Reciprocal Relationships Between Collective Efficacy and Team Performance in Women's Ice Hockey.

This study examined reciprocal relationships between collective efficacy and team performance over a season of competition in women's intercollegiate ice hockey within weekends where the opponent was constant for 2 games. Collective efficacy beliefs within 12 teams were assessed prior to both games for at least 7 weekends. Team performance indexes produced an overall measure of performance for each game. The average influence of Saturday collective efficacy on Saturday performance was moderate and positive after controlling for Friday performance. The average influence of Friday performance on Saturday collective efficacy was small and positive after removing the influence of Friday collective efficacy from Friday performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of perspective in the accessibility of goals during reading.

An implicit assumption of several causal reasoning models is that readers adopt the goals of a narrative's protagonist during text comprehension. In apparent violation of this assumption, readers participating in Experiment 1 of the present study drew inferences relevant to a protagonist's goal even when that goal was already satisfied from the perspective of the protagonist. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants were explicitly asked to view the text situation from the point of view of the protagonist. In this case, the goals of the reader and the protagonist should be the same. In these experiments, participants focused on the goals of the protagonist only when those goals had not been satisfied from the perspective of the protagonist. These results are discussed in terms of reader- and character-based perspectives and in terms of text characteristics that cue perspective taking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Abnormal behavioral responses to fenfluramine in patients with affective and personality disorders. Correlation with increased serotonergic responsivity

Serotonergic responsivity was assessed in 20 psychiatric patients by the prolactin response to a fenfluramine challenge test. During the fenfluramine challenge 6 of 20 patients (30%) spontaneously reported psychopathologic reactions that included: increased anxiety/agitation, psychotic symptoms, illusions, mood elevation, and anergia. The time of peak behavioral symptoms (2.5 +/- 0.8 hrs) corresponded closely to the time of peak increase in prolactin levels (3.0 +/- 1.1 hr). Abnormal behavioral responders had statistically significant greater increases in prolactin 1 to 4 hr after fenfluramine when compared to normal responders. Patients who developed an abnormal psychopathologic response to fenfluramine were characterized by higher levels of anxiety and agitation at the time of admission to the hospital but otherwise were not distinguishable on the basis of severity of other psychiatric symptoms. This study suggests that increased serotonergic transmission may trigger anxiety, psychosis, and mood elevation in specific vulnerable individuals, whereas other patients with similar psychiatric illnesses are not affected.     

Effect of duodenum-preserving resection of the head of the pancreas on endocrine and exocrine pancreatic function in patients with chronic pancreatitis

Two mobilizable cloning vectors, designated pABW1 and pAWB2, were constructed basing on the E. coli vector pBGS18 and oriT originating from RK2. In pABW2 the kanamycin resistance gene was replaced by a novel tetracycline resistance cassette derived from Tn1721. Both vectors, specific for E. coli, allow to perform the cloning steps in E. coli and then to efficiently transfer the constructs by conjugation to the host of choice. A vector which cannot propagate in the given host can be applied for identification of the host specific plasmid replicator regions. With the use of pABW2 we defined the minimal replicator region of pTAV202-a mini-derivative of the large pTAV1 plasmid of P. versutus. We also proved that RepC' encoded on this fragment is the principal initiator replication protein and that oriV is located along its coding sequence.     

MRI of primary malignant cardiovascular tumors

In 1895 Trendelenburg described his sign to determine the integrity of hip function. We found the sign to be positive in a patient whose hip was clinically and radiologically normal, and therefore investigated this in other patients. We confirmed that a medial shift of the mechanical axis of the leg below the hip may cause a positive Trendelenburg sign. This has not been previously described.     

Behavioral and pharmacologic approaches to smoking cessation

Cigarette smoking continues to be the single, most preventable cause of death and disability in the United States. For individuals who have cancer, continuing to smoke negatively impacts their treatment, survival, and risk for second primary tumors. This review of behavioral and pharmacological approaches to smoking cessation focuses on the recent comprehensive review of cessation interventions by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR), as well as on new developments in the field. An intervention model is outlined that provides oncologists with a brief and easily implemented method of systematically treating patients who smoke. By assessing patient smoking status, advising smoking patients to quit, and proactively assisting their patients in quitting, oncologists can significantly influence patient health and fulfill their professional and ethical responsibility to address this life-threatening behavior.     

Maintaining global coherence during reading.

Previous research demonstrated a contradiction effect: Although text currently being processed was locally coherent, readers were aware of inconsistencies between a protagonist's actions and characteristics of the protagonists that were described earlier in the text and subsequently backgrounded. In the present experiments, not only the critical characteristics but also the protagonist were backgrounded. When the protagonist was reintroduced into the narrative in the context of carrying out an inconsistent action, the contradiction effect again occurred. In Exps 1–3, we examined the effects of several variables on the onset of the effect. In Exp 4, we presented probes at various points in the passage with results that supported the conclusion that the critical characteristics had been backgrounded before the sentence that contradicted them. Results are discussed in terms of several recent models in which currently active representational elements serve as retrieval cues for other inactive, but highly related, elements. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transgenic overproduction of islet amyloid polypeptide (amylin) is not sufficient for islet amyloid formation

Islet amyloid polypeptide forms islet amyloid deposits in non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. We have generated transgenic mice which express human islet amyloid polypeptide in their pancreatic beta cells yet do not develop islet amyloid deposits despite producing levels of the amyloidogenic human peptide 2 - 3 fold higher than the native (mouse) peptide. To determine whether marked overproduction of islet amyloid polypeptide is a potential cause of islet amyloid formation, we increased expression of this transgene by producing homozygous transgenic animals and by making heterozygous mice experimentally insulin resistant with nicotinic acid. Pancreatic content of islet amyloid polypeptide-like immunoreactivity in homozygous and nicotinic acid-treated mice was 2-fold (25 +/- 7 fmol/microg; n = 6) and 3.5-fold (47 +/- 20 fmol/microg; n = 3) higher, respectively, than that of untreated heterozygous animals (13+/-2 fmol/microg; n = 11; both p < 0.05). Despite this marked increase in production of islet amyloid polypeptide, neither group of mice developed gross islet amyloid deposits even after 16 months of age. We conclude that overproduction of islet amyloid polypeptide, even as produced by extreme insulin resistance, is not in itself sufficient for islet amyloid formation.