Integrative behavioral couple therapy: An acceptance-based, promising new treatment for couple discord.

Although traditional behavioral couple therapy (TBCT) has garnered the most empirical support of any marital treatment, concerns have been raised about both its durability and clinical significance. Integrative behavioral couple therapy (IBCT) was designed to address some of these limitations by combining strategies for fostering emotional acceptance with the change-oriented strategies of TBCT. Results of a preliminary clinical trial, in which 21 couples were randomly assigned to TBCT or IBCT, indicated that therapists could keep the 2 treatments distinct, that both husbands and wives receiving IBCT evidenced greater increases in marital satisfaction than couples receiving TBCT, and that IBCT resulted in a greater percentage of couples who either improved or recovered on the basis of clinical significance data. Although preliminary, these findings suggest that IBCT is a promising new treatment for couple discord. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comprehension of televised stories in boys with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and nonreferred boys.

Two studies compared comprehension of televised stories by 7- to 12-year-old boys with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and nonreferred comparison boys. Boys watched one show with toys present and one with toys absent. Visual attention was continuously recorded, and recall was tested after each show. Across studies, visual attention was high with toys absent but decreased sharply with toys present for boys with ADHD. Groups showed similar levels of cued recall of discrete units of information regardless of differences in attention. When recall tasks and television story structure required knowledge of relations among events, the reduced attention of boys with ADHD interfered with recall. Although visual attention of comparison boys also decreased to some extent with toys present, there was no such decrement in recall. Implications of the difficulties children with ADHD have in integrated story comprehension are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measuring treatment effects on repetitive lifting for patients with chronic low back pain: speed, style, and coordination

The purpose of this study was to determine changes in the amount of work performed and lifting speed, style, and coordination during a repetitive dynamic-lifting task for patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP) after an intensive 3 1/2-week pain rehabilitation program. Subjects included 57 CLBP patients and an age- and gender-matched control group (n = 57). Patients' work indices increased by 71%, but remained significantly less than those observed for controls. Similarly, their lifting speed also increased significantly after treatment, but remained slower than the lifting speed of controls. Patients' posttreatment coordination indices, however, were not significantly different from those of controls. This finding suggests that treatment effectively normalized the dynamic lifting motion used by the patients. These findings, along with the basic kinematic patterns developed in this study, have important implications for determining improvements in functional capacity in the treatment of patients with CLBP.     

Effects of peripherally administered corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) and a CRF antagonist: Does peripheral CRF activity mediate behavior of guinea pig pups during isolation?

Guinea pig pups vocalized and ambulated when first isolated in a test cage; at 1 and 24 hr, levels of these behaviors had waned, and pups frequently exhibited a crouched stance, eye-closing, and piloerection. Injection (SC) of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) prior to isolation diminished the initial vocalization and locomotor responses and induced pups to exhibit the crouched stance, eye-closing, and piloerection at the beginning of the isolation period. Pretreatment with a CRF-receptor antagonist reversed the behavioral effects of CRF. CRF had no effect on blood pressure. Thus, SC CRF produced the same behavioral profile as seen with the passage of time in untreated isolated pups. The behavioral effects appeared to be CRF-receptor-mediated events and were not secondary to hypotension. These results support the hypothesis that during prolonged isolation, high or sustained peripheral CRF activity modulates behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The strength of industrial cokes. 5. Influence of coke breeze in a coal charge on tensile strength of coke

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of different proportions and different particle sizes of coke breeze in a coke-oven charge on the tensile strength of the coke. The diametrical-compression test was used to determine the tensile strength of the coke produced in a 10-t test oven and the results obtained were considered in relation to the composition of the oven charge, the coke micum indices and to parameters describing the coke texture. It was established that breeze additions caused measurable but nonsystematic changes in the coke tensile strength and that decreasing the breeze particle size generally increased the coke tensile strength. These changes could not however be directly related to changes observed in the density, porosity, pore-wall thickness or mean pore size of the cokes. The previously established relations between micum indices and the tensile strength of foundry cokes were also found to be inapplicable. The conclusion was drawn that the behaviour described is associated with some, at present unestablished, factor of the blend composition, one possibility being the relative proportions and compatibility of the ‘binder’ and inert material acting through their influence on those aspects of the coke microstructure which control the coke breakage.     

An energy evaluation of coupling nutrient removal from wastewater with algal biomass production

Recently, several life cycle analyses of algal biodiesel from virtual production facilities have outlined the potential environmental benefits and energetic balance of the process. There are a wide range of assumptions that have been utilized for these calculations, including the addition of fertilizers and carbon dioxide to achieve high algal yields in open ponds. This paper presents an energy balance of microalgal production in open ponds coupled with nutrient removal from wastewater. Actual microalgal yields and nutrient removal rates were obtained from four pilot-scale reactors (2500 gallons each) fed with wastewater effluent from a conventional activated sludge process for 6 months, and the data was used to estimate an energy balance for treating the total average 12 million gallons per day processed by the wastewater treatment plant. Since one of the most energy-intensive steps is the dewatering of algal cultures, several thickening and dewatering processes were compared. This analysis also includes the energy offset from removing nutrients with algal reactors rather than the biological nutrient removal processes typically utilized in municipal wastewater treatment. The results show that biofuel production is energetically favorable for open pond reactors utilizing wastewater as a nutrient source, even without an energy credit for nutrient removal. The energy content of algal biomass was also considered as an alternate to lipid extraction and biodiesel production. Direct combustion of algal biomass may be a more viable energy source than biofuel production, especially when the lipid content of dry biomass (10% in this field experiment) is lower than the high values reported in lab-scale reactors (50–60%).     

Comparison of therapeutic factors in group and individual treatment processes.

Group and individual treatments have equivalent outcomes, but little is understood about the therapeutic processes in these treatment modalities; therefore, similarities and differences in the therapeutic process were explored. Critical incident obtained from 20 individual and 20 group clients were rated on 4 dimensions of session impact: emotional awareness–insight, relationship–climate, other- versus self-focus, and problem definition–change) using the Group Counseling Helpful Impacts Scale (D. A Kivlighan, Jr., K. D. Multon, & D. F. Brossart, 1996). The findings of this study indicate different therapeutic processes in group and individual treatments. Ratings of relationship–climate and other-versus self-focus impacts were higher in the group participants' critical incident forms, whereas emotional awareness–insight and problem definition–change ratings were higher in the critical incident reports of individual treatment participants. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of Lubricant on the Surface Structure of Aluminosilicate Fibers

Commercial aluminosilicate fibers of the nominal composition 45 wt% Al₂O₃, 54 wt% SiO₂ have similar bulk properties but different surface chemistries, depending on whether they were formed with (WL) or without (NL) the aid of a mineral-oil lubricant. Both fiber samples are X-ray amorphous as formed; they have similar crystallization temperatures and have activation energies for crystallization of 751 and 854 kJ/mol for samples NL and WL, respectively. Fiber surface properties differ markedly, as indicated by diffuse reflectance infrared transmission spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. These techniques show that carbon from the lubricant degradation and/or combustion is incorporated into the melt, whereupon it reacts with nonbonding oxygens in the Al-O network to form network carbonates.