Statistical Outlier Detection (SOD): A computer program for detecting outliers in data

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

The Fundamental Constants of Physics, Vol. 1 of Interscience Monographs in Physics & Astronomy [book review]

Book review of: The Fundamental Constants of Physics. Vol. 1 of Interscience Monographs in Physics & Astronomy. By E. Richard Cohen, Kenneth M. Crowe, Jesse W. M. DuMond. 287 pp. Interscience Publishers, Inc., New York, 1957. Reviewed by H. Mendlowitz, National Bureau of Standards

CPT and Lorentz tests with muons

Precision experiments with muons are sensitive to Planck-scale CPT and Lorentz violation that is undetectable in other tests. Existing data on the muonium ground-state hyperfine structure and on the muon anomalous magnetic moment could be analyzed to provide dimensionless figures of merit for CPT and Lorentz violation at the levels of $4\times 10^{-21}$ and $10^{-23}$.Comment: 4 pages, accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

A cognitive behavioral based group intervention for children with a chronic illness and their parents: a multicentre randomized controlled trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Coping with a chronic illness (CI) challenges children's psychosocial functioning and wellbeing. Cognitive-behavioral intervention programs that focus on teaching the active use of coping strategies may prevent children with CI from developing psychosocial problems. Involvement of parents in the intervention program may enhance the use of learned coping strategies in daily life, especially on the long-term. The primary aim of the present study is to examine the effectiveness of a cognitive behavioral based group intervention (called 'Op Koers') <abbrgrp><abbr bid="B1">1</abbr></abbrgrp> for children with CI and of a parallel intervention for their parents. A secondary objective is to investigate why and for whom this intervention works, in order to understand the underlying mechanisms of the intervention effect.</p> <p>Methods/design</p> <p>This study is a multicentre randomized controlled trial. Participants are children (8 to 18 years of age) with a chronic illness, and their parents, recruited from seven participating hospitals in the Netherlands. Participants are randomly allocated to two intervention groups (the child intervention group and the child intervention combined with a parent program) and a wait-list control group. Primary outcomes are child psychosocial functioning, wellbeing and child disease related coping skills. Secondary outcomes are child quality of life, child general coping skills, child self-perception, parental stress, quality of parent-child interaction, and parental perceived vulnerability. Outcomes are evaluated at baseline, after 6 weeks of treatment, and at a 6 and 12-month follow-up period. The analyses will be performed on the basis of an intention-to-treat population.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>This study evaluates the effectiveness of a group intervention improving psychosocial functioning in children with CI and their parents. If proven effective, the intervention will be implemented in clinical practice. Strengths and limitations of the study design are discussed.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>Current Controlled Trials <a href="http://www.controlled-trials.com/ISRCTN60919570">ISRCTN60919570</a></p

Family treatment of child anxiety: outcomes, limitations and future directions

Anxiety of childhood is a common and serious condition. The past decade has seen an increase in treatment-focussed research, with recent trials tending to give greater attention to parents in the treatment process. This review examines the efficacy of family-based cognitive behaviour therapy and attempts to delineate some of the factors that might have an impact on its efficacy. The choice and timing of outcome measure, age and gender of the child, level of parental anxiety, severity and type of child anxiety and treatment format and content are scrutinised. The main conclusions are necessarily tentative, but it seems likely that Family Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (FCBT) is superior to no treatment, and, for some outcome measures, also superior to Child Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CCBT). Where FCBT is successful, the results are consistently maintained at follow-up. It appears that where a parent is anxious, and this is not addressed, outcomes are less good. However, for children of anxious parents, FCBT is probably more effective than CCBT. What is most clear is that large, well-designed studies, examining these factors alone and in combination, are now needed

Electron Polarization Operators

Two types of electron polarization operators are surveyed. A three- vector operator is described that is appropriate for calculations involving plane- wave states. A four-vector operator is described that can be used for taking account of external electromagnetic fields. (T.F.H.

Optical constants of thin films from the characteristic electron energy losses

A method for obtaining the optical constants by employing the correlation between the characteristic electron energy absorption spectrum of a substance with its optical properties is described. This method is applied to a study of the optical properties in the far ultraviolet of aluminum, a metal, and of polystyrene, an organic compound. The information that is derived by this method lends itself to a study of the optical oscillator strengths.On décrit une méthode-permettant d'obtenir les constantes optiques à l'aide de la corrélation entre le spectre caractéristique d'absorption de l'énergie électronique d'une substance et ses propriétés optiques. Cette méthode est appliquée à une étude des propriétés optiques, dans l'ultraviolet lointain, d'un métal, l'aluminium, et d'un composé organique, le polystyrène. L'information que l'on déduit de cette méthode se prête à une étude de l'oscillateur optique