Life task appraisals, spouse involvement in strategies, and daily affect among short- and long-term married couples.

The purpose of this study was to examine predictors and consequences of spouses' involvement in each others' strategies for pursuing important personal goals called life tasks. Husbands and wives within 39 short- and long-term marriages described five life tasks and provided appraisals of whether each was shared with their spouse. Participants later completed 14 consecutive diary entries recording daily life task pursuit strategies, the extent of spouse involvement in each, and measures of positive and negative affect. Results indicated that interdependence in life task appraisals prospectively predicted greater spouse involvement, and greater spouse involvement was associated with more positive affect for that day. Life task appraisals may provide avenues for understanding couples' strategies for dealing with goals or stressors and how those strategies affect mood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Analysis of the human immune response to vaccinia by use of a novel protein microarray suggests that antibodies recognize less than 10% of the total viral proteome

Control of smallpox by mass vaccination was one of the most effective public health measures ever employed for eradicating a devastating infectious disease. However, new methods are needed for monitoring smallpox immunity within current vulnerable populations, and for the development of replacement vaccines for use by immunocompromized or low-responding individuals. As a measure for achieving this goal, we developed a protein microarray of the vaccinia virus proteome by using high-throughput baculovirus expression and purification of individual elements. The array was validated with therapeutic-grade, human hyperimmune sera, and these data were compared to results obtained from individuals vaccinated against smallpox using Dryvax. A high level of reproducibility with a very low background were apparent in repetitive assays that confirmed previously reported antigens and identified new proteins that may be important for neutralizing viral infection. Our results suggest that proteins recognized by antibodies from all vaccinees constituted <10% of the total vaccinia proteome.     

Visual search and target-directed action.

There have been many investigations of people's ability to search for and detect the presence of identity-defined targets in cluttered visual scenes. Such identity search tasks do not adequately represent those situations in which directed actions must be made to targets. Vision for identification and vision for action are processed in parallel, so action processing of all potential target stimuli proceeds until identification processes distinguish the target. Resulting visuomotor competition from distractors can have measurable behavioral effects on the performance of target-directed actions. Such effects are reported here for a task in which human participants reached for red targets in the presence of yellow distractors. The experiments were designed to show that increases in reaching response time could be attributed to visuomotor processing of distractors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Consequences of large customer opt-out: An Ohio example

Opt-out policies allow large customers to withdraw from participation in utility sector efficiency programs. Our analysis shows these policies impose high costs, including increased utility system investments due to higher demand, increased air pollution within the state and surrounding regions, higher health costs because of the increased air pollution, and lost bill savings opportunities for large customers, leading to lost economic growth. We examine the consequences using Ohio as an example.     

The times, they are a changing: A review of Raising children in a socially toxic environment.

Reviews the book, Raising children in a socially toxic environment by J. Gabarino (1995). In this book, Garbarino sets out to offer his views on what childhood ought to be, how children map their own worlds (thus define, themselves), what their basic needs are, the levels in which those needs are being met, as well as offer suggestions for ways in which readers can change the "toxic environment" to aid in the healthy development of children and youth. The book is challenging to read because it is true. Although the pages are not replete with "hard data," they are filled with factual accounts that paint a discouraging, in fact depressing picture of the life of children in our communities. The book is powerful because, if successful, we are forced to accept the fact that this is American society today. There is no question that the issues articulated by Garbarino in this book, such as teenage homicide, gang warfare, domestic violence, and child abuse, are real. The influences of Urie Bronfenbrenner (1977) and ecological systems theory provide the conceptual framework for this book. Accordingly, development is the result of complex interactions among child and family systems and the social environment in which they function. Related to the ecological orientation is the notion that "it takes a village" to effect change. In other words, there is an implicit message that successful, healthy childrearing is the shared responsibility of individuals, groups, communities, external forces, and broad-based sanctions and regulations. As such, readers who take this book seriously will be forced to look at it not only as a professional resource with "good information," but as a call to accept a role for working within their individual and community contexts to influence change. Although the book falls short in providing concrete directives for change, it sends a strong message that we are all responsible, and a more subtle message that change is possible. If each and every reader could make one or two changes in their own behaviors and priorities as an outcome of reading this book, it will have served an invaluable service. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Phenothiazinium photosensitisers,Part VI: Photobactericidal asymmetric derivatives

The synthesis of derivatives of Methylene Blue (C.I. Basic Blue 9) has generally employed symmetrical and non-symmetrical dialkylamine functionality in the auxochromic C-3 and C-7 positions of the chromophore. In the present work asymmetric derivatives were synthesised having dialkylamino groups at position 3 and either arylamino or aralkylamino groups at position 7, of the phenothiazinium ring. Physicochemical testing of the derivatives showed that the λ_max and ?_max values of the asymmetrical derivatives having arylamine substitution were very close to those of the symmetrical bis(dialkylamino) analogues but that the singlet oxygen yields were minimal, in line with previously published work concerning symmetrical bis(arylamino) derivatives. Synthesised asymmetric analogues having benzylamino or cyclohexylamino, rather than arylamino-substitution exhibited restored singlet oxygen generation. As expected, in screening tests against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, the aralkylamino and cyclohexylamino derivatives were highly active on illumination, presumably via singlet oxygen damage. However, the asymmetric arylamino derivatives were similarly photobactericidal, possibly due to molecular rigidification of these derivatives in the cellular milieu. Considerably increased activity was observed in each class relative to that of the standard methylene blue. In addition, the more lipophilic derivatives exhibited greater activity against Escherichia coli. This may be due to increased interaction with the lipid-rich outer membrane of this Gram-negative organism.     

Visuomotor processing in unilateral neglect

The extent to which visual information on the contralateral, unattended side influences the performance of patients with hemispatial neglect was studied in a visuomotor reaching task. We replicated the well-established finding that, relative to target-alone trials, normal subjects are slower to reach to targets in the presence of visual distractors which appear either ipsilateral or contralateral to the target, with greater interference in the former condition. Six patients with hemispatial neglect showed even greater interference than did the normal subjects when the distractor appeared ipsilaterally but showed no significant interference from contralateral distractors. This pattern of performance was qualitatively similar for patients with lesions restricted to posterior regions and for patients with more extensive lesions involving both posterior and anterior brain regions. These findings suggest that, in the visuomotor domain, information on the contralateral side is processed minimally, if at all, in patients with hemispatial neglect.