Thursday, March 15, 2012

Dueling crime measures differ on drug treatment

A pair of crime measures on the November ballot offer Oregon voters a choice between mandatory sentencing or increased sentences and expanded drug treatment programs _ but not both.

One, Measure 61, is an initiative sponsored by former state lawmaker Kevin Mannix that would send first-time offenders to prison for up to a mandatory three years.

The other, Measure 57, is a referral from the Legislature that would increase prison terms for repeat offenders convicted of nonviolent property or drug crimes while expanding treatment and prevention programs.

In the event that both measures pass, as polls suggest, Measure 57 contains a clause stipulating …

New family of swans like 'a revival' after massacre

Swans have returned to one of the Cheddar Valley locations wherea massacre of the protected birds took place earlier this year.

The new family, consisting of an adult male, or cob, and female(pen) with seven cygnets, was spotted in the Blackford area by RobinBurnell, who lives in West Stoughton.

Mr Burnell said: "I was so surprised and happy to see the newfamily. It is like a revival, a recovery.

"And it is the first time I have seen seven cygnets - I've oftenseen fours, fives and sixes, but never as many as seven."

More than 40 mute swans were shot on the Somerset Levels, nearWedmore, Blackford and Godney, in February and, in spite of …

Economic Growth Slows to 0.7 Pct. Pace

WASHINGTON - The economy limped ahead at just a 0.7 percent pace in the first quarter, the slowest in more than four years, as some businesses clamped down on spending given uncertainties about the severity of the housing slump.

The Commerce Department's new reading on gross domestic product for the January-to-March period, released Thursday, was a slight upgrade from the 0.6 percent growth rate estimated a month ago. But it still fell short of economists' forecasts for a …

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Stocks set for lower open as economic data pour in

Stocks were set to open moderately lower on Friday, with investors reluctant to get too enthusiastic about economic data.

Stock futures pared their losses after the Labor Department said consumer prices in April were flat, as economists predicted. Excluding declining energy and food prices, core consumer prices edged up 0.3 percent, a bit higher than forecast.

Investors were also relieved by reports that New York-area manufacturing activity and industrial production contracted less than economists expected. They also shrank significantly less than they did earlier in the year, fitting in with the trend seen in most data since early March: that the economy …

Haslem's season may be over, Heat turn to Dampier

MIAMI (AP) — There's a photo in the hallway that links Miami's home court and the Heat locker room, a huge image of Udonis Haslem leaping past Erick Dampier during the 2006 NBA finals.

Haslem won't be making a move like that again for the next few months — and the Heat have turned to Dampier to fill his void.

Haslem's season may be over after surgery Tuesday to repair a torn Lisfranc ligament in his left foot, an injury that typically needs at least four months to heal. Almost simultaneous to Haslem's surgery, Dampier was passing his Heat physical, which allowed him to practice with his new club for the first time Tuesday afternoon.

"I just look at it as an opportunity …

Extraordinary Jobs in Media

Extraordinary Jobs in Media, Alecia T. Devantier and Carol A. Turkington 2007. New York, NY: Ferguson 158 pages, $35.00, Hardback

Intended Audience(s): A, B, H

Major Headings from the Table of Contents:

Are You Cut Out for a Career in Media; How to Use This Book; Job Profiles; Appendix A: Associations, Organizations, and Web Sites; Appendix B: Online Career Resources; Read More About It

How Is the Book Most Useful for Its Intended Audience?

Consideration and exploration of unique and nontraditional jobs.

The Top Five Things You Learned from Reading this Book:

Nontraditional jobs that can be made into a career

Related skills of …

Defending champs Boca Juniors held to 1-1 draw by Maracaibo in Libertadores opener

Defending champions Boca Juniors were held to a 1-1 draw away at Venezuela's Maracaibo on Wednesday in the opening match of Copa Libertadores Group 3.

In other matches Wednesday, Argentina's Arsenal recorded a 1-0 home win over Paraguay's Libertad while their Group 8 rivals LDU Quito of Ecuador and Brazil's Fluminense played out a 0-0 draw. America of Mexico got an injury-time goal to beat Chile's Universidad Catolica 2-1.

Maracaibo midfielder Miguel Mea Vitali looked to have scored an extraordinary winner when his 35-meter free kick found the back of the net in the 81st minute, thrilling the 42,000 home fans.

But the advantage only last two …

Thousands Left Without Water For Over 12 Hours

Thousands of people in south Bristol were left without water formore than 12 hours after a main ruptured.

The supply was cut off at midnight on Wednesday after the 36-inchmain burst.

Supplies were affected in an area stretching from Willsbridgeacross to Hartcliffe.

Bristol Water hoped to fix the problem overnight and turn thesupply back on by 6am yesterday. But supply was blocked by a stuckvalve in a pipeline. Though much of the area had water back on byearly morning, many people in Whitchurch, Hartcliffe and Withywoodspent half the day without water.

Morris Hollister, of Longway Avenue, said: "We didn't knowanything about this and …

Observations on the experimental planting of Lindera melissifolia (Walter) blume in Southeastern Missouri after ten years

ABSTRACT

One-year-old, greenhouse-grown seedlings of Lindera melissifolia (pondberry) were transplanted to permanent plots in Butler County, Missouri in 1990. In 1993, in situ seeding was done on the same tract and near naturally-occurring pondberry populations in Ripley County, Missouri. Plant heights of transplants have fluctuated but averaged slightly shorter in 2000 than in 1993 due to frequent die-backs and resprouting. Direct seeding yielded increasing cumulative germination for the first three years with a leveling off thereafter. Seven years after planting, fifty-two percent of seeds had germinated but survival was only 5%. Mean height of one-year-old seedlings was 8.44 …

Rabobank appeals Rasmussen ruling

Dutch cycling team Rabobank has appealed a Dutch court ruling that awarded Danish cyclist Michael Rasmussen euro665,000 (US$1 million) in compensation for wrongful dismissal.

Rasmussen, who had demanded euro5.4 million (US$8.5 million) and is also appealing the decision, was fired by Rabobank and ousted from the 2007 Tour de France amid doping suspicions.

Rabobank announced its appeal on Tuesday.

The Dane was leading the Tour when he was fired for telling the International Cycling Union (UCI) he was in Mexico before the race when he was actually in Italy and France.

Rasmussen acknowledged lying about his whereabouts to the UCI, but …

NATIONAL LEAGUE GAMES

cardinals 6, reds 2

The big winner of the day turned out to be St. Louis. They beatCincinnati and wound up clinching home-field advantage for its first-round playoff matchup against Atlanta. Will Clark and CraigPaquette each drove in three runs.

The Cardinals and Atlanta both finished at 95-67. St. Louis wonthe home field because it won the season series from the Braves, 4-3.

CINCINNATI ST. LOUIS

ab r h bi ab r h bi

BLHntr cf 3 0 0 0 Vina 2b 4 2 2 0

Bartee cf 1 0 0 0 Dnston ph 1 0 0 0

Tucker rf 3 0 0 0 Veres p 0 0 0 0

Clark rf 1 0 0 0 Drew cf 3 2 1 0

Cromer 1b 4 1 2 1 EDavis rf 3 0 0 0

Ochoa lf 4 1 3 0 Pquette …

Breach prompts immediate evacuations in Fargo

Fargo police have ordered dozens of homes evacuated because of a breach in flood protection as the Red River topped 40 feet.

The Fargo Forum reports the evacuation was ordered early Friday for all houses in a crook of the river near a breach at Linden Avenue.

Authorities say there is an immediate threat of rising flood water. Residents are being told to head west. Emergency shelter is available at a high school.

The river, which flows south-to-north, rose to over 40 feet early Friday, on the way to its projected crest of up to 43 feet by Saturday afternoon.

Obama budget's on chopping block in Congress

President Barack Obama's $3.6 trillion budget faces its first tests on Capitol Hill this week, where a leading lawmaker wants to cut as much as $30 billion from agency budgets while promising to protect initiatives like energy, education and health care.

