Balint Groups as a Driving Force of Ego Development

This paper gives an overview of one of the main components in the process of Balint groups. The paper is based on the authors\u27 research on the work of Balint groups and the study of literature which deals with the development of ego and the role of Balint groups in the development of participants’ ego. This field is of great interest to the Balint movement and education in medicine. The special place in the discussions on the Balint method is given to the issue of benefit and the nature of influence of the Balint groups on participants. The Balint movement is of special interest for Croatia since it was perhaps among the first in the world to introduce Balint seminars as an official part of education of family doctors. The Croatian Society of Balint Groups as early as in 1970\u27s became a part of the International Federation of Balint Groups. Professor Betlheim was Michael Balint\u27s friend and his followers introduced the method not only in medicine but also in other professions: social work, pedagogy, psychology, sociology etc. The Balint’s method is also very interesting and useful to stomatologists, orthopedists and physiotherapists. Croatian dentists joined the Balint Groups in 1983 and orthopaedists in 1987. These were the unique cases in the European context. The Balint groups are very efficient and necessary in the process of strenghtening ego and selfawarness of these professionals. The paper also discusses the increase of the doctor\u27s self-awareness and selfconsciousness during the process of training in the Balint Groups. The Balint Groups only insist on the doctor-patient relationship and do not interfere with the unconscious of the doctor’s preoccupations. The approach of Enid Balint strives to find harmony between the Balint’s approach and the psychoanalytic approach to the object of the research. According to her understanding, the development of the group atmosphere is similar to the one in the family. The authors reach a similar conclusion in their research

Balint Groups as a Driving Force of Ego Development

This paper gives an overview of one of the main components in the process of Balint groups. The paper is based on the authors\u27 research on the work of Balint groups and the study of literature which deals with the development of ego and the role of Balint groups in the development of participants’ ego. This field is of great interest to the Balint movement and education in medicine. The special place in the discussions on the Balint method is given to the issue of benefit and the nature of influence of the Balint groups on participants. The Balint movement is of special interest for Croatia since it was perhaps among the first in the world to introduce Balint seminars as an official part of education of family doctors. The Croatian Society of Balint Groups as early as in 1970\u27s became a part of the International Federation of Balint Groups. Professor Betlheim was Michael Balint\u27s friend and his followers introduced the method not only in medicine but also in other professions: social work, pedagogy, psychology, sociology etc. The Balint’s method is also very interesting and useful to stomatologists, orthopedists and physiotherapists. Croatian dentists joined the Balint Groups in 1983 and orthopaedists in 1987. These were the unique cases in the European context. The Balint groups are very efficient and necessary in the process of strenghtening ego and selfawarness of these professionals. The paper also discusses the increase of the doctor\u27s self-awareness and selfconsciousness during the process of training in the Balint Groups. The Balint Groups only insist on the doctor-patient relationship and do not interfere with the unconscious of the doctor’s preoccupations. The approach of Enid Balint strives to find harmony between the Balint’s approach and the psychoanalytic approach to the object of the research. According to her understanding, the development of the group atmosphere is similar to the one in the family. The authors reach a similar conclusion in their research

Health Status as Geneologic Burden in Aging Process

Knowledge of modern molecular biology is leading to the idea that aging and diseases of the aged are two different entities. Healthy life is relatively limited by the specific number of chronic conditions which are present more in old age. Up to now the idea of aging as a process in relation to the individual, organ, tissue, cell or a molecule. There are only few studies on the influence of aging within a single family and even less of aging within several generations of the same family. Genealogic level is one way of getting into the process of family system and aging throughout time. The aim of the study was to determine the significance of genealogical burden with regard to the health status in examinees with different cognitive capabilities. The difference according to sex and age was not significant between the two groups. Health status of the examinees proband in both groups showed 34.4% healthy examinees in the group D and 65.3% in group G. The difference between the two groups was statistically significant. The difference of health status of parents (II. generation) was statistically significant in both groups. Morbidity of diseases was not statistically significant. Most of the ancestors from the grandmothers and grandfathers (III generation) died. (group G–97.5%, group D–100%). Statistically significant difference is present among the diseases of the circulatory system and those of digestive system in this generation. Data on the ancestors of the IV. generation showed that all the relatives died in both groups. Conclusion: the health status of the examinees with higher impairment in the test of cognitive capabilities is worse and they come from the families with worse health status

