Positive Affect

A recent factor analysis oftheMultiple AffectAdjective check List (MAACL) changed the Anxiety, Depression, and Hostility scales from bipolar to unipolar scales and added two new scales: Positive Affect and Sensation Seek-ing. Internal reliability of the MAACL-R scales, ...

This paper presents a new model of gratitude incorporating not only the gratitude that arises following help from others but also a habitual focusing on and appreciating the positive aspects of life", incorporating not only the gratitude that arises following help from others, but also a habitual focusing on and appreciating the positive aspects of life. Research into individual differences in gratitude and well-being is reviewed, including gratitude and psychopathology, personality, relationships, health, subjective and eudemonic wellbeing, and humanistically orientated functioning. Gratitude is strongly related to well-being, however defined, and this link may be unique and causal. Interventions to clinically increase gratitude are critically reviewed, and concluded to be promising, although the positive psychology literature may have neglected current limitations, and a distinct research strategy is suggested. Finally, mechanisms whereby gratitude may relate to well-being are discussed, including schematic biases, coping, positive affect, and broaden-and-build principles. Gratitude is relevant to clinical psychology due to (a) strong explanatory power in understanding well-being, and (b) the potential of improving well-being through fostering gratitude with simple exercises.

Declines in children's active transport and independent mobility have been dramatic in many western nations over recent decades. Despite the growing understanding of policy changes that would lead to increases in children's active transport, it has not been possible to reverse the trends in children's mobilities in most nations. This paper focuses on the potential for using two Disney-Pixar movies as allegories for the links between children's mobilities and major resource, health and environmental issues facing humanity. These include energy stress (particularly oil vulnerability), the health impacts of decreasing physical activity, and the likely environmental outcomes of 'business as usual' in modern western societies. The paper explains how the use of themes in Monsters, Inc. and WALL-E, facilitates the harnessing of the positive affect that may motivate changes in values and behaviour to enhance children's independent mobility and active transport.

What determines a country's ability to compete in international markets? What fosters the global competitiveness of its firms? And in the European context, have key elements of the EU strategy such as EMU and enlargement helped or hindered domestic firms' competitiveness in local and global markets? We address these questions by calibrating and simulating a conceptual framework that, based on Melitz and Ottaviano (2005), predicts that tougher and more transparent international competition drives less productive firms out the market, thereby increasing average productivity as well as reducing average prices and mark-ups. The model also predicts a parallel reduction of price dispersion within sectors. Our conceptual framework allows us to disentangle the effects of technology and freeness of entry from those of accessibility (i.e. the ease for local firms to reach local and foreign consumers). On the one hand, by controlling for the impact of trade frictions, we are able to co...

A central component of the primary health care approach in developing countries has been the development and utilization of community-based health workers (CHWs) within the national health system. While the use of these front line workers has the potential to positively influence health behavior and health status in rural communities, there continues to be challenges to effective implementation of CHW programs. Reports of high turnover rates, absenteeism, poor quality of work, and low morale among CHWs have often been associated with weak organizational and managerial capacity of government health systems. However, no systematic research has examined the contribution of work-related factors to CHW job performance. The research reported in this paper examines the relative influence of reward and feedback factors associated with the community compared to those associated with the health system on the performance of CHWs. The data are drawn from a broader study of health promoters (CHW...

A great number of research suggests that hardiness acts as a protective factor in stressful situations, especially in work context. In the present research the factor structure of Dispositional Resilience Scale (DRS; Bartone, Ursano, Wright, & Ingraham, 1989), and its factorial invariance across gender was examined. Furthermore, the relationships of hardiness to five-factor personality traits and several mental health outcomes (positive affect, negative affect and physical symptoms) were also explored. Research was carried out on the sample of 597 employees from different companies. Five hypotheses about the structure of this scale were tested by using confirmatory factor analysis. The results mostly supported one-factor structure of abridged version of DRS (12 items), from which three negatively oriented items originally aimed at measuring challenge were excluded. Regarding measurement invariance across gender, the results of multi-group confirmatory factor analysis show that facto...

