Affect and memory: Effects of pleasant and unpleasant odors on retrieval of happy and unhappy memories.

Interpretation of studies of induced mood and memory is complicated by the fact that mood induction procedures may elicit mood-related cognition in addition to mood per se. We used odors to produce positive and negative experiences with minimal cognitive involvement. College women recalled memories cued by neutral words while exposed to a pleasant odor, unpleasant odor, or no odor. Subjects then rated their memories as to how happy or unhappy the events recalled were at the time they occurred. Subjects in the pleasant odor condition produced a significantly greater percentage of happy memories than did subjects in the unpleasant odor condition. When subjects who did not find the odors at least moderately pleasant or unpleasant were removed from the analysis, more pronounced effects on memory were found. The results suggest that congruence between the general hedonic tone of current experience and that of material in long-term memory is sufficient to bias retrieval. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

AdvancedMCS推动下一代网络IP应用发展

在过去的12～18个月内AdvancedMC逐渐成熟，相关应用也越来越多。这部分是由于MicroTCA模块化结构的市场接受度逐步提高，AdvancedMCs作为关键的模块组成自然受到欢迎。另外的原因则是客户和供应商将这种新的模块化方法应用到下一代网络（NGN）当中。它结合了智能包处理、实时安全和媒体融合（语音／视频／内容）等功能。目前来看，这些产品正逐步兑现当初的承诺。     

Quantum mechanical aspects of transport in nanoelectronics

The authors discuss some of the effects quantum mechanics has on the performance of nanometer-scale devices. At low temperature, the confinement and the coherence of the electronic motion on the scale of the electron wavelength give rise to gross deviations from classical charge transport that describes the resistance found in large conventional devices. The authors examine three examples of the quantum mechanical nature of the resistance of a split-gate MODFET, that are not accounted for in conventional classical models of a FET, and yet may influence device speed, noise performance and device isolation. The authors consider the temperature and electric field ranges where quantum mechanical effects are manifested in the charge transport, and speculate about the conditions in which parasitic quantum mechanical effects might be found in a conventional device     

Psychological benefits of leisure participation: A taxonomy of leisure activities based on their need-gratifying properties.

In this study, a needs-based taxonomy of leisure activities is proposed. Respondents experienced in a given leisure activity were asked to indicate the extent to which it met different psychological needs, as measured by the Paragraphs About Leisure (PAL) questionnaire. Each of the 3,771 participants completed the PAL on only 1 of the 82 leisure activities for which data were collected. The leisure activities were cluster analyzed with the scores on the PAL, and 12 leisure activity clusters were revealed. One group was judged to be a residual, and the other 11 groups were named agency, novelty, belongingness, service, sensual enjoyment, cognitive stimulation, self-expression, creativity, competition, vicarious competition, and relaxation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Plasma amino acids determined by liquid chromatography within 17 minutes

We present an HPLC method for the determination of amino acids in plasma. The method is based on automated precolumn derivatization of amino acids with o-phthalaldehyde, separation of the derivatives by reversed-phase chromatography, and quantification by fluorescence detection. Complete separation was achieved within 12 min. Total analysis time, including derivatization, chromatography, and reequilibration of the column, was 17 min. The assay was linear from 5 to 800 mumol/L for all amino acids. Recovery of amino acids added to plasma samples was 96-106%, except for tryptophan (89%). Within-run precision (CV) was 1.8-6.4%, and between-run precision was 2.1-7.2%. The method can be used for determining primary amino acids in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid. The simple sample preparation and short analysis time make the method particularly suitable for routine analysis of large series of samples.     

A community-based public-academic liaison program

OBJECTIVE: The authors discuss obstacles and incentives associated with successful community-based public-academic liaison activities and illustrate their conclusions by describing their public-academic liaison program, which received the American College of Psychiatrists' first annual Award for Creativity in Psychiatric Education. METHOD: The first 8 years of a state/university collaboration are described in which the parties involved first developed a variety of innovative services designed to fill specific gaps in the public service delivery system and subsequently integrated academic research and training components. RESULTS: The carefully planned and monitored process resulted in the exponential growth of interest in public sector work, the realization of the university's primary goals of developing high quality training and research sites, a substantial increase in the number of graduates accepting positions in the public sector, several projects funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, and two national awards. CONCLUSIONS: These collaborations illustrate the highly complementary relationship of public-academic liaison activities and their potential capacity to improve access to services, substantially improve the quality of these services, generate extramural support for services research, and increase the number of well-trained professionals in the public sector.     

