Research on experiential psychotherapies

Reviews research on experiential or humanistic psychotherapies, including meta-analysis of outcome research and studies of particular change processes. Outcome meta-analysis shows large client pre-post change, as well as large controlled effects relative to untreated controls and statistical equivalence to nonexperiential psychotherapies, including CBT

The SiRi Particle-Telescope System

A silicon particle-telescope system for light-ion nuclear reactions is described. In particular, the system is designed to be optimized for level density and gamma-ray strength function measurements with the so-called Oslo method. Eight trapezoidal modules are mounted at 5 cm distance from the target, covering 8 forward angles between theta = 40 and 54 degrees. The thin front dE detectors (130 micrometer) are segmented into eight pads, determining the reaction angle for the outgoing charged ejectile. Guard rings on the thick back E detectors (1550 micrometer) guarantee low leakage current at high depletion voltage.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figure

Stephen Smith, La Ruée vers l'Europe. La jeune Afrique en route pour le Vieux Continent

Introduction Ancien reporter spécialiste de l’Afrique (1986-2005) pour Reuters, RFI, Libération, et Le Monde, Stephen Smith s’intéresse depuis une trentaine d’années aux migrations de l’Afrique vers l’Europe. Smith influence incontestablement le débat public avec son dernier ouvrage, paru en février 2018, au titre évocateur : La ruée vers l’Europe. La jeune Afrique en route pour le Vieux Continent. Sa principale thèse avance que le développement économique de l’Afrique alimente les migration..

Examining the role of the diaspora in addressing the interconnections between human health and environmental change::The case of northern Senegalese communities

Diaspora communities are a growing source of external assistance and resources to meet unmet needs and to strengthen existing health systems in their home countries. Although a growing number of articles have been published in this realm, very few have looked at diaspora communities’ role and the place translocal communities give to health (care) in the various remittance dynamics, whilst including power relationships and environmental change. This article examines the motivations and practices through which Senegalese diasporas engage with the health system in their origin country and what barriers they face in their interventions. The results of the migration-environment-health nexus are critically discussed with a political ecology approach. We found that households and villages with a critical number of members abroad, and with strong political and/or international networks, are better off and less exposed to health risks in the face of adverse extreme climate impacts. <br/

Flow cytometric assessment of the viability and functionality of uterine polymorphonuclear leukocytes in postpartum dairy cows

Postpartum dairy cows experience impaired peripheral polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMN) functionality, which has been associated with reproductive tract inflammatory diseases. However, it has not been elucidated yet whether endometrial PMN functionality is (equally) impaired. We developed a method for endometrial PMN isolation and flow cytometric assessment of their viability and functionality. We also evaluated PMN immunolabeling, using a specific bovine granulocyte marker, CH138A. Blood and endometrial cytobrush samples were collected in duplicate from seventeen clinically healthy Holstein-Friesian cows between 9 and 37 days in milk. The proportion of viable, apoptotic, and necrotic PMN in endometrial samples roughly ranged from 10 to 80%, indicating highly dynamic endometrial PMN populations in the postpartum uteri. Endometrial PMN functionality testing revealed that PMN immunolabeling increased the accuracy, although this protocol might influence the median fluorescence intensity of the sample. Phagocytosis seemed the most stable and reliable endometrial PMN function and could be assessed satisfactorily without prior CH138A immunolabeling. However, the interpretation of oxidative burst and intracellular proteolysis tests remains challenging. The correlation between peripheral and endometrial PMN functionality was poor. Further research is warranted to unravel the role of uterine PMN viability and functionality in bovine uterine health

