Defensiveness, trait anxiety, and Epstein-Barr viral capsid antigen antibody titers in healthy college students.

Investigated the relationship of individual differences in repressive coping styles with differences in antibody titer to Epstein-Barr (EB) viral capsid antigen in a normal, healthy college population made up of people previously exposed to EB. Each of 54 1st-yr undergraduates completed a battery of physical-status questions and items pertaining to potential behavioral immunomodulatory confounds, along with the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Ss reporting high and middle levels of anxiety had higher antibody titers to EB, suggesting poorer immune control over the latent virus, as compared with the low-anxious group. Similarly, high-defensive Ss had higher antibody titers than their low-defensive counterparts, and neither group differed from the middle group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Solid modeling of 4-axis wire EDM cut geometry

NC verification has been widely used in milling and turning machining, but the implementation of NC verification for wire electrical discharge machine (wire EDM) has received little attention, made difficult by the characteristics of geometry cut by the thin wire. For an NC verification system, the speed and the accuracy of are two of the most critical issues. In this paper, a novel solid modeling method, which utilizes a dual quadtree structure and a boundary representation, is applied to modeling the parts cut by a wire EDM. In this implementation, two extended quadtrees on the top and bottom surfaces of the stock are first created. Special quadtree nodes are introduced into the dual quadtree structure to model the features associated with the almost coincident surfaces left by a thin wire. The region swept by a wire in each move is generated based on the diameter of the wire, spark gap size and the paths. The overall geometry of the part is represented by a boundary representation which is updated by means of efficient Boolean operations of extended quadtrees. The free-falling objects which may damage the machine tool can be detected. Dimensional inspection and feature detection can be made with the solid model representing the machined part. The system has demonstrated very promising speed and accuracy.     

A novel human myo-inositol monophosphatase gene, IMP.18p, maps to a susceptibility region for bipolar disorder

Cerebral intraparenchymal cysts without communication with the ventricles are very rare. We report four such cases with no relevant past history or evidence of infection, haemorrhage, trauma, tumour or congenital neural tube defect. At operation smooth wailed cysts with an ependymal-type lining were found. To the best of our knowledge, we present the first correlation of their pathological and radiological features (including magnetic resonance imaging). We also review the literature on these cysts.     

Chronic stress, social support, and persistent alterations in the natural killer cell response to cytokines in older adults

To address the long-term physiological consequences of chronic stressors, 14 continuing or current family caregivers of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients, 17 former AD caregivers, and 31 control subjects were compared. Continuing and former caregivers did not differ on depressive symptomatology or perceived stress; both groups were significantly more depressed and stressed than controls. Furthermore, continuing and former caregivers did not differ in the response of NK cells in vitro to recombinant interferon-gamma and recombinant interleukin-2, and both groups had a significantly poorer response to these cytokines than controls. The physiological and psychological consequences of chronic stressors may persist well beyond the cessation of the actual stressor.     

Emotional disclosure through writing or speaking modulates latent Epstein-Barr virus antibody titers.

57 healthy Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) seropositive undergraduates completed a personality inventory, provided blood samples, and were randomly assigned to write or talk about stressful events, or to write about trivial events, during 3 weekly 20-min sessions, after which they provided a final blood sample. Ss assigned to the verbal/stressful condition had significantly lower EBV antibody titers (suggesting better cellular immune control over the latent virus) after the intervention than those in the written/stressful group, who had significantly lower values than those in the written/trivial control group. Ss assigned to the written/stressful condition expressed more negative emotional words than the verbal/stressful and control groups and more positive emotional words than the verbal/stressful group at each time point. The verbal/stressful group expressed more negative emotional words compared with the control group at baseline. Content analysis indicated that the verbal/stressful group achieved the greatest improvements in cognitive change, self-esteem, and adaptive coping strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Empirical foundations for writing in prevention and psychotherapy: mental and physical health outcomes

The use of writing, alone or in conjunction with traditional psychotherapy, has increased substantially in recent years. The most widespread use of writing has been for single-shot ad hoc purposes or to log behavior. The purpose of this review is to summarize a decade of research demonstrating the efficacy of writing about past traumatic experiences on mental and physical health outcomes. It is widely acknowledged in our culture that putting upsetting experiences into words can be healthy. Research from several domains indicates that talking with friends, confiding to a therapist, praying, and even writing about one's thoughts and feelings can be physically and mentally beneficial. This review highlights advances in written disclosure that determine some therapeutic outcomes. In addition, we attempt to explore the mechanisms that predict improved psychological and physical health. Finally, limitations of previous studies are highlighted, and suggestions for future research and application are made.     

Equivalence of macroscopic and microscopic Griffith conditions for subcritical crack growth

Certain exact relations are obtained for a simple bond-snapping model of fracture. These analytical results and some further numerical results for a non-linear model of fracture are in accord with the analysis of Fuller and Thomson and of Rice: The Griffith stress intensity is to be identified with the quiescent stress intensity.

---

Résumé On a obtenu certaines relations exactes pour une modèle de rupture relatif à une simple brisure de liaison. Ces résultats analytiques et des résultats numériques ultérieurs relatifs à un modèle de rupture non linéaire sont en accord avec l'analyse de Fuller et Thomson et celle de Rice. L'intensité de contrainte de Griffith doit être identifiée à l'intensité de la contrainte pour laquelle l'énergie afférent à la propagation de la fissure est égale à son énergie de cicatrisation.

---

---

Supported by NASA Langley Research Center Grant NSG 1155 and USAF Grant AFOSR-77-3114.     

Computer simulation of solid solution strengthening in Fcc alloys: Part I. Friedel and mott limits

It has been assumed for a number of years that dilute solid solutions obey a Friedel limit;i.e., the concentration dependence of the yield stress varies as 1/2 power (c ^1/2), whereas in more concentrated solid solutions, the Mott limit is upheld with a predicted concentration dependence ofc ^2/3. These two limits were examined both analytically and numerically. As expected, the Friedel limit can be reproduced without any difficulty. However, in the Mott limit, a detailed analytical treatment of the concentrated solution case resulted in a concentration dependence of the yield stress asc ^1/2. The numerical data are in agreement with this analytical result in the Mott limit. Earlier work which predicted a,c ^2/3 dependence is analyzed, and certain key assumptions are shown to be invalid.     

Stress-induced alteration of T-lymphocyte subsets and humoral immunity in mice.

Effects of acute rotational stress on the tissue distribution of lymphocyte subpopulations, and the capacity to mount a humoral immune response were examined in normal and adrenalectomized mice. The splenic lymphocyte population showed a significant alteration in its content of T lymphocytes in normal, but not adrenalectomized animals subjected to rotational stress. Thus adrenal steroids may influence lymphocyte subpopulations in animals responding to stress. Humoral immune responsiveness of splenic lymphocytes was assessed by a direct lymphocyte plaque forming cell assay following immunization with sheep erythrocytes. The peak number of lymphocytes forming antibody to sheep erythrocytes found in spleens of animals subjected to stress begun 24 hours after antigen inoculation was 50% of the number observed in animals immunized and stressed simultaneously (p?