Price capped firms enjoy a large degree of pricing discretion, which may harm customers and competition. We study two alternative regulatory regimes to limit it: the first regime (Absolute) places a fixed upper limit to the prices charged in captive markets, while the other regime (Relative) constrains the captive prices relatively to the competitive ones. Under the Relative regime, captive prices are only weakly lower and competitive prices are always higher than under the Absolute regime. However, the number of competitors and/or their output may be higher under the Relative regime. While the effects on aggregate welfare are ambiguous, there is some evidence that the Relative regime is more likely to increase consumers' surplus and social welfare the more efficient are the competitors.

Breast cancer radiotherapy can be an emotionally difficult experience. Despite this, few studies have examined the effectiveness of psychological interventions to reduce negative affect, and none to date have explicitly examined interventions to improve positive affect among breast cancer radiotherapy patients. The present study examined the effectiveness of a multimodal psychotherapeutic approach, combining cognitive-behavioral therapy and hypnosis (CBTH), to reduce negative affect and increase positive affect in 40 women undergoing breast cancer radiotherapy. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either CBTH or standard care. Participants completed weekly self-report measures of positive and negative affect. Repeated and univariate analyses of variance revealed that the CBTH approach reduced levels of negative affect [F(1, 38)=13.49; p=.0007, ω2=.56], and increased levels of positive affect [F(1, 38)=9.67; p=.0035, ω2=.48], during the course of radiotherapy. Additionally,...

Two greenhouse experiments were focused on the application of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) in planting of high-biomass crops on reclaimed spoil banks. In the first experiment, we tested the effects of different organic amendments on growth of alfalfa and on the introduced microorganisms. While growth of plants was supported in substrate with compost amendment, mycorrhizal colonization was suppressed. Lignocellulose papermill waste had no negative effects on AMF, but did not positively affect growth of plants. The mixture of these two amendments was found to be optimal in both respects, plant growth and mycorrhizal development. Decreasing doses of this mixture amendment were used in the second experiment, where the effects of microbial inoculation (assumed to compensate for reduced doses of organic matter) on growth of two high-biomass crops, hemp and reed canarygrass, were studied. Plant growth response to microbial inoculation was either positive or negative, depending on the dose of the applied amendment and plant species.

We employed multilevel structural equation modeling with data collected during telephone interviews with 1,156 parents of sixth graders from 36 rural schools to examine the relationships of family sociodemographic factors, parents' perceptions of their child's susceptibility to future substance use involvement, parents' perceptions of their ability to prevent such problems, and the perceived benefits of family-skills programs designed to prevent adolescent problems. Family-level findings suggested that parent gender and marital status were particularly salient; each exhibited direct effects on each of the three parent perceptions examined. Findings supported the hypotheses that parental efficacy perceptions inversely affect perceptions of child susceptibility and that perceptions of child susceptibility positively affect perceived program benefits. At the community level, lower household incomes were associated with higher levels of perceived child susceptibility to substance use.

Cereals are an important part of diets for hypercholesterolemic patients. However, some of these patients are allergic to these natural products. The purpose of the current study was to compare oatmeal with equal in nutritional values two allergy-free amaranth meals to determine whether this pseudocereal can be a substitute for allergic to cereals individuals. The total phenols of the samples were determined with the Folin-Chocalteu reagent, anthocyanins, and flavonoids spectrophotometrically. The antioxidant activities were estimated with nitric oxide scavenging radical (NO) and by ␤-carotene bleaching (␤-carotene). It was found that the contents of different protein fractions, antioxidant compounds, and the antioxidant activities of oatmeal were significantly higher than those of the two amaranth samples. The results of kinetic reactions showed that samples differed in their capacities to quench these radicals, and oats have shown more antioxidant activity than amaranth. High correlation was observed between antioxidant activities and phenols (R 2 ϭ 0.99). In the in vivo part of the investigation, 60 male Wistar rats were divided into five diet groups of 12 animals each; these groups were designated as Control, Chol, Chol/Oat, Chol/AmarI, and Chol/AmarII. The rats of the Control group were fed basal diet (BD) only. To the BD of the four other groups were added the following: 1% of cholesterol (Chol), 10% of oat meal and 1% of cholesterol (Chol/Oat), 10% of amaranth I meal, and 1% of cholesterol (Chol/AmarI) and 10% of amaranth II meal and 1% of cholesterol (Chol/AmarII). After 32 days of different feeding, diets supplemented with oat meal and, to lesser degree, with amaranth I and amaranth II hindered the rise in the plasma lipids: a) TC: 3.14 vs. 4.57 mmol/L, Ϫ 31.3%; 3.31 vs. 4.57 mmol/L Ϫ 27.6%; and 3.40 vs. 4.57, Ϫ 25.6%, respectively b) LDL-C: 1.69 vs. 3.31 mmol/L, Ϫ 49.9%; 2.05 vs. 3.31 mmol/L, Ϫ 38.1%; and 2.16 vs. 3.31 mmol/L, Ϫ 34.8%, respectively; c) TG: 0.73 vs. 0.88 mmol/L, Ϫ 17.1%; 0.75 vs. 0.88 mmol/L, Ϫ 14.8%; and 0.79 vs. 0.88 mmol/L, Ϫ10.2%, respectively. The HDL-PH was increased as follows: 0.79 vs. 0.63 mmol/L, Ϫ25.3%; 0.75 vs. 0.63 mmol/L, Ϫ23.0%; and 0.71 vs. 0.63 mmol/L, Ϫ12