After a weekend in which supporters mounted a campaign-style grass-roots effort to build public support for Obama's budget, the House and Senate Budget committees are going forward with competing but similar takes on the plan.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., is preparing to sharply cut Obama's 11 percent increase for non-defense appropriations to perhaps 6 percent. But he's running into opposition from other powerful Democrats like Sens. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii and Patty Murray of Washington. In the House, moderate "Blue Dog" Democrats are pressing for even deeper cuts.

Obama's also is taking a drubbing from Republicans over its spending and tax increases as well as a global warming plan that would impose higher energy costs on consumers and businesses. Republicans scoff at Obama's pledge to cut the deficit in half, noting that even if he does so, deficits would still easily exceed those experienced under President George W. Bush.

Obama's February budget included controversial health care reforms to provide medical care to almost 50 million uninsured people, a "cap-and-trade" system for selling permits to emit greenhouse gases and a tamping down of Pentagon budget increases.

It also would impose $647 billion in tax increases over the next decade on individuals making more than $200,000 a year and couples making more than $250,000. At the same time it would cut taxes for most workers by $400 and couples by $600 a year at a cost of $60 billion over the next decade.

Despite uneasiness among many Democrats about the worsening deficit picture _ a Congressional Budget Office analysis released Friday estimates Obama's budget would generate deficits totaling $9.3 trillion over the next decade _ party leaders are sticking with Obama's budget agenda.

"We're trying to track as much as we can the president's budget," said House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt Jr., D-S.C. "We want to cut the deficit by more than half in five years. That's a pretty respectable, ambitious target. I think that we can attain that."

Unlike Obama's budget, which projects spending and revenues over the course of the upcoming decade, the companion House and Senate budgets will span five years. Spratt and Conrad say long-term fiscal projections are inherently shaky and that five-year budgets are more the norm than the exception.

But a five-year budget window also means that Democrats won't have to reveal the whopping deficits their budget plans would generate from 2015 through 2019. Under CBO's estimates the amount of debt held by the public would double in five years and triple in 10 years.

Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., who was Obama's one-time choice to head the Commerce Department, called the Democrats' budget blueprint "an attempt to avoid serious choices."

"If you're not going to talk about the next five years, when the president sent up a budget that showed us that the next five years aren't sustainable, then basically you're playing hide and seek with the American public on the budget," Gregg said.

Instead, the Democratic budgets will show the deficit steadily declining from levels as high as $1.8 trillion for the current budget year to $500 billion to $600 billion within five years.

Democrats, however, are at odds among themselves over whether to use arcane budget maneuvers to advance Obama's health care initiative in a way that could freeze out Republicans.

The House wants to reserve the option of using a budget process to advance a health care overhaul in a way that the Senate could pass it by a one-vote margin instead of having to garner the 60-vote supermajority necessary to advance most controversial bills in the Senate.

But senators such as Conrad and Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., say that any health care measure must be bipartisan if it is to have lasting durability.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Politica de Nicaragua: Protestas sociales y chauvinismo costarricense

Pol�tica de Nicaragua: Protestas sociales y chauvinismo costarricense

Por Roberto Zelaya Blanco

COSTA RICA, la auto-titulada "Suiza Americana", no escapa a los esc�ndalos de corrupci�n ni a las protestas por abrir espacios a los inversionistas privados en el mercado de la energ�a y las comunicaciones. Tambi�n los legisladores y diplom�ticos costarricenses tienen un concepto muy g�neris del derecho de asilo, protegiendo a pr�fugos de la justicia norteamericana, como fue el caso de Roberto Vesco, el que escap� de los Estados Unidos con 200 millones de D�lares de los Fondos Mutuos, manteniendo en la actualidad a otros fugitivos que estafaron en mayor cuant�a los servicios del Medicare. Mientras estos conservan suficiente dinero, la Corte Suprema de Justicia declara que no ha lugar a las extradiciones solicitadas.

Recientemente, la Asamblea Nacional de Costa Rica aprob� ponerle a fin al monopolio estatal de la energ�a y las comunicaciones, abriendo estos mercados al capital privado nacional y extrajero. La medida fue severamente cuestionado por diferentes gremios de profesionales, sindicatos y organizaciones de la respectiva socided civil, dando origen a protestas multitudinarias, reprimidas en�rgicamente por las unidades antimotines de los cuerpos policiales. Pero tales protestas no estaban motivadas por sentimientos nacionalistas ni de rechazo de las transnacionales de la energ�a y las comunicaciones, sino por el temor de que estos servicios se suministren sin ning�n subsidio estatal, como ha sido pr�ctica com�n en Costa Rica.

Coincidente con ese ciclo de protestas y para desviar la atenci�n de la opini�n p�blica de los graves problemas internos, el gobierno de Costa Rica amenaza con llevar un diferendo inexistente con Nicaragua al tribunal Internacional de Justicia de La Habana, Holanda, como es la absurda pretensi�n de que sus efectivos policiales naveguen armados por determinado sector de nuestro R�o San Juan, contraviniendo el esp�ritu y la letra del Tratado Ca�as-Jerez y lo resuelto con anterioridad en Laudo Cleveland.

El conflicto de Costa Rica con Nicaragua por la navegaci�n de su efectivos armados en el R�o San Juan, tan s�lo existe en las mentes trasnochadas de sus pol�ticas y diplom�ticas. Todas las instancias jur�dicas y de seguridad colectiva del sistema interamericano-Pacto de Bogot�, Tratado Interamericano de Asistencia Rec�proca (TIAR) y Organizaci�n de Estados Americanos (OEA), han decidido permanecer alejados de las pretensiones carentes de l�gica y de moal de nuestro vecino del sur, recomend�ndoles el di�logo directo con la autoridades nicarag�enses, ofreciendo como facilitador del mismo al Secretario General de la 0EA, Doctor C�sar Gavira, el que comprob� in situ las descabelladas e irracionales ambicones expansionistas de Costa Rica.

Ahora y para exaltar el chauvinismo del pueblo, el gobierno de Costa Rica Amenaza a Nicara con la ratificaci�n del Tratado de L�mites Mar�tmos y Delimitaci�n de Plataforma Continental en el Mar Caribe, firmado con Colombia, el que atenta contra nuestra derechos soberanos en las aguas territoriales y mar patrimonial del litoral atl�ntico, imitando a Honduras con el Tratado Ram�rez-L�pez, el que ya nuestro gobierno llev� a conocimiento de la Corte Internacional de Justicia de La Haya, Holanda.

Est� sospechosa combinaci�n de reclamar inexistentes derechos de navegaci�n armada en nuestro R�o San Juan, con las amenazas de llevar este caso a la Corte Internacional de Justicia y la ratificaci�n del Tratado firmado con Colombia, responden a un chantaje premeditado y al deliberado prop�sito de darle cauce chauvinista a las protestas sociales del pueblo por los programas de ajuste estructural y la participaci�n privada en los mercados energ�tico y de comunicaciones, coincidiendo con la campa�a insensata que sandinistas y empresarios deseosos de tropezar otra vez con la mismo piedra del 19 de julio de 1979, han emprendido contra el Gobierno Constitucional de la Rep�blica, utilizando como palancas desestabilizadoras la governabilidad y la transparencia.

Si Costa Rica decide asestarle una pu�alada por la espalda a los procesos de intregaci�n centroamericana, cumpliendo con todas las amenazas del pueblo y gobierno nicarag�ense tiene que ser otro impuesto patri�tico a todos los productos procdentes de nuestro vecino del sur, tal y como ya se hizo con los de Honduras y Colombia.

CSO doesn̢۪t live up to potential

There was a lot of brain power and good intentions onstage during the Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert Thursday night at Symphony Center. Would that it had resulted in a more consistently successful evening.

Guest conductor Michael Tilson Thomas had put together an intriguing program: the CSO's first stand-alone performance of the delicate, long-lost "Blumine" movement from Mahler's First Symphony; the witty, Jeremy Denk as soloist in the Beethoven Third Piano Concerto and Arnold Schoenberg's 1937 orchestral transformation of the 1861 Brahms G Minor Piano Quartet.

The "Blumine" was a genuine discovery and a valuable contribution to the CSO's somewhat unusual yearlong commemoration of two key Mahler anniversaries. Written in 1884, perhaps as incidental music for a staging of a mid-19th century German poem, it was incorporated in the initial 1889 performance of his First Symphony, abandoned by him five years later, not published by him with the score, and lost entirely until it was found in the Yale University Library in 1966 and its performance the next year conducted by composer Benjamin Britten.

