Soot and smoke aerosol may not warm climate

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/94810/1/jgrd10551.pd

An Investigation of Plant-based Dietary Motives Among Vegetarians and Omnivores

The three most common motives for plant-based diets in western populations are health, the environment, and animal rights. This study compares the structure, endorsement rates, and personality correlates of these motives among vegetarian and omnivorous (i.e., non-vegetarian) respondents. We found evidence for configural, metric, and scalar equivalence in the measurement of these motives across vegetarians and omnivores, suggesting that vegetarian diet motives function similarly whether or not the respondent identifies as vegetarian. Vegetarians, notably, reported being more motivated by the environment and animal rights than omnivores; health motivations were similarly high across groups. Several significant effects emerged linking vegetarian motives to personality traits, with patterns of correlations between motives and traits being highly similar across vegetarians and omnivores. Overall, these findings suggest that vegetarian eating motives are similar in terms of structure and personality correlates, but differ in endorsement rates, between vegetarian and omnivorous individuals

Validation of a Tibetan translation of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 and the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire

This study sought to translate and validate the Hopkins Symptom Checklist–25 (HSCL) and the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) in a Tibetan population. Translated questionnaires were administered to 57 Tibetan survivors of torture/human rights abuses living in the United States and receiving services in a torture treatment program. Participants were evaluated to determine if they met criteria for major depressive episode, generalized anxiety disorder, or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Coefficient alpha for the HSCL Anxiety subscale (.89), Depression subscale (.92), and the HTQ (.89) were high. Diagnostic accuracy using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis generated good classification accuracy for anxiety (.89), depression (.92), and PTSD (.83). However, although sensitivity and specificity for HSCL subscales were quite high, the HTQ generated low sensitivity (.33), partly because of a low rate of PTSD. Results support the reliability and validity of the HSCL but suggest further study of the HTQ with this population is required

A Dynamic Method, Analysis, and Model of Short-Term Memory for Serial Order with Clinical Applications

This study examined the robustness of a traditional memory task when moved out of controlled traditional settings. A letter recall task was designed to be self-administered via a smart-device which assessed recall by participants’ writing their responses on the device. This enabled collection of both the letter recalled and the timing of this recall such that the temporal dynamics could be examined. Participants were patients with mental illness (n=71) and healthy volunteers (n=103). Temporal dynamics were examined using a new mechanism that measured memory retrieval time precisely. Data were analyzed for accuracy, time and their relationships. The classic memory phenomena and associated effects were replicated. In terms of temporal dynamics, this is the first demonstration of primacy and recency effects in time domain variables, as well as phonological similarity effects as evident by the inverted U-shaped curves in time. The speed of short-term memory processes affects accuracy, error types and timing. The robustness of these memory effects and new approach to temporal dynamics suggest this framework may be suitable for clinical applications, notably for the long-term monitoring of cognition in patients with mental illness