Body-image aberration in schizophrenia.

A 28-item true–false scale was constructed to measure schizophrenic body-image aberration. The scale was standardized on both 631 male and 718 female college students and 100 male noncollege normal controls (mean age 31.7 yrs). The 74 male schizophrenic Ss reported more body-image aberration than normal nonstudent Ss, but only a portion of the schizophrenics were deviant. 20 male nonpsychotic clinic clients did not have heightened scores. Correlational findings indicate that schizophrenic body-image aberration is an aspect of a broader perceptual aberration. Scores on body-image aberration were negatively correlated with time since first hospitalization. The Body-Image Aberration Scale had essentially no correlation with the Physical Anhedonia Scale (L. J. Chapman, J. P. Chapman, and M. L. Raulin) for schizophrenics. For nonschizophrenics, however, high scores on the 2 scales accompanied one another significantly less often than expected by chance. It is suggested that the 2 scales may identify alternative manifestations of proneness toward the same schizophrenia. (42 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The application of electrochemical methods to the study of the electroless nickel deposition from hypophosphite solutions

The rotating disk electrode has been used for the study of the electroless nickel plating from an acid bath strongly buffered by acetate. The variations of the mixed potential with the temperature have been investigated, and explained by means of polarization curves. These latter present an anodic peak which is typical of the electroless nickel deposition. The polarization resistance measurements allow a direct determination of the plating rate. All these experiments, related to mechanical measurements of plating rate, show the important inhibitor effect of the dissolved oxygen on the deposition reaction. The preliminary study of the faradaic impedance of the metal-electrolyte interface shows that the deposit occurs with not less than two heterogeneous steps, involving an adsorbed intermediate species, which could be NiOH_ads.     

The pulsed dye laser--possibilities and limits

The pulsed dye laser (wavelength 585 nm, pulse duration 0.3-0.45 ms) is very effective in the treatment of port-wine stains, beginning hemangiomas, telangiectasias, spider nevi, xanthelasma and red hypertrophic scarring. It is the laser of choice in the therapy of young patients with port-wine stains. The pulsed dye laser is limited by its relatively superficial penetration into the skin with a maximum of 1.5 mm.     

Current status of laser therapy in dermatology]

Indications for dermatological laser therapy have been enlarged during the last few years. In this article the physics and biophysics of laser therapy and the common laser systems in dermatology are described. Modern pulsed laser systems are combined with little side effects. Nevertheless, successfully used alternative methods should not be neglected.     

A 60 Channel PCM-ADPCM Converter

Coding techniques based on adaptive linear prediction and quantization are well suited to signals carried by telephone channels and can provide, with a per channel rate of 32 kbits/s, a level of quality compatible with the specifications of the conventional 64 kbit/s rate. The ADPCM technique described in this paper features a simple adaptive quantization scheme and a tenth-order linear prediction adaptive filter realized as a cascade of five second-order sections. Besides superior performance characteristics, the nonaccumulation of degradations in tandem connections is achieved. The implementation is a 60 channel PCM-ADPCM converter, called TMN 162. It is a fully digital equipment which offers a doubling of the capacity of digital links in telephone networks.     

Treatment possibilities with a high-energy pulsed light source (PhotoDerm VL)

By varying the light spectrum, impulse length, impulse sequences and fluences, the PhotoDerm VL allows a large choice of individual treatment parameters. Superficial as well as deeper localized vascular malformations (essential telangiectases, port-wine stains, Poikiloderma of Civatte, hemangiomatous malformations) and cosmetically bothering hypertrichosis can be treated successfully with this high intensity polychromatic pulsed light source.     

Perceptual organization and schizotypy.

The preattentive visual information processing of hypothetically psychosis-prone college Ss was evaluated using 3 different paradigms: target detection (n?=?57), visual suffix effect (n?=?57), and configural superiority effect (n?=?68). It was hypothesized that anhedonic Ss would show the same perceptual organization deficits reported in process schizophrenics and that perceptual aberration-magical ideation Ss and depressed Ss would perform similarly to control Ss. In each study, anhedonics performed similarly to each comparison group, even though there was adequate power to detect performance differences if they existed. A framework for understanding the visual information-processing deficits of schizophrenics and high-risk Ss is proposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schizophrenic recall and contextual constraint.

Compared the effects of contextual constraint and list length on short-term recall of word lists by 24 chronic schizophrenics (aged 23-62 yrs) and 120 normal males (prison inmates and firemen). One subtest consisting of relatively short lists of low constraint and 1 subtest consisting of longer lists of high constraint were matched on mean, variance, and shape of the distribution of item difficulties, variance of subtest scores, shape of the distribution of subtest scores, and subtest reliability. These psychometrically matched subtests were used to compute a difference score of accuracy on low-constraint lists minus accuracy on high-constraint lists. On this difference score, schizophrenics scored lower than normals with the same total accuracy scores. The direction of this difference was opposite to that found in 4 previous studies of the effects of contextual constraint on recall by schizophrenics. It is concluded that the findings of the previous studies are probably artifacts of the use of unmatched tasks and that schizophrenic deficit in recall is not increased more by an increase in contextual constraint than by a shortening of word lists. In fact, the data suggest that precisely the opposite may be true. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)