With a sometimes poig­nant trumpet theme expertly played by principal Christopher Martin and quiet, even tentative responses from the rest of the ensemble, Tilson Thomas rightly presented the piece alone as the orphan it is. (The CSO's only previous offerings of the work, by Eugene Ormandy in 1969 and Christoph Eschenbach at Ravinia in 2002, were as a reinserted second movement into a symphony Mahler rightly knew was not its home.) Just under 10 minutes long and thoughtfully paced and shaped by Tilson Thomas, it was the evening's highlight and even something of an historic occasion.

Denk, 41, has a strong reputation as a piano partner to such instrumental soloists as Joshua Bell. His weblog "Think Denk" is one of the more amusing and analytical out there. He has given an array of performances by current composers seeking to recapture lyricism, including Jake Heggie, Tobias Picker, Ned Rorem and Libby Larsen. Whether this devotion to these schools allows for the deep investigation and reimagining necessary for meaningful performances of masterworks with major orchestras was not given a fully positive answer here.

Schoenberg's arrangement of the Brahms chamber work into something approaching an acid-trip symphony is no stranger here. Frederick Stock led it just seven months after its 1938 Los Angeles unveiling. Erich Leinsdorf program­med it twice downtown and James Levine twice at Ravinia. Robert Craft recorded it with the CSO in conjunction with a 1964 Ravinia engagement. It is a work with many unusual noises: chiefly from the triangle, contrabassoon, glockenspiel and xylophone that Schoenberg added, but also through reassignment of piano parts to winds and other unexpected — and often illuminating — combinations.

But it is not a work for noisemakers, and in recent decades, with Christoph Es­­chenbach and Tilson Thomas, that's what we've had with the CSO. There's no doubt that MTT loves this work, but does he do so for its effects or its purpose? Conducting this exercise in serious fun without relying on a score, he had you wishing for more of his musical intelligence and less of his well-known showmanship.

Andrew Patner is critic at large for WFMT-FM (98.7).

Fact Box: Chicago Symphony OrchestraSOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED8 p.m. SaturdaySymphony Center, 220 S. MichiganTickets, $19-$199(312) 294-3000, cso.org

A laboratory-based procedure for measuring emotional expression from natural speech

Despite dramatic advances in the sophistication of tools for measuring prosodic and content channels of expression from natural speech, methodological issues have limited the simultaneous measurement of those channels for laboratory research. This is particularly unfortunate, considering the importance of emotional expression in daily living and how it can be disrupted in many psychological disorders (e.g., schizophrenia). The present study examined the Computerized assessment of Affect from Natural Speech (CANS), a laboratory-based procedure that was designed to measure both lexical and prosodic expression from natural speech across a range of evocative conditions. The verbal responses of 38 male and 31 female subjects were digitally recorded as they reacted to separate pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral stimuli. Lexical and prosodic expression variables significantly changed across these conditions, providing support for using the CANS in further laboratory research. The implications for understanding the interface between lexical and prosodic expressions are also discussed.

Recent years have seen dramatic advances in the sophistication of measures of emotion for psychological research. Of particular note, a number of computerized technologies have been developed to objectify the human expression of emotion. This is a critical scientific advance, because expression of emotion is integral to social behavior (Decety & Lamm, 2006; Gross, 2002; LeDoux, 2000), and because it is compromised in a number of neuropsychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia (Cohen et al., 2005; Cohen & Minor, in press), depression (Leventhal, Chasson, Tapia, Miller, & Pettit, 2006), and autism (Matese, Matson, & Sevin, 1994; South et al., 2008). As is discussed below, however, the application of these measures for laboratory study has been complicated by methodological and procedural limitations. The present study reports on a laboratory procedure for evoking and measuring behavioral expression of emotion using natural speech.

Natural speech has been an attractive medium for understanding emotional expression, because it contains a wealth of information. This information is conveyed across multiple domains, including those in prosodic and content channels. Prosodic channels involve the nonverbal aspects of spoken communication, which can be measured through acoustic analysis of the communication's physical properties (e.g., inflection, emphasis, and speech rate; Alpert, Merewether, Homel, Marz, & Lomask, 1986). Conversely, content channels involve the semantic aspects of communication, which are assessed using a variety of content-analytic procedures (e.g., McAdams, 2001; Pennebaker, Booth, & Francis, 2007). It is worth noting that computerized methods of measuring prosody and content from speech have existed since the 1960s (e.g., General Inquirer; Stone, Dunphy, Smith, & Ogilvie, 1966) and have allowed for efficient, sensitive, and well-validated measures of emotional expression (Pennebaker & King, 1999; Pennebaker, Mehl, & Niederhoffer, 2003).

Despite voluminous literature on studies that have employed prosodic and content-analytic methodologies, few studies have examined these modes of communication simultaneously. In large part, this reflects striking disparities between the methodologies that have been used to study these phenomena. Prosodic analysis is generally conducted within the context of relatively brief verbal expressions that are uttered under highly controlled emotion-induction procedures. For example, the classic Velten (1968) methodology, used in over 100 published peer-reviewed studies to date, involves having subjects read standardized emotionally valenced scripts (e.g., "There is no hope," and "Nothing can bum me out now."). Although the Velten procedure produces robust changes in prosody across different emotionally valenced conditions (see Scherer, 2003, for a review), these procedures do not allow for content analysis, since content is not self-generated. Moreover, questions have been raised about whether the prosodic changes are genuine in nature, or whether they reflect "posed" emotions that are evoked by demand characteristics of the text (see, e.g., Westermann, Spies, Stahl, & Hesse, 1996). In contrast, content analysis is usually conducted on lengthier narratives that are either written or spoken. The methodologies that have been employed in laboratory studies have generally required subjects to produce freely generated speech in response to standardized stimuli such as nondescript probes (e.g., "Tell me about bad memories from your life"; Cohen & Docherty, 2004, 2005; Hagenaars & van Minnen, 2005; Nelson & Horowitz, 2001), film clips (Kahn, Tobin, Massey, & Anderson, 2007), picture stills (Tolkmitt & Scherer, 1986), or Thematic Apperception Test cards (Markel, Bein, & Phillis, 1973; Rosenberg, Schnurr, & Oxman, 1990). Many of these procedures are limited by their dependence on laboratory assistants, who can profoundly influence a subject's speech, and by their use of ambiguous stimuli that allow for considerable variability in interpretation across subjects. We are aware of only two studies that employed prosodic and content methodologies simultaneously. Both of these studies examined free-speech samples in patients with schizophrenia and found that prosody and content of speech were unrelated (Alpert, Rosenberg, Pouget, & Shaw, 2000; Cohen, Alpert, Nienow, Dinzeo, & Docherty, 2008); thus, the procedures in current use remain untested for their feasibility in both prosodic and content analysis.

We have developed a procedure, called the Computerized assessment of Affect from Natural Speech (CANS), that attempts to bridge the gap between the two aforementioned methodologies. Specifically, the CANS was developed to (1) use a highly controlled laboratory procedure employing well-validated stimuli; (2) genuinely modulate emotion; and (3) allow for free verbal expression. During the CANS, subjects are asked to discuss their personal reactions to a series of standardized picture stills. Administration is automated, thus reducing potential influences from laboratory assistants. Additionally, the valence, intensity, and modality of the emotion-induction stimuli that are used in the CANS can be varied, thus allowing for a wide range of applications.

The present study is an initial investigation into the feasibility and validity of the CANS that is aimed at addressing three questions. First, we were interested in determining the extent to which extended verbalization influences emotion induction. Our prediction was that verbalization would increase the depth of semantic processing of the stimuli, and that this in turn would enhance its evocative effects. The impact of deep semantic processing on recall of stimuli is well documented in cognitive psychology (see Craik & Tulving, 1975), and we reasoned that it might improve the affective experience as well. We had alternate concerns that verbalization could attenuate emotion-induction effects, on the basis of evidence that expressing emotional states ameliorates unpleasant experiences following stressful laboratory tasks (e.g., Zech, 1999). To examine this issue, we compared subjective emotional and arousal states while subjects either verbalized their responses or silently processed evocative picture stills. Second, we sought to determine the extent to which emotional expression, defined in terms of prosodic and content variables, could be successfully manipulated using the CANS procedure. Subjects were exposed to separate unpleasant, pleasant, and neutral emotional stimuli to arouse emotions. We paid particular attention to potential gender effects during these analyses, given the well-documented differences in prosodic expression in females compared with males (Bachorowski & Owren, 1995; Scherer, 2003). Finally, we examined the associations between prosodic, content, and subjective experiential variables across subjects.

