The effects of age and strain on aggression in male rats

Aggressive behaviors were compared for male Fischer-344 and Long-Evans rats formed into mixed-sex colonies at 100, 200, or 300 days of age. Within each strain, male aggression did not differ across these ages, nor did it differ for an additional group of 600-day old Long-Evans males: both the form and the incidence of specific aggressive and defensive behaviors remained relatively constant over an age range representing nearly the entire normal life span for this species. However, Fischer-344 males at all ages were reliably lower in aggression than the Long-Evans rats. The specific aggression components seen in the Fischer-344 rats tended to be nondamaging, resembling “play fighting” more than the tissue damaging attack behaviors typical of other strains. Despite the frequent use of this strain in gerontological research, such low levels of aggressiveness counterindicate their use in research in aging and aggression.     

Early stage endometrial carcinoma--a study of management and outcome

The surgical management of early stage endometrial carcinoma is controversial. The benefits of pelvic lymphadenectomy and administration of radiotherapy in this group have been disputed. We aimed to document the experience of stage 1 endometrial carcinoma at the National Maternity Hospital during the 10 year period 1989-1998 and to evaluate and compare clinical outcomes between retrospectively-assigned low and high-risk tumour groups. Seventy seven women were diagnosed with Stage 1 endometrial carcinoma in this period. Thirty-nine women had low-risk and 38 had high-risk tumours. Women with high-risk tumours were older and had a higher rate of lymph-vascular space invasion by tumour on histological examination. Three women (3.9%) developed disease recurrence and died of their disease; one low-risk and two high-risk tumour patients. Survival without recurrence did not differ between the two risk groups. No consistent pattern existed in surgical staging between the two risk groups. A prospectively-assigned definition of risk would minimise variations in clinical practice by providing a basis for a more tailored approach to adjuvant treatments.     

Using feedback to reduce students' judgment bias on test questions

Judgment bias represents a common tendency of people to inaccurately gauge the extent of their own knowledge. While research has shown that people tend to overestimate their knowledge on hard questions and underestimate their knowledge on easy questions, overconfidence poses a more pernicious problem from an educational perspective since it can undermine students' ability to monitor their own learning effectively and interfere with their test performance. The findings of the present study show that students who perform poorly on a test are more overconfident about their answers to hard test questions, especially those they answer wrongly, than are students who perform better. The results also show that judgment bias can be reduced by providing feedback to students about their prior performance and confidence on specific test questions. This intervention was found to be effective in decreasing both underconfidence on easy questions and overconfidence on hard questions regardless of students' performance level.     

The effectiveness of self-management training for individuals with HIV/AIDS.

This study tested the effects of a 7-week individual self-management and coping skills training program on various measures of health and well-being of persons with HIV/AIDS. Forty men and women were randomly assigned the treatment or wait-list control group. Treated participants showed significant posttreatment changes on all four major measures of mood, coping, and health attitudes. Treatment significantly improved coping strategies as measured by the use and effective measures of the Jalowiec Coping Scale and several of its subscales, including decreases in use of emotive, fatalistic, and palliative coping styles. Psychological mood was improved, as measured by the Profile of Moods Total Mood Disturbance (POMS TMD) score and specific subscales of the POMS, which were targeted in the intervention (e.g., Anger). Treated participants also showed significant increases on the Internal subscale of the Health Attribution Test.     

Cervical screening history in patients with early stage carcinoma of the cervix

This study aimed to examine whether a decade of heightened publicity on issues relating to cervical screening has changed the screening profile of women presenting with cervical cancer at the National Maternity Hospital. The screening history of 100 women diagnosed with early/surgically treated cervical cancer between 1998 and 2002 was compared with a similar study conducted in 1982 /1990. The percentage of women never screened was similar - 24 %( 2002) and 23% (1990). The interval between last recorded smear and diagnosis of disease was greater than 5 years in 45.6% and 41.7% respectively. Overall 60% of women in the recent period had either failed to avail of screening or were not screened within 5 years of diagnosis compared with 64% in 1990. Multiparous women comprised 90% of the study group and 50% of those inadequately screened were attending their general practitioner on a regular basis - therefore affording a potential for opportunistic screening The current method of screening has failed in this group and has not improved in 10 years despite of increased population awareness and greater opportunities for screening than ever before and would support an argument for a National Screening Program.     

Religious coping among jews: development and initial validation of the JCOPE

Numerous studies have underscored the importance of religious coping in psychological health and illness; however, the majority of research in this area has been conducted with Christian samples and knowledge about other religious groups is lacking. Although recent investigations have developed scales to measure religious coping among Hindus and Muslims, the potential for future research in Jewish populations remains limited as no measures of religious coping have been validated in the general Jewish community. This two‐part study reports on the development and validation of the 16‐item Jewish Religious Coping Scale (JCOPE). In Study 1, an exploratory factor analysis identified two factors reflecting positive and negative religious coping strategies, and the concurrent validity for the measure was evaluated by examining correlations with indices of Jewish beliefs and practices. In Study 2, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) verified the JCOPE's 2‐factor structure, and the scale's incremental validity was evaluated by examining Jewish religious coping as a predictor of psychological distress over and above significant covariates. Results suggest that the JCOPE has good psychometric properties, and that religious coping is a significant predictor of psychological distress among Jews. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol 65: 1–14, 2009.