Internet use in the contemporary media environment

Although a significant amount of research has focused on traditional media choice and use, and even on some ‘new’ media, these studies have either neglected the Internet and World Wide Web or were conducted prior to their recent popularity. This study offers a novel exploration of individuals' use of three Internet functions (information retrieval, information giving, and conversation capabilities) in the context of the use of other communication media. Data from 684 individuals demonstrate that the Internet is a multidimensional technology used in a manner similar to other, more traditional media. Specifically, conversation features of the Internet align with mediated interpersonal technologies (the telephone and electronic mail), whereas the Internet's information‐retrieval and information‐giving features are used in ways similar to mass media channels (newspapers, television, and books and magazines). In addition, needs fulfilled by these channels cluster in ways consistent with past research, regardless of the technologies employed to meet them.     

In Vivo Hippocampal Acetylcholine Release During Exposure to Acute Stress

Hippocampal extracellular acetylcholine (ACh) and choline levels were evaluated using in vivo microdialysis in male Fischer 344 rats before, during, and following an 80-min exposure to two different stress conditions. Measurements were taken in rats restrained and immersed in a water bath containing either 37 degreesC (normothermic-restraint) or 20 degreesC (cold-restraint) water. Results were compared to normothermic-freely-moving rats. Cold-restrained rats displayed decreased ACh levels during cold exposure relative to both normothermic-restrained and normothermic-freely-moving rats. By the end of the cold exposure period and following removal from cold, ACh levels had returned to near-baseline values. Normothermic-restrained rats had levels similar to those of normothermic-freely-moving rats, except for a marked increase in ACh following removal from restraint. Cold-restrained rats displayed a gradual elevation in choline levels during cold stress, followed by a gradual decline after stress termination, whereas both normothermic-restrained and normothermic-freely-moving rats displayed gradual decreases during the microdialysis session. These findings demonstrate that central cholinergic neurotransmission can be altered by the application of, and removal from, acute stressors. In addition, the results suggest a possible relationship between the magnitudes of both the stressor and its cholinergic consequences.     

Social status and friendship in peer victimization trajectories

Background/Objective: Most studies have evaluated victimization at a single time point, making it difficult to determine the impact of the time during which an individual is victimized. This longitudinal study aims to examine the differences in the levels of social status (social preference and perceived popularity) and friendship in peer victimization trajectories, and to analyse if there were changes over time in the levels of social status and friendship in each trajectory. Method: The final sample was composed of 1,239 students (49% girls) with ages between 9 and 18 (M = 12.23, SD = 1.73), from 22 schools in southern Spain. Peer nominations were collected. Results: The General Linear Model results associated the highest levels of social preference, perceived popularity and friendship with the sporadic victimization profile and the lowest levels of these dimensions with the stable profile. Conclusions:The results are discussed based on important personal aspects of stable victimization that confirms social rejection, unpopularity, and the low social support that victimization causes. This contribution is discussed in terms of health and social welfare in adolescence.     

Chronic stress-induced alterations in mouse colonic 5-HT and defecation responses are strain dependent

Mood disorders and chronic stress are frequently associated with gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms including diarrhoea or constipation. Locally produced serotonin [5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)] regulates GI motility and is a key factor in the pathophysiology of stress-associated GI disorders. We aimed to establish whether chronic stress can differentially affect faecal output and colon 5-HT concentration in two inbred mouse strains: BALB/c and C57BL/6 which differ in their ability to cope with stress. Adult male BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice were restrained for 2?h daily for 10 days. Defecation was monitored during each stress session. Twenty-four hours after the last session of stress, plasma corticosterone concentration was higher than control in both strains, indicative of a physiological effect of chronic stress; however, stress-induced diarrhoea was more persistent in C57BL/6 mice. Basal concentration of colon 5-HT was higher in C57BL/6 mice, and stress elicited an increase in colon 5-HT only in this strain. Finally, na?ve BALB/c mice had a higher sensitivity (incidence of diarrhoea) to 5-HT (0.33?mg/kg, i.p.) than C57BL/6 mice. Our results suggest that differential defecation responses to stress may be associated with colon 5-HT concentration, which may in turn reflect the individual sensitivity to 5-HT. In addition, C57BL/6 mice emerge as a relevant model for studying GI alterations induced by chronic stress.     