Method

Subjects

Subjects (38 male and 31 female) were recruited from Louisiana State University. The sample comprised 61 Caucasians, 5 African-Americans, 2 Asian-Americans, and 1 Hispanic (M = 21.28 years, SD = 5.89). All subjects were fluent in English and reported having vision that was correctable to 20/20. Subjects received course credit for participating in this experiment. This study was approved by the appropriate institutional review board, and all subjects provided written informed consent prior to beginning the study.

Procedures

Subjects were seated in front of a computer monitor and were out of view of laboratory assistants. The experiment was run using E-Prime software (Version 1.0; Psychology Software Tools, Pittsburgh, PA). Subjects were given counterbalanced silent and voiced emotion-induction conditions that were separated by an hour epoch. For each condition, subjects were asked to view three separate blocks of five affectively positive (picture numbers 2080, 5910, 2360, 7325, 4643, 4626, 7502, 7330, 1710, 2391), five affectively negative (picture numbers 9800, 9570, 9592, 6350, 6821, 9810, 6540, 9571, 6242, 9594), and five affectively neutral (picture numbers 7496, 7595, 7002, 7037, 7057, 7004, 7056, 7495, 7546, 7620) pictures from the International Affective Picture System (Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 2005). The pictures in the affectively positive and negative conditions were selected for their relatively extreme valence ratings.

Picture display was 40 sec, an amount of time that we decided was adequate for subjects to produce appropriate speech for content analysis, on the basis of our earlier research, in which both healthy adults and patients with schizophrenia generated more than 1.5 words per sec (Cohen, Alpert, et al., 2008). Pennebaker, Booth, and Francis (2007) recommended a minimum of 100 words for content analysis, a criterion that should be met by most subjects during a 200-sec speaking condition (40 sec each for five stimuli). Block order was random, as was picture order within each block. No stimulus was presented more than once to any individual subject in the experiment. Blocks were separated by a 30-sec interval during which subjects were asked to "relax and breathe deeply." On the basis of prior studies reporting that individuals return to electrophysiological baseline after processing IAPS stimuli within 1 sec of stimulus offset (see Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 1999, for a review of this methodology), we expected this epoch to be sufficient to facilitate a return to baseline emotion levels. Before and after each picture block, subjects rated their emotion and arousal levels using the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM; Lang et al., 2005), an analogue scale ranging from 1 ( pleasant emotion and high arousal) to 9 (aversive emotion and low arousal). SAM ratings are based on the circumplex model of emotion (Larsen & Diener, 1992; Watson, Wiese, Vaidya, & Tellegen, 1999), which posits that various emotional states reflect the input of two orthogonal valence (from pleasant to unpleasant) and arousal (from low arousal to high arousal) dimensions. Administration time was approximately 15 min. The SAM was selected because it has shown promise as a state measure of emotional experience that can be used repeatedly during emotion-induction studies (see, e.g., Backs, da Silva, & Han, 2005; Cohen, Minor, Baillie, & Dahir, 2008; Gomez & Danuser, 2004).

During the silent condition, subjects were given the following instructions by the experimenter: "In a moment . . . I will show you a series of pictures for 3 minutes. Maintain your focus on the pictures as you silently watch them. We will begin shortly."

During the voiced condition, subjects were asked to verbalize their thoughts about the picture, especially how it made them feel and what memories it conjured. Their speech was digitally recorded at 16 bits/sec at a sampling frequency of 44100 Hz using a headset microphone. Recordings contained the subject's verbalized response to all five pictures in a block (lasting 200 msec total). Prior to presenting each block of pictures, the experimenter read the following instructions:

In a moment . . . I will show you a series of pictures for 3 minutes. While you are focusing on these pictures, I want to record you as you talk. I am curious about how the picture relates to you. I want you to talk about what the picture means to you, what it reminds you of, and how the picture makes you feel. Each picture will be up for about 40 seconds and it is important that you talk for the full time that the pictures are being displayed. Please maintain your focus on the picture as you talk for the full time.

Prosodic Analysis

The digitized recordings were analyzed using Praat (Boersma, 2001), a program that has been used extensively in speech pathology and linguistic studies. The Praat system organizes the sound file into "frames" for analysis, which for the present study were set at a rate of 20 frames/ sec. Analysis was conducted using scripts (www.ling.ohio-state .edu/~welby/praat.html). The entire speech sample, comprising 20,000 frames, was examined. We computed inflection (the variability in pitch using information entropy; Shannon, 1948), amplitude (the mean volume in decibels), emphasis (the variability in volume using information entropy computations), and vocal output (the total percentage of frames that were voiced). The information entropy analyses yielded indices of speech amplitude variability that were expressed in bits (binary units). These analyses were conducted by undergraduate research assistants who were well trained in our laboratory procedures. Samples were processed using desktop computers with single Pentium 4 chips, which took approximately 2-3 min per 200-sec recording.

It is worth expounding on our use of entropy statistics, given that they are rarely used for psychological research yet provide a more sensitive measure of signal variability than do variance and standard deviation scores (Lai, Mayer-Kress, Sosnoff, & Newell, 2005). To compute the entropy statistics, we first removed all unvoiced frames (i.e., pitch 5 0 Hz). Each data set was then statistically normalized (mean subtracted, divided by standard deviation). As a result, the pitch and intensity for every trial possessed a mean of 0 and a variance of 1. A frequency histogram of the data was obtained using equally sized bins. The number of bins was set at N/30, with N being the total number of data points within a trial in which speech was produced. A probability distribution was then obtained for the data set by dividing the frequency of occurrence of data points within each bin by N. This was done to ensure that the sensitivity of the analysis remained constant across subjects, minimizing the potential for bias from the data range and amount of speech that was produced.

The information entropy, H, for each data set was calculated as

H = -Σp^sub i^log^sub 2^p^sub i^, (1)

where p is the probability that a data point occurs within the ith bin. This provides a measure of uncertainty that is contained within the probability distribution as measured in bits of information. Higher information-entropy values indicated a more evenly distributed data set across the bins, whereas lower information-entropy values indicated a more peaked distribution. An example of the distributions from a single subject can be seen in Figure 1. For a simplified illustration of entropy computations, see the Appendix.

Content Analysis

The digitally recorded narratives were carefully transcribed by trained research assistants, were double-checked for accuracy, and were analyzed using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software (Pennebaker et al., 2007). The LIWC program processes text files one word at a time, matching the base form of each word to a dictionary of over 2,290 word stems. Word stems are organized into 83 categories. A frequency count of the total number of instances of target words from each category is yielded, and this count is then divided by the total number of words that are in the text to control for individual differences in verbosity. Scores thus reflect a percentage of word matches in that category. We were primarily interested in the positive and the negative emotional categories, which comprise words that relate to emotional processes (e.g., happy, sorrow). Subjects averaged over 400 words for each of the neutral, pleasant, and unpleasant conditions. The LIWC has been used extensively in psychology research, and it has been validated for analysis of emotion in a wide range of applications. Of note, positive and negative lexical expression during laboratory procedures has been the focus of a number of studies from our lab (Cohen, Alpert, et al., 2008; Cohen & Minor, in press; Cohen, St-Hilaire, Aakres, & Docherty, in press), and they have shown significant associations with both trait measures of emotionality (Cohen & Minor, in press) and subjective emotion-rating scales (Kahn et al., 2007).