Antioxidant and antimicrobial activities as well as total phenols and flavonoids contents of Salvia glutinosa L. (glutinous sage) and Salvia officinalis L. (sage) extracts were studied. Methanol and aqueous ethanol (70% v/v) were used for extraction of bioactive compounds, both in the presence and the absence of ultrasound, from herb and the spent plant material remaining after the essential oil hydrodistillation. The ratio of plant material to extracting solvent was 1:10 g/mL. Antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of the extracts were found to depend on the type of plant material and the extraction conditions. The plant materials from which essential oil had been recovered were proven to be valuable raw materials for making various herbal preparations.

This study measured the economic impacts of climate change on crop and livestock farming in Africa based on a cross-sectional survey of over 8000 farming households from 11 countries in east, west, north and southern Africa. The response of net revenue from crop and livestock agriculture across various farm types and systems in Africa to changes in climate normals (i.e. mean rainfall and temperature) is analysed. The analyses controlled for effects of key socioeconomic, technology, soil and hydrological factors influencing agricultural production. Results show that net farm revenues are in general negatively affected by warmer and drier climates. The small-scale mixed crop and livestock system predominantly typical in Africa is the most tolerant whereas specialized crop production is the most vulnerable to warming and lower rainfall. These results have important policy implications, especially for the suitability of the increasing tendency toward large-scale mono-cropping strategies for agricultural development in Africa and other parts of the developing world in light of expected climate changes. Mixed crop and livestock farming and irrigation offered better adaptation options for farmers against further warming and drying predicted under various future climate scenarios.

Despite an abundance of literature that assesses medication compliance associated with specific diseases, its impact on patient outcomes remains poorly characterised, perhaps due to the complexity associated with its influence and measurement. Much of the previous research includes end-points that were reflective of the duration and pattern of medication use; the value of which is questionable. In fact, the accuracy of compliance data remains highly controversial due to the difficulties associated with its measurement. Monitoring, by itself, may result in minor improvements in medication compliance; monitoring that is coupled to a meaningful clinical outcome that patients can self-measure results in enhanced compliance. Disease management programmes frequently contain interventions to impact compliance. Disease management programme developers interested in positively affecting compliance should incorporate patient self-monitoring methods into their compliance interventions.

Teachers complain about growing concentration deficits and reduced attention in adolescents. Exercise has been shown to positively affect cognitive performance. Due to the neuronal connection between the cerebellum and the frontal cortex, we hypothesized that ...

This research examined the contributions of active and passive coping for health problems, and meaning-based coping, to positive psychosocial functioning in a sample of 100 individuals in residential care with a mean age of 83.11 years old. Study participants resided in skilled care, intermediate care, or assisted living facilities. Based on interview data collected on site in participants' residential settings, hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that active and passive coping and meaning-based coping had separate influences on measures of positive psychosocial functioning. Active coping was correlated with higher positive affect, whereas passive coping was associated with higher negative affect and self-acceptance. Positive reappraisal, a meaning-based coping strategy, was uniquely associated with higher positive affect, positive social relations, and self-acceptance. Positive religious coping was not independently associated with positive psychosocial function...

