Failed empathy--a central theme in the survivor's holocaust experience.

In this article, we concern ourselves with massive traumatic events deliberately inflicted on individuals by fellow human beings. Specifically, we focus on the Holocaust and the fact that massive failure of the environment to mediate needs, as in genocide, will throw into question the existence of empathy, human communication, and ultimately ones own humanity, to which any mirroring ceases to exist. Such a life experience will represent, to the survivor of trauma, failure of a responsive empathic agent or function. Because it is precisely representations of need-satisfying interactions that provide the basis for links between personal existence and social connectedness, undermining the individual's representation of the need-mediating context will deconstruct the link between self and other. Destruction of the victim's representational matrix of interpersonal relatedness results in a vulnerability and loneliness in his or her internal world representation which is the sine qua non of man-made trauma. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effectiveness of cationically modified cellulose polymers for dewatering algae

A method to flocculate algal cultures of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii using four different industrially produced polymers is presented. Starting with a 1 wt% stock polymer solution, flocculation times less than 60 min were observed for 0.1 to 0.6 g polymer per L of algae culture, while control samples took greater than 1400 min to flocculate. Cell counts showed that 99% of the cells were flocculated using the polymers compared to 73% for the control. Finally, the flocculation process was successful at both 5 and 40 mL batch sizes for one polymer; therefore, the method is efficient, effective and may be scalable.     

Improving parenting in families referred for child maltreatment: A randomized controlled trial examining effects of Project Support.

Project Support is an intervention designed to decrease coercive patterns of aggressive discipline and increase positive parenting. This research evaluates Project Support in a sample of families reported to Children's Protective Services (CPS) for allegations of physical abuse or neglect; 35 families with a child between 3- and 8-years-old participated. In all families, CPS allowed the children to remain in the family home while the family received services. Families were randomly assigned to receive either Project Support or services as usual, which were provided by CPS or CPS-contracted service providers. To evaluate intervention effects, a multimethod, multi-informant assessment strategy was used that included data from mothers' reports, direct observation of parents' behavior, and review of CPS records for re-referrals for child maltreatment. Families who received Project Support services showed greater decreases than families who received services as usual in the following areas: mothers' perceived inability to manage childrearing responsibilities, mothers' reports of harsh parenting, and observations of ineffective parenting practices. Only 5.9% of families in the Project Support condition had a subsequent referral to CPS for child maltreatment, compared with 27.7% of families in the comparison condition. The results suggest that Project Support may be a promising intervention for reducing child maltreatment among families in which it has occurred. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Microdevices for Biological Analyses Recent Advances and Directions for the Future

Biological sampling is important for drug discovery applications and for the basic biochemical and neurochemical discovery process. Several issues arise when sampling from biological environments. First, important biology can occur in small volumes (nL-pL) and at low concentrations (μM-nM). In order to access this information, the important biochemicals must be detectable and the time of specific biochemical events must be recorded. This means that a sampling and analysis method should be selective for the analyte(s) of interest, without loss or dilution, for efficient analysis. Tremendous accomplishments in biological sampling and analysis have been made, both for sampling and microfluidic manipulation. This article focuses on advances in controlling small volumes of biological samples and the analysis of specific analytes in those samples.     

Functionalized Porous Aromatic Frameworks as High‐Performance Adsorbents for the Rapid Removal of Boric Acid from Water

This study demonstrates that functionalized, highly porous polymers are promising for the adsorptive capture of boric acid, a neutral contaminant that is difficult to remove from seawater using conventional reverse osmosis membranes. Appending N‐methyl‐d‐glucamine (NMDG) to the pore walls of high‐surface‐area porous aromatic frameworks (PAFs) yields the adsorbents PAF‐1‐NMDG and P2‐NMDG in a simple two‐step synthesis. The boron‐selective PAFs demonstrate adsorption capacities that are up to 70% higher than those of a commercial boron‐selective resin, Amberlite IRA743, and markedly faster adsorption rates, owing to their higher NMDG loadings and greater porosities relative to the resin. Remarkably, PAF‐1‐NMDG is able to reduce the boron concentration in synthetic seawater from 2.91 to <0.5 ppm in less than 3 min at an adsorbent loading of only 0.3 mg mL^?1. The boron adsorption rate constants of both frameworks, determined via a pseudo‐second‐order rate model, represent the highest values reported in the literature—in most cases orders of magnitude higher than those of other boron‐selective adsorbents. The frameworks can also be readily regenerated via mild acid/base treatment and maintain constant boron adsorption capacities for at least 10 regeneration cycles. These results highlight the numerous advantages of PAFs over traditional porous polymers in water treatment applications.     

Psychotherapy with Holocaust survivors.

Examines the specific tasks and goals of psychotherapy in treating survivors of massive psychic trauma, emphasizing the re-emergence of the internal representation of the relationship between self and other. Establishment of an empathic dyad between patient and therapist and reconstruction of external memory must occur before the therapist can successfully assume a more traditional interpretive role. Clinical examples illustrate the implications of therapeutic work with survivors and with children of survivors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpretation of significance levels and effect sizes by psychological researchers.

85 psychologists completed questionnaires asking them to interpret p levels of research findings. A mixed-model analysis of variance (ANOVA) and planned contrasts were employed to analyze the data. Factors included the between-Ss factors of topic importance (2 levels) and respondent experience (3 levels), and the within-Ss factors of significance level (20 levels), effect size (4 levels), and size or replicational nature of the study (3 levels). The largest effect was due to significance level, and there was a general increase in confidence as effect size increased. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Imitation in the interest of social influence.

Tested the possibility that imitation may be used as a means of social influence among 40 5th- and 6th-grade boys and girls. One member of each pair served as the model and the other as the S. Ss who were given an induction designed to motivate them to influence the model imitated the model significantly more than Ss who received no induction. Looking and smiling at the model was positively correlated with imitation for the social influence Ss, but not for the control Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)