Analyses

We conducted the data analysis in four phases. First, we compared self-reported emotion and arousal ratings in the voiced condition with those in the nonvoiced condition to determine the extent to which verbalization affected the emotion-induction effects. We hypothesized that the magnitude of valence and arousal change (measured comparing precondition ratings with postcondition ratings) would be stronger in the voiced condition. Second, we compared prosody and content variables across the pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral conditions of the voiced condition, with the expectation that there would be significant change in these variables across the three conditions. As part of this analysis, we included gender as a betweengroups factor. Third, we computed zero-order correlations between the prosodic and content variables in order to better understand the interrelationships between these variables. Finally, we examined the relationship between the prosodic and content variables and the selfreport ratings using partial correlations (controlling for gender). All significance tests that are reported here are two-tailed, and all variables are normally distributed unless otherwise noted.

Results

Analysis Set 1: Emotional Experience During the Voiced Versus Silent Conditions

Change scores were computed by subtracting baseline valence and arousal ratings (i.e., the precondition ratings) from the postcondition ratings. Positive valence-change scores reflected increasingly unpleasant emotional states, whereas negative valence-change scores reflected increasingly pleasant emotional states. Positive arousal-change scores reflected decreased arousal, and negative arousalchange scores reflected increased arousal. The means and standard deviations for these scores are presented in Table 1. Separate repeated measures ANOVAs were computed to determine within-condition changes in valence and arousal. These analyses revealed significant changes for both valence and arousal ratings across the voiced [valence ratings, omnibus F(3,66) = 67.29, p < .05; arousal ratings, omnibus F(3,66) = 6.75, p < .05] and silent [valence ratings, omnibus F(3,66) = 102.78, p < .05; arousal ratings, omnibus F(3,66) = 16.78, p < .05] conditions, suggesting that successful emotion induction was achieved for both voiced and nonvoiced procedures. Follow-up repeated measures t tests were then used to determine the nature of these changes. These results indicated that valence ratings became significantly more pleasant for the pleasant condition than for the neutral and unpleasant conditions in both the voiced and silent procedures, and they became significantly more unpleasant for the unpleasant condition than for the neutral and pleasant conditions in both procedures. With respect to the arousal ratings in both the silent and voiced procedures, the pleasant and unpleasant conditions elicited more arousal than did the neutral conditions, but the two did not differ significantly from each other.

Next, t tests were used to address whether the voiced and silent procedures differed in either valence or arousal. Subjects in the silent procedure had significantly more dysphoric emotion for the unpleasant condition than did those in the voiced procedure [t(67) = 2.29, p < .05], but no other comparisons were statistically significant. Overall, the differences between the two procedures were relatively minor.

Analysis Set 2: Prosodic and Content Variables Across Emotion Conditions

Repeated measures ANOVAs (condition 3 sex) were computed to determine changes in prosodic and content-analytic variables across the three conditions (see Table 2). Significant omnibus F values for condition were observed for each of the prosodic and content variables except emphasis. Follow-up contrasts revealed that subjects' speech during the pleasant condition, compared with that during the unpleasant condition, was characterized by increased inflection [t(67) = 2.54, p < .05], decreased speech amplitude [t(67) = 2.23, p < .05], increased speech output [t(67) = 2.49, p < .05], and more positively [t(67) = 11.76, p < .05] and less negatively [t(67) = 15.42, p < .05] valenced word use. Speech in the unpleasant condition, compared with that in the neutral condition, was characterized by less inflection [t(67) = 2.05, p < .05], higher speech amplitude [t(67) = 3.23, p < .05], less speech output [t(67) = 2.20, p < .05], and more negatively [t(67) = 15.12, p < .05] valenced word use. Subjects used more positively valenced words in the pleasant than in the neutral condition [t(67) = 10.84, p < .05], but there were no other significant differences between these conditions for any other variables. As can also be seen in Table 2, female subjects showed significantly higher pitch, more inflection, higher speech output, and more negatively valenced words than did male subjects. The general lack of interaction effects suggested that male and female subjects were relatively similar in how their prosodic characteristics changed across the neutral, pleasant, and unpleasant conditions, although it is noteworthy that female subjects showed a more dramatic increase in negative word use from the neutral and pleasant conditions to the unpleasant condition.

Analysis Set 3: Interrelationships Between Prosodic and Content Variables

Partial correlations (controlling for sex) were computed between the prosodic and content analytic variables (see Table 3). There are several noteworthy findings here. First, the prosodic and content variables showed few significant correlations with each other, suggesting that they tap into distinct expressive channels. Second, the prosodic variables showed modest intercorrelation with each other. Increased inflection, emphasis, and speech rate were each significantly correlated across each condition. Third, the magnitude of the intercorrelations between the prosodic variables tended to increase more in the pleasant and unpleasant conditions than in the neutral condition.

Relationship Between Speech-Analytic Variables and Subjective Emotion

Change scores were computed by statistically regressing the baseline arousal scores from the postcondition scores separately for the neutral, pleasant, and unpleasant conditions. The resulting standardized scores were structured so that increasing scores reflected lower levels of arousal and higher levels of euphoric emotion. Partial correlations (controlling for sex) between the subjective change scores and the prosodic scores for the neutral, pleasant, and unpleasant conditions were then computed (see Table 4). There are several noteworthy findings from these analyses. First, subjects who were aroused during the emotion-induction conditions tended to show greater inflection, talk louder, and produce more speech. They did not show any concomitant changes in the emotional content of their speech. Second, subjects' valence scores were relatively unrelated to the prosodic or content variables. These findings suggest that prosodic variables are a function of emotional arousal rather than emotional valence.

Discussion

Significant changes in prosodic and lexical variables as well as in phenomenological states were observed across the emotionally valenced conditions in this study, providing support for our laboratory-based procedure as a method for both evoking emotional states and generating free speech for computerized analysis. We believe that the CANS procedure reflects an important potential advance in the pursuit of understanding normal emotive processes, because it allows for simultaneous analysis of both prosodicand content-communicative channels. Moreover, it holds promise for clarifying the abnormalities that are involved in various forms of psychopathology. Our own research is focused on understanding how emotional expression is attenuated in schizophrenia, since there has been limited research applying computerized measures in this regard (for elaboration, see Alpert et al., 1986; Cohen & Minor, in press; Cohen, St-Hilaire, et al., in press). The chief obstacle in this line of research is the lack of validated procedures for securing speech, an obstacle that the CANS can potentially help researchers overcome.

In the present study, emotion was conceptualized using the circumplex model (Larsen & Diener, 1992; Watson et al., 1999), a "dimensional" model of emotion that has considerable empirical support in basic emotion research and that has been used in prior studies of prosody (e.g., Laukka, 2005). It is worth briefly considering the present findings within the framework of a competing model of emotion, one that involves "categories" or distinct kinds of emotion (see Barrett, 2006, for further discussion), on the basis of evidence that different kinds of emotions produce different prosodic profiles. For example, anger and fear have been associated with increases in inflection, amplitude, and emphasis, whereas sadness and disgust have been associated with declinations in at least some of these variables (Scherer, 2003; Sobin & Alpert, 1999; Ververidis & Kotropoulos, 2006). In the present sample, unpleasant emotion contributed to decreased inflection, increased amplitude, and decreased speech production, a pattern consistent with expression of disgust (see Sobin & Alpert, 1999; Ververidis & Kotropoulos, 2006). This is not surprising, given that the negative pictures predominantly contained disgusting and violent scenes. With an eye toward future CANS studies, it is important to acknowledge that negative emotion is not an isomorphic construct. An important next step would thus be to adopt a categorical approach to understanding how prosodic expression varies across conditions, particularly across disgust, happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, and anger states (Barrett, 2006).

Insofar as very few studies to date have simultaneously employed content and prosodic analysis, the present findings offer support for their simultaneous use in a laboratory setting. It is interesting that prosodic and content variables were relatively unrelated in this study, perhaps revealing that they reflect different communicative channels. In contrast with findings from Kahn et al. (2007), lexical-analysis variables were not significantly related to the subjective ratings, raising questions as to what the content-analysis variables were capturing. When interpreting this finding, it is worth noting that only a handful of studies to date have employed lexical analysis during laboratory procedures, so this methodology is in need of further validity studies. It could be the case that the lexical dictionaries that were used in the present study were not precise enough to capture emotion states accurately, and that current dictionaries need to be adapted for laboratory use. Pessimism should be tempered by the relatively large literature employing the LIWC to understand emotional processes, and on the basis of the finding that lexical expression changed dramatically across the evocative conditions.

