Protecting the integrity of the legal system: The admissibility of testimony from mental health experts under Daubert/Kumho analyses.

The authors discussed to what degree testimony from social science and mental health experts (psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, therapists, others) meets admissibility requirements expressed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Daubert (1993), Joiner ( General Electric Co. v. Joiner , 1997) and the recent Kumho (1999) decision. They reviewed data on Daubert/Kumho indicia of reliability using 2 exemplar areas of mental health testimony: psychodiagnostic assessment by means of the Rorschach and other "projective" assessment techniques and the diagnoses of posttraumatic stress disorder and multiple personality disorder (dissociative identity disorder). They concluded that some testimony offered by mental health professionals relating to these concepts should not survive scrutiny under the framework of Daubert , Joiner , and Kumho . (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's and adults' recognition of spontaneous and posed emotional expressions in young children.

Investigated the degree to which 4–5 yr olds (n?=?48) can enact expressions of emotion recognizable by peers and adults; the study also examined whether accuracy of recognition was a function of age and whether the expression was posed or spontaneous. Adults (n?=?103) were much more accurate than children in recognizing neutral states, slightly more accurate in recognizing happiness and anger, and equally accurate in recognizing sadness. Children's spontaneous displays of happiness were more recognizable than posed displays, but for other emotions there was no difference between the recognizability of posed and spontaneous expressions. Children were highly accurate in identifying the facial expressions of happiness, sadness, and anger displayed by their peers. Sex and ethnicity of the child whose emotion was displayed interacted to influence only adults' recognizability of anger. Results are discussed in terms of the social learning and cognitive developmental factors influencing (a) adults' and children's decoding (recognition) of emotional expressions in young children and (b) encoding (posing) of emotional expressions by young children. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alterations in the expression of P2X1 receptors in failing and nondiseased human atria

This is the first report of the analysis of the ATP-specific P2X1 receptor subunit in human hearts. We have examined homogenate samples of human left atria for the presence of P2X1 receptors using Western blots. Anti-P2X1 immunoreactivity was detected in populations of nondiseased atria as well as in atria from explanted hearts from patients with terminally failing heart conditions such as dilated cardiomyopathy. At least three groups of P2X1 immunoreactive proteins were detected in the Western blots with approximate molecular mass values of 50, 70, and 160 kDa. We report changes in expression of their 50 and 70 kDa components. These changes may be related to the type of deficit in these hearts since the changes have been observed in hearts with decreased ejection fractions characteristic of dilated cardiomyopathy.     

Evaluation of low density spine software for the assessment of bone mineral density in children

Pediatric dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry spine scans often cannot be analyzed with standard software due to a failure to identify the bone edges of low density vertebrae. Low density spine (LDS) software improves bone detection compared with standard software. The objective of this study was to compare bone mineral density (BMD) measurements obtained with the standard and LDS software in 27 healthy nonobese, 32 obese, and 41 chronically ill children, ages 2-18 years. Lumbar spine (L1-L4) BMD, measured by standard analysis, ranged from 0.531-1.244 gm/cm2. Reanalysis with the LDS software resulted in a systematic increase (mean +/- SD) in estimated bone area of 17.0+/-5.0%, an increase in bone mineral content of 6.1+/-6.3%, and a mean decrease in BMD of 8.7+/-1.7% (all p < 0.001). This resulted in a mean decrease in BMD Z score of 0.7+/-0.2. Linear regression models, predicting standard BMD from LDS BMD, were fit for the three subject groups (R2 = 0.993-0.995). Small differences in slopes were detected across groups (p = 0.07); LDS BMD predicted higher standard BMD in obese subjects. In conclusion, LDS analysis resulted in a clinically significant decrease in measured BMD. The association between analysis methods was exceptionally high (R2 > 0.99), indicating that LDS BMD accurately predicts standard BMD. Although LDS BMD in obese subjects predicts higher standard BMD results than in nonobese subjects, the small difference is of questionable clinical significance. LDS software is a useful tool for the assessment of BMD in children.     

Happiness versus sadness as a determinant of thought confidence in persuasion: A self-validation analysis.

