Prison Anger Reduction Programs Evaluation Development Project

This report describes efforts to develop Alaska-specific norms for the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), using the Megargee offender classification system, for use in program evaluations in Alaska correctional facilities, specifically for evaluation of three pilot anger reduction programs initiated at Alaska Department of Corrections institutions in late 1984/early 1985: (1) Women in Crisis (at Fairbanks Correctional Center); (2) M. E. N., Inc. (at Lemon Creek Correctional Center, Juneau); (3) Bering Sea Women's Group (at Nome Correctional Center). The report provides assessments of the three programs and the correctional centers where they were held and makes recommendations for completing the development of Alaska-specific MMPI-based norms and for the administration of the MMPI as pre- and post-test for measuring psychological changes — particularly in hostility/frustration levels — in participants in anger reduction programs.Alaska Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual AssaultIntroduction / Section I. History of the Project / Section II. Psychological Testing / Section III. Site Assessment — Facilities / Section IV. Site Assessment — Programs / Section V. Recommendations / APPENDICES / A. Domestic Violence Evaluation Project: Assessment of Programs for Anger Reduction in Incarcerated Alaskan Prisoners [Project proposal] / B. Letter from Nancy E. Schafer to Barbara Miklos, June 7, 1985 / C. Site Visits / D. Criminal Justice Assessment Cervices, Inc.: Experimental MMPI Scales Availabl

Optimisation of confinement in a fusion reactor using a nonlinear turbulence model

The confinement of heat in the core of a magnetic fusion reactor is optimised using a multidimensional optimisation algorithm. For the first time in such a study, the loss of heat due to turbulence is modelled at every stage using first-principles nonlinear simulations which accurately capture the turbulent cascade and large-scale zonal flows. The simulations utilise a novel approach, with gyrofluid treatment of the small-scale drift waves and gyrokinetic treatment of the large-scale zonal flows. A simple near-circular equilibrium with standard parameters is chosen as the initial condition. The figure of merit, fusion power per unit volume, is calculated, and then two control parameters, the elongation and triangularity of the outer flux surface, are varied, with the algorithm seeking to optimise the chosen figure of merit. A two-fold increase in the plasma power per unit volume is achieved by moving to higher elongation and strongly negative triangularity.Comment: 32 pages, 8 figures, accepted to JP

On a q-analogue of the multiple gamma functions

A $q$-analogue of the multiple gamma functions is introduced, and is shown to satisfy the generalized Bohr-Morellup theorem. Furthermore we give some expressions of these function.Comment: 8 pages, AMS-Late

Sunjammer

No abstract available

Activation mechanisms in sodium-doped Silicon MOSFETs

We have studied the temperature dependence of the conductivity of a silicon MOSFET containing sodium ions in the oxide above 20 K. We find the impurity band resulting from the presence of charges at the silicon-oxide interface is split into a lower and an upper band. We have observed activation of electrons from the upper band to the conduction band edge as well as from the lower to the upper band. A possible explanation implying the presence of Hubbard bands is given.Comment: published in J. Phys. : Condens. Matte

Multiple repair sequences in everyday conversations involving people with Parkinson's disease

Background Features of dysarthria associated with Parkinson's disease (PD), such as low volume, variable rate of speech and increased pauses, impact speaker intelligibility. Those affected report restricted interactional participation, although this area is under explored. Aims To examine naturally occurring instances of problems with intelligibility that resulted in multiple attempts at repair in order to consider repair initiation strategies that might restrict or enhance participation. Methods & Procedures Thirteen people with PD (PwPD) video-recorded over 10 h of informal conversation data in their home setting involving familiar conversation partners (CPs). Using a conversation analytic (CA) approach, and drawing on an existing typology of repair initiators (RIs) for everyday talk-in-interaction and their relative power to locate a turn's repairable element, the design and ordering of RIs used by CPs was addressed, alongside their local consequences. Outcomes & Results CPs tended to increase the specificity of their RIs in line with the existing typology, progressing from open class forms (e.g. ‘mm?’) to more specific forms (e.g. questions/partial repeats). Repeated open class repair initiators (OCRIs) were used where PD speakers’ self-repair attempts provided limited information. Sometimes, however, specificity was increased too soon, before enough syntactic knowledge was gleaned, which resulted in an extended repair sequence. Where one OCRI followed another, the second always took a different form: lexically or in terms of prosodic/non-verbal features. RI forms not described in the existing typology were also identified, such as ‘prompts to modify speech’ (e.g. ‘Speak louder’) and repeating/rephrasing the original first pair part (e.g. question), and their effectiveness examined. Conclusions & Implications First steps are presented towards the design of a communication intervention promoting the efficient resolution of repair to moderate social withdrawal and increase participation for this client group. Future research will need to explore the feasibility and acceptability of such a resource

Realising context-sensitive mobile messaging

Mobile technologies aim to assist people as they move from place to place going about their daily work and social routines. Established and very popular mobile technologies include short-text messages and multimedia messages with newer growing technologies including Bluetooth mobile data transfer protocols and mobile web access.Here we present new work which combines all of the above technologies to fulfil some of the predictions for future context aware messaging. We present a context sensitive mobile messaging system which derives context in the form of physical locations through location sensing and the co-location of people through Bluetooth familiarity

Shear thickening of cornstarch suspensions as a re-entrant jamming transition

We study the rheology of cornstarch suspensions, a dense system of non-Brownian particles that exhibits shear thickening, i.e. a viscosity that increases with increasing shear rate. Using MRI velocimetry we show that the suspension has a yield stress. From classical rheology it follows that as a function of the applied stress the suspension is first solid (yield stress), then liquid and then solid again when it shear thickens. The onset shear rate for thickening is found to depend on the measurement geometry: the smaller the gap of the shear cell, the lower the shear rate at which thickening occurs. Shear thickening can then be interpreted as the consequence of the Reynolds dilatancy: the system under flow wants to dilate but instead undergoes a jamming transition because it is confined, as confirmed by measurement of the dilation of the suspension as a function of the shear rate