Sex Differences in Attributions to Positive and Negative Sexual Scenarios in Men and Women With and Without Sexual Problems: Reconsidering Stereotypes

People with sexual problems are more likely to attribute negative sexual experiences to themselves, in contrast to sexually functional individuals who attribute negative sexual experiences to external factors such as the circumstance or partner. We investigated attribution patterns in 820 men and 753 women, some of whom reported an orgasmic problem, to assess differences between the sexes and those with and without an orgasmic difficulty. Specifically, using an Internet-based approach, we compared attribution responses to four sexual scenarios, one representing a positive sexual experience and three representing negative sexual experiences. Women were more likely to attribute positive outcomes to their partner than men. Women were also more likely to attribute negative outcomes to themselves than men, but they more readily blamed their partner and circumstances for negative outcomes than men as well. Those with orgasmic problems were less willing to take credit for positive outcomes and more willing to accept blame for negative outcomes. Interaction effects between sex and orgasmic problems further highlighted differences between men’s and women’s attribution patterns. These results are interpreted in the context of traditional notions that men’s attributions tend to be more self-serving and women’s attributions more self-derogatory

Item content versus contextual strengthening following retrieval

Includes bibliographical references.2015 Summer.Despite a substantial literature describing the memory benefit resulting from testing (i.e., memory retrieval), relatively few investigations have attempted to detail how retrieval acts as a memory modifier. One core issue concerns the extent to which testing and studying effect fundamentally similar or different processes or components of memories. The present paper introduces two computational models, both based in REM theory (Shiffrin & Steyvers, 1997) and designed to provide a plausible basis for describing the testing effect at a more mechanistic level than existing theories. The two models are derived from the same set of core assumptions about the functioning of the memory system, and differ only in their specifications of the components of memories that are modified as a result of retrieval. The “Item Model” (IM) assumes that retrieval serves primarily to strengthen the target item content representation of information that is retrieved. In contrast, the “Context Model” (CM) assumes that retrieval serves to embed additional contextual information into the target memory trace, facilitating the subsequent ability of the memory system to locate such items. This manuscript provides coverage of relevant areas in the literature that have bearing on the IM and CM, details the implementation of the models and their larger framework, and reports on 4 experiments designed to test contrasting predictions of the IM and CM. Experiment 1 observed a testing effect using a mixed list, but not a pure list design, implying that testing may serve to enhance the search process by strengthening context information in memory. Experiments 2-4 were designed to examine the effects of reinstating contextual information during final testing on the testing effect. Experiments 2 and 3 found that reinstating either perceptual contextual elements (Exp. 2), or semantic context cues (Exp. 3) at the time of final test did not significantly impact the magnitude of the testing effect. However, Experiment 4 found that reinstating the initial learning mental/temporal context at the time of final test mitigated the magnitude of the testing effect. Potential nuanced interactions between testing and context in memory are discussed

Essays on Oil, Energy, and Oil Self-Sufficiency in the U.S.

When oil prices rise, politicians often call for improvements in energy efficiency or policies that they hope will make the U.S. more “energy independent.” The argument is that if we consume less oil, domestic supplies will constitute a larger portion of U.S. quantity demanded, mitigating our dependence on potentially unreliable foreign oil sources, thereby lessening U.S. exposure to volatile supply/price fluctuations. Three interrelated issues are addressed in this dissertation. First, the drivers and substitution patterns in U.S. oil demand are explored using structural demand system analysis for energy in the U.S. Second, world oil supply is estimated using the cost structure of world oil reservoirs, which principally depend on reservoir characteristics. Models of both supply and demand yield insight into the feasibility and unintended outcomes of policies or technological advances that reduce oil demand. Finally, the U.S. autarky equilibrium price at the intersection of the U.S. supply and demand curves is considered. Inferences on the economic feasibility for the U.S. to strive towards self-sufficiency in oil are examined including the vulnerability premium associated with national security concerns. The demand model demonstrates that U.S. oil demand is explained as a system of demands for energy, where individuals are committed in the short run to minimum quantities of consumption. In the context of pre-commitments, oil is found to have a higher own-price elasticity (more elastic) at average than is commonly found in the literature. Oil is further demonstrated to be a compliment for natural gas and electricity, and a substitute for coal. Oil production costs and quantities are heavily dependent upon reservoir geology, which has a fixed dispersion around the world. Using this premise, a supply curve composed of world oil reservoirs is generated. Scenario analysis on different world oil demand reductions suggests there are unintended costs of reducing oil demand. Oil producing countries will experience smaller gross domestic products from diminished oil production. Smaller gross domestic products may affect the countries’ political stability. The world oil supply curve and cross price elasticities from the demand model are considered together under the most likely scenario of a fall in world oil demand stemming from a 2.5% decrease in U.S. oil demand. These results are used to consider unintended consequences of changes in U.S. oil demand in attempts to achieve or pursue “energy independence.” These results include the impact on coal, natural gas, and electricity demand; the required change in gasoline demand that could precipitate a 2.5% change in oil demand; the change in U.S. GDP; the change in U.S. “energy independence” and; the change in political stability of oil producing nations. U.S. supply and demand curves for oil will not intersect in the short run with current technology. The implication is that the vulnerability premium for oil would need to be infinite to justify U.S. self-sufficiency in oil. The U.S., therefore, should not strive towards energy independence in oil

