Effect of failure/success feedback and the moderating influence of personality on reward motivation.

While motivation to pursue goals is often assumed to be a trait-like characteristic, it is influenced by a variety of situational factors. In particular, recent experiences of success or failure, as well as cognitive responses to these outcomes, may shape subsequent willingness to expend effort for future rewards. To date, however, these effects have not been explicitly tested.

Time-course of attention to negative stimuli: negative affectivity, anxiety, or dysphoria?

Although biased attention to emotional stimuli is considered a vulnerability factor for anxiety and dysphoria, research has infrequently related such attentional biases to dimensional models of vulnerability for anxiety and mood disorders. In two studies (Study 1, n = 64; Study 2, n = 168), we evaluate the differential associations of general negative affectivity, anxiety, and dysphoria with biases in selective attention among nonclinical participants selected to vary in both anxiety and dysphoria. Across both studies, preferential processing of angry faces at a 300-ms exposure duration was associated with a general tendency to experience a range of negative affect, rather than being specific to symptoms of either anxiety or dysphoria.

Test characteristics of the 15-item geriatric depression scale and Hamilton depression rating scale in Parkinson disease.

Objective: The objective of this study was to compare the sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic accuracy of the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15) and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) in patients with Parkinson disease (PD).

Method: A convenience sample of 148 outpatients with idiopathic PD receiving specialty care completed the GDS-15 and were administered the HDRS and Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (SCID) depression module by a research psychiatrist or trained research assistant. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves were plotted for the GDS-15 and HDRS scores with a SCID diagnosis of a depressive disorder as the state variable.

Variola virus immune evasion proteins.

Variola virus, the causative agent of smallpox, encodes approximately 200 proteins. Over 80 of these proteins are located in the terminal regions of the genome, where proteins associated with host immune evasion are encoded. To date, only two variola proteins have been characterized.