Iowa Legislature and the United States Congress, April 24, 2013

In Iowa, and in every other state in the United States, there exists a representative form of government. People are elected by the voters to represent the interests of citizens both at the state and national levels.

Emotional experience in patients awaiting lung transplantation: A qualitative analysis

Emotional reactions in the course of transplantation are often explored through negative emotions (e.g. stress, guilt) or depression and its evaluation. However the emotional reactions in the course of transplantation describing positive and negative emotional experiences have not been comprehensively described. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted shortly after registration on the waiting list with 15 lung patients waiting for an organ coming from a deceased donor. In a qualitative analysis, focussing on the emotional experience of transplantation, a very rich discourse was underlined. The described emotions in the interviews of the patients were related to specific situations, stakes and existential questions. All these emotions help to describe more precisely the very intimate experience of a difficult and stressful situation while awaiting transplantation. It also helps to better understand the impact of the paradoxical situation of transplantation when a person is waiting for an organ, which will improve quality of life and will allow to survive, but which also depends on the end of the life of a donor.

Altered decision-making in multiple sclerosis: a sign of impaired emotional reactivity?

We assessed decision-making capacity and emotional reactivity in 20 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and in 16 healthy subjects using the Gambling Task (GT), a model of real-life decision making, and the skin conductance response (SCR). Demographic, neurological, affective, and cognitive parameters were analyzed in MS patients for their effect on decision-making performance. MS patients persisted longer (slope, -3.6%) than the comparison group (slope, -6.4%) in making disadvantageous choices as the GT progressed (p < 0.001), suggesting significant slower learning in MS. Patients with higher Expanded Disability Status Scale scores (EDSS >2.0) showed a different pattern of impairment in the learning process compared with patients with lower functional impairment (EDSS </=2.0). This slower learning was associated with impaired emotional reactivity (anticipatory SCR 3.9 vs 6.1 microSiemens [microS] for patients vs the comparison group, p < 0.0001; post-choice SCR 3.9 vs 6.2 microS, p < 0.0001), but not with executive dysfunction. Impaired emotional dimensions of behavior (assessed using the Dysexecutive Questionnaire, p < 0.002) also correlated with slower learning. Given the considerable consequences that impaired decision making can have on daily life, we suggest that this factor may contribute to handicap and altered quality of life secondary to MS and is dependent on emotional experience. Ann Neurol 2004.

A global marine sedimentary response to the end-Permian mass extinction: Examples from southern Turkey and the western United States

The end-Permian mass extinction greatly diminished marine diversity and brought about a whole-scale restructuring of marine ecosystems; these ecosystem changes also profoundly affected the sedimentary record. Data presented here, attained through facies analyses of strata deposited during the immediate aftermath of the end-Permian mass extinction (southern Turkey) and at the close of the Early Triassic (southwestern United States), in combination with a literature review, show that sedimentary systems were profoundly affected by: (1) a reduction in biotic diversity and abundance and (2) long-term environmental fluctuations that resulted from the end-Permian crisis. Lower Triassic strata display widespread microbialite and carbonate seafloor fan development and contain indicators of suppressed infaunal bioturbation such as flat-pebble conglomerates and wrinkle structures (facies considered unusual in post-Cambrian subtidal deposits). Our observations suggest that depositional systems, too, respond to biotic crises, and that certain facies may act as barometers of ecologic and environmental change independent of fossil assemblage analyses. Close investigation of facies changes during other critical times in Earth history may serve as an important tool in interpreting the ecology of metazoans and their environment.

Psychosocial analysis of the collective processes in the United States after September 11

This article studies alterations in the values, attitudes, and behaviors that emerged among U.S. citizens as a consequence of, and as a response to, the attacks of September 11, 2001. The study briefly examines the immediate reaction to the attack, before focusing on the collective reactions that characterized the behavior of the majority of the population between the events of 9/11 and the response to it in the form of intervention in Afghanistan. In studying this period an eight-phase sequential model (Botcharova, 2001) is used, where the initial phases center on the nation as the ingroup and the latter focus on the enemy who carried out the attack as the outgroup. The study is conducted from a psychosocial perspective and uses "social identity theory" (Tajfel & Turner, 1979, 1986) as the basic framework for interpreting and accounting for the collective reactions recorded. The main purpose of this paper is to show that the interpretation of these collective reactions is consistent with the postulates of social identity theory. The application of this theory provides a different and specific analysis of events. The study is based on data obtained from a variety of rigorous academic studies and opinion polls conducted in relation to the events of 9/11. In line with social identity theory, 9/11 had a marked impact on the importance attached by the majority of U.S. citizens to their identity as members of a nation. This in turn accentuated group differentiation and activated ingroup favoritism and outgroup discrimination (Tajfel & Turner, 1979, 1986). Ingroup favoritism strengthened group cohesion, feelings of solidarity, and identification with the most emblematic values of the U.S. nation, while outgroup discrimination induced U.S. citizens to conceive the enemy (al-Qaeda and its protectors) as the incarnation of evil, depersonalizing the group and venting their anger on it, and to give their backing to a military response, the eventual intervention in Afghanistan. Finally, and also in line with the postulates of social identity theory, as an alternative to the virtual bipolarization of the conflict (U.S. vs al-Qaeda), the activation of a higher level of identity in the ingroup is proposed, a group that includes the United States and the largest possible number of countries¿ including Islamic states¿in the search for a common, more legitimate and effective solution.

