Cigarettes, alcohol, and depression: characterizing head and neck cancer survivors in two systems of care.

Tobacco exposure is a key risk factor for head and neck cancer, and continued smoking after diagnosis negatively affects outcomes. The present study examined tobacco smoking, nicotine dependence, alcohol use, and depression in survivors of head and neck cancer. Subjects at least 6 months post-initial diagnosis of head and neck cancer (N=694) drawn from three VA otolaryngology clinics (n=309, VA patients) and a university-based otolaryngology clinic (n=385, non-VA patients) were administered questionnaires and standardized rating instruments for nicotine and alcohol dependence and for depression. Additional clinical information was extracted from chart reviews. Despite high rates of prior smoking, less than one-quarter of all subjects continued to smoke. After controlling for significant confounding variables, we found that VA patients were more likely to be current smokers (OR=1.9, 95% CI=1.3-3.0), but current VA smokers did not differ significantly from non-VA smokers on the Fagerstr?m Test for Nicotine Dependence criterion (p=.69). The VA patients were more likely to screen positive for problem drinking on the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (OR=2.1, 95% CI=1.3-3.7). After adjusting for other variables, we found no statistical difference between the groups in depression scores on the Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form. The study provides data on smoking, alcohol use, and depression in head and neck cancer survivors indicating that VA patients are at increased risk for continued smoking and problem drinking relative to non-VA patients. Head and neck cancer patients benefit from aggressive smoking cessation efforts by the VA, but many patients need specialized services that integrate smoking interventions with treatment of comorbid alcoholism.     

Accelerated training of backpropagation networks by using adaptive momentum step

Considerable research into the training of neural networks by the backpropagation technique has been undertaken in recent years. Introduction of a momentum term into the training equation can accelerate the training process. A new momentum step and a scheme for dynamically selecting the momentum rate are described. It is shown that these give improved acceleration of training and strong global convergence characteristics. Results are presented for four benchmark training tasks.<>     

Social class and the nature of the incentive in discrimination learning.

"… it… [was] predicted that an interaction exists between social class and the nature of the incentive. Supecifically, it was believed that a nonmaterial incentive is as effective as a material incentive for middle-class Ss, whereas, for lower-class Ss a material incentive is more effective than a nonmaterial one." This belief was tested and results indicate that middle-class "children learn more quickly when given a nonmaterial incentive than when given a material incentive, while the reverse [was] true of lower-class children." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of race of examiner and cultural mistrust on the WAIS performance of Black students.

100 Black males (17–19 yrs old) were given the Terrell Cultural Mistrust Inventory, and groups with high and low levels of mistrust of Whites were identified. Half of the Ss in each group were then administered the WAIS by a White examiner. The remaining were tested by a Black examiner. The Black examiner/high mistrust group scored significantly higher than the White examiner/high mistrust group. In addition, the White examiner/low mistrust group scored significantly higher than the White examiner/high mistrust group. (4 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hydrogen effects on the ductile to brittle transition behaviour of 21-6-9 stainless steel

Charpy V-notched impact test studies on 21-6-9 austenitic stainless steel at 293 and 77 K demonstrated that hydrogen charging promoted the formation of larger microvoids at 293 K, promoted the formation of facets at 77 K, and reduced the energy absorbed by the material at both temperatures. These observations suggest that the role of hydrogen in the impact behaviour of this material is to enhance whatever crack-growth mechanism is operating at a given temperature. Further, the observation that embrittlement exists even at liquid nitrogen temperatures indicates that little or no localized rearrangement of hydrogen during the test is required or that relatively high strain-rate effects on hydrogen embrittlement need not be necessarily attributed to enhanced transport of hydrogen atmospheres by mobile dislocations. The data presented in this paper are consistent with a model in which the mechanism of hydrogen embrittlement is affected by the extent of plastic deformation.     

Cultural mistrust, opinions about mental illness, and Black students' attitudes toward seeking psychological help from White counselors.

Examined the relationship among mistrust of Whites, opinions about mental illness, and help-seeking attitudes among 105 Black college students. Participants completed the Cultural Mistrust Inventory (F. Terrell and S. L. Terrell; see record 1982-29464-001), the Opinions About Mental Illness Scale, the Help-Seeking Attitude Scale (R. Plotkin, unpublished), and the Reid-Gundlach Social Service Satisfaction Scale (P. N. Reid and J. H. Gundlach, 1983). The hypothesis that higher levels of cultural mistrust would predict negative help-seeking attitudes was generally supported through regression analyses. Greater mistrust of Whites was associated with more negative general attitudes about seeking help from clinics staffed primarily by Whites and with an expectation that the services rendered by White counselors would be less satisfactory. Limitations of this study, as well as implications and recommendations for future research and practice, are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Illusion of Control Among Depressed Patients.

A replication of an earlier study of the illusion of control in mildly depressed students with a clinically depressed sample found an illusion of control in a nondepressed patient group but not among depressed patients. The present results were similar to those obtained with mildly depressed students. The absence of the illusion of control was viewed as reflecting a general sense of personal incompetence among depressed persons. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Low-cost microprocessor-based image processing system

The architecture, implementation and image processing facilities of the LS10 low-cost microprocessor-based image processing system are described. The paper presents a summary of the system's attributes, and emphasis is given to their use in practical image processing applications. Results for processed Landsat satellite images are presented and described to illustrate the performance achievable from the system. To perform complex computations rapidly, fast Fourier transforms for example, a transputer-based processor has been developed. The paper shows how this sytem can be interfaced to the image processor.     

Photopolymerization of N-vinylcarbazole in dichloromethane in the presence and absence of free radical photoinitiators

The photopolymerization of N-vinylcarbazole in dichloromethane was investigated, both in the presence and absence of free radical photoinitiators. The steric microstructure of the poly(N-vinylcarbazole) (PVK) samples produced was monitored as a function of temperature qualitatively, using ¹H n.m.r. and quantitatively, using glass transition temperature measurements. The activation enthalpy and entropy differences between isotactic propagation when the previous diad was syndiotactic and syndiotactic propagation when the previous diad was isotactic (ΔH³_s/i-ΔH³_i/s) and (ΔS³_s/j-ΔS³_i/s) respectively were obtained from plots of log X_i/X_sversus 1/T for the free radically and cationically polymerized components of the PVK samples. Values for (ΔH³_s/i-ΔH³_i/s) and (ΔS³_s/i-ΔS³_i/s) of ?2.65 kJ mol^?1 and ?11.7 J mol^?1 grad^?1 respectively were found for free radically polymerized fractions and +260 J mol^?1 and ?0.3 J mol^?1 grad^?1 for cationically polymerized fractions.     

Improved algorithm for low-order real digital circular convolution

A new algorithm, based on the minimisation of add and multiply operations, is presented for the computation of low-order real digital circular convolutions.