Peer consultation groups for psychologists in private practice: A national survey.

We report the results of the first national survey of psychologists in private practice regarding their participation in peer consultation groups. The sample (71% return) was drawn from 800 randomly selected psychologists listed in the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology. We found that 23% of the sample currently belonged to peer consultation groups, and 24% had belonged in the past. Of those not currently in groups, 61% expressed the desire to belong if one were available. There were virtually no significant demographic differences between current members and nonmembers. We examined the following group characteristics: formation, length of existence, size, membership, leadership, theoretical orientation, range of experience, time and place, content, and group process. Groups tended to be small, informal, and leaderless; however, we found great variation among groups on all dimensions. Findings also showed a high degree of satisfaction with membership. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Magnetic resonance of the encephalon in 17 patients with ocular Beh?et''s disease

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relationships between patient and physician pretreatment expectations of pain relief and subsequent pain relief reported by chronic pain patients immediately after treatment. DESIGN: Prospective study of consecutive patients undergoing a procedure in a pain clinic for treatment of chronic pain. Patients rated their current pain level and their expectation of pain relief immediately prior to undergoing a procedure (e.g., intravenous drug infusion, nerve block) for the treatment of chronic pain. Simultaneously and independently, the treating physician completed a similar questionnaire. At completion of the procedure, patients rated their current pain level and degree of pain relief. SETTING: University of Washington Multidisciplinary Pain Center procedure suite. PATIENTS: Forty-six consecutive chronic pain patients. INTERVENTION: Intravenous drug infusions and nerve blocks. OUTCOME MEASURES: Current pain and pain relief ratings. RESULTS: Patients' pain relief expectation ratings were not correlated significantly with their postprocedure pain relief ratings or pre-post procedure changes in pain ratings. However, a statistically significant correlation was found between physician expectations of pain relief and patient pain relief ratings and patient pre-post procedure changes in pain. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that physicians are better predictors than are patients of patients responses to these procedures and/or that physicians may somehow subtly communicate their expectations to patients during the procedure, and these expectations then influence patient response. Patient pretreatment expectations may not always play a significant role in nonspecific treatment effects.     

Chronic pain in elderly people

Using the fear-potentiated startle paradigm in rats, 4 experiments examined whether the inhibitory effect of a feature is evident after its offset following serial feature-negative discrimination training (A+ and X-->A-). When startle probes were presented shortly after the offset of X on X-->A test trials, the inhibitory properties of X were observed immediately after its offset. Furthermore, trace reinforcement of X (X-->+), but not delay reinforcement (X+), disrupted the ability of X to inhibit fear-potentiated startle on X-->A trials. Trace conditioning to X was also retarded after A+ and X-->A- training. These results suggest that the inhibitory properties of the serially trained feature are present after its offset and raise the possibility that either temporal information regarding nonreinforcement or poststimulus attributes of X acquire inhibitory properties.     

Voluntary head stabilization in space during oscillatory trunk movements in the frontal plane performed in weightlessness

The ability voluntarily to stabilize the head in space during lateral rhythmic oscillations (0.59+/-0.09 Hz) of the trunk has been investigated during microgravity (microG) and normal gravity (nG) conditions (parabolic flights). Five healthy young subjects, who gave informed consent, were examined. The movements were performed with eyes open or eyes closed, during phases of either microG or nG. The main result was that head orientation with respect to vertical may be stabilized about the roll axis under microG with, as well as without vision, despite the reduction in vestibular afferent and muscle proprioceptive inputs. Moreover, the absence of head stabilization about the yaw axis confirms that the degrees of freedom of the neck can be independently controlled, as was previously reported. These results seem to indicate that voluntary head stabilization does not depend crucially upon static vestibular afferents. Head stabilization in space may in fact be organized on the basis of either dynamic vestibular afferents or a short-term memorized postural body schema.     

Densification involved in the UV-based photosensitivity of silicaglasses and optical fibers

A comprehensive survey of photosensitivity in silica glasses and optical fiber is reviewed. Recent work on understanding the mechanisms contributing to germanium or aluminum doped fiber photosensitivity is discussed within the framework of photoelastic densification models     

Water sorption of glycol-modified cross-linked gelatin-based hydrogels

The water sorption behaviour of several cross-linked gelatin-based systems were investigated and compared. The systems were gelatin, gelatin/ethyleneglycol, gelatin/polyoxypropylenediamine, and gelatin/polyethylene oxide. For all the systems, an increased water gain was obtained by raising the concentration of the second component, while the swelling was reduced by an increase of the cross-linking density. This revised version was published online in November 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.