Intact Families with a Multiple Sclerotic Parent: Social and Emotional Adjustment of Parents and School-Age Children

Problem Statement. Research on children with a multiple sclerotic parent has been minimal and until recently focused only on negative aspects. This study investigated how families successfully cope with multiple sclerosis (MS) and how their school-age children are affected, positively or negatively. Methodology. This research used the case study approach with intact Caucasian families, 10 where the mother was the patient and 3 families where the father was the patient. The 20 children were ages 5 through 19. Following a clinical interview, the family members responded to the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales-II, the Family Hardiness Index and the Family Crisis Oriented Personal Scales. The children responded to age-appropriate instruments including an empathy scale, the Survey of Interpersonal Value, the Piers-Harris Children\u27s Self-Concept Scale, the Human Figure Drawing, the Kinetic Family Drawing, and the Roberts Apperception Test. The schools completed the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales for the elementary children, and reported an IQ for the secondary children. Results. The families generally appeared balanced, and functioning and coping successfully. The children seemed to be adapting adequately and had basically well-adjusted personalities. They had very positive self-concepts, particularly regarding their physical self, behavior and happiness. They had good interpersonal relationships, and generally average and above empathy. The adolescents placed very high value on altruism, high value on being supported, and little value on independence. Anxiety and aggression were above average in the adolescents, and below average and normal, respectively, for the younger children. Across the age range, they seemed to have high depressive tendencies. Two families were found to have children with serious adjustment problems. Conclusions. Although MS creates definite stresses for a family, those who generally coped successfully before the onset of the illness continued to adapt to the new stressors. The 13 intact families in the study were coping well. The children accepted the additional responsibilities and loss of independence without apparent resentment. The children appeared to be positively and negatively affected by the parental illness. However, they appeared to be developing relatively normally, and should not be considered a problem population, but one in need of support

0+ states in the large boson number limit of the Interacting Boson Approximation model

Studies of the Interacting Boson Approximation (IBA) model for large boson numbers have been triggered by the discovery of shape/phase transitions between different limiting symmetries of the model. These transitions become sharper in the large boson number limit, revealing previously unnoticed regularities, which also survive to a large extent for finite boson numbers, corresponding to valence nucleon pairs in collective nuclei. It is shown that energies of 0_n^+ states grow linearly with their ordinal number n in all three limiting symmetries of IBA [U(5), SU(3), and O(6)]. Furthermore, it is proved that the narrow transition region separating the symmetry triangle of the IBA into a spherical and a deformed region is described quite well by the degeneracies E(0_2^+)=E(6_1^+), E(0_3^+)=E(10_1^+), E(0_4^+)=E(14_1^+), while the energy ratio E(6_1^+) /E(0_2^+) turns out to be a simple, empirical, easy-to-measure effective order parameter, distinguishing between first- and second-order transitions. The energies of 0_n^+ states near the point of the first order shape/phase transition between U(5) and SU(3) are shown to grow as n(n+3), in agreement with the rule dictated by the relevant critical point symmetries resulting in the framework of special solutions of the Bohr Hamiltonian. The underlying partial dynamical symmetries and quasi-dynamical symmetries are also discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 4 postscript figures, LaTeX. To appear in the Proceedings of the International Conference on Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics: From Stable Beams to Exotic Nuclei (Cappadocia, 2008

The stress-strain characteristics of uranium

Tests were made in reversed loading and in repeated tensile loading on thirteen specimens of rolled, alpha-uranium at room temperature. Constant strain rates ranging from 0.0003 in./in./min. to 0.0060 in./in./min. were employed

Unified description of 0+ states in a large class of nuclear collective models

A remarkably simple regularity in the energies of 0+ states in a broad class of collective models is discussed. A single formula for all 0+ states in flat-bottomed infinite potentials that depends only on the number of dimensions and a simpler expression applicable to all three IBA symmetries in the large boson number limit are presented. Finally, a connection between the energy expression for 0+ states given by the X(5) model and the predictions of the IBA near the critical point is explored.Comment: 4 pages, 3 postscript figures, uses revTe

Connecting the X(5)-β2\beta^2, X(5)-β4\beta^4, and X(3) models to the shape/phase transition region of the interacting boson model

The parameter independent (up to overall scale factors) predictions of the X(5)-$\beta^2$, X(5)-$\beta^4$, and X(3) models, which are variants of the X(5) critical point symmetry developed within the framework of the geometric collective model, are compared to two-parameter calculations in the framework of the interacting boson approximation (IBA) model. The results show that these geometric models coincide with IBA parameters consistent with the phase/shape transition region of the IBA for boson numbers of physical interest (close to 10). Nuclei within the rare-earth region and select Os and Pt isotopes are identified as good examples of X(3), X(5)-$\beta^2$, and X(5)-$\beta^4$ behavior

SU(3) quasidynamical symmetry underlying the Alhassid--Whelan arc of regularity

The first example of an empirically manifested quasi dynamical symmetry trajectory in the interior of the symmetry triangle of the Interacting Boson Approximation model is identified for large boson numbers. Along this curve, extending from SU(3) to near the critical line of the first order phase transition, spectra exhibit nearly the same degeneracies that characterize the low energy levels of SU(3). This trajectory also lies close to the Alhassid-Whelan arc of regularity, the unique interior region of regular behavior connecting the SU(3) and U(5) vertices, thus offering a possible symmetry-based interpretation of that narrow zone of regularity amidst regions of more chaotic spectra.Comment: 4 pages, LaTeX, 5 eps figure