Maize (Zeu muys L.) is the most important cereal crop in the hills of Nepal, where the grain is used for human consumption and the stover for animal fodder. Maize farms are small, and population pressure necessitates the intensification of existing farming systems. Maize research directed at developing technologies for maize production began in Nepal in 1965. In 2000, a survey was carried out in two districts to determine the current level of adoption of improved maize production practices. In each of these districts, remote and accessible village development committees (VDCs) were surveyed. Questionnaires were administered to 54 randomly selected households in each VDC. A Tobit analysis was used to determine socio-economic, physical and technology factors that influence the use of improved varieties by farmers. All households use composted farmyard manure, and in the more accessible areas, urea as part of their soil fertility management strategy. Use of improved varieties was less than 60% for all VDCs and only 15% in the most remote VDC. In three of the four VDCs, adoption of improved varieties primarily occurred during the past 5 years. Based on a Tobit analysis, Khet land area, ethnic group, years of fertiliser use, off-farm income, and contact with extension significantly and positively affected adoption of improved varieties. Farmers in VDCs in central Nepal reported lack of seed to be the major constraint to the adoption of improved varieties, while lack of knowledge of new varieties was the major constraint for farmers in the western VDCs. The results from this survey suggest that the strategy for improving the adoption of new varieties will differ depending on infrastructure and the socio-economic conditions of the farmers in a given area.

Molluscs, both gastropods and bivalves, appear to disproportionately influence the dynamics of salt marsh habitats. Bivalves typically are facilitators positively affecting the growth and survival of marshes, but gastropods may have unanticipated top-down effects through direct consumption of the predominant marsh vegetation, Spartina alterniflora. Natural, elevational differences in S. alterniflora density and morphology also may exert an influence on the spatial distributions of marsh snails. We examined the abundance of both plants and snails across an elevation gradient to determine if similarities or differences existed in the observed distribution patterns. Plant, mainly S. alterniflora, and snail, Littoraria irrorata (Say) and Melampus bidentatus Say, densities were measured along tidal creek to forest transects within the intertidal marshes of three marine-dominated South Carolina inlets. Significant differences in S. alterniflora density among marsh zones were paralleled by similar L. irrorata density differences. A consistent, unimodal pattern with peak L. irrorata density in the "short," dense S. alterniflora mid marsh occurred within each inlet. In contrast, M. bidentatus was restricted almost entirely to the high marsh across all transects and inlets. Densities of L. irrorata and S. alterniflora were positively correlated in the low marsh consistent with the potential importance of culms as a food source and refuge from predators. Littoraria irrorata biomass was significantly different among zones in only one inlet and increased in a shoreward direction in two inlets. Although biomass patterns previously have not been reported for Southeastern US marshes, amounts were consistently greater than expected within the high-marsh zone. In SC, L. irrorata appears to be a conspicuous resident across the entire vegetated marsh and our results suggest previous studies focusing on the marsh near tidal creeks could underestimate appreciably the total population and overall significance of L. irrorata within coastal marshes.

Street-level bureaucrats implementing public policies have a certain degree of freedomor discretion in their work. Following the work of Lipsky, the concept of discretion has received wide attention in the policy implementation literature. However, scholars have not yet developed theoretical frameworks regarding the effects of discretion, which were subsequently tested these using large n samples. In this study, we develop a theoretical framework regarding two effects of discretion (client meaningfulness and willingness to implement), in order to increase our understanding of the mechanisms at work. The hypothesized relationships are tested using a Dutch nationwide survey among 1.317 psychologists, psychiatrists and psychotherapists implementing a new reimbursement policy. These are analysed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The results firstly show a positive effect of discretion on client meaningfulness. Next to this, discretion positively affected the willingness to implement a policy, and this is partially mediated by client meaningfulness. Hence, when street-level bureaucrats experience discretion, this positively influences the value they can deliver to clients, which in turn positively influences their willingness to implement a policy. Implications for policy implementation researchers are discussed.

