Experimental studies of perceptual processes, section two Progress report, Jan. - Sep. 30, 1965

Complex discriminative behavior, fixed ratio reinforcement of large units of behavior and deferred reinforcement studied in chimpanzee

Computer simulation of radiation damage in gallium arsenide

A version of the binary-collision simulation code MARLOWE was used to study the spatial characteristics of radiation damage in proton and electron irradiated gallium arsenide. Comparisons made with the experimental results proved to be encouraging

Black Beans, Fiber, and Antioxidant Capacity Pilot Study: Examination of Whole Foods vs. Functional Components on Postprandial Metabolic, Oxidative Stress, and Inflammation in Adults with Metabolic Syndrome.

Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) contain bioactive components with functional properties that may modify cardiovascular risk. The aims of this pilot study were to evaluate the ability of black beans to attenuate postprandial metabolic, oxidative stress, and inflammatory responses and determine relative contribution of dietary fiber and antioxidant capacity of beans to the overall effect. In this randomized, controlled, crossover trial, 12 adults with metabolic syndrome (MetS) consumed one of three meals (black bean (BB), fiber matched (FM), and antioxidant capacity matched (AM)) on three occasions that included blood collection before (fasting) and five hours postprandially. Insulin was lower after the BB meal, compared to the FM or AM meals (p < 0.0001). A significant meal × time interaction was observed for plasma antioxidant capacity (p = 0.002) revealing differences over time: AM > BB > FM. Oxidized LDL (oxLDL) was not different by meal, although a trend for declining oxLDL was observed after the BB and AM meals at five hours compared to the FM meal. Triglycerides and interleukin-6 (IL-6) increased in response to meals (p < 0.0001). Inclusion of black beans with a typical Western-style meal attenuates postprandial insulin and moderately enhances postprandial antioxidant endpoints in adults with MetS, which could only be partly explained by fiber content and properties of antioxidant capacity

