Coping effectiveness training for people with spinal cord injury

This project describes the development. implementation and evaluation of a new psychological intervention for improving psychological adjustment and enhancing adaptive coping following spinal cord injury. The Coping Effectiveness Training programme developed is a group-based seven session long intervention. It is grounded on the cognitive theory of stress and coping developed by Lazarus and Folkman (1984) and represents an original adaptation of the theory to the needs of this client group. The intervention was successfully implemented as part of the rehabilitation programme of a national spinal injury centre. Proactive strategies were necessary to establish the essential good collaboration with other rehabilitation staff and ensure good patient participation in the groups.A non-randomised controlled trial was used to evaluate the intervention, using nineteen participants from three Coping Effectiveness Training groups and nineteen carefully matched controls selected from the database of a previous study (Kennedy, 1995). Participants who attended the groups showed significantly greater reductions in levels of depression and anxiety compared to matched controls immediately after the intervention and at six weeks follow-up. indicating that the intervention had facilitated a significant improvement in participants' psychological adjustment to spinal cord injury. A trend towards a significant improvement in participants' self-concept was also found over the observation period. However. there was no evidence of significant changes in the coping strategies used by participants who attended the groups compared to matched controls. with the exception of the 'Acceptance' coping strategy. Most participants said the groups had been helpful in making the consequences of the injury more manageable, with the interaction with other group participants being highlighted as the most beneficial aspect of the intervention. It is proposed that the improvements made in psychological adjustment can be understood in terms of changes in participants' beliefs about the implications of spinal cord injury and about the coping skills needed to be able to continue living meaningful and satisfying lives

APPLICATION OF IMAGE ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES TO SATELLITE CLOUD MOTION TRACKING

Cloud motion wind (CMW) determination requires tracking of individual cloud targets. This is achieved by first clustering and then tracking each cloud cluster. Ideally, different cloud clusters correspond to diiferent pressure levels. Two new clustering techniques have been developed for the identification of cloud types in multi-spectral satellite imagery. The first technique is the Global-Local clustering algorithm. It is a cascade of a histogram clustering algorithm and a dynamic clustering algorithm. The histogram clustering algorithm divides the multi-spectral histogram into'non-overlapped regions, and these regions are used to initialise the dynamic clustering algorithm. The dynamic clustering algorithm assumes clusters have a Gaussian distributed probability density function with diiferent population size and variance. The second technique uses graph theory to exploit the spatial information which is often ignored in per-pixel clustering. The algorithm is in two stages: spatial clustering and spectral clustering. The first stage extracts homogeneous objects in the image using a family of algorithms based on stepwise optimization. This family of algorithms can be further divided into two approaches: Top-down and Bottom-up. The second stage groups similar segments into clusters using a statistical hypothesis test on their similarities. The clusters generated are less noisy along class boundaries and are in hierarchical order. A criterion based on mutual information is derived to monitor the spatial clustering process and to suggest an optimal number of segments. An automated cloud motion tracking program has been developed. Three images (each separated by 30 minutes) are used to track cloud motion and the middle image is clustered using Global-Local clustering prior to tracking. Compared with traditional methods based on raw images, it is found that separation of cloud types before cloud tracking can reduce the ambiguity due to multi-layers of cloud moving at different speeds and direction. Three matching techniques are used and their reliability compared. Target sizes ranging from 4 x 4 to 32 x 32 are tested and their errors compared. The optimum target size for first generation METEOSAT images has also been found.Meteorological Office, Bracknel

Impact of Short Lifetime Limits on Child Neglect

The Great Recession that officially began in December 2007 nationally resulted in a loss of income on the part of many families with children who in turn, relied on a variety of safety nets, including cash assistance from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. Loss of income has been recognized as a major risk factor of child maltreatment, in particular child neglect. During its 2007 recession, Arizona shortened its TANF lifetime limits substantially which resulted in transfer income losses for many families with children on TANF. Using time-series analysis, the present study determines the relative impact of TANF’s shorter than 60-month time limits on the Arizona’s child neglect caseload. This paper shows that there is a strong inverse relationship between child neglect and the decrease in the number of families receiving cash assistance from TANF. Key findings reveal that all else constant, under the presence of 36-month time limit there was an increase of 190 more children substantiated for neglect in the state of Arizona (p \u3c .001). The corresponding figure under the 24 month life time limit was 461 cases per month (p \u3c .001). This study reminds us that policies in one program should not be implemented in a vacuum but rather that their consequences for children and families in related programs need to be closely analyzed

The Impact of the Economy and Welfare Policy on Welfare Accessions: Implications for Future Reforms

This longitudinal study analyzes the impact of labor market conditions and welfare policies accompanying the 1990s waivers granted by the federal government to California and the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (PRWOA) on families entering welfare (accessions). A time series model was specified for analyzing the number of families entering welfare from January 1983 to December 1998. The findings suggest that in 1998 under PRWOA, all else constant, there were fewer case openings. Prior to the PRWOA, policy shifts of the 1990s did not have an impact on case openings. The findings also show that under economic recovery fewer families applied for welfare. The implications of these findings are that drastic measures such as time-limited welfare should be re-examined since a favorable economic environment allows many recipients to remain off public assistance even in the absence of such measures

The Impact of the Economy and Welfare Policy on Welfare Accessions: Implications for Future Reforms

This longitudinal study analyzes the impact of labor market conditions and welfare policies accompanying the 1990s waivers granted by the federal government to California and the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (PRWOA) on families entering welfare (accessions). A time series model was specified for analyzing the number of families entering welfare from January 1983 to December 1998. The findings suggest that in 1998 under PRWOA, all else constant, there were fewer case openings. Prior to the PRWOA, policy shifts of the 1990s did not have an impact on case openings. The findings also show that under economic recovery fewer families applied for welfare. The implications of these findings are that drastic measures such as time-limited welfare should be re-examined since a favorable economic environment allows many recipients to remain off public assistance even in the absence of such measures