Ambivalence in emotion-focused therapy for depression: the maintenance of problematically dominant self-narratives

Objective: Ambivalence can be understood as a cyclical movement between an emerging narrative novelty—an Innovative Moment (IM)—and a return to a problematically dominant self-narrative. The return implies that the IM, with its potential for change is devalued right after its emergence. Our goal is to test the hypothesis that the probability of the client expressing such form of ambivalence decreases across treatment in good-outcome cases but not in poor-outcome cases. Method: Return-to-the-Problem Markers (RPMs) signaling moments of devaluation of IMs were coded in passages containing IMs in six clients with major depression treated with emotion-focused therapy: three good-outcome cases and three poor-outcome cases. Results: The percentage of IMs with RPMs decreased across therapy in good-outcome cases, whereas it remained unchanged and high in the poor-outcome cases. Conclusions: These results were consistent with the theoretical suggestion that therapeutic failure may be associated with this form of ambivalence.Obiettivo: L'ambivalenza può essere considerata come un movimento ciclico tra un nuovo elemento narrativo emergente - Innovative Moment (IM) - e il ritorno ad una auto-narrazione problematica dominante. Il ritorno implica che il IM perde il proprio potenziale di favorire un cambiamento nel momento in cui emerge. Il nostro obiettivo è quello di verificare l'ipotesi che la probabilità che il paziente possa esprimere tale forma di ambivalenza diminuisce nel corso di un trattamento che ha un buon esito, ma non nei casi con esito negativo. Metodo: in sei pazienti affetti da depressione maggiore trattati con terapia focalizzata sulle emozioni, sono stati codificati i passaggi contenenti IM utilizzando il Return-to-the-Problem Markers (RPMs) che segnala i passaggi in cui IM vengono svalutati: tre casi con buon esito e tre con esito negativo. Risultati: La percentuale di IM con gli RPM diminuiva nel corso delle terapie dei casi con buon esito, mentre è rimasto invariato ed elevato nei casi con scarso esito. Conclusioni: Questi risultati sono coerenti con il presupposto teorico che il fallimento terapeutico possa essere associato a questa forma di ambivalenza.Objetivo: A ambivalência pode ser entendida como um movimento cíclico entre uma novidade narrativa emergente – um Momento de Inovação (MI) – e um retorno à narrativa problemática dominante. O retorno implica que o MI, com o seu potencial para a mudança, seja desvalorizado logo após a sua emergência. O nosso objetivo é testar a hipótese de que a probabilidade do cliente expressar tal forma de ambivalência diminui ao longo do tratamento em casos de sucesso mas não em casos de insucesso terapêutico. Método: Marcadores de Retorno ao Problema (MRP) que assinalam momentos de desvalorização dos MIs foram codificados em passagens contendo MIs em seis casos de clientes com depressão major tratados com terapia focada nas emoções: três casos de sucesso e três casos de insucesso. Conclusões: Estes resultados foram consistentes com as sugestões teóricas de que o insucesso terapêutico poderá estar associado a esta forma de ambivalência.Ziel: Ambivalenz kann als zyklische Bewegung zwischen einer emergenten narrativen Neuheit – einem Innovative Moment (IM) – und einer Rückkehr zu einer problematischen dominanten Selbst-Erzählung verstanden werden. Diese Rückkehr impliziert, dass der IM mit seinem Potential für Veränderung direkt nach seinem Auftauchen abgewertet wird. Unser Ziel ist die Hypothese zu testen, dass die Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass der Klient eine solche Form der Ambivalenz zeigt, bei Fällen mit gutem Therapieergebnis über die Behandlung abnimmt, aber nicht in Fällen mit schlechtem Ergebnis. Methode: Rückkehr-zu-dem-Problem Marker (RPMs), die Momente signalisieren, in denen IMs abgewertet werden, wurden in Passagen, die IMs beinhalten, von sechs Klienten mit Major Depression, die mit emotionsfokussierter Therapie behandelt wurden, kodiert: 3 Fälle mit gutem und 3 Fälle mit schlechtem Therapieergebnis. Ergebnisse: Der Prozentsatz von IMs mit RPMs verringerte sich bei Fällen mit gutem Ergebnis über die Therapie hinweg, wohingegen er in den Fällen mit schlechtem Ergebnis unverändert und hoch blieb. Schlussfolgerung: Die Ergebnisse waren mit dem theoretischen Vorschlag konsistent, dass therapeutischer Misserfolg mit dieser Form der Ambivalenz assoziiert ist.目標：矛盾可以視為是種擺盪在新產生的新穎敘說—創意時刻(IM)—和回復到一種有問題的支配性自我敘說之間的循環動作。回復意味著潛藏改變契機的IM，其價值在出現後即被摒棄。我們的目標是檢視以下假設的可能性：「在具良好成效的案例中，案主在治療歷程中表達這種形式的矛盾會降低；而在不良成效的案例中則否」。方法：在六位具有嚴重憂鬱症患者的IM段落中，找到顯示IM價值降低時刻的故態復萌標記（RPMs）並加以編碼。這六位患者均接受情緒焦點治療，其中三位為具良好成效案例，另外三位為不良成效案例。結果：在具良好成效案例中，IM當中具有RPM的比率降低；而在不良成效的案例中，RPM的比率維持不變或更高。結論：此結果與理論假設一致，即假設治療的失敗可能與這種形式的矛盾有關