Working Together: Rural Nebraskans’ Views of Regional Collaboration

Some people support regional collaboration because they believe it better enables communities to increase the region’s economic vitality and quality of life. However, others worry that such collaboration threatens individual communities’ identities and limits citizens’ access to services. How do rural Nebraskans view regional collaboration? Do they support combining certain services with neighboring communities or counties more than others? Are they already purchasing their goods and services outside their local community? This report details 3,087 responses to the 2003 Nebraska Rural Poll, the eighth annual effort to understand rural Nebraskans’ perceptions. Respondents were asked a series of questions about regional collaboration. Comparisons were made among different respondent subgroups, i.e., comparisons by age, occupation, region, etc. Based on these analyses, some key findings emerged: • Most rural Nebraskans have a positive view of regional collaboration. At least three-quarters either strongly agreed or agreed that “communities in a region working together to generate new businesses are better able to create quality jobs for their residents” (82%) and “retail businesses in a region can provide a better variety of goods and services by working together collaboratively” (75%). Sixty percent agreed that combining community or county services will improve access to services. Fifty-nine percent disagreed that combining services would lead to lower quality services and 47 percent disagreed that combining services would lead to increased prices for the consumer. • Persons with higher education levels, younger respondents, persons with higher incomes and females are the groups most likely to have a positive view of regional collaboration. • At least one-half of rural Nebraskans are willing to raise revenue to keep fire protection and emergency medical services at their current level. When asked how they would cover the costs of various services if faced with a shortage of money, 53 percent were willing to raise revenue to support fire protection services and 50 percent would raise revenue to maintain emergency medical services. Forty-eight percent were willing to raise revenue for their schools (K - 12). • Over one-half of rural Nebraskans would combine or share the following services with other nearby communities or counties if faced with a shortage of money: county road maintenance, veterans services, health clinic, telecommunications services, economic development activities, licenses and permits, street maintenance, property assessment and county weed control. • Younger persons are more likely than older persons to support raising revenue to keep their school services at their current level. Seventy-six percent of the persons age 19 to 29 supported raising revenue to keep their school services at their current level. Only 35 percent of the persons age 65 and older supported raising revenue. The older respondents were more likely than the younger respondents to support combining the school with other nearby communities or reducing its level of service. Forty-five percent of the persons age 65 and older supported combining their school with others and 14 percent said they would reduce its level of service. In comparison, only 21 percent of the persons age 19 to 29 supported combining their school with other communities and only two percent supported reducing its level of service. • Persons living in or near the largest communities are more likely than the persons living in or near the smallest communities to support raising revenue to keep their school services the same. Fifty-two percent of the persons living in or near the communities with populations of 10,000 or more supported raising revenue to keep their school’s services at their current level. Only 39 percent of the persons living in or near communities with less than 500 people supported this option. The persons living in or near the smallest communities were slightly more likely to support combining their school with other communities and were also more likely to not currently have a school in their community. • Differences in the level of support for various alternatives to cover the costs of law enforcement are detected by community size. Persons living in or near the smallest communities were more likely than the persons living in or near the larger communities to say they don’t have law enforcement. Persons living in or near communities with populations ranging from 500 to 999 were the group most likely to support combining law enforcement services with another community or county. Persons living in or near the largest communities were more likely than the persons living in or near the smaller communities to advocate raising revenue to keep their law enforcement services at their current level. • Farmers and ranchers are more likely than persons with different occupations to say they would raise revenue to maintain their county roads. Thirty-two percent of the farmers and ranchers would raise revenue to keep their county road maintenance services at their current level. Only 15 percent of the persons with sales and administrative support occupations agreed. • On average, at least one-half of the following items are purchased by rural Nebraskans in their local community: banking/financial services (75.7%), groceries (73%), automobile/machinery repairs (72%), insurance (67%), farm and ranch inputs (66.9%), doctor/clinic services (63.6%) and hospital services (57.3%). • For each item, rural Nebraskans living in or near the larger communities purchased more locally than did those living in or near the smaller communities. As an example, persons living in or near the communities with populations of 10,000 or more purchased an average of 96.1% of their groceries in their local community. Persons living in or near communities with less than 500 people purchased an average of 38.2% of their groceries in their local community. For most items, respondents living in the smallest communities purchased at least one-half in another community within 50 miles. • For most items, Panhandle residents purchased more in their local community than did residents living in other parts of the state. As an example, Panhandle residents purchased an average of 53.5% of their recreation/entertainment in their local community, compared to an average of 38.7% for Southeast residents. But, South Central residents were more likely than other regional groups to have purchased hospital services, banking/financial services and insurance locally

Standardized Assessment of Concussion in football players

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://www.neurology.org/content/48/3/586.Article abstract-The recent formulation of guidelines for the management of concussion in sports adopted by the American Academy of Neurology specifically calls for the development of a standardized, systematic sideline evaluation for the immediate assessment of concussion in athletes. The present study involved the preliminary investigation of the feasibility and clinical validity of a standardized version of a brief sideline examination complied in accordance with these guidelines. This examination, intended for use by athletic trainers, was administered by three trainers to 141 nonconcussed high school football players at three separate schools. All players suspected of suffering a concussion (N = 6) during the fall 1995 season were also tested immediately following their injury. The examination was easily administered and scored. The concussed players as a group scored significantly below the nonconcussed controls and below their own baseline (pre-injury) performance, despite their all having been considered by the trainers to have suffered mild, grade 1 concussions. Although preliminary, these data suggest that a standardized sideline examination of this type can be useful in detecting concussion and determining fitness to return to play

