The First Anniversary: Stress, Well-Being, and Optimism in Older Widows

The first anniversary for older widows (n = 47) has been explored during Months 11, 12, and 13. Concurrent correlations show that optimism inversely correlates with psychological (intrusion and avoidance) stress as measured with the Impact of Event Scale (r = —.52 to —.66, p \u3c .005) and positively correlates with well-being (physical: r = .36 to .46, p \u3c .025; psychosocial: r = .58 to .72, p \u3c .005; spiritual: r = .50 to .69, p \u3c .005). Lagged correlation patterns suggest that higher levels of optimism at a given time are associated with higher life satisfaction and spiritual well-being at later times. Psychological stress is higher at Month 12 when compared to Month 13, t(43) = 2.54, p = .01, but not when compared to Month 11, t(43) = 1.49, p \u3e .10. There are no significant differences in physiologic stress (salivary cortisol) or well-being during the first anniversary of spousal bereavement

A simple model to assess the impact of gravity waves on ice-crystal populations in the tropical tropopause layer

The role of gravity waves on microphysics of tropical cirrus clouds and air-parcel dehydration was studied using the combination of Lagrangian observations of temperature fluctuations and a 1.5D model. High-frequency measurements during isopycnal balloon flights were used to resolve the gravity-wave signals with periods ranging from a few days to 10 min. The detailed microphysical simulations with homogeneous freezing, sedimentation, and a crude horizontal mixing represent the slow ascent of air parcels in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL). A reference simulation describes the slow ascent of air parcels in the tropical tropopause layer, with nucleation occurring only below the cold-point tropopause with a small ice-crystal density. The inclusion of the gravity waves drastically modifies the vertical profile of low ice concentration and weak dehydration found during the ascent alone, with the increased ice-crystal number and size distribution agreeing better with observations. Numerous events of nucleation occur below and above the cold-point tropopause, efficiently restoring the relative humidity over ice to equilibrium with respect to the background temperature, as well as increasing the cloud fraction in the vicinity of the cold-point tropopause. The corresponding decrease in water vapor is estimated at 2 ppmv around the cold-point tropopause.</p

Effect of gravity wave temperature fluctuations on homogeneous ice nucleation in the tropical tropopause layer

The impact of high-frequency fluctuations of temperature on homogeneous nucleation of ice crystals in the vicinity of the tropical tropopause is investigated using a bin microphysics scheme for air parcels. The imposed temperature fluctuations come from measurements during isopycnic balloon flights near the tropical tropopause. The balloons collected data at high frequency, guaranteeing that gravity wave signals are well resolved.With the observed temperature time series, the numerical simulations with homogeneous freezing show a full range of ice number concentration (INC) as previously observed in the tropical upper troposphere. In particular, a low INC may be obtained if the gravity wave perturbations produce a non-persistent cooling rate (even with large magnitude) such that the absolute change in temperature remains small during nucleation. This result is explained analytically by a dependence of the INC on the absolute drop in temperature (and not on the cooling rate). This work suggests that homogeneous ice nucleation is not necessarily inconsistent with observations of low INCs.</p

Sensitive Search for a Permanent Muon Electric Dipole Moment

We are proposing a new method to carry out a dedicated search for a permanent electric dipole moment (EDM) of the muon with a sensitivity at a level of 10^{-24} e cm. The experimental design exploits the strong motional electric field sensed by relativistic particles in a magnetic storage ring. As a key feature, a novel technique has been invented in which the g-2 precession is compensated with radial electric field. This technique will benefit greatly when the intense muon sources advocated by the developers of the muon storage rings and the muon colliders become available.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures. Submitted for publication in Proceedings of the International Workshop on High Intensity Muon Sources (HIMUS99), KEK, Japan, December 1-4 199

Eyewitness metamemory predicts identification performance in biased and unbiased line‐ups

Purpose Distinguishing accurate from inaccurate identifications is a challenging issue in the criminal justice system, especially for biased police line-ups. That is because biased line-ups undermine the diagnostic value of accuracy post-dictors such as confidence and decision time. Here, we aimed to test general and eyewitness-specific self-ratings of memory capacity as potential estimators of identification performance that are unaffected by line-up bias. Methods Participants (N = 744) completed a metamemory assessment consisting of the Multifactorial Metamemory Questionnaire and the Eyewitness Metamemory Scale and took part in a standard eyewitness paradigm. Following the presentation of a mock-crime video, they viewed either biased or unbiased line-ups. Results Self-ratings of discontentment with eyewitness memory ability were indicative of identification accuracy for both biased and unbiased line-ups. Participants who scored low on eyewitness metamemory factors also displayed a stronger confidence-accuracy calibration than those who scored high. Conclusions These results suggest a promising role for self-ratings of memory capacity in the evaluation of eyewitness identifications, while also advancing theory on self-assessments for different memory systems