Continuous phase quadrature phase shift keyed signaling techniquewith coding

A continuous phase quadrature phase shift keyed (CPQPSK) modulation technique is presented. This method utilizes a conventional QPSK modulator and a phase trajectory converter to approximate M=4, h=1/4 continuous phase signal and allows low cost, low complexity, and high rate (>1 Gbit/s) CPM modem implementation for bandwidth efficient transmission through nonlinear satellite channels. Using a communications analysis computer program it has been found that CPQPSK has 99 percent out-of-band power of 0.8R (MSK has 99 percent out-of-band power of 1.2 R where R is defined as bit rate), continuous phase trajectories, and nearly constant envelope amplitude. Simulation of realistic hardware designs indicate that the CPQPSK will require an Eb/No of 14 dB to achieve a bit error rate (BER) of 10^-6. Forward error correcting techniques using block codes with an overhead of 10 percent indicate that the Eb/No requirements can be reduced to 11.2 dB for 10^-6 BER     

Using focus group interviews to identify salient issues concerning college students' alcohol abuse

Despite extensive efforts to decrease alcohol abuse among college students, prevention approaches have had limited success. This study attempted to clarify reasons for this limited success and to identify directions for future interventions by directly interviewing college students on this topic. Five issues were discussed in the focus group interviews: (1) reasons for drinking alcohol, (2) reasons for not drinking alcohol, (3) circumstances surrounding overconsumption of alcohol, (4) topics and methods for prevention, and (5) gender differences in drinking patterns. The focus group interviews were found to be a valid tool for elucidating sensitive aspects of these issues and the relative importance of these issues to each other. The students revealed how susceptible they are to societal pressures to drink alcohol and how the limitations of their intrapersonal skills affect their alcohol consumption, most notably regarding sexuality issues. The authors contend that improving intrapersonal skills should be a major focus of programs to prevent alcohol abuse.     

The final reply to Stolorow (2003) and Orange (2003).

In his final word in this heated exchange, Strozier dismisses the relevance of Donna Orange's (2003) comments and notes how peculiar were the comments of Robert Stolorow (2003). Strozier's point is that Kohut warmly supported the work of Stolorow, but he notes, again, that the essential concept of so-called intersubjective theory is entirely based in Kohut's ideas from the 1970s. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reply to Karen Maroda's (2002) review of Heinz Kohut: The making of a psychoanalyst.

In this reply, Charles Strozier raises objections to the review by Karen Maroda (2002) of his biography of Heinz Kohut. He questions Maroda's fairness in consulting with several people--especially Robert Stolorow--bound to raise critical (and biased) objections to the biography without also talking to more objective observers. Stozier also notes how profoundly Maroda misunderstands his characterization of Kohut's sexuality in the biography. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fish tissue quality in near-coastal areas of the Gulf of Mexico receiving point source discharges

The objective of this study was to determine inorganic and organic contaminant concentrations in edible tissue of fish collected from eight coastal areas receiving wastewater discharges and from two reference locations. Trace metal residues were statistically similar regardless of the collection site. Zinc (100% detection in all samples), total mercury (100%), total arsenic (92%), copper (92%), and selenium (88%) were the more commonly detected trace metals. Mercury concentrations exceeded the Florida health-based standard of 0.5 microg/g for limited fish consumption in 30% of the total samples and averaged 0.40 (+/- 1 S.D. = 0.22, range < or = 0.08 to 0.85) microg/g wet weight. The average total PAH concentrations were 1.79 (+/- 1.60) ng/g (reference areas) and 2.17 (+/- 3.29) ng/g (wastewater-impacted areas). Pyrene was detected most frequently (63% of the total samples) and averaged 0.74 (+/- 0.35) ng/g wet wt. The average total PCB concentrations were 4.8 (+/- 7.1) ng/g (reference areas) and 31.6 (+/- 31.3) ng/g (wastewater-impacted areas) Concentrations of dieldrin and cis-chlordane were approximately eight times greater, respectively, in fish collected from wastewater receiving waters, whereas total DDT and total pesticide concentrations were not elevated in the same areas. Concentrations of total PCBs and all chlorinated pesticides were below US health-based standards. The lack of a published reference data base for fish tissue quality in near-coastal areas of the Gulf of Mexico restricts an assessment of the environmental significance of results from this and similar studies investigating the fate of point source contaminants.     

Multicultural training in APA-approved counseling psychology programs: A survey.

49 directors of American Psychological Association (APA)-approved counseling psychology programs returned surveys (80% return rate) concerning the extent to which multicultural issues were addressed in course work, practica, and research; numbers of faculty in multicultural teaching, supervision, research, and professional development; pressures to develop multicultural curricula and research; and numbers of ethnic minorities. 43 programs have at least 1 multicultural course; 31 have units in other courses; 29 have a multicultural course requirement; and in 22 programs, students may create a subspecialty. Although junior faculty was significantly more involved in all areas of multicultural training, where more senior faculty were involved there was less pressure to increase multicultural coursework, more multicultural courses required, and a subspecialty was more available. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Application of GC-HRMS and GC×GC-TOFMS to aid in the understanding of a dioxin assay's performance for soil and sediment samples

There have been numerous attempts to correlate results obtained by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to alternative techniques such as immunoassays and bioassays for the analysis of dioxins in environmental samples. In spite of these efforts, uncertainties about the performance of these methods remain. Following a series of performance studies of various dioxin assays, an in-depth evaluation of sample extracts from the Procept Rapid Dioxin Assay was conducted to provide users with a clearer understanding of the differences in the assay's results compared to traditional mass spectrometry. Two powerful analytical techniques [high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) and two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC-TOFMS)] were used to provide a unique perspective about the assay's underlying analytical performance. HRMS analyses demonstrated that the target dioxin and furans were consistently captured in the assay's extracts. TOFMS analyses revealed that interferents in the sample extracts resulting from inconsistencies in the sample preparation process appear to be the primary factor contributing to the assay's imprecision. The conclusion of this research was the assay results cannot be expected to correlate directly with HRMS and should only be utilized as a screening technique (e.g., to identify the relative ranking of contamination, to determine if samples are above/below threshold levels, or to monitor a cleanup) for environmental matrices such as soil and sediment.