The Role of Motivational Persistence and Resilience Over the Well-being Changes Registered in Time

The present study investigates the interaction between personal characteristics that are considered nowadays strengths used to face difficult events or transition period. A number of 200 married or living together participants completed self-reports for common goals, motivational persistence, resilience and well-being. Results show that persistence and resilience do interact with each other at an individual level but also from a family concept perspective. Moreover, maintaining apositive outlook and family spirituality do have an impact over the intensity and direction of the relationship between long term purposes pursuing and recurrence of unattained purposes and changes in well-being registered in time. Resiliency as a personal characteristic and family resilience show good psychometric qualities for this study. Although some of the results are descriptive, in-depth analyses of direction and intensity of the relationships lead the finalconclusions to suggestions for further research and implications for psychological practice

Anticipatory adjustments to being picked up in infancy

Anticipation of the actions of others is often used as a measure of action understanding in infancy. In contrast to studies of action understanding which set infants up as observers of actions directed elsewhere, in the present study we explored anticipatory postural adjustments made by infants to one of the most common adult actions directed to them - picking them up. We observed infant behavioural changes and recorded their postural shifts on a pressure mat in three phases: (i) a prior Chat phase, (ii) from the onset of Approach of the mother's arms, and (iii) from the onset of Contact. In Study 1, eighteen 3-month-old infants showed systematic global postural changes during Approach and Contact, but not during Chat. There was an increase in specific adjustments of the arms (widening or raising) and legs (stiffening and extending or tucking up) during Approach and a decrease in thrashing/general movements during Contact. Shifts in postural stability were evident immediately after onset of Approach and more slowly after Contact, with no regular shifts during Chat. In Study 2 we followed ten infants at 2, 3 and 4 months of age. Anticipatory behavioural adjustments during Approach were present at all ages, but with greater differentiation from a prior Chat phase only at 3 and 4 months. Global postural shifts were also more phase differentiated in older infants. Moreover, there was significantly greater gaze to the mother's hands during Approach at 4 months. Early anticipatory adjustments to being picked up suggest that infants' awareness of actions directed to the self may occur earlier than of those directed elsewhere, and thus enable infants' active participation in joint actions from early in life

Initial Hydraulic modelling and Levee Stability Analysis of the Triple M Ranch Restoration Project

“Advanced Watershed Science and Policy (ESSP 660)” is a graduate class taught in the Master of Science in Coastal and Watershed Science & Policy program at California State University Monterey Bay (CSUMB). In 2007, the class was taught in four 4-week modules, each focusing on a local watershed issue. This report is one outcome of one of those 4-week modules taught in the fall 2007 session. (Document contains 32 pages

Existential distress in cancer: Alleviating suffering from fundamental loss and change

A severe life threatening illness can challenge fundamental expectations about security, interrelatedness with others, justness, controllability, certainty, and hope for a long and fruitful life. That distress and suffering but also growth and mastery may arise from confrontation with an existentially threatening stressor is a long‐standing idea. But only recently have researchers studied existential distress more rigorously and begun to identify its distinct impact on health care outcomes. Operationalizations of existential distress have included fear of cancer recurrence, death anxiety, demoralization, hopelessness, dignity‐related distress, and the desire for hastened death. These focus in varying emphasis on fear of death, concern about autonomy, suffering, or being a burden to others; a sense of profound loneliness, pointlessness or hopelessness; grief, regret, or embitterment about what has been missed in life; and shame if dignity is lost or expectations about coping are not met. We provide an overview of conceptual issues, diagnostic approaches, and treatments to alleviate existential distress. Although the two meta‐analyses featured in this special issue indicate the progress that has been made, many questions remain unresolved. We suggest how the field may move forward through defining a threshold for clinically significant existential distress, investigating its comorbidity with other psychiatric conditions, and inquiring into adjustment processes and mechanisms underlying change in existential interventions. We hope that this special issue may inspire progress in this promising area of research to improve recognition and management of a central psychological state in cancer care

Total skin self-examination at home for people treated for cutaneous melanoma : development and pilot of a digital intervention

This work was funded by the RCUK Digital Economy award to the dot.rural Digital Economy Hub, University of Aberdeen; award reference: EP/G066051/1. The Experience Laboratory event was supported in part by a separate award from the University of Aberdeen Knowledge Exchange and Transfer Fund; award reference: GP057 UZZ0101.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Towards a Continuous Record of the Sky

It is currently feasible to start a continuous digital record of the entire sky sensitive to any visual magnitude brighter than 15 each night. Such a record could be created with a modest array of small telescopes, which collectively generate no more than a few Gigabytes of data daily. Alternatively, a few small telescopes could continually re-point to scan and reco rd the entire sky down to any visual magnitude brighter than 15 with a recurrence epoch of at most a few weeks, again always generating less than one Gigabyte of data each night. These estimates derive from CCD ability and budgets typical of university research projects. As a prototype, we have developed and are utilizing an inexpensive single-telescope system that obtains optical data from about 1500 square degrees. We discuss the general case of creating and storing data from a both an epochal survey, where a small number of telescopes continually scan the sky, and a continuous survey, composed of a constellation of telescopes dedicated each continually inspect a designated section of the sky. We compute specific limitations of canonical surveys in visible light, and estimate that all-sky continuous visual light surveys could be sensitive to magnitude 20 in a single night by about 2010. Possible scientific returns of continuous and epochal sky surveys include continued monitoring of most known variable stars, establishing case histories for variables of future interest, uncovering new forms of stellar variability, discovering the brightest cases of microlensing, discovering new novae and supernovae, discovering new counterparts to gamma-ray bursts, monitoring known Solar System objects, discovering new Solar System objects, and discovering objects that might strike the Earth.Comment: 38 pages, 9 postscript figures, 2 gif images. Revised and new section added. Accepted to PASP. Source code submitted to ASCL.ne