Relationship qualities that are associated with moments of relational depth: the client's perspective

This study explores the qualities of the therapeutic relationship that are associated with profound moments of interpersonal connectedness. Using a phenomenological approach, qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 participants all of whom had been clients of predominately person-centered counseling. Therapists with whom participants did experience moments of relational depth were experienced as being trustworthy, real, genuinely caring and earnest in their desire to understand. In relationships where they felt there was no moments of relational depth, participants described their therapist as distant, powerful, interpreting, misunderstanding or saying the right words but not really meaning it. Findings are discussed in relation to theory and previous studies, and suggestions for further research given

Assessment of the quality of Gate area rainfall data from a Nimbus-5 radiometer

The quality of rainfall intensity estimates derived from passive microwave measurements by the electrically scanned microwave radiometer (ESMR-5) aboard the Nimbus 5 satellite are evaluated. The microwave measurements used are those coincident with the global atmospheric research program Atlantic tropical experiment (GATE). The ESMR 5 derived rainfall intensity estimates are compared with hourly averaged GATE radar rainfall measurements. It is determined from the transfer curves derived using the radar measurements as ground truth, that the ESMR 5 derived data consistently over estimates rainfall by a factor of approximately 1.4

Frio brine sequestration pilot in the Texas Gulf Coast

A field experiment to pioneer CO2 injection for sequestration in a brine-bearing sandstone-shale sequence in the Texas Gulf Coast, USA, is in the preinjection modeling and planning phase. Innovations in this experiment include (1) CO2 injection into high-volume highpermeability rocks that have storage capacity sufficient to impact greenhouse gas emissions, (2) injection into a setting lacking the complications introduced by hydrocarbons and perturbations resulting from production and secondary recovery, and (3) intensive pre-, syn-, and post-injection monitoring and modeling for validation of the effectiveness of sequestration. The experiment is designed to provide a rapid increase in information from a small-volume and short-duration injection.Bureau of Economic Geolog

Constant heat characterisation and geometrical optimisation of thermoelectric generators

It is well known that for a thermoelectric generator (TEG) in thermal steady-state with constant temperature difference across it the maximum power point is found at half of the open-circuit voltage (or half of the short-circuit current). However, the effective thermal resistance of the TEG changes depending on the current drawn by the load in accordance with the parasitic Peltier effect. This article analyses the different case in which the input thermal power is constant and the temperature difference across the TEG varies depending on its effective thermal resistance. This situation occurs in most waste heat recovery applications because the available thermal power is at any time limited. The first part of this article presents the electrical characterisation of TEGs for constant-heat and it investigates the relationship between maximum power point and open-circuit voltage. The second part studies the maximum power that can be produced by TEGs with pellets (or legs) of different size and number, i.e. with different packing factors, and of different height. This work provides advice on the optimisation of the pellets geometrical parameters in order to increase the power generated, and consequently the thermodynamic efficiency, and to minimise the quantity of thermoelectric material used, for systems with limited input thermal power.</p

21st century social work: reducing re-offending - key practice skills

This literature review was commissioned by the Scottish Executive’s Social Work Services Inspectorate in order to support the work of the 21st Century Social Work Review Group. Discussions in relation to the future arrangements for criminal justice social work raised issues about which disciplines might best encompass the requisite skills for reducing re-offending in the community. Rather than starting with what is known or understood about the skills of those professionals currently involved in such interventions, this study sought to start with the research evidence on effective work with offenders to reduce re-offending and then work its way back to the skills required to promote this outcome

Inhomogeneous reionization and the polarization of the cosmic microwave background

In a universe with inhomogeneous reionization, the ionized patches create a second order signal in the cosmic microwave background polarization anisotropy. This signal originates in the coupling of the free electron fluctuation to the quadruple moment of the temperature anisotropy. We examine the contribution from a simple inhomogeneous reionization model and find that the signal from such a process is below the detectable limits of the Planck Surveyor mission. However t he signal is above the fundamental uncertainty limit from cosmic variance, so th at a future detection with a high accuracy experiment on sub-arcminute scales is possible.Comment: 10 pages, 2 eps figures, final version accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

Existence of an upper limit on the density of excitons in carbon nanotubes by diffusion-limited exciton-exciton annihilation: Experiment and theory

Through an investigation of photoemission properties of highly-photoexcited single-walled carbon nanotubes, we demonstrate that there is an upper limit on the achievable excitonic density. As the intensity of optical excitation increases, all photoluminescence emission peaks arising from different chirality single-walled carbon nanotubes showed clear saturation in intensity. Each peak exhibited a saturation value that was independent of the excitation wavelength, indicating that there is an upper limit on the excitonic density for each nanotube species. We propose that this saturation behavior is a result of efficient exciton-exciton annihilation through which excitons decay non-radiatively. In order to explain the experimental results and obtain excitonic densities in the saturation regime, we have developed a model, taking into account the generation, diffusion-limited exciton-exciton annihilation, and spontaneous decays of one-dimensional excitons. Using the model, we were able to reproduce the experimentally obtained saturation curves under certain approximations, from which the excitonic densities were estimated. The validity of the model was confirmed through comparison with Monte Carlo simulations. Finally, we show that the conventional rate equation for exciton-exciton annihilation without taking into account exciton diffusion fails to fit the experimentally observed saturation behavior, especially at high excitonic densities.Comment: 5 figures, 1 tabl