Counseling truants back to school: Motivation combined with a program for action.

Conducted a study with 32 13-17 yr old male chronic truants from a low-income, inner-city area. Ss were given counseling aimed at returning them to regular attendance. Optimistic vs threat appeal and presence vs absence of supportive instruction were manipulated in a 2 * 2 design, and persuasion was assessed both as verbal intention to attend school regularly and as actual attendance. Supportive instruction included the continuing availability of a tutor. Results show that threat appeal was sufficient to change intention to return to school, but supportive instruction was necessary to change actual attendance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of implicit rewards on adults' motor skill responses.

The effects of implicit rewards on adult subjects were investigated by means of a simple motor skills task. Unlike previous data collected for children, implicit rewards had reinforcing effects for peers regardless of the sequential order in which they were presented to target subjects. The absence of either direct or implicit extinction with adults is hypothesized as due to developmental differences in their perceptions of the unfair implicit reward situation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicate matching in NLP: A review of research on the preferred representational system.

Reviews 15 studies investigating the use of the preferred representational system (PRS) in neurolinguistic programming (NLP) and summarizes the data collected. Aspects of design, methodology, population, and dependent measures are evaluated, with comments on the outcomes obtained. Results suggest that there is little supportive evidence for the use of the PRS in NLP in these 15 studies, with much data to the contrary. Questions of accountability are raised, and suggestions for future research are offered. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Determination of soya proteins in food using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay procedure

Classical immunoanalytical techniques are based on native antigens and their precipitation with specific antibodies: they are not very appropriate for the investigation of processed denatured mixtures. This report describes an immunoassay based on the more recent but well-established enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) procedure, which in this case is specific for soya proteins that have been solubilised in urea and then ?renatured’? by removing or diluting the denaturant. Levels of soya protein 100 g^?1 total protein (nominally 100%) were determined with 34 commercial soya products, using a standard reference antigen. Normal expected levels were observed with flours (average 107%) and isolates (108%), while results with concentrates (82%) and texturates (79%) were somewhat lower. Some specialised products gave little or no response, presumably because they are hydrolysed. Meat, milk, egg, wheat and field bean proteins displayed negligible interference. These preliminary results suggest that the ELISA procedure will provide a convenient general method for the qualitative characterisation and quantitative estimation of individual proteins in food products even after severe processing; it seems more attractive than many other methods reported. Immunoassay is capable of large numbers of inexpensive but sophisticated determinations of specific food components. The food analyst should regard ELISA (for the determination in situ of specific antigens in mixtures) as a powerful technique complementary to classical chromatographic and electrophoretic methods which depend on separation before determination.     

Nutritional value of soya protein and milk coprecipitates in sausage products

Sausages containing 60% of meat proteins replaced with soybean or milk calcium coprecipitates were prepared. Growth rates and plasma amino acid levels in rats fed diets based on these products, together with vitamin and available amino acid analysis indicated that the nutritional values of the non-meat proteins were similar but were both markedly lower than meat sausages. Nutritional damage to the protein in the sausages during cooking was only apparent in the all-meat sausage.     

More aggressive cartoons are funnier.

Independent rankings of humor and aggressiveness were obtained for sets of cartoons drawn randomly from 2 magazines. The correlation of median humor and median aggressiveness rankings ranged from .49 to .90 in 6 studies involving 6 sets of cartoons and 6 different groups of Ss, including children and adults, high and low SES individuals, and native- and foreign-born Ss. It was found that this correlation was consistent with Freudian, arousal, and superiority theories of humor. Another prediction of Freudian theory, that high-SES Ss should be more appreciative of aggressive humor than low-SES Ss, was not supported. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaporative analyser as a mass detector in the size-exclusion chromatography of coal extracts

The applicability of the evaporative analyser in the size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) of coal derivatives has been explored. The detector, in which the intensity is measured for the light scattered from the finely divided solute particles resulting from evaporation of droplets of chromatographic eluate, is mass responsive, sensitive, and linear for both narrow and gross coal-extract fractions. For molecular masses above 300 the mass response is almost uniform, and there are considerable advantages over the detectors commonly used in SEC. Application to lower molecular mass coal materials is limited by the evaporation of solute along with solvent in the detector.     

The efficacy of cognitive behavior therapies: A quantitative review of the research evidence.

Assessed the effectiveness of cognitive behavior therapies in a review of 48 studies of adolescents and adults that compared cognitive behavioral therapy with some form of control group. Analyses indicated that cognitive behavior therapies were superior to no treatment; however, there was no firm evidence that these therapies were superior to other psychotherapies. Analyses failed to find cognitive behavior therapies emphasizing behavioral techniques to be more effective than primarily cognitive approaches. Also, the efficacy of cognitive behavior therapies appeared relatively uniform across diagnostic categories and equally effective when administered in a group or individual format. There was no evidence that sex or age of patient, experience of therapist or even duration of therapy were related to treatment effects. (54 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The elastic stability of square perforated plates under combinations of bending, shear and direct load

This paper presents solutions for the elastic stability of plates containing perforations using the conjugate load/displacement method. Interaction curves for a variety of load cases and support conditions are presented. The effect of the size of a central square hole in a square plate on the elastic buckling load is demonstrated and, where possible, results are compared with the work of other authors.     

On the use of tapered bismuth germanate crystals in positron emission tomography

An analytical model of gamma ray transport within the detectors of a positron camera, based on exponential absorption, has been developed and verified experimentally. The model has been used to study the intrinsic resolution obtained with scintillation detectors that have had their front corners removed. It is concluded that for crystals greater than 0.8 cm wide, tapering the face of the detector results in improved uniformity of resolution. Thus it is useful for medium and low resolution scanners. In these cases, it has been found that the loss in sensitivity resulting from the use of tapered crystals is less than that which occurs when septa are placed between crystals to achieve comparable uniformity of resolution. It has also been established that, in some instances, reducing the length of the detectors results in a more uniform resolution than that obtained with tapered crystals, although this leads to a loss in ring sensitivity and an increase in the detected scatter fraction.