Polarized Emissivity and Kirchhoff's law

An expression for the polarized emissivity of a material is obtained with the Stokes vector-Mueller matrix polarization formalism. The result obtained is that thermally emitted radiance might have a circular polarization component. In addition, the emissivity depends only on the reflectance matrix.     

Are results of randomized controlled trials useful to psychotherapists?

Two clinicians provided opposite answers to the title question: Persons argued that information from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) is vital to clinicians, and Silberschatz argued that information from RCTs is irrelevant to clinicians. Persons argued that clinicians cannot provide top quality care to their patients without attending to findings of RCTs and that clinicians have an ethical responsibility to inform patients about, recommend, and provide treatments supported by RCTs before informing patients about, recommending, and providing treatments shown to be inferior in RCTs or not evaluated in RCTs. Silberschatz argued that RCTs do not and cannot answer questions that concern practicing clinicians. He advocates alternative research approaches (effectiveness studies, quasi-experimental methods, case-specific research) for studying psychotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Chromosome-specific aneusomy in carcinoma of the breast

Fluorescence in situ hybridization was performed on touch preparations from 55 primary infiltrating ductal carcinomas of the breast to determine numeric chromosome abnormalities. The frequency of aneusomy, measured by both nondisomy and chromosomal gain, was determined for chromosomes X, 4, 6-12, 17, and 18 with the use of chromosome-specific, alpha-satellite DNA probes. The presence of chromosome-specific numeric abnormalities was correlated with established clinicopathological parameters, including tumor size, lymph node involvement, tumor grade, estrogen receptor level, and menopause status. In addition, a case-control study was performed to explore a possible association between chromosome-specific aneusomy and recurrence in lymph-node-negative patients. Although chromosomes 8 and 6 were most frequently aneusomic, numeric abnormalities of chromosomes 4 and 11 were most strongly associated with established prognostic factors. For chromosomes 4 and 11, strong associations were found with tumor involvement of lymph nodes and increased tumor size, along with a weaker association with tumor grade. In addition, numeric abnormalities of the following chromosomes were associated with the corresponding prognostic factors: chromosomes X, 7, and 12 with lymph node status; chromosomes 10, 17, and 6 with tumor size; and chromosomes 7, 12, 17, and X with tumor grade. No correlations were observed with estrogen receptor level or menopause status. In the case-control study performed on isolated nuclei of paraffin-embedded tissue from lymph node-negative breast cancer patients (19 cases and 19 controls), the gain of chromosome 4 was correlated with disease progression. These findings suggest that chromosome-specific aneusomy is associated with certain established prognostic factors and may be associated with disease progression.     

Strategies for handling treatment failure successfully.

This article addresses the topic of treatment failure in psychotherapy. The authors argue that treatment failure is common, that it is rarely discussed, and that clinicians do not manage it effectively. They elaborate on a well-established hypothesis-testing model of clinical work to provide an algorithm that includes strategies clinicians can use to prevent, identify, overcome, and accept treatment failure. They illustrate the use of the algorithm to guide the initially failing treatment of a hypochondriacal attorney. They conclude with a discussion of obstacles to using the algorithm. The algorithm is largely orientation neutral, but cognitive-behavior therapists are likely to find it most compatible with their theoretical model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Endorsement of dysfunctional beliefs depends on current mood state.

In two studies we tested the hypothesis that endorsement of dysfunctional beliefs depends on current mood state for persons who are vulnerable to depression. The first study showed that reports of dysfunctional beliefs vary with spontaneous diurnal mood fluctuations in 47 depressed psychiatric patients. The effect of mood state was highly significant (p?     

Biases resulting from the use of indexes: An application to attributional style and depression.