We tested the hypothesis that effects of predation by fish on epibiota are independent of the size of fish and the area foraged. We used cages with different sizes of mesh to exclude fish of different sizes. Sizes of mesh were chosen following observations that there were small (, 200 mm TL) and large (. 200 mm TL) predatory fish at the study site. Predation by fish was intense on oysters and directly or indirectly reduced the density of the gastropod, Bembicium auratum. The cover of algae was positively affected by predation, possibly because predation on oysters created more space for algae. Predation by small fish (toadfish) was intense, but the effects of large fish were negligible. Predation was, however, independent of the sizes of experimental panels (i.e. area foraged) over the range examined (5 3 5, 10 3 10, 20 3 20 cm). Our results highlight the importance of doing experiments to test hypotheses derived from known aspects of the biology of the predators and prey being studied.

Objectives: Survey results from 161 respondents trained in dementia care mapping (DCM) in the United States and United Kingdom (82 and 79 respondents, respectively) addressed the following: (a) To what extent are mappers using DCM? (b) How satisfied are mappers with DCM? (c) What affect does DCM have on mappers' attitudes toward their dementia practice? and (d) What challenges are encountered by mappers in the use of DCM?

There is disagreement about the impact of delayed graft function (DGF) on renal allograft outcome. This may depend on several variables including the age of the donor. We evaluated whether DGF could have different effects in recipients of kidneys from donors aged more than 60 years versus well-matched recipients of younger kidney donors. Patients were retrospectively subdivided into 3 groups. Immediate graft function (IGF), DGF without dialysis (DGF-ND), DGF requiring dialysis (DGF-D). DGF-ND and DGF-D occurred more frequently among 198 older than 198 younger donors (P ϭ .016 and P ϭ .044, respectively). The 5-year patient (96% vs 93%) and pure graft (96% vs 89%) survivals were significantly better in younger recipients, while the incidence of acute rejection was similar. After a mean follow-up of 66 Ϯ 44 months in older donor recipients, the graft survival was significantly better among IGF than patients in the DGF-ND (P ϭ .046) or DGF-D (P ϭ .003) groups. Instead, in younger recipients there was no difference in graft survival between IGD and DGF-ND. Only patients with DGF-D showed a significantly worse outcome. Upon multivariate analysis of older donors, their recipients, showed the pattern of graft function recovery to be the only variable associated with allograft outcome. Instead in younger donor recipients, acute rejection and time on dialysis were the main variables associated with a poor outcome. In older donor recipients, DGF was an independent variable associated with a poor graft outcome. In younger donor recipients, duration of dialysis and rejection were the most important predictors of poor graft outcomes. From the Nephrology and Dialysis Unit (P.M., B.B., D.C., C.P.), Transplant Surgery (L.B.), and Immunology (F.P., M.S.),

The potential of mesoporous silica-alumina (MSA) modified by acid leaching as alternative support for Pt catalysts was studied in hydrodesulfurization (HDS) of thiophene and benzothiophene. The supports were characterized by N 2 adsorption, XRD, 27 AL MAS NMR, electron microscopy (SEM, HRTEM) and by activities in cyclohexene isomerization and cumene cracking. The composition of the catalysts and Pt dispersion were determined by ICP and H 2 or CO sorption, respectively. Progressive leaching of the parent MSA from 50% Al 2 O 3 to 11% Al 2 O 3 content led to increase of the BET surface area and exposition of strong acidity. This positively affected the activities of the reduced Pt catalysts in thiophene HDS. Deposition of 1.5 wt.% Pt on MSA (11% Al 2 O 3) by using Pt(NH 3) 4 (OH) 2 as precursor gave the best catalyst, several times more active in thiophene HDS than the weight equivalents of sulfided CoMo/Al 2 O 3 or reduced Pt/HY zeolite. In benzothiophene reaction, its activity was slightly above that of CoMo/Al 2 O 3 and about twofold compared to Pt/HY.

The aim of this study was to investigate in humans whether brain regions activated by the affective aspects of touch could be found. It is known that after the primary somatosensory cortical area (SI), the somatosensory pathways continue to the insula and orbitofrontal cortex, and via both these struc-tures to the amygdala [1卤4]. It is not known where in this

The interaction between the sectoral composition of the economy, the scientific and technological research activity of firms and universities, and the activity of large firms is considered as a crucial factor of growth in the advanced countries. This paper enquires about the relationship between the dynamics of international technological specialization, on the one hand, and market expansion and profit opportunities, accumulation of technical and scientific knowledge and market structures, on the other hand. We employ R&D and ...