Testing effects in context memory

2011 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.Retrieving a previously learned piece of information can have profound positive effects on the later retention of such information. However, it is not clear if test-induced memory benefits are restricted to the specific information which was retrieved, or if they can generalize more completely to the full study episode. Two experiments investigated the role of retrieval practice on memory for both target and non-target contextual information. Experiment 1 used a remember-know task to assess the subjective quality of memory as a function of earlier retrieval practice or study. Additionally, memory for context information (target font color) from the initial study episode was assessed. Experiment 2 used paired associates to investigate the effect of testing on non-tested but associated contextual information. Successful retrieval practice, compared with study, resulted in large benefits in target, target-associated, and context information retention across both experiments. Moreover, successful retrieval practice was associated with a greater contribution of remember responses informing recognition decisions. The results suggest that retrieving information may serve to both boost item memory about a target and strengthen the bind between target and associated contextual information. In sum, the present study adds to an emerging literature that test-induced mnemonic benefits may "spill over" to non-tested information

Sedimentology and stratigraphy of the Durham coal measures, and comparisons with other British coalfields

A Westphalian (Coal Measures) sequence 900 m thick is preserved in the Durham coalfield of N.E. England, and includes the Westphalian A, B and C stages. This succession is condensed with respect to those of the central Pennine coalfields further south. The Durham Coal Measures were deposited on a coastal, deltaic plain, characterized by having little or no relief. This plain was crossed by bifurcating distributary channels, which were separated by shallow water lakes and bays. Trunk distributaries, probably of low-moderate sinuosity and perhaps 5 kms wide, fed sinuous major distributaries of up to 3 kms width. These in turn supplied minor distributaries, often sinuous in form, which were up to 100 m wide and fed shallow water deltas. Interdistributary lakes and bays were generally less than 10 m deep, up to 20+ kms wide, unstratified and often anoxic. These shallow basins were in filled by crevasse splay and minor delta sedimentation. Infilled lake and bay surfaces and abandoned channels were rapidly colonized by vegetation, and thick (perhaps up to 40 m) seams of peat were able to accumulate, often diachronously, over wide areas (100s of sq. kms).During Namurian and Lower Westphalian times, lower delta plain conditions prevailed, in which interdistributary bays were open to marine influence so that deltaic sands could be reworked to form quartz arenitic shoreline sandstone bodies. As a result of south ward deltaic progradation, this environment evolved into an upper delta plain which persisted through much of the Westphalian A and B, although during Upper Westphalian A times, the plain developed characteristics transitional to those of a fluvial plain. Occasional marine incursions caused only temporary drowning of the upper delta plain surface to 10-15 m depth. Sedimentation was controlled on the large scale (100s of sq. kms) by patterns of deltaic sediment distribution, on the medium scale (10s of sq. kms) by a combination of structurally- and compaction- induced subsidence, and on the small scale by local sedimentary processes. A comparison with other areas of Westphalian outcrop in Britain shows strong similarities to the depositional environment found in Durham

Rethinking antibiotics for sinusitis-again

Stop prescribing amoxicillin for acute rhinosinusitis. It's unlikely to provide a speedier recovery than over-the-counter (OTC) remedies alone. Stength of recommendation: B: Based on a single high-quality randomized controlled trial

