Helplessness and resourcefulness in coping with epilepsy.

Examined the hypothesis that emotional sequelae of epilepsy are a joint function of the epilepsy severity level and Ss' perceived repertoire of self-control skills (i.e., their learned resourcefulness). 50 19–50 yr old epileptic patients were divided into 3 groups according to the occurrence frequency of generalized tonic-clonic seizures: high, medium, and low frequencies. Ss were further divided into high-resourceful (HR) and low-resourceful (LR) groups according to their scores on the Self-Control Schedule. Ss were administered a battery of tests that included the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and Beck Depression Inventory. In a structured interview Ss' emotional adjustment level was evaluated as well as their beliefs in their ability to control their health and seizures. In the medium and low categories of seizure frequency, HR Ss were significantly less depressed and anxious and coped better with their disability than LR Ss. However, in the high-frequency range of seizures, HR and LR Ss equally showed low levels of emotional adjustment. Regardless of the severity level of the epilepsy, HR Ss maintained a stronger belief in their control over their health and their seizures. Seizure frequency had no effect on these beliefs. Data support the notion that individual differences in learned resourcefulness influence the coping level of epileptics, in particular in the less severe cases of epilepsy. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Improved tert-butyldimethylsilylation gas chromatographic/mass spectrometric detection of nerve gas hydrolysis products from soils by pretreatment of aqueous alkaline extraction and strong anion-exchange solid-phase extraction

In the analysis of tert-butyldimethylsilyl derivatives (IBDMS) of alkyl methylphosphonic acids (RMPA) and methylphosphonic acid (MPA), from soils by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), the detection yields are generally low, due to the suppression of TBDMS derivatization by the soil matrix components and the adsorption of RMPA and MPA to the soils. An ion-exchange pretreatment of the aqueous soil extract can be used to overcome the former factor by removing interfering compounds. A pretreatment method is described for improving the detection yields due to the latter factor, using an alkaline extraction procedure. The recovery was estimated quantitatively using capillary electrophoresis. The soil samples tested included volcanogenous immature soils and showed a low aqueous extraction recovery and GC/MS detection yields. The inclusion of sodium hydroxide in the extraction solvent dramatically increased the recovery. Using a 0.1 M sodium hydroxide solution, the recovery was in excess of 68%. Interfering components were removed from the alkaline soil extract by solid-phase extraction of the acids on a silica-based strong anion exchanger. The alkaline soil extract was neutralized with hydrofluoric acid and applied to the cartridge in the fluoride form. After washing with water, MPA and RMPA could be eluted with methanolic ammonia nearly quantitatively. Using the established pretreatment method, MPA and RMPA were detected from all the soil samples in more than 67% yield.