Changes in vocal prosody were associated with subjective arousal but not with valence for each of the neutral, pleasant, and unpleasant conditions. This finding may reflect the involvement of common neurobiological underpinnings in both subjective arousal and prosodic systems. The amygdala and other basal ganglia structures, which have been consistently linked to subjective and physiological arousal levels, are likely candidates, particularly given recent research that has implicated the basal ganglia in prosodic expression (see, e.g., Van Lancker, Sidtis, Pachana, Cummings, & Sidtis, 2006). It is possible that the nonsignificant correlations between subjective valence and prosody reflect low variability in valence scores across subjects, since emotion-induction states were achieved by most subjects. Currently, the link between subjective and expressive emotional systems is poorly understood, and further investigation of the shared systems underlying emotional arousal and prosody using the CANS seems a promising avenue.

Overall, verbal expression during the emotion-induction condition appeared to have little effect on subjective experience of emotion. This finding is encouraging, given our concern that articulation of emotional states could attenuate the magnitude of experience (see, e.g., Zech, 1999); however, it is also important to note that subjective emotion did not intensify when it was verbalized, a prediction we made on the basis of research from cognitive psychology that found that depth of semantic processing improves recall (Craik & Tulving, 1975). Several recent studies have demonstrated that, under some circumstances, verbal expression can inhibit depth of processing through verbal overshadowing, presumably because individuals attend to more superficial aspects of the stimuli (Lane & Schooler, 2004), so it could be the case that subjects focused minimally on the evocative features of the picture still. This seems unlikely to explain the present results, considering the dramatic change in lexical expression across the conditions. Regardless, the fact that the voiced condition still produced measurable changes in subjective emotion is encouraging for the use of the CANS for laboratory research.

Several limitations warrant mention here. First, prosodic changes were relatively benign when pleasant emotion was aroused, compared with those in the neutral condition. Although some have noted that unpleasant emotion is often easier to arouse in laboratory settings than is pleasant emotion (Wiseman & Levin, 1995), the CANS procedure appears to have a limited application for generating pleasant emotion states at present. Second, our measure of subjective emotions was probably not immune to the demand characteristics of the task. Nonetheless, the SAM has shown promise as a state measure of emotion in prior studies (Backs et al., 2005; Cohen & Minor, in press; Gomez & Danuser, 2004), and the arousal ratings showed convergent validity with the prosodic measures in the present study. Third, the present study was largely exploratory in nature and did not control for multiple comparisons, so some of the present findings could be misleading. Finally, many of the effects that were observed in this study were relatively modest. Future research might improve on these effects by varying stimulus intensity, subject instructions, and experimental procedures (e.g., length of stimulus display). The present project serves as an important platform for refining emotion-induction procedures for speech analysis.

In sum, the present study found encouraging support for the CANS procedure as a method for procuring speech samples for prosodic and content analysis. Moreover, this procedure effectively produced meaningful changes in emotional states. The development of this procedure will further facilitate understanding of the emotion system as well as how individual differences in expression relate to pathological states.

[Reference]

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[Author Affiliation]

Alex S. Cohen, Kyle S. Minor, Gina M. Najolia, and S. Lee Hong

Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

A. S. Cohen, acohen@lsu.edu

[Author Affiliation]

Author Note

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to A. S. Cohen, Department of Psychology, Louisiana State University, 236 Audubon Hall, Baton Rouge, LA 70803 (e-mail: acohen@lsu.edu).

Indians Reclaim AL Central With 6-2 Win

CLEVELAND - From shoveling snow to spraying champagne.

The Cleveland Indians, who slipped and slid around April's home opener during a freakish spring storm, capped an unforgettable season at Jacobs Field on Sunday with a sun-soaked championship.

Jake Westbrook struck out a career-high nine and Grady Sizemore had four hits as the Indians, fourth-place finishers a year ago, clinched their first AL Central title since 2001 with a 6-2 win over the Oakland Athletics.

The Indians became the second team in the majors to clinch. The Boston Red Sox assured themselves of at least the AL wild-card spot Saturday night.

Blastocystis hominis: A common yet neglected human parasite / reply

SIR, Blastocystis hominis is a common human parasite with a worldwide distribution. Prevalence rates in developed countries vary from 1.5% to 10%, with rates up to 50% in developing countries.1 Although the numbers of B. hominis reported to the UK Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) Communicable Diseases Surveillance Centre (CDSC) are substantially lower, we feel this is due largely to a lack of awareness. Consequently, the true incidence of B. hominis in England and Wales remains unknown.

Over the past 100 years, B. hominis has had a varied taxonomic history, being described as a yeast, a degenerate or cyst form of a flagellate, a protozoan and a sporozoan.2 In 1996, Silberman et al.,3 using phylogenetic analysis of ribosomal RNA, classified it as the only member of the Stramenopiles (a diverse group of eukaryotes that include kelp, diatoms, slime nets and water moulds) found in humans.

B. hominis has been reported in patients with intestinal symptoms,4'5 intestinal obstruction due to carcinoma,6 in AIDS patients with diarrhoea,' and in patients with irritable bowel syndrome.8 In addition, it also has been reported in asymptomatic individuals;9,10 therefore, its exact role in human disease remains controversial. However, many important questions regarding possible pathogenic subgroups of B. hominis and associated pathogenic mechanisms remain unanswered.

Over the past decade, the UK NEQAS Parasitology Scheme has been instrumental in educating laboratories in the identification and possible significance of potential enteric pathogens such as B. hominis and Dientamoeba fragilis, mainly by circulation of stained faecal smears. Paradoxically, B. hominis was present in three samples of unstained faecal material distributed during 2000, but was only mentioned once and not scored. Whilst we recognise the difficulties of ensuring an even distribution of B. hominis, failure to acknowledge the presence of this potential pathogen in NEQAS specimens may give the message that it is not significant and could discourage laboratories from reporting clinical isolates of B. hominis to CDSC.

In fact, the numbers reported to CDSC have fallen dramatically, from 551 in 1996 to 293 in 1999. As B. hominis is the most common faecal parasite seen at both Aberystwyth PHL and Swansea PHL11 in the UK, we feel that the CDSC figures do not reflect the true incidence of B. hominis in England and Wales. Indeed, all 139 reports of B. hominis reported to CDSC Wales in 2000 were detected by our two laboratories (unpublished data). We believe that this can be attributed to laboratory awareness and the use of suitable methodologies.11

Although B. hominis is a controversial parasite in terms of pathogenicity, largely it has been overlooked in the UK. The UK NEQAS Parasitology Scheme has an important role to play in the continued education of laboratories with regard to the identification of B. hominis; therefore, we feel it important to acknowledge its presence in future distributions, both in stained smears and unstained preparations. Increased laboratory awareness should result in more accurate data on the incidence of this parasite in England and Wales.

J. J. Windsor*, L. Macfarlane*, T. M. Whiteside*, R. M. Chalmers t, A. L. Thomas and

D. H. M. Joynson t

*Aberystwyth Public Health Laboratory, Bronglais Hospital, Caradoc Road, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion SY23 1ER

t Cryptosporidium Reference Unit

Swansea Public Health Laboratory, Swansea, Wales, UK References

1 Stenzel DJ, Boreham PFL. Blastocystis hominis revisited. Clin Microbiol Rev 1996; 9: 563-84.

2 Zierdt CH. Blastocystis hominis - past and future. Clin Microbiol Rev 1991; 4: 61-79.

3 Silberman JD, Sogin ML, Leipe DD, Clark CG. Human parasite finds taxonomic home. Nature 1996; 380: 398.

4 Sheenan DJ, Raucher BG, McKitrick JC. Association of Blastocystis hominis with signs and symptoms of human disease. J Clin Microbiol 1986; 24: 548-50.

5Udkow MP, Markell EK. Blastocystis hominis: prevalence in asymptomatic versus symptomatic hosts. J Infect Dis 1993; 168: 242.

