Biomedical subjects

Natalie Jackson

Publications and source records attributed to Natalie Jackson.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Simple arithmetic processing: surface form effects in a priming task.

Models of numerical processing vary on whether they assume common or separate processing pathways for problems represented in different surface forms. The present study employed a priming procedure, with target naming task, in an investigation of surface form effects in simple addition and multiplication operations. Participants were presented with Arabic digit and number word problems in one of three prime-target relationships, including congruent (e.g., '2+3' and '5'), incongruent (e.g., '9+7' and '5') and neutral (e.g., 'X+Y' and '5') conditions. The results revealed significant facilitatory effects in response to congruent digit stimuli at SOAs of 300 and 1000ms, in both operations. In contrast, inhibitory effects were observed in response to incongruent word stimuli in both the addition and multiplication operations at 300ms, and in the addition operation at 1000ms. The overall priming effects observed in the digit condition were significantly greater than in the word condition at 1000ms in the multiplication operation and at 300ms in the addition operation. The results provide support to separate pathway accounts of simple arithmetic processing for problems represented in different surface forms. An explanation for variation in processing due to differences in access to visual and phonological representations is provided.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

A peer-based substance abuse intervention for HIV+ rural women: a pilot study.

Alcohol and other drug (AOD) use plays a major role in the acquisition and spread of HIV, and the majority of women living with HIV are either active or recovering drug users. Forty-six percent of women's cases of HIV infection have been attributed to injection-drug use and 18% to women's heterosexual contacts with injection-drug users. Substance abuse often contributes to noncompliance with HIV treatment. Individuals with multiple diagnoses, such as those with HIV and substance abuse, may not be able to withstand the burden of integrating the different clinical approaches used to treat their substance abuse and other comorbid disorders such as HIV. This article reports the results of an intervention pilot study testing a peer counseling intervention for substance abuse in rural women with HIV. Thirteen women completed the intervention. Although limited by sample size, results suggest that this intervention was effective in helping women to acknowledge problems with their alcohol and drug abuse and to begin taking steps to achieve sobriety.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2004

Simple arithmetic processing: the question of automaticity.

In adult simple arithmetic performance, it is commonly held that retrieval of solutions occurs automatically from a network of stored facts in memory. However, such an account of performance necessarily predicts a uniform reaction time for solution retrieval and is therefore not consistent with the robust finding that reaction time increases with problem size and difficulty. Additionally, past research into arithmetic performance has relied on tasks that may have actually induced and measured attentional processing, thereby possibly confounding previous results and conclusions pertaining to automaticity. The present study therefore, attempted to more reliably assess the influence of automatic processing in arithmetic performance by utilizing a variant of the well-established semantic word-priming procedure with a target-naming task. The overall results revealed significant facilitation in naming times at SOAs of 240 and 1000 ms for congruent targets i.e., targets that represented the correct solutions to problems presented as primes (e.g., 6+8 and 14). Significant inhibition in comparison to a neutral condition (0+0 and 17) was also observed at 120 and 240 ms SOAs in naming incongruent targets (e.g., 6+8 and 17). Furthermore, response times were found to vary as a function of both arithmetic fluency and problem size. Differences in performance to addition and multiplication operations and implications for cognitive research and education are considered.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Human CD1D gene has TATA boxless dual promoters: an SP1-binding element determines the function of the proximal promoter.

CD1d presents lipid Ags to a specific population of NK T cells, which are involved in the host immune defense, suppression of autoimmunity, and the rejection of tumor cells. The transcriptional control mechanism that determines the regulation and the tissue distribution of CD1d remains largely unknown. After investigating 3.7 kb 5' upstream of the coding region, we found that human gene encoding CD1d molecule (CD1D) has TATA boxless dual promoters with multiple transcription initiation sites. The proximal promoter is located within the region of -106 to +24, and the distal promoter is located within the region of -665 to -202 with the A of the translational start codon defined as +1. The longest 5'-untranslated region derived from 5'-RACE and apparently generated by the distal promoter has 272 bp in length covering the genomic sequence of the proximal promoter. The region covering the proximal promoter gave a much higher luciferase activity in Jurkat cells than in K562 cells, whereas it was in reverse for the region covering the distal promoter, indicating a cell type sp. act. of the two promoters. Transcription factor SP1 plays a crucial role in the function of the proximal promoter. The analysis of the CD1D promoter region indicates that IFN-gamma, NF-IL-6, and T cell factor 1/lymphoid enhancer-binding factor 1 are most likely involved in the regulation of CD1d expression. The illustration of the dual CD1D gene promoters will help to reveal the regulatory factors that control CD1d expression and its tissue distribution for a better understanding of the cross-regulation between CD1d and NK T cells.

5' Flanking Region↗

PubMed2004

Right hemisphere superiority for subitising.

Lateral differences in the enumeration of small sets of items (i.e., between two and five) were investigated in a normal adult sample. Confounds due to stimulus repetition, which have characterised previous subitising research, were eliminated in a task involving the presentation of purely random item arrays to the left and right visual fields. The results indicated a clear left visual field advantage for the enumeration of arrays containing three to four items. This finding is consistent with the widely held view that the subitising process is used to enumerate arrays of up to four items, and calls into question Butterworth's (1999) recent claim that subitising is a left hemisphere process. The implications for previous pattern recognition and visual process accounts of this ability are considered.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Patterns of risk of depressive symptoms among HIV-positive women in the southeastern United States.

Depressive symptoms are a common response to HIV disease, and women appear to be at particularly high risk. The authors report results from a cross-sectional analysis of data collected from 280 rural women with HIV/AIDS in the Southeastern United States aimed at identifying risk factors of depressive symptoms. Stress theory provided a framework for identification of potential risk factors. Descriptive statistics, measures of association, and regression analyses were used to systematically identify patterns of risk. The final regression model included 22 factors that accounted for 69% of the variance in depressive symptoms. The majority of variance in depressive symptoms was accounted for by only six variables: the frequency of HIV symptoms, recent experiences of sadness/hopelessness, the availability of social support, and the use of three coping strategies: living positively with HIV, isolation/withdrawal, and denial/avoidance. The results suggest a number of intervention strategies for use with rural women with HIV/AIDS.

Adaptation, Psychological↗