Divining Structural Factors Related to Intervention Success or Failure: Cultural Sexism versus Other Macro-Level Factors

This article provides commentary on a spatial meta-analysis published by Price and colleagues (2021); it provides valuable preliminary evidence that a dimension of cultural sexism can countervail efforts for psychotherapy to succeed in samples that focus on girls aged four to 18. Our own study reveals cultural sexism to be markedly associated with at least three macro-level factors: cultural tightness, historical slaveholding (and by implication racism), and sex education inclusiveness. The fact that cultural sexism can be so well predicted by these factors is additional evidence that cultural sexism is real, yet it also suggests caution in interpreting these effects as merely reflecting cultural sexism. Surely, the reality is more complex. Thus, we believe that understanding effects of interventions at the macro level requires a more extensive model, one that incorporates objective measures of sexism beyond markers such as income, income inequality, poverty, and education, and meaningfully theorizes about how such dimensions might interact. For example, sexism is logically more pernicious to the extent that a culture is tight; nation-level changes such as same-sex marriage would seem to have considerable potential to improve mental health for affected individuals; finally, media avenues also are a potentially extremely powerful force as these easily cross artificial spatial boundaries. Our findings further suggest that understanding the structural policy components of cultural sexism, of which this essay is merely a beginning, could inform future interventions to improve the psychological health outcomes for adolescent girls. Along these lines, the same meta-analytic framework could be used to assess the success of psychotherapy interventions not only for girls but also boys and others, especially those at the intersection of stigmatized identities (e.g., sexual minorities of color). The results from such models promise to point the way to improved therapies. As a final note, consider again that all of the factors we have discussed here are correlational. The very factors that appear to undercut therapeutic success may be the factors that make individuals more susceptible to mental health problems in the first place. Individuals have needs left wanting or even worsened by the local cultures that envelope them, a prediction that at least one ecological model makes. Thus, interventions might succeed in the sense that a young person comes to develop self-worth and perhaps even to experience lower anxiety levels. An intervention might thus succeed in the very short term—because needs are so deep—yet fail in the long run because surrounding networks are so strongly countervailing

Qualitative evaluation of a flush air data system at transonic speeds and high angles of attack

Flight tests were performed on an F-14 aircraft to evaluate the use of flush pressure orifices on the nose section for obtaining air data at transonic speeds over a large range of flow angles. This program was part of a flight test and wind tunnel program to assess the accuracies of such systems for general use on aircraft. It also provided data to validate algorithms developed for the shuttle entry air data system designed at NASA Langley. Data were obtained for Mach numbers between 0.60 and 1.60, for angles of attack up to 26.0 deg, and for sideslip angles up to 11.0 deg. With careful calibration, a flush air data system with all flush orifices can provide accurate air data information over a large range of flow angles. Several orificies on the nose cap were found to be suitable for determination of stagnation pressure. Other orifices on the nose section aft of the nose cap were shown to be suitable for determination of static pressure. Pairs of orifices on the nose cap provided the most sensitive measurements for determining angles of attack and sideslip, although orifices located farther aft on the nose section could also be used

The doubly negative matrix completion problem

An $n\times n$ matrix over the field of real numbers is a doubly negative matrix if it is symmetric, negative definite and entry-wise negative. In this paper, we are interested in the doubly negative matrix completion problem, that is when does a partial matrix have a doubly negative matrix completion. In general, we cannot guarantee the existence of such a completion. In this paper, we prove that every partial doubly negative matrix whose associated graph is a $p$-chordal graph $G$ has a doubly negative matrix completion if and only if $p=1$. Furthermore, the question of completability of partial doubly negative matrices whose associated graphs are cycles is addressed.Spanish DGI - BFM2001-0081-C03-02.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) – Programa Operacional “Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovação” (POCTI)

Altered Ecosystem Nitrogen Dynamics as a Consequence of Land Cover Change in Tallgrass Prairie

