Misattribution of dissonance and behaviour-consistent attitude change.

Examined the prediction that people who have misattributed dissonance arousal to an external source may come to question the appropriateness of this attribution and may then be motivated to alter their attitudes. This was tested by having an experimenter discredit the plausibility of an external source after misattribution had presumably occurred. 80 female undergraduates participated in the study, with 16 of these Ss serving as controls. 64 Ss were given a pill described as having either unpleasant side effects or no side effects and then were committed to write counterattitudinal essays under high-choice conditions. Some Ss were then told that a mistake had been made and that they had actually been given the other form of the pill. As predicted, Ss who had initially been led to believe that the pill had aversive side effects but were later told that it did not manifested behavior-consistent attitude change. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Doublecortin May Play a Role in Defining Chondrocyte Phenotype

Embryonic development of articular cartilage has not been well understood and the role of doublecortin (DCX) in determination of chondrocyte phenotype is unknown. Here, we use a DCX promoter-driven eGFP reporter mouse model to study the dynamic gene expression profiles in mouse embryonic handplates at E12.5 to E13.5 when the condensed mesenchymal cells differentiate into either endochondral chondrocytes or joint interzone cells. Illumina microarray analysis identified a variety of genes that were expressed differentially in the different regions of mouse handplate. The unique expression patterns of many genes were revealed. Cytl1 and 3110032G18RIK were highly expressed in the proximal region of E12.5 handplate and the carpal region of E13.5 handplate, whereas Olfr538, Kctd15, and Cited1 were highly expressed in the distal region of E12.5 and the metacarpal region of E13.5 handplates. There was an increasing gradient of Hrc expression in the proximal to distal direction in E13.5 handplate. Furthermore, when human DCX protein was expressed in human adipose stem cells, collagen II was decreased while aggrecan, matrilin 2, and GDF5 were increased during the 14-day pellet culture. These findings suggest that DCX may play a role in defining chondrocyte phenotype.     

Impact of dissolved organic matter on colloid transport in the vadose zone: deterministic approximation of transport deposition coefficients from polymeric coating characteristics

Although numerous studies have been conducted to discern colloid transport and stability processes, the mechanistic understanding of how dissolved organic matter (DOM) affects colloid fate in unsaturated soils (i.e., the vadose zone) remains unclear. This study aims to bridge the gap between the physicochemical responses of colloid complexes and porous media interfaces to solution chemistry, and the effect these changes have on colloid transport and fate. Measurements of adsorbed layer thickness, density, and charge of DOM-colloid complexes and transport experiments with tandem internal process visualization were conducted for key constituents of DOM, humic (HA) and fulvic acids (FA), at acidic, neutral and basic pH and two CaCl₂ concentrations. Polymeric characteristics reveal that, of the two tested DOM constituents, only HA electrosterically stabilizes colloids. This stabilization is highly dependent on solution pH which controls DOM polymer adsorption affinity, and on the presence of Ca⁺² which promotes charge neutralization and inter-particle bridging. Transport experiments indicate that HA improved colloid transport significantly, while FA only marginally affected transport despite having a large effect on particle charge. A transport model with deposition and pore-exclusion parameters fit experimental breakthrough curves well. Trends in deposition coefficients are correlated to the changes in colloid surface potential for bare colloids, but must include adsorbed layer thickness and density for sterically stabilized colloids. Additionally, internal process observations with bright field microscopy reveal that, under optimal conditions for retention, experiments with FA or no DOM promoted colloid retention at solid-water interfaces, while experiments with HA enhanced colloid retention at air-water interfaces, presumably due to partitioning of HA at the air-water interface and/or increased hydrophobic characteristics of HA-colloid complexes.     

Emotional Conditioning to Masked Stimuli and Modulation of Visuospatial Attention.

Two studies investigated the effects of conditioning to masked stimuli on visuospatial attention. During the conditioning phase, masked snakes and spiders were paired with a burst of white noise, or paired with an innocuous tone, in the conditioned stimulus (CS)+ and CS- conditions, respectively. Attentional allocation to the CSs was then assessed with a visual probe task, in which the CSs were presented unmasked (Experiment 1) or both unmasked and masked (Experiment 2), together with fear-irrelevant control stimuli (flowers and mushrooms). In Experiment 1, participants preferentially allocated attention to CS+ relative to control stimuli. Experiment 2 suggested that this attentional bias depended on the perceived aversiveness of the unconditioned stimulus and did not require conscious recognition of the CSs during both acquisition and expression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Edwin B. Newman (1908–1989): Obituary.

Memorializes Edwin B. Newman (1908–1989). Newman served as chair of the Department of Psychology at Harvard University from 1948 to 1964. He researched the interaction of the problems of measurement and equipment. His investigations centered on the analysis of language and speech and on the technical challenges involved in their quantification. In 1929 he and Frederick Howell Lewis formed Psi Chi, the national honor society for psychology. He served the American Psychological Association in various capacities, including membership on the Board of Directors and the Publication Committee. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Investigating the Social Dimensions of Transport Disadvantage—I. Towards New Concepts and Methods

This article is the first of two papers that engage critically and productively with the relationship between the socio-economic transformations of cities, the differentiation of vulnerable groups within urban space and the distribution of transport services. This article undertakes a comprehensive review of the major conceptual and methodological approaches by which scholars and policy researchers have sought to address the connection between social disadvantage and access to transport. The article critically assesses the relative merits of various spatial analytical methodologies in illuminating social-transport links. The study finds that there is a need for greater sophistication in the use of analytical methods in transport research as well as an imperative for greater sensitivity to social differentiation within urban areas and relative to infrastructure and services. The article concludes by developing a method for combining spatial social and transport service data that is then deployed in the empirical case study reported in the second paper.     

Effect of maternal high histidine levels on activity and maze retention in the rat.

4 groups of pregnant albino rats were maintained on either a histidine-high diet, or received periodic injections of C-nitromethane, or they received both treatments throughout gestation. Later, the offspring were tested in an open field for activity in a maze-learning task and retested for the retention of the maze habit. Results show that both nitromethane injections and histidine-high diets resulted in impaired performance. On the open field test, the experimental Ss were more active, and on initial learning of the maze pattern they demonstrated a learning deficit. However, when retested 7 and 30 days later, they showed no deficit in retention of the maze habit. In addition, an analysis of covariance indicated that the hyperactivity and learning deficit were independent characteristics of maternal hyperhistidinemia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)