Emotional and cardiovascular sensitization to daily stress following childhood parental loss.

Adverse childhood events can influence the development of emotional and physiological self-regulatory abilities, with significant consequences for vulnerability to psychological and physical illness. This study evaluated stress sensitization and inoculation models of the impact of early parental death on stress exposure and reactivity in late adolescence/young adulthood. Ambulatory blood pressure (BP) and diary reports of minor stress were collected every 30 min during waking hours over a 24-hr period from 91 late adolescents/young adults (43 early bereaved, 48 nonbereaved). Across the sample, minor stressors were associated with elevated BP and negative affect. The bereaved group had lower BP than did the nonbereaved group. Within the bereaved group, higher perceived caring from the surviving parent was associated with fewer reports of minor stress and lower stress-related negative affect. Higher perceived parental caring during childhood was associated with lower BP across the sample and more frequent hassles in the nonbereaved group. Findings support both the stress inoculation and sensitization models, suggesting that childhood parental loss and parental caring exert important influences on children's development of stress sensitivity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Information-Processing Biases in Young Adults From Bereaved and Divorced Families.

Parental loss or divorce is associated with increased risk for affective disorders, potentially because of dysfunctional information processing. This study evaluated attentional biases to threat or loss-related cues in young adults from divorced, parental-loss, or intact families. Participants from intact families showed avoidance of supraliminal threat and loss cues, whereas those from divorced families showed vigilance toward loss cues. Those from bereaved families showed no pattern of bias. Abuse and poor family relationships were associated independently with vigilance toward negative cues. After controlling for abuse, group differences in threat bias were no longer apparent. Results suggest that parental death or divorce may increase risk of affective disorder owing to the loss of a "protective bias" away from negative stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Postdivorce living arrangements, parent conflict, and long-term physical health correlates for children of divorce.

The authors tested a biopsychosocial model in which young adults' long-term relationships with fathers and ongoing distress surrounding their parents' divorces mediated the relationship between disrupted parenting (i.e., exposure to parent conflict before the divorce and up to 5 years after, and amount of time with father postdivorce) and indicators of their physical health. University students whose parents divorced before they were 16 (n = 266) participated. Findings supported the model. The more time children lived with their fathers after divorce, the better their current relationships were with their fathers, independent of parent conflict. The more parent conflict they experienced, the worse their relationships were with their fathers and the more distress they currently felt about their parents' divorce, independent of time with father. Poor father-child relationships and more distress in turn predicted poorer health status. There was no interaction between exposure to parent conflict and time with father; thus, more time with father was beneficial in both high- and low-conflict families, and more exposure to parent conflict was detrimental at both high and low levels of time with father. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fate and transport of emissions for several trace metals over the United States

A regional model for atmospheric photochemistry and particulate matter is used to predict the fate and transport of five trace metals: lead, manganese, total chromium, nickel, and cadmium over the continental United States during January and July 2001. Predicted concentrations of the metals are compared to observations. Lead predictions have the lowest mean differences with observations and the highest correlation coefficients. They best agree with observations made in January over residential and commercial areas in the eastern United States and worst with observations over remote forests and deserts located in the western United States during July. Manganese predictions show similar abilities to reproduce observations but had larger changes between months. Chromium and nickel predictions show diminishing ability to reproduce observations over both urban and rural areas. Cadmium predictions show the least ability to reproduce observations. Potential causes are examined for the errors in predictions. For errors in lead, manganese and perhaps chromium predictions, aerial suspension and biomass burning are suspected because simulations did not include emissions from these sources. Nickel, cadmium and, to a lower extent, chromium predictions suffer from errors in the emissions that represent current anthropogenic activities. Predicted concentrations of all metals show errors from not including sub-grid processes in meteorological and emission rates. Examples include sea breeze circulation along coastal areas and individual sources in urban areas. These errors reduce the ability to reproduce the time dependence of observations.     

Heart rate variability as an index of regulated emotional responding.