Automatic model-based telluric correction for the ESPRESSO data reduction software. Model description and application to radial velocity computation

Ground-based high-resolution spectrographs are key instruments for several astrophysical domains. Unfortunately, the observed spectra are contaminated by the Earth's atmosphere. While different techniques exist to correct for telluric lines in exoplanet atmospheric studies, in radial velocity (RV) studies, telluric lines with an absorption depth of >2% are generally masked, which poses a problem for faint targets and M dwarfs as most of their RV content is present where telluric contamination is important. We propose a simple telluric model to be embedded in the ESPRESSO DRS. The goal is to provide telluric-free spectra and enable RV measurements, including spectral ranges where telluric lines fall. The model is a line-by-line radiative transfer code that assumes a single atmospheric layer. We use the sky conditions and the physical properties of the lines from HITRAN to create the telluric spectrum. A subset of selected telluric lines is used to robustly fit the spectrum through a Levenberg-Marquardt minimization algorithm. When applied to stellar spectra from A0- to M5-type stars, the residuals of the strongest H2O lines are below 2% for all spectral types, with the exception of M dwarfs, which are within the pseudo-continuum. We then determined the RVs from the telluric-corrected ESPRESSO spectra of Tau Ceti and Proxima. We created telluric-free masks and compared the obtained RVs with the DRS RVs. In the case of Tau Ceti, we identified that micro-telluric lines introduce systematics up to an amplitude of 58 cm/s and with a period of one year. For Proxima, the gain in spectral content at redder wavelengths is equivalent to a gain of 25% in photon noise. This leads to better constraints on the semi-amplitude and eccentricity of Proxima d. We showcase that our model can be applied to other molecules, and thus to other wavelength regions observed by other spectrographs, such as NIRPS.Comment: 18 pages, 18 figures, accepted to A&

Colloquium: Statistical mechanics of money, wealth, and income

This Colloquium reviews statistical models for money, wealth, and income distributions developed in the econophysics literature since the late 1990s. By analogy with the Boltzmann-Gibbs distribution of energy in physics, it is shown that the probability distribution of money is exponential for certain classes of models with interacting economic agents. Alternative scenarios are also reviewed. Data analysis of the empirical distributions of wealth and income reveals a two-class distribution. The majority of the population belongs to the lower class, characterized by the exponential ("thermal") distribution, whereas a small fraction of the population in the upper class is characterized by the power-law ("superthermal") distribution. The lower part is very stable, stationary in time, whereas the upper part is highly dynamical and out of equilibrium.Comment: 24 pages, 13 figures; v.2 - minor stylistic changes and updates of references corresponding to the published versio

Cosmology intertwined: A review of the particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology associated with the cosmological tensions and anomalies

The standard Cold Dark Matter (CDM) cosmological model provides a good description of a wide range of astrophysical and cosmological data. However, there are a few big open questions that make the standard model look like an approximation to a more realistic scenario yet to be found. In this paper, we list a few important goals that need to be addressed in the next decade, taking into account the current discordances between the different cosmological probes, such as the disagreement in the value of the Hubble constant H0, the σ8–S8 tension, and other less statistically significant anomalies. While these discordances can still be in part the result of systematic errors, their persistence after several years of accurate analysis strongly hints at cracks in the standard cosmological scenario and the necessity for new physics or generalisations beyond the standard model. In this paper, we focus on the 5.0 σ tension between the Planck CMB estimate of the Hubble constant H0 and the SH0ES collaboration measurements. After showing the H0 evaluations made from different teams using different methods and geometric calibrations, we list a few interesting new physics models that could alleviate this tension and discuss how the next decade’s experiments will be crucial. Moreover, we focus on the tension of the Planck CMB data with weak lensing measurements and redshift surveys, about the value of the matter energy density m, and the amplitude or rate of the growth of structure (σ8, f σ8). We list a few interesting models proposed for alleviating this tension, and we discuss the importance of trying to fit a full array of data with a single model and not just one parameter at a time. Additionally, we present a wide range of other less discussed anomalies at a statistical significance level lower than the H0–S8 tensions which may also constitute hints towards new physics, and we discuss possible generic theoretical approaches that can collectively explain the non-standard nature of these signals. Finally, we give an overview of upgraded experiments and next-generation space missions and facilities on Earth that will be of crucial importance to address all these open questions