The use of arbitrary indexes, including the commonly used equal-weight index, leads to biases in many studies. The appropriate index depends on the research question (dependent variable) and the population, so no single index is correct for all studies. If an incorrect index is used, tests of the relation between the construct measured by the index and a dependent variable are biased. We present three tests for bias and show how an unbiased index can be calculated by using a multiple regression. Using data from a study of attributional style and depression in psychiatric inpatients, we found that the widely used equal-weight indexes of attributional style produce large (up to 112%) biases in the estimated coefficients. Similarly, the use of equal-weight indexes biases the hypothesis tests. Finally, contrary to Wainer's (1976) contention that the inappropriate use of equal-weight indexes does not greatly reduce the explanatory power of the estimating equation, we found that the use of an index lowers the R–2 33%. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Longitudinal study of cognitions, life events, and depression in psychiatric inpatients.

Administered the Beck Depression Inventory, Attributional Style Questionnaire, Social Readjustment Rating Scale and an irrational beliefs inventory to 47 psychiatric inpatients (mean age 32 yrs) when they were admitted to the hospital, to 32 of them when they were discharged, and to 20 of them 7 mo later. The study tested the models of depression of A. T. Beck (1972) and of L. Y. Abramson et al (see record 1979-00305-001) that predict that stressful life events interact with certain types of cognitions (irrational beliefs in Beck's model; attributions in the Abramson et al model) to produce clinical depression. Results of multiple regression analysis show that severity of depression was related to irrational beliefs, attributions, the interaction of Attributions and Life Events, and the interaction of Attributions and Session. There was no relationship between depression and the interaction of Irrational Beliefs and Life Events. The Attributions?×?Session interaction indicated that the relationship between attributions and depression changed over the period studied; the relationship between irrational beliefs and depression was stable over time. Attributions and irrational beliefs changed over the period studied, indicating that they are not stable, unchanging aspects of personality. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Wolf Spiders Show Graded Antipredator Behavior in the Presence of Chemical Cues from Different Sized Predators

The wolf spider, Pardosa milvina, displays effective antipredator behavior (reduced activity) in the presence of silk and excreta cues from adults of another cooccurring wolf spider, Hogna helluo. However, Pardosa and Hogna engage in size-structured intraguild predation, where Pardosa may be either the prey or predator of Hogna. We tested the ability of adult female Pardosa to vary antipredator responses toward kairomones produced by Hogna that vary in size. Hogna were maintained on filter paper for 24 hr. We then presented the paper to adult female Pardosa simultaneously paired with a blank sheet of paper. One treatment had two sheets of blank paper to serve as a control. The Hogna stimulus treatments were as follows (N = 15/treatment): (1) 1 Hogna half the mass of Pardosa; (2) 1 Hogna of equal mass of a Pardosa; (3) 1 adult Hogna, 30 times the mass of Pardosa; and (4) 8 Hogna each 0.25 the mass of Pardosa. Pardosa decreased activity in the presence of kairomones from Hogna of equal or larger size, but showed no change in activity in the presence of a blank control or from a single Hogna smaller than itself. Pardosa showed a reduction in activity in the presence of cues from eight small Hogna. Pardosa avoided substrates with adult Hogna cues, but showed no avoidance response to any other treatment. These results suggest that Pardosa is showing graded antipredator behavior relative to the quantity of predator kairomones present rather than directly discriminating among the different sizes of the predator.     

The advantages of studying psychological phenomena rather than psychiatric diagnoses.

Argues that research efforts to understand the nature of the psychological processes underlying such psychological phenomena as formal thought disorder, delusions, and hallucinations will be more successful if the phenomena themselves are studied directly than if diagnostic categories (DCs) are studied. Six advantages of a symptom approach (SA) over the study of the DC of schizophrenia are discussed. (1) The use of the DC design in a study of thought disorder results in a misclassification of Ss. (2) The SA studies important phenomena that are ignored by the DC design. (3) The SA contributes to the development of psychological theory, particularly the development of coherent, elaborate hypotheses linking clinical phenomena to underlying mechanisms. The SA also (4) permits the isolation of single elements of pathology for study, (5) recognizes the continuity of clinical phenomena and mechanisms with normal phenomena and mechanisms, and (6) contributes to the refinement of systems of diagnostic classification. However, the advantages of the SA are also applicable to the study of other types of psychopathology and other types of underlying mechanisms (e.g., physiological or biochemical mechanisms). (68 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)