The present research introduces a new mechanism by which emotion can affect evaluation. On the basis of the self-validation hypothesis (R. E. Petty, P. Bri?ol, & Z. L. Tormala, see record 2002-12575-003), the authors predicted and found that emotion can influence evaluative judgments by affecting the confidence people have in their thoughts to a persuasive message. In each study, participants first read a strong or weak persuasive communication. After listing their thoughts about the message, participants were induced to feel happy or sad. Relative to sad participants, those put in a happy state reported more thought confidence. As a consequence, the effect of argument quality on attitudes was greater for happy than for sad participants. These self-validation effects generalized across different emotion inductions, different persuasion topics, and different measures of thought confidence. In one study, happy and sad conditions each differed from a neutral affect control. Most important, these metacognitive effects of emotion only occurred under high elaboration conditions. In contrast, individuals with relatively low motivation to think showed a main effect of emotion on attitudes, regardless of argument quality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

应用远程网络油藏模拟技术动态管理油藏

以低价高效的方式充分地开发油田,作业人员必须正确了解油藏,还应了解如何根据油田实际情况而制定不同的钻井规划,从而采取相应的措施.由于油藏衰竭严重,经过一段时间开采后,油藏和油井性能常常会有很大改变,所以只有制定最好的油田开发规划,并对其进行定期完善,才能获得长期的最佳效果.最好的方法是使用计算机模拟方式,这种模拟方式可不断更新,以确保当前观察的数据能实时反映观察到的油藏条件.在整个开发过程中以这种方式监测油井和油藏性能,可用最短的时间、最低的成本显著地提高油藏的泄油能力,使油藏达到最大的开采率.     

Affective states, expressive behavior, and learning in children.

Two experiments with 48 4-yr-olds each are reported to illustrate the effects of emotional states on learning and validate experimental affect-induction procedures in which individuals dwell upon thoughts of affect-provoking experiences. Positive affective states enhanced learning, and negative states retarded it dramatically. Ratings of children's facial expressions confirmed that positive affect-induction procedures elicited happy expressions, and negative inductions elicited sad ones. Additionally, positive affect inductions enhanced children's apparent interest, involvement, and arousal, and negative inductions decreased them. These measures were related to learning but proved not to be the sole mediators of the impact of affective states on learning. The thoughts children generated for affect induction illustrated their recognition of naturalistic experiences that induce affective states. Results indicate that young children possess the potential for the cognitive self-control of their own affective states, and the effects on learning indicate that even transient mood states may produce lasting changes in behavior. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

AN INVESTIGATION OF TWO HOMOLOGOUS SERIES OF CARBOXYLIC ACIDS IN BLACK TRONA WATER FROM THE GREEN RIVER BASIN

Two series of carboxylic acids were Identified in the dialysate from a sample of Black Trona Water from the Green River Basin of Wyoming. One of the series consists of straight-chain dicarboxylic acids ranging in carbon number from four to fourteen. This series had been observed by previous workers. The other series, much less abundant than the dicarboxylic scids, appears to be a series of homologous tricarboxylic acids that are derivatives of succinic acids. The structures of these compounds were determined by analysis of the mass spectra of their methyl esters and trideuteromethyl esters. Definitive biological precursors of this unusual class of compounds could not be assigned     

Echium oil is better than rapeseed oil in improving the response of barramundi to a disease challenge

Pathogen infection stimulates the fatty acid (FA) metabolism and the production of pro-inflammatory derivatives of FA. Barramundi, Lates calcarifer, was fed on a diet rich in preformed long-chain (?C₂₀) polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA) from fish oil (FO), to compare with diets containing high levels of C₁₈ precursors for LC-PUFA – stearidonic (SDA) and γ-linolenic acid (GLA) – from Echium plantagineum (EO), or rapeseed oil (RO) rich in α-linolenic acid (ALA), but a poor source of LC-PUFA and their precursors. After 6 weeks, when growth rates were similar amongst the dietary treatments, a sub-lethal dose of Streptococcus iniae was administered to half of the fish, while the other half were maintained unchallenged and were pair-fed with the infected fish. Under a disease challenge situation, the tissue FA depots depleted at 3 days post-infection (DPI) and were then restored to their previous concentrations at 7 DPI. During the infection period, EO fish had a higher content of n3 and n6 PUFA in their tissues, higher n3:n6 PUFA ratio and reduced levels of the eicosanoids, TXB₂ and 6-keto-PGF_1α, in their plasma compared with RO fish. Fish fed on FO and EO had a longer lasting and enduring response in their FA and eicosanoid concentrations, following a week of bacterial infection, compared with those fed on RO. EO, containing SDA and GLA and with a comparatively higher n3:n6 PUFA ratio, proved more effective than RO in compensating for immunity stress.     

FTIR spectroscopy study of PTHrP(1-34) involved in humoral hypercalcaemia of malignancy

The components of secondary structure of the biologically-active N-terminal domain of human parathyroid-hormone-related protein (residues 1-34) and several truncated species were examined using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The major structural features include a segment of alpha-helix within the N-terminal segment probably extending from Glu-4 to Lys-11 with three beta-turns localized to the segments Gly-12 to Ile-15, Gln-16 to Arg-20 and His-25 to Ala-29. Some beta-sheet was detected in the full-length peptide, but not in any of the C-terminal truncated samples. These structural features were studied in the smaller peptides for the purpose of localization of the various components and with a view to describing the region likely to form the bulk of the receptor binding site.