Fear of psychological treatment and its relation to mental health service avoidance.

We evaluated whether a measure of mental health treatment fearfulness is associated with past mental health treatment history and/or current treatment status. Student Ss who either were or were not about to begin psychotherapy responded to the fear measure and a measure of psychological distress, and they also answered questions about their mental health treatment-seeking history. Analysis indicated that increased treatment fearfulness was associated retrospectively with a history of service underconsumption and cross-sectionally with a nonclinical treatment status. We conclude that treatment fears are associated with treatment-seeking decisions and suggest that future studies focus on delineating the causal relation of these variables and on the role that treatment fears may play in treatment compliance and behavior change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Water,Energy and Environment Nexus: The California Experience

The paper addresses the local and inter-state connections between water, energy and the environment. Using California and the western USA as a case study, the paper highlights the difficulties of balancing the needs of diverse stakeholders and protecting valuable resources while providing reliable and safe supplies of both water and energy to agricultural, industrial and residential customers. The investigation of these complex relationships is necessary to inform local and national policy decisions regarding the management of water, energy and the environment.     

An extension of the Boyer-Moore Theorem Prover to support first-order quantification

We describe an implementation of an extension to the Boyer-Moore Theorem Prover and logic that allows first-order quantification. The extension retains the capabilities of the Boyer-Moore system while allowing the increased flexibility in specification and proof that is provided by quantifiers. The idea is to Skolemize in an appropriate manner. We demonstrate the power of this approach by describing three successful proof-checking experiments using the system, each of which involves a theorem of set theory as translated into a first-order logic. We also demonstrate the soundness of our approach.This research was supported in part by ONR Contract N00014-88-C-0454. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the author and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of Computational Logic, Inc., the Office of Naval Research or the U.S. Government.     

Genetic and environmental influences on parent–son relationships: Evidence for increasing genetic influence during adolescence.

Genetic and environmental influences on self-reported parent-child relationships were examined in a sample of 824 individual male twins and their parents. Cross-sectional comparisons of twin similarity at ages 11 and 17 yrs were undertaken to identify developmental changes in the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to family relationships. Significant genetic influences were found on perceptions of parent-son conflict, regard, involvement, and overall support. Heritabilities were significantly higher in older twins, suggesting increased genetic influence with age. Age differences were present primarily in the father-son relationship. These results provide support for the proposal of S. Scarr and K. McCartney (1983) that the importance of active gene-environment correlations increases during adolescence. Older adolescents may have more choice and impact on the nature of the relationships they have with their parents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social-cognitive predictors of fruit and vegetable intake in children.

Social-cognitive theory (SCT) was used to explain the fruit and vegetable intake of 1,398 3rd graders. SCT variables assessed included self-efficacy, outcome expectations, preferences, social norms, asking skills, and knowledge. Fruit and vegetable intake was assessed with 7-day records. Bivariate correlations with fruit and vegetable intake ranged from .17 for asking skills to .29 for fruit and vegetable preferences. In analyses controlling for school-level clustering, only preferences and positive outcome expectations remained significantly associated with fruit and vegetable intake, accounting for approximately 10%–11% of the variance. Limitations in the conceptualization, scope, and measurement of the variables assessed may have contributed to the weak associations observed. Models incorporating factors other than individual-level social-cognitive variables may be required to more fully explain children's dietary behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Use of gold tracer in the study of atmospheric oxidation of sulfur dioxide

A technique using gold particles as a conserved tracer has been developed in an effort to determine experimentally the oxidation of sulfur dioxide in sour gas plant plumes. A helicopter was used for plume sampling at distances up to 4 km downwind of the stack. The concentration of sulfur dioxide gas in the plume sample was determined by the West-Gaeke method. Neutron activation analysis was used to determine the concentration of gold particles in the plume sample. Since gold particles do not react chemically with plume gases, any decrease in their concentration along the plume path was due to turbulent dispersion. This parameter allowed an accurate estimation to be made of the decrease in the sulfur dioxide concentration within the plume sample that had occured due to physical dilution alone. Any further decrease in concentration could therefore be attributed to loss by chemical reaction. The experimental results indicated that, within the range studied, there is no measurable oxidation of sulfur dioxide in sour gas plant plumes.     

Extractable phosphorus related to forms of phosphorus and other soil properties

The soil P extracted by Olsen's, Bray's P-1, Morgan's, North Carolina, 0.01M-CaCl₂, acidic N-ammonium acetate and isotopic-exchange methods of determining available P were related to the forms of soil P and to other soil properties. Correlations between soil tests were higher when both test values were well correlated with a common P form, thereby indicating their similarity in selective dissolution of specific forms. Linear regression equations derived by stepwise inclusion of significant independent variables in order of importance for explanation of variations in soil-test values, indicated that the greatest contribution to Olsen's or Bray's test values was aluminium-P, to the isotopic exchange P was iron-P and to North Carolina test values was calcium-P. Dithionite-extractable aluminium and iron, organic matter, soil texture, base saturation and soil reaction were included in regression equations to reflect their significant influence on the dissolution of specific P forms and secondary reactions occurring during the extraction process. Based on observations for 343 differing soils, regression equations to predict soil-test values from significant P forms and soil properties accounted for more than 50% of variations in P soil-test values for Olsen's, Bray's, North Carolina and 0.01 M-CaCl₂ extraction methods. No improvement was found when P forms were included regardless of significance and significant soil properties were added to the regression equations.     

The origins of individual differences in memory among the elderly: A behavior genetic analysis.

Used behavior genetic methods to investigate individual differences in memory performance. Memory and various cognitive and lifestyle variables were obtained from 93 monozygotic twin pairs and 67 dyzygotic twin pairs (aged 60–88 yrs) as part of the Minnesota Twin Study of Adult Development and Aging. Univariate analysis, used to determine the relative influence of genetic and environmental factors on 4 measures of memory (word recall, immediate and delayed text recall, and figure memory), suggested that 55% of the variance in memory performance could be attributed to genetic factors. Bivariate analysis was used to determine the specific variables that mediate the genetic and environmental influences on memory. Results suggested that the relationship between memory and cognitive variables was genetic in nature, whereas the nature of the relationship between memory and lifestyle variables was environmental. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

WEDS: a Web services-based environment for distributed simulation

Web services have the potential to radically enhance the ability of researchers to make use of distributed computing resources, but jargon and a plethora of standards make their use almost impossible for the scientist without prior experience of the necessary technologies. A powerful and simple WSRF-based middleware scheme is presented, designed to let scientists remotely deploy single or multiple instances of a pre-existing code across multiple resources, and giving steering, visualization and workflow functionality with only simple modifications to program code. It is hoped that the development and implementation of such a toolkit will be relevant not only to the problem of deploying workstation-class codes in real time, but also the move towards more tractable alternatives to the Globus toolkit for deployment of processes in a high-performance computing environment.