Dark Energy, scalar-curvature couplings and a critical acceleration scale

We study the effects of coupling a cosmologically rolling scalar field to higher order curvature terms. We show that when the strong coupling scale of the theory is on the 10^{-3}-10^{-1}eV range, the model passes all experimental bounds on the existence of fifth forces even if the field has a mass of the order of the Hubble scale in vacuum and non-suppressed couplings to SM fields. The reason is that the coupling to certain curvature invariant acts as an effective mass that grows in regions of large curvature. This prevents the field from rolling down its potential near sources and makes its effects on fifth-force search experiments performed in the laboratory to be observable only at the sub-mm scale. We obtain the static spherically symmetric solutions of the theory and show that a long-range force appears but it is turned on only below a fixed Newtonian acceleration scale of the order of the Hubble constant. We comment on the possibility of using this feature of the model to alleviate the CDM small scale crisis and on its possible relation to MOND.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure

Thermally Induced Fluctuations Below the Onset of Rayleigh-B\'enard Convection

We report quantitative experimental results for the intensity of noise-induced fluctuations below the critical temperature difference $\Delta T_c$ for Rayleigh-B\'enard convection. The structure factor of the fluctuating convection rolls is consistent with the expected rotational invariance of the system. In agreement with predictions based on stochastic hydrodynamic equations, the fluctuation intensity is found to be proportional to $1/\sqrt{-\epsilon}$ where $\epsilon \equiv \Delta T / \Delta T_c -1$. The noise power necessary to explain the measurements agrees with the prediction for thermal noise. (WAC95-1)Comment: 13 pages of text and 4 Figures in a tar-compressed and uuencoded file (using uufiles package). Detailed instructions of unpacking are include

Functional network changes and cognitive control in schizophrenia

Cognitive control is a cognitive and neural mechanism that contributes to managing the complex demands of day-to-day life. Studies have suggested that functional impairments in cognitive control associated brain circuitry contribute to a broad range of higher cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. To examine this issue, we assessed functional connectivity networks in healthy adults and individuals with schizophrenia performing tasks from two distinct cognitive domains that varied in demands for cognitive control, the RiSE episodic memory task and DPX goal maintenance task. We characterized general and cognitive control-specific effects of schizophrenia on functional connectivity within an expanded frontal parietal network (FPN) and quantified network topology properties using graph analysis. Using the network based statistic (NBS), we observed greater network functional connectivity in cognitive control demanding conditions during both tasks in both groups in the FPN, and demonstrated cognitive control FPN specificity against a task independent auditory network. NBS analyses also revealed widespread connectivity deficits in schizophrenia patients across all tasks. Furthermore, quantitative changes in network topology associated with diagnostic status and task demand were observed. The present findings, in an analysis that was limited to correct trials only, ensuring that subjects are on task, provide critical insights into network connections crucial for cognitive control and the manner in which brain networks reorganize to support such control. Impairments in this mechanism are present in schizophrenia and these results highlight how cognitive control deficits contribute to the pathophysiology of this illness

The spacetime structure of MOND with Tully-Fisher relation and Lorentz invariance violation

