The effect of a career choice guidance on self-reported psychological problems

We investigated whether a successful career choice intervention reduces psychological problems, and whether this program was equally effective in participants with low and with high levels of psychological problems. Participants were 45 Dutch students (age 17-24) with career choice problems. They had above average levels of psychological problems before the start of the intervention. These problems decreased significantly following the intervention. With regard to vocational commitment development, the intervention was equally effective for participants with low or average and with (very) high levels of psychological problems before the start of the intervention

A Heuristic Framework for Next-Generation Models of Geostrophic Convective Turbulence

Many geophysical and astrophysical phenomena are driven by turbulent fluid dynamics, containing behaviors separated by tens of orders of magnitude in scale. While direct simulations have made large strides toward understanding geophysical systems, such models still inhabit modest ranges of the governing parameters that are difficult to extrapolate to planetary settings. The canonical problem of rotating Rayleigh-B\'enard convection provides an alternate approach - isolating the fundamental physics in a reduced setting. Theoretical studies and asymptotically-reduced simulations in rotating convection have unveiled a variety of flow behaviors likely relevant to natural systems, but still inaccessible to direct simulation. In lieu of this, several new large-scale rotating convection devices have been designed to characterize such behaviors. It is essential to predict how this potential influx of new data will mesh with existing results. Surprisingly, a coherent framework of predictions for extreme rotating convection has not yet been elucidated. In this study, we combine asymptotic predictions, laboratory and numerical results, and experimental constraints to build a heuristic framework for cross-comparison between a broad range of rotating convection studies. We categorize the diverse field of existing predictions in the context of asymptotic flow regimes. We then consider the physical constraints that determine the points of intersection between flow behavior predictions and experimental accessibility. Applying this framework to several upcoming devices demonstrates that laboratory studies may soon be able to characterize geophysically-relevant flow regimes. These new data may transform our understanding of geophysical and astrophysical turbulence, and the conceptual framework developed herein should provide the theoretical infrastructure needed for meaningful discussion of these results.Comment: 36 pages, 8 figures. CHANGES: in revision at Geophysical and Astrophysical Fluid Dynamic

Comparison of subjective grading of lid wiper epitheliopathy with a semi-objective method

Purpose: To validate a semi-objective method of grading lid wiper epitheliopathy (LWE) compared to subjective assessment. Methods: Twenty upper and 20 lower eyelid margins of patients with LWE were photographed after instillation of fluorescein and lissamine green. The images were graded by two observers using a 0-3 grading scale for height (%) and width (mm) of the lid staining. The images were also processed using custom designed software in MATLAB. After manual delineation of the staining area, width and perpendicular height were automatically measured throughout the selected area. The height as a proportion of the lid margin width and width measures were then categorized into the same bins as in the grading scale. Results: Repeatability of the image analysis system showed a mean difference (95% limits of agreement) between repeats of -0.01mm (0.03 and -0.05mm) for LWE height, 0.04mm (1.16 and -1.08mm) for LWE width, and -0.11mm2 (0.32 and -0.53mm2) for LWE area. The mean difference (95% limits of agreement) between image analysis and human grading for LWE height was -0.84 grades (0.54 and -2.21 grades), for LWE width was 0.31 grades (1.22 and -0.59 grades), and for the final grade (mean height and width) was -0.26 (0.44 and -0.96 grades) (all p <0.001). Conclusion: Human observers tend to overestimate the height and underestimate the width of LWE staining. Lid wiper region is not well defined, thus, it might be a difficult process for human observers to judge the stained region as a proportion of the lid wiper total region

A quantitative Dynamic Systems model of Health Related Quality of Life among older adults

Mattia Roppolo,1,2 E Saskia Kunnen,2 Paul L van Geert,2 Anna Mulasso,1 Emanuela Rabaglietti1 1Department of Psychology, University of Torino, Torino, Italy; 2Department of Developmental Psychology, Rijksuniversiteit of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands Abstract: Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is a person-centered concept. The analysis of HRQOL is highly relevant in the aged population, which is generally suffering from health decline. Starting from a conceptual dynamic systems model that describes the development of HRQOL in individuals over time, this study aims to develop and test a quantitative dynamic systems model, in order to reveal the possible dynamic trends of HRQOL among older adults. The model is tested in different ways: first, with a calibration procedure to test whether the model produces theoretically plausible results, and second, with a preliminary validation procedure using empirical data of 194 older adults. This first validation tested the prediction that given a particular starting point (first empirical data point), the model will generate dynamic trajectories that lead to the observed endpoint (second empirical data point). The analyses reveal that the quantitative model produces theoretically plausible trajectories, thus providing support for the calibration procedure. Furthermore, the analyses of validation show a good fit between empirical and simulated data. In fact, no differences were found in the comparison between empirical and simulated final data for the same subgroup of participants, whereas the comparison between different subgroups of people resulted in significant differences. These data provide an initial basis of evidence for the dynamic nature of HRQOL during the aging process. Therefore, these data may give new theoretical and applied insights into the study of HRQOL and its development with time in the aging population. Keywords: older adults, dynamic systems model, nonlinear equations, simulated trajectories, validatio

Saturation of front propagation in a reaction-diffusion process describing plasma damage in porous low-k materials

We propose a three-component reaction-diffusion system yielding an asymptotic logarithmic time-dependence for a moving interface. This is naturally related to a Stefan-problem for which both one-sided Dirichlet-type and von Neumann-type boundary conditions are considered. We integrate the dependence of the interface motion on diffusion and reaction parameters and we observe a change from transport behavior and interface motion \sim t^1/2 to logarithmic behavior \sim ln t as a function of time. We apply our theoretical findings to the propagation of carbon depletion in porous dielectrics exposed to a low temperature plasma. This diffusion saturation is reached after about 1 minute in typical experimental situations of plasma damage in microelectronic fabrication. We predict the general dependencies on porosity and reaction rates.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Laboratory Exploration of Heat Transfer Regimes in Rapidly Rotating Turbulent Convection

We report heat transfer and temperature profile measurements in laboratory experiments of rapidly rotating convection in water under intense thermal forcing (Rayleigh number $Ra$ as high as $\sim 10^{13}$) and unprecedentedly strong rotational influence (Ekman numbers $E$ as low as $10^{-8}$). Measurements of the mid-height vertical temperature gradient connect quantitatively to predictions from numerical models of asymptotically rapidly rotating convection, separating various flow phenomenologies. Past the limit of validity of the asymptotically-reduced models, we find novel behaviors in a regime we refer to as rotationally-influenced turbulence, where rotation is important but not as dominant as in the known geostrophic turbulence regime. The temperature gradients collapse to a Rayleigh-number scaling as $Ra^{-0.2}$ in this new regime. It is bounded from above by a critical convective Rossby number $Ro^*=0.06$ independent of domain aspect ratio $\Gamma$, clearly distinguishing it from well-studied rotation-affected convection.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure