Effectiveness and feasibility of structured emotionally focused family therapy for parents and adolescents: Protocol of a within-subjects pilot study

Mental health issues are widespread among children and adolescents worldwide. Although mental health difficulties may manifest themselves in many different diagnoses, there is growing support for a limited number of underlying transdiagnostic processes. Attachment encompasses a key transdiagnostic mechanism, namely emotional regulation. This study protocol aims to evaluate the feasibility and potential effectiveness of structured emotionally focused family therapy (EFFT), the goal of which is to develop secure attachment between parents and their children to reduce children's vulnerability to mental health problems. A within-subjects design with three waves, a waiting period, treatment, and follow-up, will be conducted. Families will serve as their own controls. Approximately 15 to 20 families with adolescents (aged 12-18 years) as the 'identified patients' will be included. They will participate in 16-21 sessions of EFFT. The study will use a multi-method approach. Self-report questionnaires will be administered repeatedly (i.e., pre-waiting period, pre-treatment, halfway treatment, post-treatment, and follow-up), measuring parent-adolescent attachment, partner-partner attachment, negative interactions, and adolescent psychological complaints. Multi-level analyses will be conducted. Semi-structured interviews will be administered at follow-up to evaluate feasibility and acceptability of EFFT. Treatment integrity will be assessed. The present study is the first to evaluate feasibility of structured EFFT and obtain a first impression of its effectiveness. This information will help us to improve EFFT. Limitations are discussed. Trial registration: Recruitment commenced in June 2022. The approximate trial duration is 36 months. The trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05657067) on December 9, 2022, and Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/39dt2/) on June 14, 2022

Effective medium theory of elastic waves in random networks of rods

We formulate an effective medium (mean field) theory of a material consisting of randomly distributed nodes connected by straight slender rods, hinged at the nodes. Defining novel wavelength-dependent effective elastic moduli, we calculate both the static moduli and the dispersion relations of ultrasonic longitudinal and transverse elastic waves. At finite wave vector $k$ the waves are dispersive, with phase and group velocities decreasing with increasing wave vector. These results are directly applicable to networks with empty pore space. They also describe the solid matrix in two-component (Biot) theories of fluid-filled porous media. We suggest the possibility of low density materials with higher ratios of stiffness and strength to density than those of foams, aerogels or trabecular bone.Comment: 14 pp., 3 fig

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Evidence of Disorder and Motion in Yttrium Trideuteride

Three samples of YDx, with x ranging from 2.9 to nearly 3.0, were studied with deuterium nuclear magnetic resonance to gain insight into the locations of the D atoms in the lattice and their motions. Line shapes at low temperatures (200–330 K) show substantial disorder at some of the deuterium sites. Near 355 K, the spectrum sharpens to yield three uniaxial Pake patterns, reflecting a motional averaging process. However, the three measured intensities do not match the ratios expected from the neutron-determined, HoD3-like structure. This is strong evidence that the structure and space group of YD3 are different than reported, or that the current model needs adjustment. At still higher temperatures near 400 K, the Pake doublet features broaden, and a single sharp resonance develops, signalling a diffusive motion that carries all D atoms over all sites. The temperature at which line shape changes occur depends on the number of deuterium vacancies, 3-x. The changes occur at lower temperatures in the most defective sample, indicating the role of D-atom vacancies in the motional processes. The longitudinal relaxation rate T1-1 displays two regimes, being nearly temperature independent below 300 K and strongly thermally activated above. The relaxation rate depends on the number of deuterium vacancies, 3-x, varying an order of magnitude over the range of stoichiometries studied and suggesting that D-atom diffusion is involved. Also, the activation energy describing T1-1 (kB×5500 K) approximately matches that for diffusion. An unusual ω0-0.7 frequency dependence of T1-1 is observed. A relaxation mechanism is proposed in which diffusion is the rate-determining step and in which frequency dependence arises from a field-dependent radius of the relaxation zones

Quantum state correction of relic gravitons from quantum gravity

The semiclassical approach to quantum gravity would yield the Schroedinger formalism for the wave function of metric perturbations or gravitons plus quantum gravity correcting terms in pure gravity; thus, in the inflationary scenario, we should expect correcting effects to the relic graviton (Zel'dovich) spectrum of the order (H/mPl)^2

Hydrogen Motion in Magnesium Hydride by NMR

In coarse-grained MgH2, the diffusive motion of hydrogen remains too slow (<10^5 hops s^−1) to narrow the H NMR line up to 400 °C. Slow-motion dipolar relaxation time T1D measurements reveal the motion, with hopping rate ωH from 0.1 to 430 s^−1 over the range of 260 to 400 °C, the first direct measurement of H hopping in MgH2. The ωH data are described by an activation energy of 1.72 eV (166 kJ/mol) and attempt frequency of 2.5 × 10^15 s^−1. In ball-milled MgH2 with 0.5 mol % added Nb2O5 catalyst, line-narrowing is evident already at 50 °C. The line shape shows distinct broad and narrow components corresponding to immobile and mobile H, respectively. The fraction of mobile H grows continuously with temperature, reaching ∼30% at 400 °C. This demonstrates that this material’s superior reaction kinetics are due to an increased rate of H motion, in addition to the shorter diffusion paths from ball-milling. In ball-milled MgH2 without additives, the line-narrowed component is weaker and is due, at least in part, to trapped H2 gas. The spin−lattice relaxation rates T1^−1 of all materials are compared, with ball-milling markedly increasing T1^−1. The weak temperature dependence of T1^−1 suggests a mechanism with paramagnetic relaxation centers arising from the mechanical milling

Boolean Models of Bistable Biological Systems

This paper presents an algorithm for approximating certain types of dynamical systems given by a system of ordinary delay differential equations by a Boolean network model. Often Boolean models are much simpler to understand than complex differential equations models. The motivation for this work comes from mathematical systems biology. While Boolean mechanisms do not provide information about exact concentration rates or time scales, they are often sufficient to capture steady states and other key dynamics. Due to their intuitive nature, such models are very appealing to researchers in the life sciences. This paper is focused on dynamical systems that exhibit bistability and are desc ribedby delay equations. It is shown that if a certain motif including a feedback loop is present in the wiring diagram of the system, the Boolean model captures the bistability of molecular switches. The method is appl ied to two examples from biology, the lac operon and the phage lambda lysis/lysogeny switch

Analytic continuation in two-color QCD: new results on the critical line

We test the method of analytic continuation from imaginary to real chemical potential in two-color QCD, which is free from the sign problem. In particular, we consider the analytic continuation of the critical line to real values of the chemical potential.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Strong and ElectroWeak Matter Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 26-29 August 200

Period-doubling bifurcation in strongly anisotropic Bianchi I quantum cosmology

We solve the Wheeler-DeWitt equation for the minisuperspace of a cosmological model of Bianchi type I with a minimally coupled massive scalar field $\phi$ as source by generalizing the calculation of Lukash and Schmidt [1]. Contrarily to other approaches we allow strong anisotropy. Combining analytical and numerical methods, we apply an adiabatic approximation for $\phi$, and as new feature we find a period-doubling bifurcation. This bifurcation takes place near the cosmological quantum boundary, i.e., the boundary of the quasiclassical region with oscillating $\psi$-function where the WKB-approximation is good. The numerical calculations suggest that such a notion of a ``cosmological quantum boundary'' is well-defined, because sharply beyond that boundary, the WKB-approximation is no more applicable at all. This result confirms the adequateness of the introduction of a cosmological quantum boundary in quantum cosmology.Comment: Latest update of the paper at http://www.physik.fu-berlin.de/~mbach/publics.html#