Predictors of course and outcome in hypochondriasis after cognitive-behavioral treatment

Background. Predictors of treatment outcome were evaluated in a clinical sample suffering from hypochondriasis. Methods: The sample consisted of 96 patients with hypochondriacal disorder according to DSM-IV or high syndrome scores on the Illness Attitude Scales (IAS) or Whiteley Index (WI). After intense inpatient cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT), 60% of the patients were classified as responders because of substantial improvements or recovery from hypochondriacal symptomatology. Results: Non-responders were characterized by a higher degree of pre-treatment hypochondriasis, more somatization symptoms and general psychopathology (SCL-90R), more dysfunctional cognitions related to bodily functioning, higher levels of psychosocial impairments, and more utilization of the health care system as indicated by the number of hospital days and costs for inpatient treatments and medication. No predictive value was found for sociodemographic variables, comorbidity with other mental disorders and chronicity. Multiple linear regression showed that pre-treatment variables significantly predicted IAS scores at post-treatment (R-2 = 0.59), changes during treatment (0.10), IAS scores at follow-up two years later (0.41) and changes between baseline and follow-up (0.25). Conclusions: The results demonstrate the relevance of various psychopathological variables and health care utilization as important indicators for outcome and further course of clinical hypochondriasis. Copyright (C) 2002 S. Karger AG, Basel

Geofencing – enhancing the effectiveness of mobile marketing

With the increasing market penetration of smartphones and the emergence of high speed wireless data transmission technologies, the global advertising industry is highly interested in using the mobile channel for marketing purposes. Despite the increasing number of companies now spending more money on mobile marketing than on any other marketing channel, the nature and characteristics of this channel implicate limitations. Underlying research shows that consumers’ acceptance of the mobile channel for promotional purposes is closely linked to the personalization and the situational relevance of presented content. This work project addresses the issue of consumer acceptance and demonstrates, how Geofencing can enhance the effectiveness of mobile marketing campaigns

Komasacija i kartografija

Komasacija i kartografija

Stochastische Unternehmensmodelle als Kern innovativer Ratingsysteme

In our paper, we analyze, based on a new rating methodology, 105 enterprises from Saxony with respect to their ability to meet their financial obligations. It is based on classical financial-statement approach, a direct inclusion of risk and a stochastic simulation model of enterprise development. The results show that the method used is superior to presently used approaches and that it extends our knowledge of enterprise development. On and above its Basel-II applicability, it is a tool to analyze individual development strategies of firms.rating, Saxony, modelling of enterprises, stochastics, risk, sucsess factors

Komasacija i kartografija

Komasacija i kartografija

Altered Prefrontal Theta and Gamma Activity during an Emotional Face Processing Task in Parkinson Disease.

Patients with Parkinson disease (PD) often experience nonmotor symptoms including cognitive deficits, depression, and anxiety. Cognitive and affective processes are thought to be mediated by prefrontal cortico-basal ganglia circuitry. However, the topography and neurophysiology of prefrontal cortical activity during complex tasks are not well characterized. We used high-resolution electrocorticography in pFC of patients with PD and essential tremor, during implantation of deep brain stimulator leads in the awake state, to understand disease-specific changes in prefrontal activity during an emotional face processing task. We found that patients with PD had less task-related theta-alpha power and greater task-related gamma power in the dorsolateral pFC, inferior frontal cortex, and lateral OFC. These findings support a model of prefrontal neurophysiological changes in the dopamine-depleted state, in which focal areas of hyperactivity in prefrontal cortical regions may compensate for impaired long-range interactions mediated by low-frequency rhythms. These distinct neurophysiological changes suggest that nonmotor circuits undergo characteristic changes in PD

Technische Mechanik

TECHNISCHE MECHANIK Technische Mechanik (-) Einband (-) Widmung an Professor Mohr (-) Titelseite (-) Vorwort ([I]) Inhalt (V) Festigkeits-Lehre (-) Berechnung der Fachwerke ([43]) Theorie des Erddrucks und Berechnung von Futtermauern ([139]) Berechnung der symmetrischen Tonnengewölbe ([139]) Das Seilpolygon mit Anwendung auf discontinuirliche Träger ([181]) Theorie der elastischen Linie und Berechnung der continuirlichen Träger ([217]) Berechnung des elastischen Bogenträgers ([279]) Farbinformation (-) Einband (-

Measuring symptoms in the irritable bowel syndrome: development of a framework for clinical trials

Aliment Pharmacol Ther 2010; 32: 1275–1291There is uncertainty about how to measure patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in IBS. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) emphasizes that PROs must be couched in a conceptual framework, yet existing IBS PROs were not based on such a framework.To perform qualitative analyses to inform a new conceptual framework for IBS symptoms.Following FDA guidance, we searched the literature for extant IBS questionnaires. We then performed interviews in IBS patients to learn about the illness experience in their own words. We cultivated vocabulary to inform a conceptual framework depicted with domains, sub-domains, and item categories, per FDA guidance.We identified 13 questionnaires with items encompassing 18 symptoms. We recruited 123 IBS patients for cognitive interviews. Major themes included: pain and discomfort are different – asking about discomfort is nonspecific and should be avoided in future PROs; bowel urgency is multifaceted – PROs should measure bowel immediacy, controllability, and predictability; and PROs should divide bloating into how it feels vs. how it looks. Symptom experience may be determined by 35-item categories within five domains: (i) pain; (ii) gas/bloat; (iii) diarrhoea; (iv) constipation; and (v) extraintestinal symptoms.We applied FDA guidance to develop a framework that can serve as the foundation for developing a PRO for IBS clinical trials.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/79156/1/j.1365-2036.2010.04464.x.pd

Development and initial validation of a measure of metacognitive beliefs in health anxiety: The MCQ-HA

Metacognitive beliefs have been shown to correlate with emotional disorders and more recently have been implicated in health anxiety. Research exploring these beliefs have tended to use the Metacognition Questionnaire (MCQ), which is a general measure. To facilitate research on the metacognitive model applied to health anxiety the present study reports on the development and initial evaluation of a new specific metacognitive measure of health anxiety, the Metacognitions Questionnaire-Health Anxiety (MCQ-HA). Principal components analysis identified 14 suitable items to be explored. Subsequent exploratory factor analysis of the MCQ-HA identified three factors: “Beliefs that Thoughts can cause Illness”, “Beliefs about Biased thinking”, and “Beliefs that Thoughts are Uncontrollable”. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the three factor model with all selected goodness-of-fit statistics equivalent to or better than recommended values. Preliminary evidence suggests good internal-consistency, incremental, convergent and discriminant validity in relation to associated measures. The MCQ-HA appears to be a potentially useful predictor of health anxiet