Psychotherapy change process research : realizing the promise

Change process research (CPR) is the study of the processes by which change occurs in psychotherapy, and is a necessary complement to randomized clinical trials and other forms of efficacy research. In this article I describe and evaluate of four types of CPR. The first three are basic designs and include quantitative Process-Outcome, qualitative Helpful Factors, and micro-analytic Sequential Process; the fourth, the Significant Events approach, refers to methods such as Task Analysis and Comprehensive Process Analysis that integrate the first three. The strengths and weaknesses of each design are described and summarized using both causal and practical criteria, as part of an overall argument for systematic methodological pluralism

Popoia te reo kia penapena: Nurture the language

Research to develop a Māori language screening tool (Specialist Education Services, 2001), identified that students entering Māori Medium at five, could be classified into one of four Māori language competency, groups. Concurrently, teachers raised their need to identify the Māori language proficiency of five year olds entering Māori Medium so that more appropriate teaching strategies could be incorporated in preparation for literacy. Accordingly, three Māori oral-language assessment tools, to help identify the Māori language competency of students entering Māori Medium settings at five years of age and provide formative information, were developed in response to this need. This paper details the development and trial of these tools

Proteomics: in pursuit of effective traumatic brain injury therapeutics

Effective traumatic brain injury (TBI) therapeutics remain stubbornly elusive. Efforts in the field have been challenged by the heterogeneity of clinical TBI, with greater complexity among underlying molecular phenotypes than initially conceived. Future research must confront the multitude of factors comprising this heterogeneity, representing a big data challenge befitting the coming informatics age. Proteomics is poised to serve a central role in prescriptive therapeutic development, as it offers an efficient endpoint within which to assess post-TBI biochemistry. We examine rationale for multifactor TBI proteomic studies and the particular importance of temporal profiling in defining biochemical sequences and guiding therapeutic development. Lastly, we offer perspective on repurposing biofluid proteomics to develop theragnostic assays with which to prescribe, monitor and assess pharmaceutics for improved translation and outcome for TBI patients

Bitter taste stimuli induce differential neural codes in mouse brain.

A growing literature suggests taste stimuli commonly classified as "bitter" induce heterogeneous neural and perceptual responses. Here, the central processing of bitter stimuli was studied in mice with genetically controlled bitter taste profiles. Using these mice removed genetic heterogeneity as a factor influencing gustatory neural codes for bitter stimuli. Electrophysiological activity (spikes) was recorded from single neurons in the nucleus tractus solitarius during oral delivery of taste solutions (26 total), including concentration series of the bitter tastants quinine, denatonium benzoate, cycloheximide, and sucrose octaacetate (SOA), presented to the whole mouth for 5 s. Seventy-nine neurons were sampled; in many cases multiple cells (2 to 5) were recorded from a mouse. Results showed bitter stimuli induced variable gustatory activity. For example, although some neurons responded robustly to quinine and cycloheximide, others displayed concentration-dependent activity (p<0.05) to quinine but not cycloheximide. Differential activity to bitter stimuli was observed across multiple neurons recorded from one animal in several mice. Across all cells, quinine and denatonium induced correlated spatial responses that differed (p<0.05) from those to cycloheximide and SOA. Modeling spatiotemporal neural ensemble activity revealed responses to quinine/denatonium and cycloheximide/SOA diverged during only an early, at least 1 s wide period of the taste response. Our findings highlight how temporal features of sensory processing contribute differences among bitter taste codes and build on data suggesting heterogeneity among "bitter" stimuli, data that challenge a strict monoguesia model for the bitter quality

Post-industrial robotics: the new tendency of digital fabrication for exploring responsive forms and materials through performance

The contribution proposes the experimental results of research on robotics manufacturing issues for the realization of informed architectural organisms on a 1:1 scale. The pavilions Fusta Robotics and Digital Urban Orchard and the technological system In.Flux represent the results of tests in which material, environmental and structural performance inform the computational process and the consequent materialization. The two pavilions, both wooden, constitute the physical implementation of different functional programs realised through a collaboration with industrial partners. Fusta Robotics is the result of a collaboration between industry and universities for the tectonic experimentation derived from the use of local non-engineered material. Digital Urban Orchard is the formal expression of a complex functional program arising from the relationship amongst form (shape), function and context for a new concept of socialization space and food production within the agenda at the self-sufficiency in Barcelona. Finally, through the In.Flux prototype, we investigated the relationship among formal generation, structural analysis and robotic manufacturing for the realization of concrete free-form structures. The analysis of the prototypes opens the debate on the role of IT in the post-digital era when the design process manifest through the control and management of the flow of information affecting the digital computation and fabrication and the material behaviour. The resulting theoretical assumption considers the architectural form as the result of a diagram of forces where the achievement of the performance is the driving parameter for the formal geometric exploration. The continuous variation resulting therefrom is informed by performance parameters that define a new aesthetic which represents together the manifestation of objectively measurable performance parameters and the power of the tool through which the form is generated

Responsive Regulation: Achieving the Right Balance Between Persuasion and Penalisation

This paper not only considers the regulatory challenges faced by regulators, but also the potential of responsive regulation and particularly meta regulation to address these challenges. It explores developments which have necessitated a change from the traditional form of regulation, that is, command and control regulation to more responsive hybrids of regulation. Even though traditional regulation has its advantages, its inability to address the demands of changing business environments has resulted in the adoption of more flexible forms of regulation such as risk based regulation and responsive regulation. Whilst the potential of responsive regulation is considered, the complexities and challenges faced by the regulator in identifying and assessing risk, solutions aimed at countering problems of risk regulation, along with the problems arising from different perceptions of risk will be addressed only briefly.Self regulation; co regulation; enforced self regulation; meta regulation; responsive regulation; risk