Overcoming barriers to effective early parenting interventions for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): parent and practitioner views

BackgroundThe importance of early intervention approaches for the treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been increasingly acknowledged. Parenting programmes (PPs) are recommended for use with preschool children with ADHD. However, low take-up' and high drop-out' rates compromise the effectiveness of such programmes within the community. MethodsThis qualitative study examined the views of 25 parents and 18 practitioners regarding currently available PPs for preschool children with ADHD-type problems in the UK. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken to identify both barriers and facilitators associated with programme access, programme effectiveness, and continued engagement. Results and conclusionsMany of the themes mirrored previous accounts relating to generic PPs for disruptive behaviour problems. There were also a number of ADHD-specific themes. Enhancing parental motivation to change parenting practice and providing an intervention that addresses the parents' own needs (e.g. in relation to self-confidence, depression or parental ADHD), in addition to those of the child, were considered of particular importance. Comparisons between the views of parents and practitioners highlighted a need to increase awareness of parental psychological barriers among practitioners and for better programme advertising generally. Clinical implications and specific recommendations drawn from these findings are discussed and presented

A forward speed effects study on jet noise from several suppressor nozzles in the NASA/Ames 40- by 80-foot wind tunnel

A test program was conducted in a 40 by 80 foot wind tunnel to evaluate the effect of relative velocity on the jet noise signature of a conical ejector, auxiliary inlet ejector, 32 spokes and 104 tube nozzle with and without an acoustically treated shroud. The freestream velocities in the wind tunnel were varied from 0 to 103.6 m/sec (300 ft/sec) for exhaust jet velocities of 259.1 m/sec (850 ft/sec) to 609.6 m/sec (2000 ft/sec). Reverberation corrections for the wind tunnel were developed and the procedure is explained. In conjunction with wind tunnel testing the nozzles were also evaluated on an outdoor test stand. The wind tunnel microphone arrays were duplicated during the outdoor testing. The data were then extrapolated for comparisons with data measured using a microphone array placed on a 30.5 meter (100 ft) arc. Using these data as a basis, farfield to nearfield arguments are presented with regards to the data measured in the wind tunnel. Finally, comparisons are presented between predictions made using existing methods and the measured data

Dirac Fermions in Inhomogeneous Magnetic Field

We study a confined system of Dirac fermions in the presence of inhomogeneous magnetic field. Splitting the system into different regions, we determine their corresponding energy spectrum solutions. We underline their physical properties by considering the conservation energy where some interesting relations are obtained. These are used to discuss the reflexion and transmission coefficients for Dirac fermions and check the probability condition for different cases. We generalize the obtained results to a system with gap and make some analysis. After evaluating the current-carrying states, we analyze the Klein paradox and report interesting discussions.Comment: 28 pages, 15 figures. Version to appear in JP

Parallel computing for passage retrieval

In this paper we examine methods for both speeding up passage processing and examining more passages using parallel computers. We vary the number of passages processed in order to examine the effect on retrieval effectiveness and efficiency. The particular algorithm we apply has previously been used to good effect in Okapi experiments at TREC. We describe this algorithm and our mechanism for applying parallel computing to speed up the processing

Parallel methods for the generation of partitioned inverted files

Purpose – The generation of inverted indexes is one of the most computationally intensive activities for information retrieval systems: indexing large multi‐gigabyte text databases can take many hours or even days to complete. We examine the generation of partitioned inverted files in order to speed up the process of indexing. Two types of index partitions are investigated: TermId and DocId. Design/methodology/approach – We use standard measures used in parallel computing such as speedup and efficiency to examine the computing results and also the space costs of our trial indexing experiments. Findings – The results from runs on both partitioning methods are compared and contrasted, concluding that DocId is the more efficient method. Practical implications – The practical implications are that the DocId partitioning method would in most circumstances be used for distributing inverted file data in a parallel computer, particularly if indexing speed is the primary consideration. Originality/value – The paper is of value to database administrators who manage large‐scale text collections, and who need to use parallel computing to implement their text retrieval services

Parallel methods for the update of partitioned inverted files

Purpose – An issue which tends to be ignored in information retrieval is the issue of updating inverted files. This is largely because inverted files were devised to provide fast query service, and much work has been done with the emphasis strongly on queries. In this paper we study the effect of using parallel methods for the update of inverted files in order to reduce costs, by looking at two types of partitioning for inverted files: document identifier and term identifier. Design/methodology/approach – Raw update service and update with query service are studied with these partitioning schemes using an incremental update strategy. We use standard measures used in parallel computing such as speedup to examine the computing results and also the costs of reorganising indexes while servicing transactions. Findings – Empirical results show that for both transaction processing and index reorganisation the document identifier method is superior. However, there is evidence that the term identifier partitioning method could be useful in a concurrent transaction processing context. Practical implications – There is an increasing need to service updates which is now becoming a requirement of inverted files (for dynamic collections such as the Web), demonstrating that a shift in requirements of inverted file maintenance is needed from the past. Originality/value – The paper is of value to database administrators who manage large-scale and dynamic text collections, and who need to use parallel computing to implement their text retrieval services

Parallel Computing for Term Selection in Routing/Filtering

It has been postulated that a method of selecting terms in either routing or filtering using relevance feedback would be to evaluate every possible combination of terms in a training set and determine which combination yields the best retrieval results. Whilst this is not a realistic proposition because of the enormous size of the search space, some heuristics have been developed on the Okapi system to tackle the problem which are computationally intensive. This paper describes parallel computing techniques that have been applied to these heuristics to reduce the time it takes to select to select terms

PLIERS at VLC2

This paper describes experiments done on the VLC2 collection at TREC-7. Methods used for indexing text is described together with the results: this includes the official collections BASE1, plus some larger unofficial collections named BASE2 and BASE4. Search times on these collections are described and discussed with a particular emphasis on scaleup: for both weighted term search and passage retrieval. The various configurations for experiments are described