This study examined the effect of explicit and engaging supplemental early literacy instruction on at-risk kindergarten children's literacy development. Sixty-three kindergarten-aged children who had been ranked in the lowest 20th percentile on basic literacy skills participated in this study (38 treatment). Results reveal that children who received engaging and explicit supplemental instruction from a paraeducator performed significantly better on rhyming, alliteration, letter knowledge, letter-sound association, spelling, and blending tasks than children who received one-on-one instruction through a tutoring program. Findings highlight the important role that paraeducators can play in implementing explicit and engaging literacy curriculum that positively affects children's development of early literacy skills.

Research has shown that an increase in perceived crowding in a retail store (created from either human or spatial density) can decrease the level of satisfaction that shoppers have with the store. The three studies reported here examine the retail crowding-satisfaction relationship to determine the extent to which it is a simple, direct relationship. Specifically, we consider the possibility that the crowding-satisfaction relationship is mediated by emotional reactions that are experienced while shopping. In addition, moderating variables such as prior expectations of crowding, tolerance for crowding, and store type are examined for their influence on the crowding-satisfaction relationship. The results of two field studies indicate that whereas emotions only partially mediate the relationship, the decrease in shopping satisfaction due to crowding is moderated by expectations of crowding and personal tolerance for crowding. A laboratory experiment replicated the field studies and shows, in addition, that although ceiling and floor effects may be present, the relationship between perceived crowding and shopping satisfaction appears to vary by store type.

Foi estudada a ocorrência de acidente de trabalho em profissionais de saúde no período de 2002/2003 e a influência das medidas de biossegurança e aceitação de quimioprofilaxia frente ao risco de transmissão ocupacional do HIV. Avaliou-se 570 profissionais de saúde de seis hospitais públicos, selecionados aleatoriamente, do conjunto de hospitais do Distrito Federal, Brasil. Esses profissionais foram questionados quanto ao conhecimento sobre biossegurança, ocorrência de acidente de trabalho, aceitação da quimioprofilaxia e teste sorológico anti-HIV. Entre os profissionais avaliados, o coeficiente de acidentabilidade foi de 39,1 e mostrou-se inversamente proporcional ao porte do hospital. Dentistas, médicos e técnicos de laboratório acidentaram-se mais, em contrapartida aos farmacêuticos e enfermeiros. As situações relacionadas ao acidente de trabalho com maior aceitação e adesão ao uso da quimioprofilaxia foram sorologia positiva e carga viral intensa do paciente-fonte (99,6-99,0%), e...

Recent evidence has indicated that physician judgments of patients can be influenced by contextual factors. This study examined three contextual factors relevant to hypothetical patients with low back pain, using vignettes that were varied in a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design: level of reported pain (high vs low), level of supporting medical evidence (high vs low), and the valence of the physician-patient interaction (positive vs negative). Perceived levels of pain, disability, emotional distress, and somatic preoccupation were rated by internists after reading a vignette. Ratings of pain and disability were lower for patients without supporting medical evidence; ratings of distress, somatic preoccupation, and disability were greater for patients who exhibited negative rather than positive affect; internist ratings of pain were lower than patient ratings among patients reporting high levels of pain, while ratings were inflated for patients with low levels of pain. The results suggest tha...

Relations between adult attachment and memory for earlier emotional reactions to negative and positive events were examined. Hypotheses were that avoidance would be associated with underestimating earlier negative affect, whereas anxiety would be associated with overestimating earlier negative affect. Also, both avoidance and anxiety were expected to relate to underestimating earlier positive affect intensity. Participants (119 college students) completed daily report forms three times a day for 4 days on which they described and rated their immediate emotional reactions to events within each time period. Approximately 10 days later, they were asked to estimate their immediate emotional reaction to one negative event and one positive event. Events were coded as interpersonal or noninterpersonal. Contrary to hypotheses, for those lower on avoidance, anxiety related to lower levels of recalled negative affect (i.e., greater underestimation) for negative interpersonal events. As expected, with positive events, anxiety and avoidance related to lower levels of recalled positive emotions. Results suggest that memory processes could be one explanation of how working models operate and are sustained over time.