Informative cues can slow search: The cost of matching a specific template

During visual search, observers hold in mind a search template, which they match against the stimulus. To characterize the content of this template, we trained observers to discriminate a set of artificial objects at an individual level and at a category level. The observers then searched for the objects on backgrounds that camouflaged the features that defined either the object’s identity or the object’s category. Each search stimulus was preceded by the target’s individual name, its category name, or an uninformative cue. The observers’ task was to locate the target, which was always present and always the only figure in the stimulus. The results showed that name cues slowed search when the features associated with the name were camouflaged. Apparently, the observers required a match between their mental representation of the target and the stimulus, even though this was unnecessary for the task. Moreover, this match involved all distinctive features of the target, not just the features necessary for a definitive identification. We conclude that visual search for a specific target involves a verification process that is performed automatically on all of the target’s distinctive features.     

Interwoven stories: our path of creativity and poetry named the ecodialogue center

The history of organizations and collectives is something alive. It is a network of memories, actions, collaborations, dreams, encounters, and disconnections that live within each of its members. The EcoDialogue Center is an academic space of the University of Veracruz for promoting dialogue between disciplines. In this article we are presenting the stories, both personal and collective, and the values and ideals that create our Center. We are using this opportunity to reflect on the cultural, geographical, emotional, intellectual, and societal conditions that have allowed this innovative process within the rules and customs of a university.     

Parents’ Reports of Children’s Internalizing Symptoms: Associations with Parents’ Mental Health Symptoms and Substance Use Disorder

This brief report examined the unique associations between parents’ ratings of child internalizing symptoms and their own depression and anxiety in families with parental substance use disorder (SUD). Further, we examined whether parental SUD (father only, mother only, both parents) was related to discrepancy in mothers’ and fathers’ reports of children’s internalizing symptoms. Participants were 97 triads (fathers, mothers) in which one or both parents met criteria for SUD. Polynomial regression analyses were conducted to examine whether father-mother reports of child internalizing symptoms had unique associations with parents’ own symptoms of depression and anxiety while controlling for child gender, child age, and SUD diagnoses. Controlling for fathers’ symptoms and other covariates, mothers experiencing more depression and anxiety symptoms reported more symptoms of child internalizing symptoms than did fathers. Mothers’ and fathers’ SUD was associated with higher anxiety symptoms among mothers after controlling for other variables. A second set of polynomial regressions examined whether father-mother reports of child internalizing symptoms had unique associations with parents’ SUD diagnoses while controlling for child gender and child age. After controlling for mothers’ symptoms and other covariates, parents’ reports of children’s internalizing symptoms were not significantly associated with either parent’s SUD or parental SUD interactions (i.e., both parents have SUD diagnoses). Taken together, mothers’ ratings of children’s internalizing symptoms may be accounted for, in part, by her reports of depression and anxiety symptoms.     

Task demands determine the specificity of the search template

When searching for an object, an observer holds a representation of the target in mind while scanning the scene. If the observer repeats the search, performance may become more efficient as the observer hones this target representation, or "search template," to match the specific demands of the search task. An effective search template must have two characteristics: It must reliably discriminate the target from the distractors, and it must tolerate variability in the appearance of the target. The present experiment examined how the tolerance of the search template is affected by the search task. Two groups of 18 observers trained on the same set of stimuli blocked either by target image (block-by-image group) or by target category (block-by-category group). One or two days after training, both groups were tested on a related search task. The pattern of test results revealed that the two groups of observers had developed different search templates, and that the templates of the block-by-category observers better captured the general characteristics of the category. These results demonstrate that observers match their search templates to the demands of the search task.     

Factors affecting foster care breakdown in Spain

Breakdown of foster care has been defined as the situation in which one of the involved parties terminates the intervention before having achieved the goals established for the case plan. This work presents a study carried out with a Spanish sample of 318 closed cases of children who were placed in foster homes and kinship care. The data were collected through the exhaustive review of the child protection and foster placement files, complemented with interviews of the welfare workers in charge of each case. The rate of breakdown of the entire sample was 26.1%, although it was significantly different in kinship care (19.7%) and foster care (31.2%). The results of this study indicate that the variables related to breakdown depend on the placement modality, either in foster care or kinship care. In the first case, the variables related to the child's characteristics are noteworthy, especially behavior and academic problems, with special relevance in the 9-12-year-old group, and in children who were previously in residential care. In contrast, in kinship care, the parents' problems (prison, mental health) and having some measure of guardianship are the most important. The fact of undergoing foster placement after having lived in various residential homes is transcendental. Lastly, the availability of economic resources and even the foster carers' studies seem to be related to foster breakdown.