ABSTRACT.-Inre cent decades, substantial areas of North American tallgrass prairie have been lost to the establishment and expansion of woodlands and forests, including those dominated by eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana). This shift in dominant plant life form, from C4 grasses to coniferous trees, may be accompanied by changes in productivity, standing stocks of biomass and nutrients and biogeochemical cycles. The goal of this study was to quantify and compare major pools and fluxes of nitrogen in recently established (5 80 y) redcedar forests and adjacent native grasslands. Three former grassland sites in the Flint Hills region of Kansas that developed closed-canopy redcedar forests in the recent past were paired with adjacent grassland sites on similar soil type and topographic position (n = 3 sites/land cover type), and selected soil and plant nitrogen pools and fluxes were measured in replicate plots (n = 6/site) along transects in each forest or grassland site over a 20-mo period. We found few significant differences in median soil inorganic N pools or net N mineralization rates between the forest and grassland sites, though there was a trend for greater concentrations of inorganic N in grassland sites on most sample dates, and cumulative growing season net N mineralization averaged 15% less in forest sites (14.3 kg N-ha-1\u27yr-1) than in grassland sites (16.9 kg N-ha-\u27.yr-1). Mean aboveground plant productivity of forest sites (9162 kg ha-1 yr-1) was about 2.5X greater than that of comparable grasslands (similar soils and topographic position), in spite of similar levels of soil N availability. This resulted in an ecosystem-level nitrogen use efficiency (ANPP:litterfall N) in forests that was more than double that of the grasslands they replaced. Additional changes in N cycling associated with redcedar forest development included large accumulations of N in aboveground biomass and transfer to the forest floor via litterfall; redcedar aboveground biomass contained 617 kg N/ ha, forest floor litter N was 253 kg N/ha, and litterfall N flux was 41 kg ha-l\u27yr-1. These are substantial increases in aboveground biomass N accumulation, surface litter N inputs, and surface litter N accumulation compared to the native grasslands characteristic of this region. These fundamental shifts in ecosystem patterns and processes have the potential to alter regional biogeochemistry and both nitrogen and carbon storage throughout areas of the eastern Central Plains where coverage of redcedars is increasing

Digital program for calculating static pressure position error

A computer program written to calculate the static pressure position error of airspeed systems contains five separate methods for determining position error, of which the user may select from one to five at a time. The program uses data from both the test aircraft and the ground-based radar to calculate the error. In addition, some of the methods require rawinsonde data or an atmospheric analysis, or both. The program output lists the corrections to Mach number, altitude, and static pressure that are due to position error. Reference values such as angle of attack, angle of sideslip, indicated Mach number, indicated pressure altitude, stagnation pressure, and total temperature are also listed

Totally nonpositive completions on partial matrices

An n £ n real matrix is said to be totally no positive if every minor is no positive. In this paper, we are interested in totally no positive completion problems, that is, does A partial totally no positive matrix have a totally no positive matrix completion? This Problem has, in general, a negative answer. Therefore, we analyze the question: for which Labelled graphs G does every partial totally no positive matrix, whose associated graph is G, have a totally no positive completion? Here we study the mentioned problem when G Is a choral graph or an undirected cycle.Spanish DGI grant number BFM2001-0081-C03-02 and Generalitat Valenciana GRUPOS03/062Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

A probabilistic analysis of argument cogency

This paper offers a probabilistic treatment of the conditions for argument cogency as endorsed in informal logic: acceptability, relevance, and sufficiency. Treating a natural language argument as a reason-claim-complex, our analysis identifies content features of defeasible argument on which the RSA conditions depend, namely: change in the commitment to the reason, the reason’s sensitivity and selectivity to the claim, one’s prior commitment to the claim, and the contextually determined thresholds of acceptability for reasons and for claims. Results contrast with, and may indeed serve to correct, the informal understanding and applications of the RSA criteria concerning their conceptual dependence, their function as update-thresholds, and their status as obligatory rather than permissive norms, but also show how these formal and informal normative approachs can in fact align

Influence of Beef Production System on Calpain-1 Autolysis and Troponin-T Degradation

The objective of this study was to determine the impact beef production systems utilizing different levels of growth promotant technology on calpain-1 autolysis and troponin-T degradation, which are measures of tenderness

Run Scenarios for the Linear Collider

Scenarios are developed for runs at a Linear Collider, in the case that there is a rich program of new physics.Comment: 12 pages, 10 tables, Latex; Snowmass 2001 plenary repor