Spaceborne memory organization, phase 1 Final report

Application of associative memories to data processing for future space vehicle

Spaceborne memory organization Interim report

Associative memory applications in unmanned space vehicle

Rat control

During the past few years the rat population in Iowa has built up until it is now estimated that there are more than 5 million rats in the state. This rapid increase in population is due primarily to the tremendous volume of corn which is stored in temporary, hastily-constructed cribs that offer easy access to rats and furnish both food and shelter for them. To meet this situation, it is urged that rat control be made an integral part of good farm practice. Since rats move about from farm to farm, especially when they are disturbed by a vigorous control campaign on the part of a few farmers, community cooperation is desired. Rats menace not only our food and our farm animals; from the standpoint of health they threaten both humans and domestic animals, since they may act as reservoirs of infectious jaundice, endemic typhus and bubonic plague in man and trichinosis of hogs

Cognitive heuristics in borderline personality disorder across treatment: A longitudinal non-parametric analysis.

The development of a constructive therapeutic alliance may represent an important feature of interpersonal adaptation in clients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). The present study explores cognitive heuristics as dynamic features of change in relationship with the therapeutic alliance in the treatment of BPD. In total, N = 60 clients with BPD, are included in the present study. In the context of brief therapy, the therapeutic alliance (WAI) is assessed from the client and the therapist perspectives after each therapy session; cognitive heuristics are assessed three times (CERS). The data analyses are on the basis of non-parametric clusters (kml3d) linked with the therapeutic alliance. The results showed that clusters of cognitive heuristics trajectories are linked with the client's therapeutic alliance (t(55) = 2.30, p = .03), but they remained unrelated with the evolution of the therapist's alliance. These results are discussed with regard to the interpersonal adaptiveness of cognitive heuristics in the context of BPD undergoing treatment

Metacognitive improvement and symptom change in a 3-month treatment for borderline personality disorder.

Recognizing and reflecting on one's own and other people's mental states represent a major difficulty for patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Only recently have studies begun exploring whether these capacities increase with successful therapies and if such an improvement is linked with outcome. The present study investigated whether metacognition would improve and if its improvement was related with symptom change in BPD patients. The transcripts from the first and the penultimate session of a ten-session version of good psychiatric management were analysed with the MAS-R scale in a N = 37 BPD sample. Patients, selected from a previously published RCT (Kramer et al., 2014), were assigned either to the good psychiatric management treatment or to the same treatment with the addition of the Motive-Oriented Therapeutic Relationship (Caspar, 2007), a form of therapeutic relationship based on an individualized case formulation. Symptoms were assessed with the OQ-45. Findings partially support the hypotheses. First, improvement in capacities to understand others' mind, to take a critical distance from one's own rigid and maladaptive beliefs, and to use behavioural and attentional strategies to face adversities is found in both treatment groups. Controlling for marital status, only the ability to differentiate between reality and representations remains significant. Second, no link between metacognitive change and symptom change during treatment is found. However, a link is observed between the increase in metacognition and symptom reduction at 6-month follow-up. Results invite to further investigate the role of metacognition in therapy change through different modalities and in longer-term treatments. The development of metacognitive processes and their links with symptom change were examined during a short-term treatment in 37 borderline patients Improvement was found in capacities to understand others' mind, to take a critical distance from own rigid and maladaptive beliefs, and to use behavioural and attentional strategies even in a short-term treatment Controlling for marital status, only the ability to take a critical distance from representations remained significant A link was observed between increase in metacognition and symptom reduction at 6-month follow-up Understanding and tailoring interventions to specific metacognitive difficulties could be associated with symptom change during treatment for BPD patients

Secondary literacy across the curriculum: Challenges and possibilities

This paper discusses the challenges and possibilities attendant upon successfully implementing literacy across the curriculum initiatives – or ‘school language policies’ as they have come to be known - particularly at the secondary or high school level. It provides a theoretical background to these issues, exploring previous academic discussions of school language policies, and highlights key areas of concern as well as opportunity with respect to school implementation of such policies. As such, it provides a necessary conceptual background to the subsequent papers in this special issue, which focus upon the Secondary Schools’ Literacy Initiative (SSLI) – a New Zealand funded programme that aims to establish cross-curricular language and literacy policies in secondary schools

Modeling resilience and sustainability in ancient agricultural systems

The reasons why people adopt unsustainable agricultural practices, and the ultimate environmental implications of those practices, remain incompletely understood in the present world. Archaeology, however, offers unique datasets on coincident cultural and ecological change, and their social and environmental effects. This article applies concepts derived from ecological resilience thinking to assess the sustainability of agricultural practices as a result of long-term interactions between political, economic, and environmental systems. Using the urban center of Gordion, in central Turkey, as a case study, it is possible to identify mismatched social and ecological processes on temporal, spatial, and organizational scales, which help to resolve thresholds of resilience. Results of this analysis implicate temporal and spatial mismatches as a cause for local environmental degradation, and increasing extralocal economic pressures as an ultimate cause for the adoption of unsustainable land-use practices. This analysis suggests that a research approach that integrates environmental archaeology with a resilience perspective has considerable potential for explicating regional patterns of agricultural change and environmental degradation in the past

Confirmatory factor analysis of the Inventory of Statements About Self-Injury in a Spanish clinical sample

Objectives: The main aim of the present study was to confirm the two‐factor structure of the Inventory of Statements About Self‐injury‐ Part II (ISAS‐II), analyze its psychometric properties and test-retest reliability of Parts I and II of the ISAS. Method: The sample was composed of 355 Spanish participants diagnosed with eating disorders or borderline personality disorder (mean age 27.89, standard deviation = 13.31; 315 women, 40 men). Two models proposed for the ISAS‐II were analyzed by means of confirmatory factorial analysis. Results: A two‐factor model was confirmed, and a model with self‐care included in the intrapersonal factor was preferable. The ISAS‐II showed positive correlations with emotional dysregulation. Test-retest reliability showed statistically significant correlations at 7 months (n = 123). Conclusion: The ISAS‐II is a valid instrument to assess nonsuicidal self‐injury in Spanish populations, making it possible to assess these behaviors, which require valid and reliable measures worldwide