Emotional response inhibition is greater in older than younger adults

Emotional information rapidly captures our attention and also often invokes automatic response tendencies, whereby positive information motivates approach, while negative information encourages avoidance. However, many circumstances require the need to override or inhibit these automatic responses. Control over responses to emotional information remains largely intact in late life, in spite of age-related declines in cognitive control and inhibition of responses to non-emotional information. The goal of this behavioral study was to understand how the aging process influences emotional response inhibition for positive and negative information in older adults. We examined emotional response inhibition in 36 healthy older adults (ages 60–89) and 44 younger adults (ages 18–22) using an emotional Go/No-Go task presenting happy (positive), fearful (negative), and neutral faces. In both younger and older adults, happy faces produced more approach-related behavior (i.e., fewer misses), while fearful faces produced more avoidance-related behavior, in keeping with theories of approach/avoidance-motivated responses. Calculation of speed/accuracy trade-offs between response times and false alarm rates revealed that younger and older adults both favored speed at the expense of accuracy, most robustly within blocks with fearful faces. However, there was no indication that the strength of the speed/accuracy trade-off differed between younger and older adults. The key finding was that although younger adults were faster to respond to all types of faces, older adults had greater emotional response inhibition (i.e., fewer false alarms). Moreover, younger adults were particularly prone to false alarms for happy faces. This is the first study to directly test effects of aging on emotional response inhibition. Complementing previous literature in the domains of attention and memory, these results provide new evidence that in the domain of response inhibition older adults may more effectively employ emotion regulatory ability, albeit on a slower time course, compared to younger adults. Older adults’ enhanced adaptive emotion regulation strategies may facilitate resistance to emotional distraction. The present study extends the literature of emotional response inhibition in younger adulthood into late life, and in doing so further elucidates how cognitive aging interacts with affective control processes

Driving terrestrial ecosystem models from space

Regional air pollution, land-use conversion, and projected climate change all affect ecosystem processes at large scales. Changes in vegetation cover and growth dynamics can impact the functioning of ecosystems, carbon fluxes, and climate. As a result, there is a need to assess and monitor vegetation structure and function comprehensively at regional to global scales. To provide a test of our present understanding of how ecosystems operate at large scales we can compare model predictions of CO2, O2, and methane exchange with the atmosphere against regional measurements of interannual variation in the atmospheric concentration of these gases. Recent advances in remote sensing of the Earth's surface are beginning to provide methods for estimating important ecosystem variables at large scales. Ecologists attempting to generalize across landscapes have made extensive use of models and remote sensing technology. The success of such ventures is dependent on merging insights and expertise from two distinct fields. Ecologists must provide the understanding of how well models emulate important biological variables and their interactions; experts in remote sensing must provide the biophysical interpretation of complex optical reflectance and radar backscatter data

The effect of herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers on the optical properties of water

A reflectometer accessory for a spectrophotometer was designed and constructed in our laboratory. Using distilled water as the reflectance standard, the reflectometer was used to measure relative specular reflectance of 0.5M aqueous solutions of K2SO4 and NH4H2PO4 in the 2-12m wavelength region and for 1M (NH2)2CO in the 2-20m wavelength region for infrared radiant flux incident at about 70 degrees and linearly polarized perpendicular to the plane of incidence. Absolute reflectances of the solutions were computed for 70 degrees angle of incidence by using the relative reflectance measurements, one of the Fresnel equations, and the optical constants of water. The optical constants of the aqueous solutions were then computed by applying a Kramers-Kronig phase-shift dispersion analysis to the absolute reflectance spectra. The report provides a description of the instrumentation and the experimental procedures for making the measurements. The relative reflectances, absolute reflectances, and optical constants are presented in graphical form in the text and are tabulated in Appendix I. Spectral signatures characteristic of the solutes are discussed in the text. In addition, further investigations of the optical constants of distilled water were made in that they are related to the investigations of aqueous solutions. The work on distilled water was accomplished in cooperation with Dr. Dudley Williams at Kansas State University. A reprint describing the work is presented in Appendix I.Project # A-030-MO Agreement # 14-31-0001-302

