On Kelman's incorrect conclusions.

Argues that H. C. Kelman's (see record 1983-32571-001) psychological study of Yasser Arafat's cognitive style, in which Kelman found flexibility and a willingness to achieve a workable compromise with Israel, represents a misreading of Arafat's attempt to mobilize world public opinion and to use negotiations as a supplement to military and terrorist actions. It is concluded that Kelman's attempt to use social psychological principles to further the peace process ends up as largely an apologia for the discrepancy between Arafat's words and deeds. (2 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

New therapies for stroke

The treatment of patients with stroke and cerebrovascular disease has entered a new era. During the 1990s there has been a revolution in technology able to define quickly, safely, and accurately stroke pathophysiological characteristics and the cardiovascular lesions that cause stroke in individual patients. Advanced brain imaging with computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and newer magnetic resonance modalities, including fluid attenuating inversion recovery imaging, diffusion, perfusion, functional magnetic resonance imaging, and magnetic resonance spectroscopy, show clinicians the localization, severity, and potential reversibility of ischemia. Vascular lesions can be defined using spiral computed tomographic angiography, magnetic resonance angiography, and extracranial and transcranial ultrasonography. Cardiac and aortic sources of stroke are now better studied using transesophageal echocardiography. More sophisticated hematologic testing gives new insights into the role of altered coagulability in causing or contributing to thromboembolism. Clinicians can now recognize the key data elements needed to logically treat brain ischemia, including the following: The nature, location, and severity of cardiac and cerebrovascular lesions. The mechanism by which these lesions cause ischemia--hypoperfusion? embolism? functional changes such as vasoconstriction? The cellular and serologic components of the blood that relate to coagulability, viscosity, and blood flow. The state of the brain--normal, reversibly ichemic ("stunned"), or infarcted. With these diagnostic advances have come new treatments, new ideas about treatment, and more and new information about conventional treatments.     

Social anxiety and computer-mediated communication during initial interactions: Implications for the hyperpersonal perspective

The study examined how the reduced nonverbal cues characteristic of computer-mediated communication (CMC) moderated the potentially negative interpersonal outcomes of social anxiety in initial interactions. Hypotheses predicted that CMC would mitigate the extent to which social anxiety caused interpersonal perceptions of anxiety and that CMC would attenuate the negative association between one’s social anxiety and one’s partner’s conversational satisfaction. A sample (N = 206) of undergraduate students were paired in unacquainted dyads and then engaged in initial interaction conversations in either a face-to-face (FtF) or CMC context. The researchers measured social anxiety before the conversation and a number of outcomes after the conversation. The results revealed that CMC is a significant contingent condition to the association between social anxiety and one’s partner’s perception of this anxiety and a contingent condition to the association between social anxiety and one’s partner’s conversational satisfaction.     

Stem cells for tissue engineering of articular cartilage

Articular cartilage injuries are one of the most common disorders in the musculo-skeletal system. Injured cartilage tissue cannot spontaneously heal and, if not treated, can lead to osteoarthritis of the affected joints. Although a variety of procedures are being employed to repair cartilage damage, methods that result in consistent durable repair tissue are not yet available. Tissue engineering is a recently developed science that merges the fields of cell biology, engineering, material science, and surgery to regenerate new functional tissue. Three critical components in tissue engineering of cartilage are as follows: first, sufficient cell numbers within the defect, such as chondrocytes or multipotent stem cells capable of differentiating into chondrocytes; second, access to growth and differentiation factors that modulate these cells to differentiate through the chondrogenic lineage; third, a cell carrier or matrix that fills the defect, delivers the appropriate cells, and supports cell proliferation and differentiation. Stem cells that exist in the embyro or in adult somatic tissues are able to renew themselves through cell division without changing their phenotype and are able to differentiate into multiple lineages including the chondrogenic lineage under certain physiological or experimental conditions. Here the application of stem cells as a cell source for cartilage tissue engineering is reviewed.     

Mitchell Rosenthal (1949-2007).

Mitchell Rosenthal, a central figure in the emergence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) rehabilitation and the professionalization of rehabilitation psychology, died unexpectedly on May 31, 2007, at the age of 58 from complications following cardiac surgery. Rosenthal was a major figure in the development and evolution of the Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems program and the Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation and Research Centers. From 1999 to 2004, he was the principal investigator for the TBI National Database Center funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. Rosenthal's leadership roles in rehabilitation psychology were many and significant. He was a founding member of the American Board of Rehabilitation Psychology and served on the Board of Trustees of the American Board of Professional Psychology at his death. His advocacy for rehabilitation psychology was evident throughout his career. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Factor structure of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test: Dimensions of deficit in schizophrenia.

The aim of this study was to explore the factorial structure of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and to identify the dimensions of deficit in schizophrenia. WCST scores in patients with schizophrenia and schizophrenia-related psychosis (n?=?292), 1st degree relatives of schizophrenic patients (n?=?91), and normal controls (n?=?141) were subjected to a principal factor analysis followed by orthogonal rotation. This led to 3 factors, perseveration, failure to maintain set, and idiosyncratic sorting. The detected factor structure was found to be invariant across the schizophrenic and control subsamples. Moreover, it replicated previous findings from 2 smaller samples. Only perseverations and, to a lesser degree, idiosyncratic sorting appeared to differentiate schizophrenic patients from comparisons. Only perseveration had good sensitivity and specificity, as well as the most robust significant correlations with estimates of IQ, attention, and other measures of executive functioning. Thus, perseveration appears to be the most diagnostically useful and characteristic WCST feature of schizophrenia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)