Forests, grazing areas, water supplies, and the internship imbalance problem: Redefining the paradigm to implement effective change.

We are frustrated with the internship imbalance. Twenty years ago, those of us involved in academic training programs prepared students in our doctoral programs for the internship application process by meeting with them for an hour and giving them a few pointers. Now, the focus on securing an internship seems to pervade all aspects of doctoral education. We listen to students worry that they don’t have sufficient hours, assessment experience, or diverse practicum placements. As the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) Match approaches, we meet with students more frequently, helping them to prepare their applications and carefully construct their list of internship sites. We devote time helping students to complete the APPIC Application for Psychology Internship (AAPI), prepare for interviews, and rank sites. Those of us who are involved in internship training programs spend extensive hours reviewing hundreds of applications in Phase I and Phase II of the APPIC Match. We respond to applicant concerns, questions, and anxiety. And all of us try to provide support and consolation, as well as some understanding about “what went wrong” to those students who aren’t matched. When we have a moment, we look beyond the students in front of us and worry about the future of our profession. How is it possible that we’ve gotten ourselves into this mess? Hatcher’s (this issue, pp. 126 –140) article (a manifesto, if you will) has the potential to point us in a new direction. Our hope is that each of you, like us, will view Hatcher’s article as the beginning of a paradigm shift in terms of how we characterize this problem and its potential solutions. His innovative and bold view of how the professional training community can work collaboratively to reorganize has the potential to effectively impact the internship imbalance and the quality of the profession as a whole. By likening the internship imbalance to a resource management issue similar to what has been encountered in regard to other resources such as crops and forests, Hatcher provides us with an opportunity to rise above our own positions to draw upon existing, evidence-based approaches to cooperative solutions that can benefit all involved. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A retrospective analysis of shame, dissociation, and adult victimization in survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

The relationship between childhood sexual abuse and victimization in adulthood was studied using a sample of 548 university women, including 56 who reported childhood incidences of incestuous abuse, 98 who reported sexual abuse by a peer or nonfamily member, and 394 who reported no childhood sexual abuse experiences. Possible mediating variables of shame and dissociation were investigated. Chi-square analyses showed that there was a statistically significant association between women who were abused in childhood and adult victimization. Logit regression analyses demonstrated that the odds of revictimization in adulthood were greater for women who were abused in childhood than for those who were not abused. Dissociation was not found to be a predictor of adult victimization, whereas shame was found to be a statistically significant predictor. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychologists' Clinical Evaluations and Attitudes: An Examination of the Influence of Gender and Sexual Orientation.

Becoming aware of factors that may affect differential treatment of clients is necessary for psychologists to practice competently. Scholarly writing and empirical studies have suggested that therapist gender, client gender, and client sexual orientation are 3 such factors. This study examined therapist gender, client gender, and client sexual orientation in relation to psychologists' attitudes and clinical evaluations for clients. Results indicated that female psychologists held more positive attitudes and treatment expectations for clients than did male psychologists and that some psychologists hold inconsistent attitudes toward female clients generally and lesbian, gay, and bisexual clients in particular. Continuing education and consultation are recommended to increase psychologists' awareness of gender and sexual orientation issues and potential influences in treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Succeeding against the odds: An examination of familial influences on the career development of professional African American women.

In spite of racism, African American women have pursued career goals, entered the workplace, and maintained successful careers. This persistence by African American women can be connected theoretically to several phenomena—the most notable being the family experience. The purpose of this study was to describe how 14 African American women in the midpoint of their careers perceived their family's influence on their career development. Consensual qualitative research (C. E. Hill, B. J. Thompson, and E. Nutt-Williams, 1997) was used to analyze the interview responses of these women. The most salient variables related to career development included family emphasis on education, relationships with family members, and family's social and economic resources. Other variables that shaped the career development of this sample included family gender role socialization and values toward work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rapid assay processing by integration of dual-color fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy: high throughput screening for enzyme activity

