State of the art of interpersonal physiology in psychotherapy: A systematic review

Introduction: The fast expanding field of Interpersonal Physiology (IP) focuses on the study of co-ordination or synchronization dynamics between the physiological activities of two, or more, individuals. IP has been associated with various relational features (e.g., empathy, attachment security, rapport, closeness…) that overlap with desirable characteristics of clinical relationships, suggesting that the relevant studies might provide objective, economical, and theory-free techniques to investigate the clinical process. The goal of the present work is to systematically retrieve and review the literature on IP in the field of psychotherapy and psychological intervention, in order to consolidate the knowledge of this research domain, highlight its critical issues, and delineate possible developments.Method: Following the guidelines by Okoli and Schabram (2010), a systematic literature search was performed in Scopus, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and PubMed databases by means of multiple keyword combinations; the results were integrated with references to the retrieved articles' bibliography as well as to other published reviews on IP.Results: All the retrieved documents reported clinical interactions that are characterized, at least partially, by IP phenomena. They appear to use fragmented and sometimes ambiguous terminology and show a lack of both specific theory-informed hypotheses and sound analytical procedures.Conclusion: Although the psychological nature of IP and its role in the clinical relationship are still mostly unknown, the potential value of a physiology-based measure of implicit exchanges in psychotherapy drives an acceleration in this research field. On the basis of the highlighted critical issues, possible future directions for clinical IP researchers are discussed

STUDYING THE LOCAL DIVERSITY OF RURAL LIVELIHOODS SYSTEMS: AN APPLICATION OF TYPOLOGICAL TECHNIQUES FOR INTEGRATED RURAL DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT IN THE EASTERN CAPE (SOUTH AFRICA)

This paper presents briefly the principles and procedure of typology schemes, which aim at describing and representing the local diversity of rural households, through the analysis of their modes of operation, strategies and prospects, activities and livelihoods' systems. This approach departs from both strict economic analysis and social participatory approaches, which often overlook the diversity that exists among rural households at local level. It basically combines the respective principles and advantages of both approaches. Through a case study, which was carried out in a rural community of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, the paper highlights this local diversity, its representation through a typology scheme, and the issues related to livelihood systems: complementarity between on-farm and off-farm activities and sources of income, the key role of women, significance of subsistence farming activities, existence of productive and potentially profitable activities (wool). Some key questions for the close future are also raised: ageing process at household level (pensions are currently instrumental in livelihood build-up), transmission process to youngsters in a context of PTO land access system, sustainability of farming systems in a fragile and constraining natural environment, weaknesses in the agribusiness environment, basic needs in development support as expressed by people, the worrying situation of certain very poor households, problems and constraints as expressed by farmers. The paper finally discusses the significance of such tools for integrated rural development planning and management purposes. They may be responses to the increasing need for proper diagnosis, in a context of persistent poverty in South-Africa's rural areas and of public willingness to tackle it in an integrated manner.Community/Rural/Urban Development, Labor and Human Capital,

Charmed Hadrons from Strangeness-rich QGP

The yields of charmed hadrons emitted by strangeness rich QGP are evaluated within chemical non-equilibrium statistical hadronization model, conserving strangeness, charm, and entropy yields at hadronization.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures SQM 2006; the same as J. Phys. G in pres

A Conceptual Analysis of Relational Contracts in Agribusiness Supply Chains: The Case of the Sugar Industry in Swaziland

This study examines the nature of the relationship between cane growers and millers and how it affects cane growersÂ’ perceptions of the value added in the sugar supply chain. Drawing from relational exchange theory, the study utilised the perceptions of 124 smallholder cane growers in the Swaziland sugar industry. Factors measured in terms of a likert type scale were used to measure each relational construct within the miller-grower contract relationship. The unpacks the trust relationship between large agribusiness companies and smallholder out growers, and shows that relationships characterised by social factors like trust, commitment, and cooperation enhance mutual benefit and quality relationships between parties. This study found that farmers perceive an element of opportunistic behaviour and a lack of cooperation by millers and therefore have limited trust in the millers. Consequently it was also found that satisfaction by cane growers on their relationship with millers has a positive relationship with their level of trust, level of commitment, relative dependence, perception of opportunistic behaviour by millers and perceived cooperation between themselves and the millers. The results point to a number of aspects both growers and millers need to attend to which could contribute to improved relationship and in turn efficiency and returns in the sugar industry in Swaziland.Agribusiness,

A principled approach to programming with nested types in Haskell

Initial algebra semantics is one of the cornerstones of the theory of modern functional programming languages. For each inductive data type, it provides a Church encoding for that type, a build combinator which constructs data of that type, a fold combinator which encapsulates structured recursion over data of that type, and a fold/build rule which optimises modular programs by eliminating from them data constructed using the buildcombinator, and immediately consumed using the foldcombinator, for that type. It has long been thought that initial algebra semantics is not expressive enough to provide a similar foundation for programming with nested types in Haskell. Specifically, the standard folds derived from initial algebra semantics have been considered too weak to capture commonly occurring patterns of recursion over data of nested types in Haskell, and no build combinators or fold/build rules have until now been defined for nested types. This paper shows that standard folds are, in fact, sufficiently expressive for programming with nested types in Haskell. It also defines buildcombinators and fold/build fusion rules for nested types. It thus shows how initial algebra semantics provides a principled, expressive, and elegant foundation for programming with nested types in Haskell

The development of a material management program for Hankins & Johan, Inc.

This research paper was conducted in an effort to develop a better material management program for Hankins and Johann, Inc. Some simple models such as the two bin system, and more sophisticated models, such as manufacturing resources planning (MRP II), were investigated. Although it became apparent that the sophisticated models were currently not necessarily applicable to the Hankins and Johann situation, the research of these models helped to uncover the primary goal of all such models: To maximize the economic use of available resources in the day to day operation of a company. To move Hankins and Johann in this direction will require: 1) classification of inventory, 2) installation of a two-bin system, 3) implementation of EOQ theory, 4) installation of computer programs to gather data for and maintain a stochastic re-order point model, and 5) establishment of Material Requirement Planning (MRP) procedures. This paper explains in detail how this is being and will continue to be accomplished at Hankins and Johann

Lateral Signals in Piezoresponse Force Microscopy at Domain Boundaries of Ferroelectric Crystals

In piezoresponse force microscopy a lateral signal at the domain boundaries is occasionally observed. In recent years, a couple of experiments have been reported and varying explanations for the origin of this lateral signal have been proposed. Additionally, elaborated theoretical modeling for this particular issue has been carried out. Here we present experimental data obtained on different crystallographic cuts of $\rm LiNbO_3$, $\rm BaTiO_3$, and $\rm KTiOPO_4$ single crystals. We could thereby rule out some of the explanations proposed so far, introduce another possible mechanism, and quantitatively compare our results to the existing modeling

Rapidity particle spectra in sudden hadronization of QGP

We show that the remaining internal longitudinal flow of colliding quarks in nuclei offers a natural explanation for the diversity of rapidity spectral shapes observed in Pb--Pb 158AGeV nuclear collisions. Thus QGP sudden hadronization reaction picture is a suitable approach to explain the rapidity spectra of hadrons produced.Comment: 3 pages including 2 figure