The study of individual differences in emotional responding can provide considerable insight into interpersonal dynamics and the etiology of psychopathology. Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis is emerging as an objective measure of regulated emotional responding (generating emotional responses of appropriate timing and magnitude). This review provides a theoretical and empirical rationale for the use of HRV as an index of individual differences in regulated emotional responding. Two major theoretical frameworks that articulate the role of HRV in emotional responding are presented, and relevant empirical literature is reviewed. The case is made that HRV is an accessible research tool that can increase the understanding of emotion in social and psychopathological processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relations of SARS-related stressors and coping to Chinese college students' psychological adjustment during the 2003 Beijing SARS epidemic.

This study examined the main and interactive relations of stressors and coping related to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) with Chinese college students' psychological adjustment (psychological symptoms, perceived general health, and life satisfaction) during the 2003 Beijing SARS epidemic. All the constructs were assessed by self-report in an anonymous survey during the final period of the outbreak. Results showed that the relations of stressors and coping to psychological adjustment varied by domain of adjustment. Regression analyses suggested that the number of stressors and use of avoidant coping strategies positively predicted psychological symptoms. Active coping positively predicted life satisfaction when controlling for stressors. Moreover, all types of coping served as a buffer against the negative impact of stressors on perceived general health. These findings hold implications for university counseling services during times of acute, large-scale stressors. In particular, effective screening procedures should be developed to identify students who experience a large number of stressors and thus are at high risk for developing mental health problems. Intervention efforts that target coping should be adapted to take account of the uncontrollability of stressors and clients' cultural preferences for certain coping strategies. A multidimensional battery of psychological adjustment should be used to monitor clients' psychological adjustment to stressors and evaluate the efficacy of intervention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Technical challenges involved in implementation of VOC reactivity-based control of ozone

Controlling VOC emissions on the basis of their individual contribution to ozone formation has been subject to extensive discussion and research in past years, and the concept has gained some acceptance in the air pollution community for certain product categories and industrial operations. Despite its potential to decrease ozone formation, there are some technical challenges that still remain before we can confidently apply the concept of reactivity in the most beneficial manner to reduce ozone concentrations. The goal of this paper is to (1) assess how existing science in this area supports the use of reactivity, particularly, the maximum incremental reactivity, for VOC control under a national policy application and (2) identify where uncertainties exist that could affect such a policy. Box model and air quality model results are used to show that there are ways to describe a chemical's reactivity that are relatively robust across large geographic areas. Modeling results also indicate that the choice of metric is important in determining the potential benefits and detriments of a reactivity-based emission control policy.     

Stress in employed women: impact of marital status and children at home on neurohormone output and home strain

We isolated peroxisome biogenesis mutants from Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, using the 9-(1'-pyrene)nonanol/ultraviolet (P9OH/ UV) method and wild-type CHO-K1 cells that had been stably transfected with cDNA encoding Pex2p (formerly peroxisome assembly factor-1, PAF-1). Three mutant cell clones, ZP110, ZP111, and ZP114, showed cytosolic localization of catalase, thereby indicating a defect in peroxisome biogenesis, whereas ZP112 and ZP113 contained fewer but larger catalase-positive particles. Mutant ZP115 displayed an aberrant, tubular structure immunoreactive to anti-catalase antibody. Mutants lacking morphologically recognizable peroxisomes also showed the typical peroxisome assembly-defective phenotype such as severe loss of catalase latency and resistance to 12-(1'-pyrene)dodecanoic acid (P12)/UV treatment. ZP110 and ZP111, and ZP114 were found to belong to two novel complementation groups, respectively, by complementation group analysis with cDNA transfection and cell fusion. Cell fusion with fibroblasts from patients with peroxisome biogenesis disorders such as Zellweger syndrome revealed that ZP110 and ZP114 could not be classified to any of human complementation groups. Thus, ZP110/ZP111 and ZP114 are the first, two peroxisome-deficient cell mutants of newly identified complementation groups distinct from the ten mammalian groups previously characterized.