To determine the behavioral and developmental effects of preventing iron-deficiency anemia in infancy. Healthy full-term Chilean infants who were free of iron-deficiency anemia at 6 months were assigned to high- or low-iron groups or to high- or no-added-iron groups. Behavioral/developmental outcomes at 12 months of age included overall mental and motor test scores and specific measures of motor functioning, cognitive processing, and behavior. There were no differences between high- and low-iron groups in the prevalence of iron-deficiency anemia or behavioral/developmental outcome, and they were combined to form an iron-supplemented group (n = 1123) for comparison with the no-added-iron group (n = 534). At 12 months, iron-deficiency anemia was present in 3.1% and 22.6% of the supplemented and unsupplemented groups, respectively. The groups differed in specific behavioral/developmental outcomes but not on global test scores. Infants who did not receive supplemental iron processed inf...

We investigated whether creative cognition can be improved by means of cognitive and affective stimulation and whether these interventions are associated with changes of EEG alpha activity. Participants were required to generate original uses of conventional objects (Alternative Uses task, AU) while the EEG was recorded. In the cognitive stimulation condition, participants worked on the AU task subsequent to the exposure to other people's ideas. In the affective stimulation condition, they had to think creatively in positive affective states, induced via emotionally contagious sound clips. Creative cognition generally elicited alpha synchronization, most prominent in the prefrontal cortex and in the right hemisphere. The interventions were associated with stronger prefrontal alpha activity in the upper alpha band (10-12 Hz) than the control condition (no intervention), possibly indicating a state of heightened internal awareness, which might have a beneficial impact on creativity.

Purpose-The purpose of this study is to investigate how the use of information technology (IT) and supply chain management initiatives (information sharing and collaboration) impact a company's performance in reverse logistics (RL). Design/methodology/approach-A survey based on a previous exploratory research and literature review was sent out to 600 US companies having substantial activities in RL. Issues addressed in the survey, such as IT types deployed, IT operational attributes, information sharing, and collaboration, involve multiple parties in multi-tier RL networks, extending beyond a simple buyer-supplier dyad. Findings-The results revealed that the type of IT used per se did not have a differential impact on a company's performance in RL. However, IT operational attributes positively affected RL performance and information sharing and collaboration are critical to RL performance. Practical implications-Investment in IT alone cannot improve a company's performance; managers should take full account of IT attributes when deciding IT in RL. IT operational attributes tend to support one another-an improvement in one would lead to improvements in the others. With no exception in RL, companies need to share information and collaborate with their partners. Originality/value-The paper reports an empirical survey of the IT use and collaboration practices in RL, and provides insights into the relationships and impacts of IT, RL operational attributes, information sharing, and collaboration on one another as well as on RL performance.

The paper analyses the contribution of informally employed women (for the age group of 16-60 years) to their household budget. The urban informal sector largely absorbs women workers. We examine the determinants of their contribution to their household budgets for the survival of the families. Applying the OLS model to 937 observations, it is found that women as heads of household, women’s education, and ownership of assets by woman have a positive effect on their contribution. The burden of the large family size, household poverty, and loans availed by the household are shared by the informally employed women, as these variables positively affect their contribution. Age of the woman has a non-linear effect on woman’s contribution. The contribution first increases and then decreases by an increase in the age of the woman. Married women and women living in nuclear families contribute more to the household budget. The household per capita income and number of children (5-15 years) in ...

The purpose of this study was to determine whether strategically scheduled recess breaks throughout the school day will increase student on-task behaviours during the time when they work independently. As an intervention for this action research study, recess breaks were given more often but for less time; recess breaks were scheduled before and after academic lessons throughout the whole day. Methodology included observations with checklist and field notes. Results of the study suggest that recess breaks scheduled directly before or after academic lessons positively affect student on-task behaviours.