6 Horiki N, Kaneda Y, Maruyama M, Fujita Y, Tachibani H. Intestinal blockage by carcinoma and Blastocystis hominis infection. Am J Trop Med Hyg 1999; 60: 400-2.

7 Corte L, Rabodonirina M, Piens MA, Perreard M, Mojon M, Trepo C. Prevalence of intestinal protozoans in French patients infected with HIV. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr 1993; 6: 1024-9.

8 Giacometti A, Cirioni O, Fiorentini A, Fortuna M, Scalise G. Irritable bowel syndrome in patients with Blastocystis hominis infection. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 1999; 18: 436-9.

9 Shlim DR, Hoge CW, Rajah R, Rabold JG, Echeverria P. Is Blastocystis hominis a cause of diarrhoea in travellers? A prospective controlled study in Nepal. Clin Infect Dis 1995; 21: 97-101.

10 Hellard ME, Sinclair MI, Hogg GG, Fairley CK. Prevalence of enteric pathogens among community-based asymptomatic individuals. J Gastroenterol Hepatol 2000; 15: 290-3.

11 Windsor JJ, Jones SK, Macfarlane L, Chalmers R, Thomas AL, Joynson DHM. Enhanced detection of Blastocystis hominis [Abstract]. 25`" PHLS Annual Scientific Conference, University of Warwick, UK. September 18-20 2000, Poster no 177.

SIR, We are grateful to Windsor et al. for highlighting the achievements of UK NEQAS Parasitology in educating laboratories in the identification of various enteric parasites, but were surprised to find them holding us responsible for under-notification of Blastocystis hominis in the UK.

Whether or not this organism is a pathogen is not an issue for NEQAS, as our terms of reference simply are to address proficiency in laboratory examination. Furthermore, failure of laboratories to report the organism is outside our control, as we have no authority over the internal operating procedures of our participants. We can and do respond to requests for advice on matters relating to parasite diagnosis, but do our best not to exceed our remit.

UK NEQAS Parasitology was designed to improve the diagnosis of parasites by the examination of clinical material (almost all of our distributions are sourced from human cases) and to provide teaching material that illustrates unusual or uncommon parasites. In order to develop diagnostic skills, participants are encouraged to report all parasites, even those considered to be non-pathogenic. However, parasites may not be scored or mentioned in the summary for the following reasons:

1 A mean of less than five ova per deposit or less than one cyst per five fields (x40 objective) means that the parasite cannot be guaranteed to be present in every sample.

2 The request is to examine for ova or cysts only any parasites falling outside these criteria will not be included in the summary, even if pathogenic.

3 There are more than three different parasites per specimen - only the three most numerous parasites are scored and the others are mentioned in the summary. Participants are not penalised for listing more than three parasites, provided they are present in the distribution, and, as many of the specimens used in the schemes come from the tropics, it is not uncommon for them to contain more than three parasites.

The intended results issued are based both on a thorough in-house predistribution examination of the sample and on the comments from 20 referee laboratories.

Over the past year, the fact that B. hominis was neither scored nor reported in the summary was due to the complex nature of the specimens distributed and the nature of the scoring system, and not a failure to acknowledge the presence of a potential pathogen in the specimen concerned. Indeed, as Windsor et al. state, the role of this organism in human disease remains controversial.

UK NEQAS Parasitology will continue to send out, and score, distributions containing B. hominis, and, in fairness to all laboratories taking part in the scheme, will continue to follow the policy that organisms are scored only when we are sure that the specimen represents a fair test of diagnostic ability.

Peter L. Chiodini and Monika M. Kettelhut

Department of Clinical Parasitology (QC) Hospital for Tropical Diseases Mortimer Market, Capper Street London WC1E 6AU, UK

Don't export more trash here!

New York City's recent announcement that it will be closing its Fresh Kills Landfill by 2001 and will need new disposal sites for the 4.7 million tons of trash generated annually raised red flags for concerned politicians in Pennsylvania. In 1995, New York State exported 2.7 million tons (15 percent of its total waste) to Pennsylvania. Governor Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania sent a letter to New York Governor George Pataki objecting to New York's reported intention to seek to export more trash to states such as Pennsylvania when Fresh Kills closes. Ridge also objected to New York's termination of negotiations with Pennsylvania and other states to reach a legislative agreement on restricting interstate waste. He went to Washington in mid-June to seek Congressional action on legislation that would allow states to restrict the amount of trash that is exported from other states. Congressional action is necessary because federal courts have ruled that trash is considered interstate commerce and, as such, is subject to federal, rather than state, regulation.

Congressman Jim Greenwood of Pennsylvania addressed the prospects for passage of such legislation in a talk he gave to the Joint Legislative Air and Water Pollution Control and Conservation Committee in Harrisburg. He was not very optimistic, citing a promise by Congressman Gerald Solomon of New York to use his position as chairman of the House Rules Committee to hold up legislation that could hurt his state. "New York has no interest in resolving this issue," said Greenwood. "Its issues are resolved by the status quo. We've had a stone wall to deal with in the New York delegation." Greenwood recommended that the committee meet with its counterparts in New York to discuss incentives for getting communities to host disposal facilities. "We are following up on his suggestion and plan to talk about ways that New York can enhance its disposal capacity," says Richard Fox of the Joint Committee. "There is no reason why New York can't handle its own municipal solid waste."

Singapore tugboat sinks off coast, 11 crew missing

Singapore rescuers were searching for 11 missing Indonesian crewmen after a tugboat sank Wednesday off the coast of the city-state.

The Singapore-registered Ocean Lark went down off Pedra Branca island, 34 miles (54 kilometers) off the east coast, the Maritime and Port Authority said in a statement.

Two of the boat's 13 crew members were rescued by another ship and the air force and navy were searching for the other 11, the port authority said.

Officials were investigating why the boat sank.

Singapore's port is the world's busiest in terms of shipping tonnage.

Greece faces general strike, more cuts planned

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece's beleaguered government is bracing for a 48-hour general strike as lawmakers debate a new round of austerity reforms designed to win the country additional rescue loans needed avoid bankruptcy.

More than 5,000 police are to guard Athens' city center Tuesday, with union protest rallies due to start at 10:00 a.m. (0700 GMT) and head to Parliament.

The strike is set to disrupt or halt most public services, with doctors, ambulance drivers, journalists and even actors at a state-funded theater joining the protest, which is to continue Wednesday.

Flights will be grounded both days during stoppages by air traffic controllers between 8:00 a.m. and midday and between 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. (0500-0900 GMT and 1500-1900 GMT).

Unions are angry at a new €28 billion ($40 billion) austerity program that would slap taxes on minimum wage earners and other struggling Greeks, following months of other cuts that have seen unemployment surge to more than 16 percent.

The package and implementation law must be passed in parliamentary votes this week so the European Union and the International Monetary Fund release the next installment of Greece's €110 billion ($156 billion) bailout loan. Without it, Greece faces the prospect next month of becoming the first eurozone country to default on its debts — a potentially disastrous event that could drag down European banks and affect other financially troubled European countries.

"These measures are a massacre for workers' rights. It will truly be hell for the working man. The strike must bring everything to a standstill," said Thanassis Pafilis, a lawmaker with the Greek Communist Party that will lead one of Tuesday's main rallies.

A three-day debate on the new austerity measures got under way in parliament Monday, with Socialist Prime Minister George Papandreou buoyed by a word that French banks are willing to defer Greek debt claims and ease pressure on Athens.

"I call on you to vote for survival, growth, justice, and a future for the citizens of this country," Papandreou told lawmakers.

Greece remains frozen out of bond markets and is surviving on the €110 billion in promised bailout loans. Rescue creditors have set parliamentary approval of the tough new Greek measures as a strict condition for further assistance to cover a 2012 financing gap.

Papandreou said he hoped the terms of a second bailout would be better than the first, which was agreed last year.

"I call on Europe, for its part, to give Greece the time and the terms it needs to really pay off its debt, without strangling growth, and without strangling its citizens," he said.

Papandreou's new finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, said the government acknowledged the new cuts were "unfair." He said Greece wants to conclude negotiations for a second bailout by the end of the summer "at the latest," and he urged opposition parties to abandon their opposition to the austerity program.