Dual-color fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy (dual-color FCS) has previously been shown to be a suitable tool not only for binding but also for catalytic rate studies. In this work, its application as a rapid method for high-throughput screening (HTS) and evolutionary biotechnology is described. This application is called RAPID FCS (rapid assay processing by integration of dual-color FCS) and does not depend on the characterization of diffusion parameters that is the prerequisite for conventional fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. Dual-color FCS parameters were optimized to achieve the shortest analysis times. A simulated HTS with homogeneous assays for different restriction endonucleases (EcoRI, BamHI, SspI, and HindIII) achieved precise yes-or-no decisions within analysis times of about 1 s per sample. RAPID FCS combines these short analysis times with the development of fast and flexible assays resulting in sensitive, homogeneous fluorescence-based assays, where a chemical linkage between different fluorophores is either cleaved or formed, or where differently labeled molecules interact by noncovalent binding. In principle, assay volumes can be reduced to submicroliters without decreasing the signal strength, making RAPID FCS an ideal tool for ultra-HTS when combined with nanotechnology. RAPID FCS can accurately probe 10(4) to 10(5) samples per day, and possibly more. In addition, this method has the potential to be an efficient tool for selection strategies in evolutionary biotechnology, where rare and specific binding or catalytic properties have to be screened in large numbers of samples.     

Psychologists' competence to treat lesbian, gay and bisexual clients: State of the field and strategies for improvement.

Recognizing research which suggests that many practicing psychologists enter the field without training or with inadequate training in the knowledge, skills, and awareness needed to treat lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) clients, the authors in this Focus on Ethics provide suggestions for psychologists seeking competence with this population. In the lead article, Lyons fleshes out the contours of competent practice, presents the current state of psychologist competence, and calls for greater levels of competence. Next, Bieschke and Dendy respond by applying the Ethical Acculturation Model to describe the question of competence for those who may come from cultures not condoning of an LGB affirmative stance. Worthington provides hypotheses for the current rates of competence in the field and encourages the use of evidenced-based training and practice to increase competence. Finally, Georgemiller confirms the role of practicing psychologists who are heterosexual allies and identifies resources for gaining competence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bacterial inclusion bodies of Alzheimer's disease β-amyloid peptides can be employed to study native-like aggregation intermediate states

The structures of oligomeric intermediate states in the aggregation process of Alzheimer's disease β-amyloid peptides have been the subject of debate for many years. Bacterial inclusion bodies contain large amounts of small heat shock proteins (sHSPs), which are highly homologous to those found in the plaques of the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients. sHSPs break down amyloid fibril structure in vitro and induce oligomeric assemblies. Prokaryotic protein overexpression thus mimics the conditions encountered in the cell under stress and allows the structures of Aβ aggregation intermediate states to be investigated under native-like conditions, which is not otherwise technically possible. We show that IB40/IB42 fulfil all the requirements to be classified as amyloids: they seed fibril growth, are Congo red positive and show characteristic β-sheet-rich CD spectra. However, IB40 and IB42 are much less stable than fibrils formed in vitro and contain significant amounts of non-β-sheet regions, as seen from FTIR studies. Quantitative analyses of solution-state NMR H/D exchange rates show that the hydrophobic cores involving residues V18-F19-F20 adopt β-sheet conformations, whereas the C termini adopt α-helical coiled-coil structures. In the past, an α-helical intermediate-state structure has been postulated, but could not be verified experimentally. In agreement with the current literature, in which Aβ oligomers are described as the most toxic state of the peptides, we find that IB42 contains SDS-resistant oligomers that are more neurotoxic than Aβ42 fibrils. E. coli inclusion bodies formed by the Alzheimer's disease β-amyloid peptides Aβ40 and Aβ42 thus behave structurally like amyloid aggregation intermediate states and open the possibility of studying amyloids in a native-like, cellular environment.     

Kinetic investigations by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy: the analytical and diagnostic potential of diffusion studies

This review demonstrates the large analytical and diagnostic potential of fluorescence correlation spectroscopy applied to freely diffusing biomolecules in solution. All applications discussed here in detail are based on changes in the diffusion characteristics of fluorescenctly labeled complementary strands of nucleic acids when they associate. However, the principle of the measurement can be extended to many different reactions with characteristic association times between several minutes up to several hours. If the reaction significantly affects the diffusion constants of at least one partner, single-color auto-correlation analysis is sufficient to extract kinetic parameters. If the observed binding process has only a moderate effect on diffusion coefficients, the detection selectivity and sensitivity can be improved by dual-color cross-correlation analysis. Finally, we show that diffusional analysis on the single-molecule level even opens up diagnostic applications, such as the detection of minute amounts of infectious agents like HIV-1 viruses in blood.