HUBUNGAN ANTARA KOMITMEN BERPACARAN DENGAN KUALITAS PERSAHABATAN PADA REMAJA AKHIR DI UNIVERSITAS PENDIDIKAN INDONESIA

Penelitian ini memiliki beberapa tujuan, yaitu untuk mengetahui (1) gambaran komitmen berpacaran, (2) gambaran kualitas persahabatan, (3) hubungan antara komitmen berpacaran dengan kualitas persahabatan pada remaja akhir di Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI). Responden pada penelitian ini ialah mahasiswa di UPI yang berada pada usia remaja akhir yang memiliki pasangan (pacar) dan juga teman dekat (sahabat). Terdapat 200 orang responden sesuai kriteria yang telah ditentukan dalam penelitian ini. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kuantitatif dan menggunakan teknik purposive sampling. Pengumpulan data dilakukan melalui penyebaran kuesioner dengan memanfaatkan aplikasi google docs. Kuesioner berisikan skala komitmen berpacaran yang peneliti adaptasi dan modifikasi dari Commitment Measurenment milik Rusbult (1983) dan skala kualitas persahabatan yang juga peneliti adaptasi dan modifikasi dari Friendship Quality Scale (FQS) milik Bukowski, Hoza, dan Bovin (Ponti, dkk, 2010). Data yang diperoleh dianalisis menggunakan teknik korelasi Spearman Rho. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan (1) remaja akhir di UPI memiliki komitmen berpacaran yang cenderung rendah yaitu sebanyak 41% dari 200 orang responden, (2) remaja akhir di UPI memiliki kualitas persahabatan yang cenderung rendah yaitu sebanyak 36,5% dari 200 orang responden, dan (3) terdapat hubungan yang antara komitmen berpacaran dengan kualitas persahabatan pada remaja akhir di Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia.---------This study aims to describe (1) the image of commitment dating (2) the big picture of quality of friendship, and (3) relationship between Commitment Dating with the quality of friendship late adolescence at Indonesia University of Education (UPI). Responders of this study are late adolescence at Indonesia University of Education who are in commitment relationship and having close friends. There are around 200 people with the appropriate criteria have been determined in this study. This study uses quantitative methods and using purposive sampling technique. Data collected through questionnaires by using google docs app. The questionnaire contains of a commitment dating scale that is adapted by researcher and modification of Commitment Measurenment owned by Rusbult (1983) and so is Quality Scale (FQS) belongs to Bukowski, Hoza, and Bovin (Ponti et al, 2010). Data was analyzed by using Spearman Rho correlation techniques. The result showed that (1) late adolescence of UPI who are in committed relationship that tends to lower as many as 41% of the 200 respondents, (2) late adolescence of UPI have a rather low quality friendships as many as 36.5% of the 200 respondents, and (3) there is a relationship between commitment dating with the quality of friendship in late teens at UPI

Options for Managing a Systemic Bank Crisis

The on-going financial crisis results not from a cyclical or managerial failure, but from a structural one: more than 96 other major banking crises occurred over the past 20 years, and these crashes have happened under very different regulatory systems and at different stages of economic development. So far, conventional solutions are being applied—nationalization of the problem assets (as in the original Paulson bailout) or nationalization of the banks (as in Europe). These solutions only deal with the symptoms and not the systemic cause of today’s banking crisis. Similarly, the financial re-regulation that will be on everybody’s political agenda will, at best, reduce the frequency of such crises, but not avoid their re-occurrence. Better solutions are urgently needed because the last breakdown of this magnitude, the Great Depression of the 1930s, ended up in a wave of fascism and World War II. In this paper, we describe a recent conceptual breakthrough—based on the functioning of balanced ecosystems— that shows that all complex systems, including our monetary and financial ones, become structurally unstable whenever efficiency is overemphasized at the expense of diversity, interconnectivity and the crucial resilience they provide. The surprising insight from a systemic perspective is that sustainable vitality involves diversifying the types of currencies and institutions and introducing new ones that are designed specifically to increase the availability of money in its prime function as a medium of exchange, rather than for savings or speculation. Additionally, these currencies are expressly designed to link unused resources with unmet needs within a community, region or country. These currencies are know as complementary because they do not replace the conventional national money, but rather, operate in parallel with it. We propose that a systemic understanding and technical solution are now available that would ensure that such crashes become a phenomenon of the past. The most effective way for governments to support such a strategy of a more diverse and sustainable monetary ecology would be to accept a well-designed, robust complementary currency in partial payment of taxes during a period when banks are not in a position to fully finance the real economy. The choice of a complementary currency reflects both a technical issue (robustness and resilience against fraud) and a political one (what type of programs are desirable to support). A good candidate for consideration would be a professionally run business-to-business (B2B) complementary currency based on the model of the WIR system. This currency has been successfully operational for 75 years in Switzerland, involving a quarter of all the businesses in that country. Formal econometric analysis has proven that the WIR acts as a significant counter-cyclical stabilizing factor that explains the proverbial long-standing stability of the Swiss economy

