Corneocyte quantification by NIR densitometry and UV/Vis spectroscopy for human and porcine skin and the role of skin cleaning procedures.

Optical methods of corneocyte quantification during tape stripping experiments on the skin are useful tools for the rapid evaluation of the skin penetration potential of dermally applied substances. However, a comparative investigation of the different methods proposed for this task, namely NIR densitometry and UV/Vis spectroscopy, is still missing. Thus, the aim of the present work was to employ these two techniques in comparative tape stripping experiments both in vivo on human forearm skin and in vitro on porcine ear skin. Standard tape stripping experiments were performed in the absence and presence of a marketed formulation containing flufenamic acid as a model drug. In the context of these methodological investigations, different methods of skin cleaning prior to the tape stripping procedure were evaluated to identify the most appropriate working protocol among the approaches proposed in the respective literature. The results showed that the investigated methods of NIR densitometry and UV/Vis spectroscopy deliver highly comparable results. Both optical methods are suitable to determine the skin penetration profiles of active substances during in vivo and in vitro tape stripping, especially if a simple working protocol without any cleaning procedures is maintained.

Facilitating in vitro tape stripping: application of infrared densitometry for quantification of porcine stratum corneum proteins.

Infrared (IR) densitometry is a highly practical method recently proposed for protein analysis during in vivo tape stripping. However, this method has not yet been validated for the quantification of porcine stratum corneum (SC) proteins. Therefore, the aim of this study was to establish calibration curves for the analysis of adhesive tapes removed from porcine ear skin. To this end, the protein absorption (as determined via IR densitometry) was correlated with the protein content determined with the Micro BCA™ protein assay after extraction of the tapes. The obtained linear regressions confirm that IR densitometry is suitable for the quantification of not only human, but also porcine, SC proteins. The pattern of protein removal observed with porcine skin differs from that of human skin due to more pronounced corneocyte clustering and deep 'canyons', which necessitates specific evaluation of porcine skin samples and a working protocol that takes this into account. The presented data will facilitate future analysis of porcine SC proteins during in vitro tape stripping.

The relationship between parenting types and older adolescents' personality, academic achievement, adjustment, and substance use.

The purpose of the present study was to examine Baumrind's T3 conceptual framework using a multiple informant design and an older adolescent population. With 178 college students and their families as participants, the present study found many of the predicted relations between parents' child-rearing style (Authoritative, Democratic, Nondirective, Nonauthoritarian-Directive, Authoritarian-Directive, and Unengaged) and their adolescent children's behavior in the 4 domains assessed: personality, adjustment, academic achievement, and substance use. The differences between parenting types on the criterion measures were not as large as reported in Baumrind's study, and significant effects were predominantly due to the poor scores from children with Unengaged and Authoritarian-Directive parents. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the Authoritative parenting type, the utility of using a typology, and areas for future research.

Alcohol and drug abusers subtyped by antisocial personality and primary or secondary depressive disorder.

Our data show that when substance abusers are subtyped simultaneously by antisocial personality disorder and the onset of depression relative to alcohol or drug abuse, groups of people with unique personality and affective profiles are identified. The profiles are represented by measures of affect-related personality variables such as trait anxiety, trait depression, histrionic traits, sensation seeking, and novelty seeking. These measures were chosen in an attempt to show that a "low arousal" personality type may be associated with antisocial personality and may thus indirectly be linked to a certain type (i.e., ASP/nondepressed) of substance abuser. By using a multi-symptomatic typological schema (i.e., a constellation of diagnostic categories rather than just one), we can show that different personality or affective profiles are indeed associated with certain subtypes of substance abusers and that depressed people who use drugs or alcohol are different affectively from antisocial types. We also show that the relationship between "low" and "high" arousal personality profile and subtypes based on co-morbid psychopathology is highlighted even more when we take into account the onset of dysthymia or depression that is primary versus secondary to substance abuse. Our findings are in accord with others' descriptions of the "affective arousal" dimensions of personality and are the first to link these dimensions with subtypes based on ASP and depression.

Dependency conflict, marital threat, and alcohol consumption in a middle-aged sample.