Content Analysis of Public Instagram Posts about Pelvic Floor Disorders and Pelvic Floor Muscle Training in Pregnancy

Objective: To analyze the content of public Instagram posts and describe the discussion of pelvic floor disorders (PFDs) and pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT)/pelvic floor physical therapy (PFPT) in pregnancy. Methods: Public Instagram accounts based in the U.S. with posts within the past 7 days focused on pregnancy were included. We analyzed English posts related to pelvic floor health, PFDs or PFMT. We categorized accounts by user type, health-related expertise, business endorsement, and influencer status. We categorized posts by content (informative, recommendation, sharing experience, meme, advertisement), context (informative, preventive, interventive), and terminology (scientific, lay). We used chi-squared tests to compare scientific terminology use and PFMT/PFPT recommendation presence by user type and health-related expertise. Results: 156 posts from 21 Instagram accounts were included. Most users presented as companies (43%), provided a link to a business (95%), claimed licensed health-related expertise (43%), and were meso-influencers (72%). Most posts were in an informative (45%) or interventive (41%) context, and included information (81%), an advertisement (48%) and/or a recommendation (47%). Fifty-two percent of posts with a recommendation endorsed PFMT/PFPT. Most posts used lay terminology (40%) or scientific and lay terminology (36%). Use of scientific terminology differed by health-related expertise (p=0.0014) but not user type (p=0.1489). Recommendations for PFMT/PFPT did not differ by user type (p=0.0654) or health-related expertise (p=0.1277). Conclusions: Public health policy should target preventive information and resources for PFMT towards pregnant persons on social media. Future research is needed to evaluate quality of pelvic floor health information and recommendations during pregnancy

Alkali oxide-tantalum, niobium and antimony oxide ionic conductors

The phase equilibrium relations of four systems were investigated in detail. These consisted of sodium and potassium antimonates with antimony oxide and tantalum and niobium oxide with rubidium oxide as far as the ratio 4Rb2O:llB2O5 (B=Nb, Ta). The ternary system NaSbO3-Sb2O4-NaF was investigated extensively to determine the actual composition of the body centered cubic sodium antimonate. Various other binary and ternary oxide systems involving alkali oxides were examined in lesser detail. The phases synthesized were screened by ion exchange methods to determine mobility of the mobility of the alkali ion within the niobium, tantalum or antimony oxide (fluoride) structural framework. Five structure types warranted further investigation; these structure types are (1) hexagonal tungsten bronze (HTB), (2) pyrochlore, (3) the hybrid HTB-pyrochlore hexagonal ordered phases, (4) body centered cubic antimonates and (5) 2K2O:3Nb2O5. Although all of these phases exhibit good ion exchange properties only the pyrochlore was prepared with Na(+) ions as an equilibrium phase and as a low porosity ceramic. Sb(+3) in the channel interferes with ionic conductivity in this case, although relatively good ionic conductivity was found for the metastable Na(+) ion exchanged analogs of RbTa2O5F and KTaWO6 pyrochlore phases

The evaluation of arrangements for effective operation of the new Local Safeguarding Children Boards in England - Brief

Introduction and Background: Both the statutory inquiry into the tragic death of Victoria Climbié (2003) and the first joint Chief Inspectors’ Report on Safeguarding (Chief Inspector of Social Services et al., 2002) emphasise the importance of effective joint working between agencies and professionals to safeguard children from harm and to promote their welfare. Subsequent policy developments, underpinned by the Children Act 2004, are intended to ensure an integrated approach to service provision and that children achieve their potential in terms of being healthy, staying safe, enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution and achieving economic well-being (HM Government, 2004). Working Together to Safeguard Children (HM Government, 2006: p.10) identifies one of the most important developments in this context as the establishment of Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs). The Boards put former Area Child Protection Committees (ACPCs) on a statutory footing. Research had found that ACPCs’ lack of statutory power had limited their effectiveness (Chief Inspector of Social Services et al., 2002). A series of other weaknesses were also identified including: variations in levels of representation and membership, structure and practice, poor leadership and insufficient resources (Chief Inspector of Social Services et al., 2002; Horwath and Glennie, 1999; Narducci, 2003; Ward et al., 2004)