Options for Managing a Systemic Bank Crisis

The on-going financial crisis results not from a cyclical or managerial failure, but from a structural one: more than 96 other major banking crises occurred over the past 20 years, and these crashes have happened under very different regulatory systems and at different stages of economic development. So far, conventional solutions are being applied—nationalization of the problem assets (as in the original Paulson bailout) or nationalization of the banks (as in Europe). These solutions only deal with the symptoms and not the systemic cause of today’s banking crisis. Similarly, the financial re-regulation that will be on everybody’s political agenda will, at best, reduce the frequency of such crises, but not avoid their re-occurrence. Better solutions are urgently needed because the last breakdown of this magnitude, the Great Depression of the 1930s, ended up in a wave of fascism and World War II. In this paper, we describe a recent conceptual breakthrough—based on the functioning of balanced ecosystems— that shows that all complex systems, including our monetary and financial ones, become structurally unstable whenever efficiency is overemphasized at the expense of diversity, interconnectivity and the crucial resilience they provide. The surprising insight from a systemic perspective is that sustainable vitality involves diversifying the types of currencies and institutions and introducing new ones that are designed specifically to increase the availability of money in its prime function as a medium of exchange, rather than for savings or speculation. Additionally, these currencies are expressly designed to link unused resources with unmet needs within a community, region or country. These currencies are know as complementary because they do not replace the conventional national money, but rather, operate in parallel with it. We propose that a systemic understanding and technical solution are now available that would ensure that such crashes become a phenomenon of the past. The most effective way for governments to support such a strategy of a more diverse and sustainable monetary ecology would be to accept a well-designed, robust complementary currency in partial payment of taxes during a period when banks are not in a position to fully finance the real economy. The choice of a complementary currency reflects both a technical issue (robustness and resilience against fraud) and a political one (what type of programs are desirable to support). A good candidate for consideration would be a professionally run business-to-business (B2B) complementary currency based on the model of the WIR system. This currency has been successfully operational for 75 years in Switzerland, involving a quarter of all the businesses in that country. Formal econometric analysis has proven that the WIR acts as a significant counter-cyclical stabilizing factor that explains the proverbial long-standing stability of the Swiss economy

First fabrication of full 3D-detectors at SINTEF

International audienceA knowledge of the mechanical properties of bacterial biofilms is required to more fully understand the processes of biofilm formation such as initial adhesion or detachment. The main contribution of this article is to demonstrate the use of homogenization techniques to compute mechanical parameters of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 biofilms. For this purpose, homogenization techniques are used to analyze freeze substitution electron micrographs of the biofilm cross-sections. The concept of a representative volume element and the study about his representativeness allows us to determine the optimal size in order to analyze these biofilm images. Results demonstrate significant heterogeneities with respect to stiffness and these can be explained by varying cell density distribution throughout the bacterial biofilms. These stiffness variations lead to different mechanical properties along the height of the biofilm. Moreover, a numerical shear stress test shows the impact of these heterogeneities on the detachment process. Several modes of detachment are highlighted according to the local strain energy in the different parts of the biofilm. Knowing where, and how, a biofilm may detach will allow better prediction of accumulation and biomass detachment