Cigarette smoking, urinary acidity, and nicotine excretion under natural conditions

For 40 males who smoked 20 cigarettes a day titratable acidity of the urine was significantly correlated with nicotine/cotinine excretion at several sample intervals, as was urinary pH, but not urinary acidity and daily cigarette consumption or serum COHB.     

Immediate carbon monoxide estimates and self-reported smoking

Because carbon monoxide (CO) is an easily understood danger of cigarette smoking, new breath CO analyzers may be useful in cessation programs. Self-reported cigarette consumption and breath CO correlated .70 using a 90-sec. CO-determination method. Smokers averaging 17 daily cigarettes had average breath CO of 24 parts per million (ppm), falling to 7.71 ppm for smokers claiming at least 24-hr. abstinence. Corresponding carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) estimates were 4.34% (slightly above World Health Organization 4% safety limit) and 1.39%. Smoking clinics can use CO-monitoring devices for feedback or surveillance, although feedback would provide the most benefits for participants.     

Simulated judicial decision-making for African and European American adolescents with illegal sexual behavior: The impact of medical data and victim race/ethnicity

The perceived importance of victim and defendant race/ethnicity and medical evidence in child sexual abuse cases has been recognized separately in the literature. However, few studies have considered these factors simultaneously. Within a sample of 880 college students, an interaction effect was tested between the presence of medical evidence and the race/ethnicity of a juvenile defendant and victim using child sexual abuse case vignettes. The main effects of medical evidence and the race of the defendant were observed. Medical evidence and race of victim influenced victim believability such that medical evidence was more impactful for cases with African American victims. Further, there were interactions between the race of the defendant and the race of the victim in adult versus juvenile court decisions, sex offender registration and notification requirements, and length of sex offender registration and notification. Interracial sexual offending was associated with substantially higher punishment than intraracial sexual offending. Accordingly, several important implications for court-level decision-making processes are explored.     

Anti-Racism Strategies in Pediatric Psychology: Using STYLE Can Help Children Overcome Adverse Experiences With Police

Black children are exposed to police violence at alarming rates. Such stress impacts development and treatment of physical health problems. In the current discourse, we introduce STYLE (Self-examination, Talk about community-police relations and racism, Yield space and time to anti-racism work, Learn about how structural racism impacts child health, Evaluate policies and practices through an anti-racism lens). STYLE offers a framework through which professionals in pediatric psychology can engage in anti-racist work across contexts from clinical care to academic and advocacy settings. Pediatric psychologists have a responsibility to be on the frontline as interventionists, educators, researchers, organizers, and advocates for racial justice through anti-racism practices. The current paper introduces STYLE in clinical care, community service, training/supervision, and academic and advocacy contexts. Case examples are provided. Professionals in pediatric psychology must first focus on changing their STYLE to promote individual and infrastructural change consistent with anti-racism work.

     

Exteroceptive control of response under delayed reinforcement

Three white rats, after 50 continuous reinforcements, were exposed successively, under dim illumination, to reinforcement delays of 1, 3, 5, 7.5, 10, 15, and 20 sec, with prolonged training at the 20-sec level. Behavior was maintained at each level, and an increase in interval was accompanied by an increase in post-reinforcement pause. Subsequently, under both 20- and 30-sec delays, the animals were tested during half of each daily session to determine the effect of introducing darkness during each delay interval. The result of this stimulus “support” was to regularize and increase response rate for each animal at both interval values.     

Effects of trophic poisoning with methylmercury on the appetitive elements of the agonistic sequence in fighting-fish (Betta splendens)

The aggressive display in Betta splendens is particularly prominent, and vital to its adaptation to the environment. Methylmercury is an organic variation of Hg that presents particularly pronounced neuro-behavioral effects. The present experiments aim to test the effect of acute and chronic poisoning with methylmercury on the display in Bettas. The animals were poisoned by trophic means in both experiments (16 ug/kg in acute poisoning; 16 ug/kg/day for chronic poisoning), and tested in agonistic pairs. The total frequency of the display was recorded, analyzing the topography of the agonistic response. The methylmercury seems to present a dose- and detoxification-dependent effect on these responses, with a more pronounced effect on motivity in acute poisoning and on emotionality in the chronic poisoning. It is possible that this effect could be mediated by alteration in the mono-amino-oxidase systems.     

Agrammatic aphasic subjects' comprehension of subject and object extracted Wh questions

This study attempted to replicate the unusual wh question comprehension pattern of Hickok and Avrutin's (1996) subjects who showed an expected subject/object extraction asymmetry for which NP questions, but not for who questions. We also examined comprehension of what and which one questions, which are similar to who and which NP questions, respectively, and we examined passivized wh questions in order to test predictions of Grodzinsky's (1995) restrictive theory of trace deletion, the Trace-Based Account (TBA). Results, using both a figurine manipulation task and a picture pointing task, showed that only one of four agrammatic (Broca's) aphasic subjects showed the pattern reported by Hickok and Avrutin and that this pattern extended to comprehension of what and which one questions. One of the subjects showed subject/object asymmetry for all wh questions tested, as would be predicted by the original trace deletion hypothesis (Grodzinsky, 1984), and two subjects showed neither pattern. None of our subjects demonstrated ability to comprehend passivized wh questions as predicted by the TBA. We discuss our findings in terms of the lack of homogeneity of wh question comprehension among individuals with agrammatic aphasia and we explore alternatives to the syntactic explanation for differences between who and which NP question comprehension advanced by Hickok and Avrutin.     

Bion and Tustin: The autistic phenomena

This article examines   the implications of the proposal of autistic transformations within the general context of Bion's theory of Transformations. The aim is to confirm the coherence of this proposal of autistic transformations within the overall structure of Bion's theory of Transformations. She examines the relation between emotional links and their negatives, particularly –K. She questions in which of the dimensions of the mind the autistic phenomena are located, the relation between autistic phenomena and beta elements, and where to place them in the Grid. The author tries to form metapsychological support for the incorporation of the autistic area in Bion's theory of Transformations. She argues that, despite the incongruence and imprecision of this incorporation, such autistic phenomena cannot be excluded from the complexus of the human mind and should therefore be accounted for in Bion's t ransformations . She discusses the idea that the theory of transformations includes the field of the neurosis and psychosis and deals with emotions, whereas the autistic area is dominated by sensations. The author asks how to add the autistic area to Bion's theory. Clinical material of a child for whom the non‐psychotic part of the personality predominates and who presents autistic nuclei provides material for the discussion.     

An Evaluation of Building Our Nation’s Daughters (BOND): Improving Black Single Mother–Daughter Relationships and Well-Being

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Although single mothers report being most concerned about financial costs, the needs of these mothers and their children are more extensive. The current study...