It is believed that the modification of Newtonian dynamics (MOND) is possible alternate for dark matter hypothesis. Although Bekenstein's TeVeS supplies a relativistic version of MOND, one may still wish a more concise covariant formulism of MOND. In this paper, within covariant geometrical framwork, we present another version of MOND. We show the spacetime structure of MOND with properties of Tully-Fisher relation and Lorentz invariance violation.Comment: 6 pages. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1111.1383 and arXiv:1108.344

Spin states of the first four holes in a silicon nanowire quantum dot

We report measurements on a silicon nanowire quantum dot with a clarity that allows for a complete understanding of the spin states of the first four holes. First, we show control of the hole number down to one. Detailed measurements at perpendicular magnetic fields reveal the Zeeman splitting of a single hole in silicon. We are able to determine the ground-state spin configuration for one to four holes occupying the quantum dot and find a spin filling with alternating spin-down and spin-up holes, which is confirmed by magnetospectroscopy up to 9T. Additionally, a so far inexplicable feature in single-charge quantum dots in many materials systems is analyzed in detail. We observe excitations of the zero-hole ground-state energy of the quantum dot, which cannot correspond to electronic or Zeeman states. We show that the most likely explanation is acoustic phonon emission to a cavity between the two contacts to the nanowire.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures, both including supporting informatio

Substructure lensing in galaxy clusters as a constraint on low-mass sterile neutrinos in tensor-vector-scalar theory: The straight arc of Abell 2390

Certain covariant theories of the modified Newtonian dynamics paradigm seem to require an additional hot dark matter (HDM) component - in the form of either heavy ordinary neutrinos or more recently light sterile neutrinos (SNs) with a mass around 11eV - to be relieved of problems ranging from cosmological scales down to intermediate ones relevant for galaxy clusters. Here we suggest using gravitational lensing by galaxy clusters to test such a marriage of neutrino HDM and modified gravity, adopting the framework of tensor-vector-scalar theory (TeVeS). Unlike conventional cold dark matter (CDM), such HDM is subject to strong phase-space constraints, which allows one to check cluster lens models inferred within the modified framework for consistency. Since the considered HDM particles cannot collapse into arbitrarily dense clumps and only form structures well above the galactic scale, systems which indicate the need for dark substructure are of particular interest. As a first example, we study the cluster lens Abell 2390 and its impressive straight arc with the help of numerical simulations. Based on our results, we outline a general and systematic approach to model cluster lenses in TeVeS which significantly reduces the calculation complexity. We further consider a simple bimodal lens configuration, capable of producing the straight arc, to demonstrate our approach. We find that such a model is marginally consistent with the hypothesis of 11eV SNs. Future work including more detailed and realistic lens models may further constrain the necessary SN distribution and help to conclusively assess this point. Cluster lenses could therefore provide an interesting discriminator between CDM and such modified gravity scenarios supplemented by SNs or other choices of HDM.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures, 2 tables; minor changes to match accepted versio

State-of-the-art in product service-systems

A Product Service-System (PSS) is an integrated combination of products and services. This western concept embraces a service-led competitive strategy, environmental sustainability, and the basis to differentiate from competitors who simply offer lower priced products. This paper aims to report the state-of-the-art of PSS research by presenting a clinical review of literature currently available on this topic. The literature is classified and the major outcomes of each study are addressed and analysed. On this basis, this paper defines the PSS concept, reports on its origin and features, gives examples of applications along with potential benefits and barriers to adoption, summarises available tools and methodologies, and identifies future research challenges

Sustainability appraisal: Jack of all trades, master of none?

Sustainable development is a commonly quoted goal for decision making and supports a large number of other discourses. Sustainability appraisal has a stated goal of supporting decision making for sustainable development. We suggest that the inherent flexibility of sustainability appraisal facilitates outcomes that often do not adhere to the three goals enshrined in most definitions of sustainable development: economic growth, environmental protection and enhancement, and the wellbeing of the human population. Current practice is for sustainable development to be disenfranchised through the interpretation of sustainability, whereby the best alternative is good enough even when unsustainable. Practitioners must carefully and transparently review the frameworks applied during sustainability appraisal to ensure that outcomes will meet the three goals, rather than focusing on a discourse that emphasises one or more goals at the expense of the other(s)