotional adjustment 5 years after heart transplant: A multisite study.

Objective: To assess levels of and factors associated with depression and negative affect 5 years after heart transplant (HT). Participants: 370 adults 5 years post-HT. Outcome Measures: Cardiac Depression Scale and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Research Method: Stepwise multiple regression analyses were used to test 32 potential demographic, medical, functional, and psychosocial factors in adjustment. Results: Predictor variables accounted for 53% of the variance of depression scores and 45% of the variance of PANAS negative affect scores. The best predictors (p = .001) for depression were neurological symptoms, younger age, lower recreational functioning, and lower satisfaction with emotional support, and the best predictors for negative affect were neurological symptoms, lower mobility functioning, and perceived uncertainty about health. Depression scores were lower than norms for nontransplanted heart failure patients, and negative affect levels were comparable to those of the general population. Conclusions: The findings indicate normal long-term adjustment among HT recipients. Several factors associated with negative emotions, including younger age, have not been identified in previous research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using collocations for language generation1

A large number of wording choices naturally occurring in English sentences cannot be accounted for on semantic or syntactic grounds. They represent arbitrary word usages and are termed collocations. In this paper, we show how collocations can enhance the task of lexical selection in language generation. Previous language generation systems were not able to account for collocations for two reasons: they did not have the lexical information in compiled form and the lexicon formalisms available were not able to handle the variations in collocational knowledge. We describe an implemented generator, Cook, which uses a wide range of collocations to produce sentences in the stock market domain. Cook uses a flexible lexicon containing a range of collocations, from idiomatic phrases to word pairs that were compiled automatically from text corpora using a lexicographic tool, Xtract. We show how Cook is able to merge collocations of various types to produce a wide variety of sentences.     

Use of canonical variate analysis in the differentiation of swede cultivars by gas-liquid chromatography of volatile hydrolysis products

Swede cultivars can be differentiated by their volatile hydrolysis products obtained after maceration. Multivariate statistical techniques however, are required to interpret the data because of the interactions between volatiles. Canonical variate analysis allowed a chemical interpretation to be placed on the effects of storage and provided a basis for differentiating between cultivars. The relative chemical configuration of the cultivars is displayed graphically by plotting the cultivar means relative to the first two canonical variates.     

Schizophrenic responses to the Proverbs Test: Abstract, concrete, or autistic.

Psychopathology was more effective in predicting autistic responses to proverbs of acutely ill schizophrenic patients than was intelligence as measured by the Wechsler Vocabulary subtest. Autistic responses decreased significantly from pre- to post-5 wk. of hospital treatment. There was no difference in the frequency of these responses between high and low verbal IQ groups, nor did level of IQ affect the decrease in autistic responses. These findings were contrasted with those of a previous study which showed that the traditional abstract and concrete scores of responses to proverbs were highly correlated with intelligence even with the effects of pathology statistically controlled, and did not improve with treatment except when IQ was above average. The present study further demonstrated that while autistic responses were negatively related to abstract scores, they were relatively unrelated to concrete scores. The overall findings were consistent with both earlier theoretical formulations and more recent empirical investigations regarding cognitive deficit in schizophrenia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aqueous solutions of uranium(VI) as studied by time-resolved emission spectroscopy: a round-robin test

Results of an inter-laboratory round-robin study of the application of time-resolved emission spectroscopy (TRES) to the speciation of uranium(VI) in aqueous media are presented. The round-robin study involved 13 independent laboratories, using various instrumentation and data analysis methods. Samples were prepared based on appropriate speciation diagrams and, in general, were found to be chemically stable for at least six months. Four different types of aqueous uranyl solutions were studied: (1) acidic medium where UO2(2+)aq is the single emitting species, (2) uranyl in the presence of fluoride ions, (3) uranyl in the presence of sulfate ions, and (4) uranyl in aqueous solutions at different pH, promoting the formation of hydrolyzed species. Results between the laboratories are compared in terms of the number of decay components, luminescence lifetimes, and spectral band positions. The successes and limitations of TRES in uranyl analysis and speciation in aqueous solutions are discussed.     

Roles of neurotransmitter receptors in behavior: Recovery of function following decreases in muscarinic receptor density induced by cholinesterase inhibition.

Cholinergic neurotransmitter levels were elevated in rat brain by reducing its inactivating enzyme, acetylcholinesterase (AChE), with an anti-AChE agent. Elevated levels result in decreases in cholinergic (muscarinic) receptors. Withdrawal of agent after 10 days of chronic treatment began a gradual return of neurochemical variables toward normal states, yet not fully achieving them within the following 29 days of the experiment. All behavioral and physiological variables measured showed significant effects at the start of the treatment period, developing tolerance at different rates as treatments continued. They also recovered differentially during withdrawal. Results are consistent with a theoretical model in which thresholds for normal functioning of different behavioral and physiological processes are associated with different receptor densities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maternal depressive symptoms in autism: Response to psychoeducational intervention.

Assessed the impact of psychoeducation intervention on the depressive symptoms of 28 mothers of young children with autism or related disorders (aged 2–6 yrs). Mothers in 2 demographically comparable treatment and no-treatment groups completed the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale at the time of the child's diagnosis, and at 6 and 18 mo later. Repeated measures ANOVA procedures revealed a significant treatment time interaction. Mothers who participated in the psychoeducational treatment program decreased in depressive symptoms over time, and mothers without treatment showed no change over time. Results are discussed in terms of understanding maternal depression in most of these families as a modifiable adjustment reaction to the stress of caring for a child with a chronic disability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Growing up and growing apart: A developmental meta-analysis of twin studies.

Examined developmental change in twin similarity with age contrasts in a meta-analysis of twin studies from 1967 through 1985. Intraclass rs were coded from 103 papers that included data for monozygotic or dizygotic twins, or for both, on personality or intelligence variables. Analyses indicated that there was a general tendency for some intraclass rs to decrease with age. In other words, as twins grow up, they grow apart. There were also developmental differences associated with components of variance for heritability, the shared environment, and the nonshared environment. Mechanisms through which the nonshared environment may operate are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)