The hypothesis that dependency conflict is associated with higher levels of alcohol consumption when dependency needs are threatened or thwarted was tested with a sample of 672 middle-aged, married adults with college-age children. The subjects' current level of alcohol consumption was predicted based on the present level of threat to the marital relationship (assessed by reports from several family members) and on indices of dependency need and inhibition of dependent behavior estimated from sibship size, sibship density, and sibling position. A multiple regression analysis yielded a significant two-way interaction (p less than .05) between marital threat and subject sex, and a significant three-way interaction of dependency need, inhibition of dependent behavior, and marital threat. High marital threat was associated with higher levels of alcohol consumption in men and slightly lower levels of alcohol consumption in women. Additionally, when dependency need was high, alcohol consumption was generally low, except when both inhibition of dependent behavior and marital threat were high. However, when dependency need was low, the highest alcohol consumption score occurred when marital threat was low and inhibition was high.

Assessing child-rearing behaviors: a comparison of ratings made by mother, father, child, and sibling on the CRPBI.

This study of the reliability and validity of scales from the Child's Report of Parental Behavior (CRPBI) presents data on the utility of aggregating the ratings of multiple observers. Subjects were 680 individuals from 170 families. The participants in each family were a college freshman student, the mother, the father, and 1 sibling. The results revealed moderate internal consistency (M = .71) for all rater types on the 18 subscales of the CRPBI, but low interrater agreement (M = .30). The same factor structure was observed across the 4 rater types; however, aggregation within raters across salient scales to form estimated factor scores did not improve rater convergence appreciably (M = .36). Aggregation of factor scores across 2 raters yields much higher convergence (M = .51), and the 4-rater aggregates yielded impressive generalizability coefficients (M = .69). These and other analyses suggested that the responses of each family member contained a small proportion of true variance and a substantial proportion of factor-specific systematic error. The latter can be greatly reduced by aggregating scores across multiple raters.

Depression, guilt, and self-management of pleasant and unpleasant events.

The relation of subjects' depression and guilt to their choice to delay unpleasant and pleasant events was examined. Ninety-one college students chose to receive punishments and gratifications immediately or a week later. Depression, primarily in males, was related to a present orientation rather than a future orientation, namely, the choice of delayed punishments over immediate punishments and of immediate small rewards over large delayed rewards. This result supported the hypothesis that depressed individuals will attempt to correct a current aversive state rather than maximize long-term gains. High guilt in males was related to the choice of immediate punishment. The results are consistent with the view that behavior choices are determined in part by anticipated internal affective consequences.

Transcendental meditation verus muscle relaxation: two-year follow-up of a controlled experiment.

In this questionnaire survey the authors measured the outcome among 20 students randomly assigned to muscle relaxation training and 19 assigned to transcendental mediatation at one year (the number of respondents in each group was 13 and 16, respectively) and two and one-half years (the number of respondents was 18 and 17, respectively). At both follow-ups there were no differences between the groups in frequency of practice or satisfaction. In both groups, less than 25% reported more than moderate satisfaction, and less than 20% practices as mush as once per week. Subjects' expectancies at nine weeks predicted their satisfaction and frequency of practice at two and on-half years. The authors conclude that although some subjects (15%-20%) to enjoy and continue to practice transcendental meditation, it is not universally beneficial.

Modifying social withdrawal in preschoolers: The effects of filmed modeling and teacher praise.

Thirteen social isolates were selected from five nursery schools according to teacher ratings and behavioral samples obtained by trained observers. Half the subjects were randomly assigned to a modeling group and viewed a 23-minute film depicting appropriate social behavior in the nursery school. The remainder of the subjects viewed the same film, but also received 2 days of teacher praise contingent on the subject's peer interaction in his classroom. Modeling was inferred to successfully modify isolate behavior with or without praise. The "modeling plus praise" condition was not significantly different from "modeling only" for children's social interactions. General proximity response scores appeared to be detrimentally affected by the praise contingency during posttest assessment only. At followup, all subjects maintained or improved their posttest interaction scores.