Feasibility and initial efficacy of project-based treatment for people with ABI

Background: Communication impairments are common and pervasive for people a long time following acquired brain injury (ABI). These impairments have a significant impact on a person's quality of life (QOL) post‐injury. Project‐based treatment is a treatment approach that could have an impact on communication skills and QOL for people with ABI a long‐term post‐injury. This treatment is embedded in a context of meaningful activities chosen by people with ABI, whereby, as a group, they work collaboratively to achieve a tangible end product. Aims: To evaluate the feasibility and initial efficacy of project‐based treatment on improving the communication skills and QOL for people with ABI. Methods & Procedures: An exploratory controlled trial with alternate allocation of groups, and follow‐up at 6–8 weeks, was completed. Twenty‐one people with chronic ABI were recruited in groups of two to three from community settings, allocated to either a TREATMENT (n = 11) or WAITLIST group (n = 10). Participants attended a 20‐h group‐based treatment over 6 weeks where they worked towards achieving a project that helped others. To determine feasibility, four criteria were used: demand, implementation, practicality and acceptability. A range of communication and QOL outcomes was used to determine a fifth feasibility criterion, initial efficacy. Some of these criteria were additionally used to evaluate the feasibility of the outcomes. Outcomes & Results: All participants received the treatment as allocated with high attendance and no dropouts. The treatment was feasible to deliver as intended and was highly acceptable to participants. Medium and large effect sizes were found from pre‐ to post‐treatment, and from pre‐treatment to follow‐up for measures of conversation, perceived communicative ability and QOL. Conclusions & Implications: Project‐based treatment is feasible with indications of initial efficacy for both communication skills and QOL. The treatment provides a promising new approach for improving communication skills and QOL in people with chronic acquired brain injuries in the community setting

Ecosystem-Atmosphere Exchange of Carbon, Water and Energy over a Mixed Deciduous Forest in the Midwest

During the project period we continued to conduct long-term (multi-year) measurements, analysis, and modeling of energy and mass exchange in and over a deciduous forest in the Midwestern United States, to enhance the understanding of soil-vegetation-atmosphere exchange of carbon. At the time when this report was prepared, results from nine years of measurements (1998 - 2006) of above canopy CO2 and energy fluxes at the AmeriFlux site in the Morgan-Monroe State Forest, Indiana, USA (see Table 1), were available on the Fluxnet database, and the hourly CO2 fluxes for 2007 are presented here (see Figure 1). The annual sequestration of atmospheric carbon by the forest is determined to be between 240 and 420 g C m-2 a-1 for the first ten years. These estimates are based on eddy covariance measurements above the forest, with a gap-filling scheme based on soil temperature and photosynthetically active radiation. Data gaps result from missing data or measurements that were rejected in qua)lity control (e.g., during calm nights). Complementary measurements of ecological variables (i.e. inventory method), provided an alternative method to quantify net carbon uptake by the forest, partition carbon allocation in each ecosystem components, and reduce uncertainty on annual net ecosystem productivity (NEP). Biometric datasets are available on the Fluxnext database since 1998 (with the exclusion of 2006). Analysis for year 2007 is under completion

Memory of Love towards Parents Questionnaire:development and psychometric evaluation

We document the development of the Memory of Love towards Parents Questionnaire—for use in multiple areas of psychology. It is designed to measure current feelings of and memory of love towards a specific parent during important time periods in childhood. In all samples (total N = 1527), we consistently found high internal reliability. We report the basic psychometrics of the 28-item subscale version in both undergraduate and US nonclinical adult samples and identified 10-item and 4-item subscale versions. The Memory of Love towards Parents Questionnaire has eight subscales: assessing mother and father separately during first, sixth, and ninth grade, as well as current feelings. We found a pattern of correlations that one would expect between existing attachment scales and the Memory of Love towards Parents Questionnaire. A factor analysis demonstrated that Memory of Love towards Parents Questionnaire items capture something different from the factors in established attachment measures. We found that the order of the subscales can be presented in a fixed order (mother-first and chronologically) without large order effects. The Memory of Love towards Parents Questionnaire demonstrated a single factor within subscales, reliability, and validity. The Memory of Love towards Parents Questionnaire can be used in clinical, social, developmental, and cognitive psychology