Should older patients be admitted for coronary evaluation and treatment? With special emphasis on a survey and catheter-based revascularization of patients over 70 years of age

A three year survey of patients undergoing diagnostic left heart catheterization and PTCA treatment is presented from Feiringklinikken. Data on patients over and under 70 years have been analysed separately. The fraction of patients over 70 years admitted for catheterization increased significantly from 18.8% to 23.4% during the survey period. Angiography was associated with a low mortality of 0.04% and incidence of cerebrovascular complications with 0.1%, with no increased risk in patients over 70 years. The proportion of patients treated with PTCA increased significantly during the survey from 25% to 39% for patients over 70 years and from 31% to 42% for patients under 70 years (p < 0.01). The initial success rate of PTCA was 89% and 92% for patients over and under 70 years respectively (not significant). The rate of serious complications was low in both age groups, 3.2% and 1.0% in patients over and under 70 years respectively (p < 0.01). Older patients can be examined invasively with low risk of complications. A substantial number of patients, also among the elderly, can be treated safely with PTCA with good initial results. Thus, elderly patients should be offered the benefit of invasive diagnosis and treatment for coronary heart disease.     

Short-wavelength color visual fields in glaucoma suspects at risk

Glaucoma suspect eyes were seen during a five-year study on color visual fields that used a 440-nm test on a bright-yellow background (96 normal eyes, 55 suspect eyes, and 110 eyes that developed glaucoma). The predictive ability of the test was assessed in 25 eyes followed up for more than one year, five of which developed glaucoma. These five eyes and those at high risk showed higher mean defect (P < .0001) and number of defective points (P < .0001) than the other suspect groups, which were not significantly different from normal eyes. The mean defects (+/- standard deviations) and average number of defective points were 1.4 +/- 2.3 dB with 8.9 points (low-risk eyes), 1.1 +/- 1.2 dB with 8.0 points (medium-risk eyes), 6.7 +/- 2.8 dB with 27.7 points (high-risk eyes), and 9.3 +/- 1.8 dB with 39.4 points (eyes that developed glaucoma). Normal eyes had an average of 3.4 defective points. These results were similar when all 55 suspect eyes were analyzed. Color visual fields identify early functional loss in eyes at greatest risk for primary open-angle glaucoma.     

Preserved pattern completion priming for novel, abstract geometric shapes in amnesics of several aetiologies

Two experiments were conducted using a paradigm developed by Gabrieli et al., Neuropsychologia 28, 417-427, 1990, which assessed both indirect and direct memory performance in a completion task for novel abstract geometric patterns. The preferred method of scoring was the lines method, based on the number of correct and incorrect lines produced for each item. It was chosen because it is both the simplest and the most informative measure. Two methods of scoring were used in previous work, namely, the strict whole figure method and the lenient whole figure method (Gabrielli et al., 1990; Verfaelie et al., Brain Cognit. 18, 34-45, 1992). Therefore to facilitate comparisons between studies and to determine the characteristics of different scoring methods, results with all three measures were included. In Experiment 1, two different encoding strategies of naming and copying were used in order to explore the relationship between indirect and direct memory performance. Indirect memory performance in the naming condition was at baseline whereas in the copying condition it was significantly above baseline. Cued recall did not differ across encoding conditions but recognition was higher in the naming condition than the copying condition. In Experiment 2, an attempt was made to extend the findings of two studies, one with H.M. (Gabrielli et al., 1990) and one with nine Korsakoffs (Verfaelie et al., 1992), to a larger group of 14 amnesics of several aetiologies. Indirect memory performance was found to be equivalent for the amnesics and their matched controls, only when the lenient and the lines methods of scoring were used. Recognition and cued recall performance was impaired for the amnesics compared to the controls.