Background: Recent research reveals that not all job demands have negative effects on workers' well-being and suggests that the negative or positive effects of specific job demands depend on the occupational sector. Specifically, emotional job demands form the heart of the work for nurses and for this reason they can be interpreted by nurses as a challenge that promotes motivation and well-being among these professionals, especially if personal and job resources become available. Objectives: The study had two objectives. First, to examine whether daily emotional demands within a nursing work context have a positive effect on nurses' daily motivation at work (vigour) and well-being at home (vitality and positive affect). Second, to explore whether this positive effect could be enhanced by nurses' emotional regulation abilities. Design: This research used a diary design to explore daily experiences and to analyse how variations in specific job or personal characteristics can affect levels of motivation and wellbeing across days. Participants: Fifty-three nurses working in different Spanish hospitals and primary health care centres completed a general questionnaire and a diary booklet over 5 consecutive working days in two different moments, after work and at night (N= 53 participants and N = 265 observations). Results: In line with our hypotheses, multi-level analyses revealed that, on the one hand, daylevel emotional demands at work had a positive effect on vigour at work and on vitality at home. On the other hand, analyses showed that nurses with higher emotional regulation abilities have more motivation at work and well-being at home when they have to face high emotional demands at work, showing a spillover effect after work. Conclusions: These findings support the idea that emotional demands from the nursing profession can act as challenges which promote motivation and well-being, especially if internal emotional resources become available.

The researchers examined responses from 862 faculty members at 38 institutions nationwide using the blackboard Learning Management System (LMS) to supplement their face-to-face instruction. The four research questions addressed the primary uses that faculty make of blackboard, perceptions that faculty have of how certain blackboard features enhance or elevate (or might enhance or elevate) their assessment of student work and instructional capabilities, and how faculty use of blackboard might positively affect the psychosocial climate within the face-to-face classroom setting. Additional analysis sought to identify the factors that predict use and positive perception of blackboard as a supplement to face-to-face teaching activities. The results indicate that faculty primarily used blackboard as a course management/administration tool to make course documents available to students and manage course grades. Few faculty used blackboard for instructional or assessment purposes, and even fewer utilized blackboard to foster a more positive sense of community within their face-to-face classes. Faculty attitudes, on the whole, were positive when it came to the classroom management functions of blackboard, but neutral or otherwise undecided in terms of its instructional or psychosocial benefits. The main factor in determining blackboard usage-whether for course administration or instructional purposes-was experience with the tool. In addition, women had more positive attitudes than men did in terms of blackboard's potential to enhance classroom management and foster a

This study examines the interaction effect between user factors and media factors on feelings of social presence which are critical in the design of virtual reality systems and human computer interfaces. Both Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 show that matching synthesized voice personality to user personality positively affects users' (especially extrovert users') feelings of social presence. Experiment 2 also reveals that users feel a stronger sense of social presence when the personality of synthesized voice matches the personality of textual content than when those two are mismatched. In both experiments, extrovert voice induces a stronger sense of presence than introvert voice. These results provide strong evidence for human's automatic social responses to artificial representations possessing humanistic properties such as language and personality. Finally, we discuss various applications of these findings in the design of human computer interfaces, as well as in the study of presence.

Many adult anxiety problems emerge in adolescence. Investigating how adolescent anxiety arises and abates is critical for understanding and preventing adult psychiatric problems. Drawing threat interpretations from ambiguous material is linked to adolescent anxiety but little research has clarified the causal nature of this relationship. Work in adults using Cognitive Bias Modification of Interpretations (CBM-I) training show that manipulating negative interpretational style alters negative affect. Conversely, 'boosting' positive interpretations improves affect. Here, we extend CBM-I investigations to adolescents. Thirty-nine adolescents (13-18 years), varying in trait anxiety and selfefficacy, were randomly allocated to receive positive or negative training. Training-congruent differences emerged for subsequent interpretation style. Induced negative biases predicted a decline in positive affect in low self-efficacious adolescents only. Tentatively, our data suggest that cognitive biases predict adolescent affective symptoms in vulnerable individuals. The acquisition of positive cognitions through training has implications for prevention.

Correlations between aectivity and job satisfaction measures were examined by cumulating research ®ndings across studies. Correlations between (1) job satisfaction and positive aectivity, (2) job satisfaction and negative aectivity and (3) job satisfaction and aective disposition, were separately analyzed. The mean correlation corrected for coecient alpha in the two measures correlated were: 0.49 for positive aectivity N 3326, k 15), À0.33 for negative aectivity N 6233, k 27 and 0.36 for aective disposition N 1415, k 7). Results indicated that 10±25% of variance in job satisfaction could be due to individual dierences in aectivity. No strong moderator variables were found. Implications for a dispositional and situational source of job satisfaction are discussed. 7