"These measures will take us from running budget deficits to achieving primary surpluses. It's a difficult but necessary step," Venizelos said.

The Socialists, with traditionally strong ties to the striking unions, have struggled to contain a party revolt against austerity.

Papandreou has a majority of five seats in parliament, but at least one Socialist lawmaker has said he will vote against the government on Wednesday, with another dissenter undecided — prompting dire warnings from senior government officials.

Theodoros Pangalos, the outspoken deputy prime minister, criticized financial experts who have suggested Greece might be forced to abandon the euro and return to its old currency, the drachma.

"People who say this are extremely stupid, whether they are analysts, university professors or economists," Pangalos said in a weekend interview with the Spanish daily El Mundo.

"A return to the drachma would mean that the next day banks would be surrounded by people trying to get their money out. The army would have to use tanks to protect (the banks) because there wouldn't be enough police to do it," he was quoted as saying.

"There would be riots everywhere, shops would have empty shelves and people would be jumping out of windows ... It would also be disastrous for the entire economy of Europe."

___

Elena Becatoros in Athens contributed to this report.

Monday, March 12, 2012

THE RIDES OF SPRING // LIGHT TRUCKS FOR FAIR WEATHER

Sporty cars historically have been used for warm-weather drivingfun. Trucks? The idea of using a truck for spring and summerdriving kicks would have been laughable not long ago. For one thing,they were downright uncomfortable.

But sporty, carlike trucks - sport/utility vehicles and pickups- have become wildly popular. And, under some circumstances, theirversatility allows them to be more fun than autos in warm weather.

Nobody would take a convertible or flashy coupe to reach afishing hole way back in the woods or for an off-road driving trek tocommune with nature. But most four-wheel-drive sport/utilityvehicles and pickups are built to handle off-road motoring easily -while providing carlike comforts.Tall sport/utes also offer a better view of spring/summerscenery - not to mention added cargo room for those long vacationdrives.On the other hand, trucks generally eat more fuel than cars, andtheir high seating positions also allow a good view of long summertraffic jams.Whatever. Here are some of the top sport/utility vehicles andpickups for warm-weather driving fun and their base prices:Acura SLX ($35,300 to $38,300) and similar Isuzu Trooper($26,550 to $37,990): The SLX sport/utility almost is too posh totake off road. It is from Honda's luxury division, but really is adressed-up Isuzu Trooper, which is no bad thing. The SLX and moreutilitarian Trooper are powerful and roomy, but their tall height canmake getting in or out a chore.Chevrolet Blazer ($20,516 to $24,116) and similar GMC Jimmy($20,639 to $24,362): Slick and fast, these 190-horsepowersport/utilities have a variety of suspension options and can be setup to be extremely rugged or civilized enough for a night at theopera.Chevrolet S-Series ($11,553 to $19,603) and similar GMC Sonoma($11,567 to $19,864): These compact pickups have a manageable sizethat make them fairly easy to drive in congested areas. The S-Serieshas an SS (Super Sport) option that includes a sport suspension,aluminum wheels and body color grille - and a ZR2 Wide Stance SportPerformance off-road package that provides four-wheel drive modelswith a wider track, off-road suspension and big tires.Chevrolet Tahoe ($23,507 to $31,485) and GMC Yukon ($23,571 to$31,549): Positioned between the Blazer and huge Chevy Suburban,these handsome sport/utes are in hot demand. Their 255-horsepowerV-8 give them lots of muscle, and there's enough room inside for abasketball team. But you're lucky if you get 13 to 14 m.p.g. in thecity.Dodge Dakota ($12,725 to $19,690): The new, radically redesignedDakota is the only mid-size pickup truck out there. It's become aninstant success partly because it resembles the tough, full-sizeDodge Ram pickup and can be had with potent V-8s. This very carliketruck is easier to handle than a full-size pickup and has a majorpayload advantage over compact pickups.Ford Expedition ($27,270 to $33,875): Ford's slick answer to theChevy Tahoe and Suburban, it's a sport/ute long on comfort, room andperformance. There's plenty of zip, but the 215- or 230-horsepowerV-8s will ring up major gasoline credit card bills.Ford Explorer ($20,085 to $35,005) and similar MercuryMountaineer ($27,240 to $29,240): Long the top-selling sport/ute, theExplorer's new overhead-camshaft, 205-horsepower V-6 and five-speedautomatic transmission make it even more attractive. Avoid theExplorer's base, underpowered 160-horsepower V-6. Standard dualairbags, anti-lock brakes, engine choices and excellent four-wheeldrive systems are keeping it on top. The new Mountaineer, whichcomes only with the Explorer's optional 210-horsepower V-8, is anupscale Explorer.Ford Ranger ($10,970 to $20,325): It's been the country'stop-selling compact pickup for years, and many younger buyers regardit as a substitute for a sports car. Many carlike models areoffered, although the Ranger's 160-horsepower V-6 isn't the mostpowerful in the compact pickup market. A new five-speed automatictransmission shows Ford is keeping the Ranger competitive.Geo Tracker ($13,415 to $15,710) and similar Suzuki Sidekick($12,899 to $20,199): They need stronger engines and improvedhandling, but have a handy size and good fuel economy. Thesevehicles fit in the increasingly popular market for smaller,more-affordable sport/utes.Honda CR-V ($19,300 to $20,300): The first Honda-madesport/utility, the wildly popular new CR-V also fits in the growingaffordable sport/ute class. The four-cylinder CR-V is one of thelarger vehicles in that market, being nearly as big as a Jeep GrandCherokee. But it is very carlike, being built on the Honda Civicauto platform. It isn't for serious off-road motoring.Honda Passport ($21,470 to $29,030) and similar Isuzu Rodeo($17,340 to $28,410): Being a Honda, the Passport is a slightlyhigher-line version of the highly competent Rodeo sport/utility. Youget a generally comfortable ride and spacious interior - and a strong190-horsepower V-6 is standard in the Passport and in most Rodeos.Isuzu Trooper ($26,550 to $37,990): This sport/ute is plentyfast, roomy and comfortable, although it's gas-thirsty and its tallheight makes it hard to get in and out.Jeep Cherokee ($15,300 to $23,420): The Cherokee is muchimproved for 1997, with crisper styling and a new interior with dualairbags. But the basic design is old, and you need the extra-costsix-cylinder engine for lively performance.Jeep Grand Cherokee ($25,545 to $33,790): A 220-horsepower V-8makes it one of the hot rods in the mid-size sport/utility market.However, the standard, 185-horsepower six-cylinder is more thanadequate for most owners - although it's no fuel-miser. Thesharp-looking Grand Cherokee could use more cargo room, but generallydoes a fine job.Jeep Wrangler ($13,470 to $19,210): Its predecessor was horriblyuncomfortable. But improvements, such as a carlike suspension, havemade the new Wrangler easier to live with. Serious off-road drivingability remains a strong point.Mitsubishi Montero Sport ($21,820 to $31,110): The new Sportlacks a full-time four-wheel-drive system, but is one of the nimbler,smaller sport/utes - although it's larger than a Honda CR-V. Rideand handling are generally good, although the steering has too muchslack.Nissan Pathfinder ($22,899 to $32,849) and similar Infiniti QX4($35,550): The QX4 is a posh, equipment-loaded version of the popularPathfinder, with a more sophisticated four-wheel-drive system. ThePathfinder is more car-like than some sport/utes, although its168-horsepower V-6 should be more potent for such a fairly bigvehicle.Subaru Legacy Outback ($22,495 to $24,995): The wildlysuccessful, versatile four-wheel-drive Outback is a combinationsport/ute and station wagon, with items such as a high roof andraised suspension. More such hybrid vehicles are coming.Toyota RAV4 ($15,118 to $18,268): A runaway success, the newRAV4 sport/ute combines very carlike comfort and handling in a small,affordable package, with good passenger and cargo space. You can getfront- or four-wheel drive, although the "4WD" version isn't forserious off-roading.Toyota 4Runner ($19,888 to $26,578): The 4Runner has beenovershadowed by the RAV4, but is a sweet, smooth, user-friendlysport/ute that is capable of serious off-road driving. This solidlybuilt vehicle could use a bit more power and features for the moneybut wins you over with its overall competence.