Catechol-binding serines of beta(2)-adrenergic receptors control the equilibrium between active and inactive receptor states.

The binding free energy for the interaction between serines 204 and 207 of the fifth transmembrane helix of the beta(2)-adrenergic receptor (beta(2)-AR) and catecholic hydroxyl (OH) groups of adrenergic agonists was analyzed using double mutant cycles. Binding affinities for catecholic and noncatecholic agonists were measured in wild-type and mutant receptors, carrying alanine replacement of the two serines (S204A, S207A beta(2)-AR), a constitutive activating mutation, or both. The free energy coupling between the losses of binding energy attributable to OH deletion from the ligand and from the receptor indicates a strong interaction (nonadditivity) as expected for a direct binding between the two sets of groups. However, we also measured a significant interaction between the deletion of OH groups from the receptor and the constitutive activating mutation. This suggests that a fraction of the decrease in agonist affinity caused by serine mutagenesis may involve a shift in the conformational equilibrium of the receptor toward the inactive state. Direct measurements using a transient transfection assay confirm this prediction. The constitutive activity of the (S204A, S207A) beta(2)-AR mutant is 50 to 60% lower than that of the wild-type beta(2)-AR. We conclude that S204 and S207 do not only provide a docking site for the agonist, but also control the equilibrium of the receptor between active (R*) and inactive (R) forms.

Psychosocial analysis of the collective processes in the United States after September 11

This article studies alterations in the values, attitudes, and behaviors that emerged among U.S. citizens as a consequence of, and as a response to, the attacks of September 11, 2001. The study briefly examines the immediate reaction to the attack, before focusing on the collective reactions that characterized the behavior of the majority of the population between the events of 9/11 and the response to it in the form of intervention in Afghanistan. In studying this period an eight-phase sequential model (Botcharova, 2001) is used, where the initial phases center on the nation as the ingroup and the latter focus on the enemy who carried out the attack as the outgroup. The study is conducted from a psychosocial perspective and uses "social identity theory" (Tajfel & Turner, 1979, 1986) as the basic framework for interpreting and accounting for the collective reactions recorded. The main purpose of this paper is to show that the interpretation of these collective reactions is consistent with the postulates of social identity theory. The application of this theory provides a different and specific analysis of events. The study is based on data obtained from a variety of rigorous academic studies and opinion polls conducted in relation to the events of 9/11. In line with social identity theory, 9/11 had a marked impact on the importance attached by the majority of U.S. citizens to their identity as members of a nation. This in turn accentuated group differentiation and activated ingroup favoritism and outgroup discrimination (Tajfel & Turner, 1979, 1986). Ingroup favoritism strengthened group cohesion, feelings of solidarity, and identification with the most emblematic values of the U.S. nation, while outgroup discrimination induced U.S. citizens to conceive the enemy (al-Qaeda and its protectors) as the incarnation of evil, depersonalizing the group and venting their anger on it, and to give their backing to a military response, the eventual intervention in Afghanistan. Finally, and also in line with the postulates of social identity theory, as an alternative to the virtual bipolarization of the conflict (U.S. vs al-Qaeda), the activation of a higher level of identity in the ingroup is proposed, a group that includes the United States and the largest possible number of countries¿ including Islamic states¿in the search for a common, more legitimate and effective solution.

Assessment of emotional reactivity produced by exposure to virtual environments in patients with eating disorders

The aim of this study was to assess the usefulness of virtual environments representing situations that are emotionally significant to subjects with eating disorders (ED). These environments may be applied with both evaluative and therapeutic aims and in simulation procedures to carry out a range of experimental studies. This paper is part of a wider research project analyzing the influence of the situation to which subjects are exposed on their performance on body image estimation tasks. Thirty female patients with eating disorders were exposed to six virtual environments: a living-room (neutral situation), a kitchen with highcalorie food, a kitchen with low-calorie food, a restaurant with high-calorie food, a restaurant with low-calorie food, and a swimming-pool. After exposure to each environment the STAI-S (a measurement of state anxiety) and the CDB (a measurement of depression) were administered to all subjects. The results show that virtual reality instruments are particularly useful for simulating everyday situations that may provoke emotional reactions such as anxiety and depression, in patients with ED. Virtual environments in which subjects are obliged to ingest high-calorie food provoke the highest levels of state anxiety and depression.

Let's get emotional!

Artikkelissa kerrotaan luennoista, jotka brittiläinen professori Rob Briner piti Suomessa toukokuussa 2003

A guide to resources for the study of the recent history of the United States in the libraries of the University of Iowa, the State Historical Society of Iowa, and in the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, 1977

This guide is designed as a finding aid for researchers seeking materials on a particular topic and it indicates the nature and extent of resources for the study of United States history available at the Historical Society of Iowa, the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and the Iowa University Libraries.

Letter regarding a review of payments made by the Secretary of State’s Office to Jim Gibbons, former Deputy Director, from May 24, 2012 through December 31, 2012

Letter regarding a review of payments made by the Secretary of State’s Office to Jim Gibbons, former Deputy Director, from May 24, 2012 through December 31, 2012