Interpreting Agreement

This dissertation is an investigation of the formal status of agreement morphology and its relationship to null arguments. Rejecting Chomsky’s (2000, 2001) claim that valuedness is the formal correlate of interpretability, it is suggested that a more elegant account of the data follows if φ-features of verbal affixes are taken to be valued in the lexicon. Interpretability is argued to be determined in the syntax, according to whether the affix is in a position to receive a Ө-role or not and as such the proposal diverges from that of Pesetsky and Torrego (2005a, 2005b), who also argue for the separation of interpretability and valuedness, but consider both to be lexical properties of a given category. Positing the existence of verbal affixes with valued interpretable φ-features is uncontroversial and this is the analysis adopted for environments such as the participial clause in Finnish, object and complementiser agreement in Modem Standard Arabic and a range of contexts in Modem Irish in which 'pronominal agreement' and full NP or free pronominal arguments are in strictly complementary distribution. It is shown that valued uninterruptible features, while not present in the lexicon according to the Chomskyan model, are necessarily created in the course of the derivation, leading to the conclusion that the computational component must contain an operation for deleting such features under identity with matching identical features of a nominal category. Since this should be no less able to apply to lexically valued uninterpretable features, there is no principled reason to suppose that such features do not exist and this is the analysis adopted for constructions such as certain Finnish adjunct clauses and SVO structures in Modem Standard Arabic, in which agreement and overt arguments co-occur. An important consequence of allowing the interpretability of φ-features to be determined in the syntax is the possibility that the same affix could be interpretable in one environment and uninterruptible in another, exhibiting different syntactic behaviour accordingly, and this is argued to be the case for Finnish possessor agreement and finite verb agreement in Modem Standard Arabic, obviating the need to posit a lexical split as other analyses (e.g. Fassi Fehri, 1993, Toivonen, 2000) have had to. Optional arguments are accounted for by recourse to the idea of a null pronominal with interpretable unvalued-features which probes an agreement head with uninterpretable valued φ-features, a natural consequence of the dissolution of the biconditional relationship between interpretability and valuedness and a direct analogue in Minimalist terms of the category pro of Chomsky (1982) and Rizzi (1986)

A randomised trial of an eight-week, once weekly primaquine regimen to prevent relapse of plasmodium vivax in Northwest Frontier Province, Pakistan.

BACKGROUND: Vivax malaria remains a major cause of morbidity in the subtropics. To undermine the stability of the disease, drugs are required that prevent relapse and provide reservoir reduction. A 14-day course of primaquine (PQ) is effective but cannot safely be used in routine practice because of its interaction with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency for which testing is seldom available. Safe and effective use of PQ without the need for G6PD testing would be ideal. The efficacy and safety of an 8-week, once weekly PQ regimen was compared with current standard treatment (chloroquine alone) and a 14-day PQ regimen. METHODS AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: 200 microscopically confirmed Plasmodium vivax patients were randomly assigned to either once weekly 8-week PQ (0.75 mg/kg/week), once weekly 8-week placebo, or 14-day PQ (0.5mg/kg/day) in North West Frontier Province, Pakistan. All patients were treated with a standard chloroquine dose and tested for G6PD deficiency. Deficient patients were assigned to the 8-week PQ group. Failure was defined as any subsequent episode of vivax malaria over 11 months of observation. There were 22/71 (31.0%) failures in the placebo group and 1/55 (1.8%) and 4/75 (5.1%) failures in the 14-day and 8-week PQ groups, respectively. Adjusted odds ratios were: for 8-week PQ vs. placebo-0.05 (95%CI: 0.01-0.2, p<0.001) and for 14-day PQ vs. placebo-0.01 (95%CI: 0.002-0.1, p<0.001). Restricted analysis allowing for a post-treatment prophylactic effect confirmed that the 8-week regimen was superior to current treatment. Only one G6PD deficient patient presented. There were no serious adverse events. CONCLUSIONS: A practical radical treatment for vivax malaria is essential for control and elimination of the disease. The 8-week PQ course is more effective at preventing relapse than current treatment with chloroquine alone. Widespread use of the 8-week regimen could make an important contribution to reservoir reduction or regional elimination where G6PD testing is not available. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00158587

Sex Differences in Attributions to Positive and Negative Sexual Scenarios in Men and Women With and Without Sexual Problems: Reconsidering Stereotypes

People with sexual problems are more likely to attribute negative sexual experiences to themselves, in contrast to sexually functional individuals who attribute negative sexual experiences to external factors such as the circumstance or partner. We investigated attribution patterns in 820 men and 753 women, some of whom reported an orgasmic problem, to assess differences between the sexes and those with and without an orgasmic difficulty. Specifically, using an Internet-based approach, we compared attribution responses to four sexual scenarios, one representing a positive sexual experience and three representing negative sexual experiences. Women were more likely to attribute positive outcomes to their partner than men. Women were also more likely to attribute negative outcomes to themselves than men, but they more readily blamed their partner and circumstances for negative outcomes than men as well. Those with orgasmic problems were less willing to take credit for positive outcomes and more willing to accept blame for negative outcomes. Interaction effects between sex and orgasmic problems further highlighted differences between men’s and women’s attribution patterns. These results are interpreted in the context of traditional notions that men’s attributions tend to be more self-serving and women’s attributions more self-derogatory