Academic Study,College Examinations,and Stress: Issues in the Interpretation of Cardiovascular Reactivity Assessments With Student Participants1

Stress arising from academic performance affects many college students. Moreover, students account for the majority of participants in cardiovascular reactivity research. The current research comprised three brief experiments investigating different aspects of student samples. In Experiment 1, students' (n = 30) academic fear of failure was found to be negatively correlated with systolic blood pressure reactivity. In Experiment 2, students' (n= 13) blood pressure was found to be significantly elevated 2 weeks before college examinations, compared with postexamination levels. Finally, in Experiment 3, students' (n = 19) examination performance was positively correlated with preexamination cardiovascular reactivity. These findings suggest specific college‐related factors that influence the cardiovascular stress response in students and, therefore, should aid the interpretation of much research conducted in cardiovascular health psychology.     

Psychometric evaluation of a squestionnaire to document side-effects of chemotherapy

This paper reports the psychometric testing of the Worthing Chemotherapy Questionnaire(WCQ). The WCQ is a patient self-report instrument to document side-effects of chemotherapy. Literature review of relevant studies shows that psychometric testing of similar instruments is rarely rigorous. Content validity for the WCQ was established in five ways: literature review, Delphi review among oncology staff, pre-pilot unstructured interviews, pilot study and amendment of the instrument and items for spontaneous reporting of problems on the questionnaire. A three-stage approach to construct validity was used. The hypothesis adopted was that as certain cytotoxic agents cause stomatitis, incidence and severity of stomatitis will decrease following cessation of treatment. Stage 1: factor analysis confirmed the presence of a sole factor, with an eigenvalue of 5.3, for mouth problems which explained 65.5% of the variance. Stage 2: the hypothesis was confirmed using research findings. Stage 3: the Wilcoxon test showed highly significant results for during and post chemotherapy stomatitis scores. Reliability of the questionnaire was assessed using the test-retest method. Weighted Kappa was chosen as the test statistic. A median value of _wK=0.87 was obtained. The results indicate that the WCQ is a reliable and valid instrument.     

Carers, ethics and dementia: a survey and review of the literature.

BACKGROUND: Much has been written on ethical issues in dementia, but usually from the point of view of the various professionals involved. Whilst there has been an increasing amount of interest in the psychosocial problems that face the carers of people with dementia, the ethical nature of some of these problems has largely been ignored. OBJECTIVE: To review the literature on ethical issues in dementia from the perspective of the main, non-professional carers of people with dementia. METHOD: A systematic literature search using Medline, Clinpsych and CINAHL databases between 1982 and 2000. A pilot study of carers. RESULTS: The lay perspective provides both a wide variety of issues and unique approaches. Although in the literature quantitative research answers some questions, it is qualitative research that deepens our understanding of the issues from the perspective of carers. CONCLUSION: It is particularly qualitative research that brings out the ethical issues for carers, which tend to be more varied than the ethical issues raised in the professional literature. Awareness of such issues could inform and shape the support given to carers.     

Para-ileostomy hernia: failure of a local repair technique

Different techniques of local repair of para-ileostomy herniae have been recommended by a number of authors, but without report of long-term outcome. Two patients presenting electively with symptomatic para-ileostomy herniae are reported. A local repair technique was used in each case because of severe (coexisting) medical disease, but both herniae recurred within 2 years. It is considered that local repair without stomal transposition cannot be recommended. The literature is reviewed.     

Visual and psychomotor performance of elite,intermediate and novice table tennis competitors

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to determine whether measures on a selected groups of visual and psychomotor variables distinguished between groups of elite, intermediate and novice table tennis players. The variables included commonly of Melbourne measured clinical functions such as static visual acuity, extent of visual field and oculomotor balance and more experimental visual tasks such as recognition of, peripheral targets, saccadic latency and dynamic visual acuity. Psychomotor performance was assessed by measures of simple reaction time, choice response time and hand movement time. Although elite level competitors had significantly better dynamic visual acuity, a wider visual field and superior recognition of peripheral targets compared to less skilled competitors, the magnitude, or practical significance of these differences was not great and individually accounted for less than 5 per cent of population variance. Elite competitors had significantly faster psychomotor responses than novice players with die skill variables individually accounting for between 21 per cent and 62 per cent of population variance in psychomotor performance. These results indicate that the psychomotor parameters could be a useful part of a test battery for talent identification amongst table tennis players.     

Certain beta-blockers can decrease beta-adrenergic receptor number: II. Down-regulation of receptor number by alprenolol and propranolol in cultured lymphoma and muscle cells

We have used two different cultured cell lines--S49 lymphoma cells and BC3H-1 muscle cells--to examine the regulation of beta-adrenergic receptors by receptor antagonists. Rather than an increase ("up-regulation") of receptor number that such antagonists often produce, we found that certain beta-blockers elicit a decrease ("down-regulation") of beta-adrenergic receptors. Alprenolol and propranolol, but not sotalol or ICI 118,551, at concentrations of 10-100 nM down-regulated beta-adrenergic receptors 20-70% following 16-20 hours of treatment of S49 or BC3H-1 cells. Several observations suggest that this phenomenon depends upon beta-receptor interaction, including stereoselectivity [(-)-enantiomers more potent than (+)-enantiomers], blockade of the effect by ICI 118,551, absence of down-regulation of alpha-adrenergic receptors in BC3H-1 cells, and lack of a decrease in beta-adrenergic receptor-independent (forskolin-stimulated) cyclic AMP accumulation in S49 cells. The possibility of retained antagonist interfering with receptor measurement was precluded by the fact that the antagonist-induced decrease in receptor number required several hours incubation and occurred without a prominent change in receptor affinity. The ability of the beta-blockers to elicit down-regulation did not correlate with hydrophobicity of the drugs. Antagonist-induced down regulation of beta-adrenergic receptors did not occur in S49 lymphoma cells that lack the alpha-subunit of Gs, the guanine nucleotide-binding regulatory protein, thus implying a requirement for receptor-alpha s interaction in eliciting beta-receptor down-regulation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)