Open Science @ UNIBO: il servizio di supporto a rete per le comunità di ricerca

Le forti spinte globali a favore dell’Open Access (OA) e dell’Open Science (OS) hanno sollecitato i sistemi bibliotecari delle università a rivedere servizi e competenze in funzione dei nuovi bisogni delle loro comunità di riferimento. Il Sistema Bibliotecario dell’Università di Bologna ha risposto a questi stimoli definendo un modello a rete a supporto dell’Open Access avviato sperimentalmente nella seconda metà del 2018. L’obiettivo strategico condiviso e co-gestito dall’intera comunità accademica è la promozione di prassi che consentano il libero accesso e il riuso delle pubblicazioni e dei dati della ricerca scientifica. Il servizio si struttura come una rete decentrata di punti di supporto collocati nelle biblioteche con il coordinamento centrale a cura della Biblioteca Digitale di Ateneo, AlmaDL. AlmaDL si occupa della formazione dei bibliotecari del servizio di supporto, fornisce loro assistenza specialistica anche in materia di diritto d’autore, coordina, monitora e sostiene il servizio con personale dedicato, oltre a offrire assistenza per la gestione FAIR dei dati di ricerca nel data repository di Ateneo e a garantire il raccordo istituzionale partecipando al Gruppo di lavoro Open Science di Ateneo. I punti di servizio offrono alle loro comunità scientifiche consulenza e orientamento, validano le pubblicazioni scientifiche depositate nel repository istituzionale, organizzano campagne di sensibilizzazione e rispondono alle esigenze specifiche delle comunità scientifiche. Ad oggi i bibliotecari coinvolti nel servizio sono 61; quasi 24.000 le pubblicazioni in OA e oltre 200 i dataset depositati nei repository istituzionali; 4830 le consulenze e 178 ore di formazione a cui hanno partecipato 1307 utenti. Il modello adottato ha presentato numerosi vantaggi rivelandosi sostenibile e attento alle specificità dei diversi ambiti disciplinari. Inoltre il continuo scambio di informazioni tra i nodi della rete permette lo sviluppo delle competenze e delle conoscenze in una continua ridefinizione del modello organizzativo e dei contenuti del servizio

The Therapist’s Intuition and Responsiveness: What Makes the Difference between Expert and in Training Gestalt Psychotherapists

This study aims to investigate the presence of intuition and responsiveness in early students and in experienced students and psychotherapists, which is understood as the ability to integrate bodily sensitivity and cognition of what is experienced with the patient (aesthetic relational knowing—ARK). The study compares how the therapist’s felt sense of the phenomenological intersubjective field and aesthetic relational competence differs between a group of experienced students and psychotherapists and a group of beginners. The sample consisted of 128 participants (20 M; 108 F), finally divided into two groups: “experienced students and psychotherapists” and “beginners”. The Aesthetic Relational Knowledge Scale (ARKS), a questionnaire consisting of 58 items targeting three factors (empathy, body awareness, and resonance), was administered. Statistical analyses were conducted to assess (i) differences between the two groups (through Student’s t and Cohen’s d for effect sizes), (ii) the influence of the level of training for each ARK factor using analyses of covariance for testing the possible influence of demographic variables, and (iii) logistic regressions to compare the influence of the three factors of the ARK model on the group variable with groups as a categorical variable. Significant differences between the two groups were found in body awareness and resonance. Body awareness was found to be the variable best discriminating between the beginners and the experienced students and psychotherapists. Despite being non-significant, there is a tendency suggesting that empathy appears more relevant at the beginning of training. The study shows the importance of training for the development of the therapist’s intuition and responsiveness, especially in the factors of body awareness and resonance. The results indicate the importance of assessing and supporting the aesthetic and field resonance of therapists in training, increasing quality and depth of the therapist’s responsiveness. This study is limited by a correlational design using self-report and on a limited sample, but it shows that the ARKS can monitor the effectiveness of training related to Gestalt therapeutic competencies

The Emotional Personality of Psychotherapists: A Pilot Research with Gestalt-Therapy Clinicians

Since the discovery of “countertransference”, it was recognized that the therapist’s personality plays an important role in determining the course of psychotherapy. However, systematic empirical works on this topic have been sparse compared to the enormous amount of theoretical literature. Therefore, in the following pilot study, the emotional profile of psychotherapists was investigated using the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS), a quantitative measure of the basic emotional foundations of human personality based on Jaak Panksepp’s neuro-ethological studies. More specifically, we submitted the ANPS to a population of Gestalt-therapists to ascertain if they share a characteristic emotional profile (1) and if the emotional traits of personality are related to specific intersubjective competences (2). Our results show that, compared with normal population, the personality of therapists is characterized by higher expression of PLAYFULNESS/joy, CARE/nurturance and Spirituality, as well as a significant decrease in the expression of the RAGE/anger disposition. Such emotional traits, that are not influenced by the experience of training, correlate with important relational skills such as empathy, reflective functioning and interoceptive awareness. Therefore, unlearned emotional dispositions have high relevance in the development of the therapist’s sensitivity to the phenomenological intersubjective field, a competence recently called “Aesthetic Relational Knowledge” in a contemporary Gestalt-approach. Our findings may have implications for training therapists and optimizing treatment outcomes

Gel pillow designed specifically for obstructive sleep apnea treatment with continuous positive airway pressure

ABSTRACT Objective: To determine whether the use of a gel pillow with side cutouts designed to accommodate a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) mask and reduce head temperature improves the efficacy of and adherence to auto-CPAP therapy. Methods: Twenty-three consecutive CPAP-naïve patients with obstructive sleep apnea were enrolled in the study. Patients were given an auto-CPAP machine with an appropriate CPAP mask and were instructed to use CPAP for 15 nights. They were instructed to sleep with their own pillow (the control pillow) from nights 1 to 5 and with either a foam pillow or a gel pillow, both of which had side cutouts, for 5 consecutive nights each, in random order. After night 15, auto-CPAP machine data were downloaded and patients rated their satisfaction with each pillow on a visual analog scale. Results: Twenty-two patients completed the protocol. The pressures administered, residual apnea-hypopnea index, air leaks, and mean duration of CPAP use did not differ among the periods during which each pillow was used. Patients were significantly more satisfied with the gel pillow than with the control pillow and the foam pillow (p = 0.022 and p = 0.004, respectively), their level of satisfaction with the gel pillow correlating significantly with excessive daytime sleepiness (r2 = 0.19; p = 0.0443). Conclusions: Among obstructive sleep apnea patients treated with nasal CPAP, the use of a gel pillow with side cutouts appears to have no impact on treatment effectiveness. Nevertheless, such patients seem to prefer a gel pillow over other types of pillows

A tool to observe the phenomenology and aesthetics of primary relationships: the “dance steps” of reciprocity between caregivers and infant/child – Pilot validity study

This study addresses the complexity of caregiver-infant/child interactions from the theoretical frame of Gestalt psychotherapy and the field of application of Pediatric Psychology. Based on a previous empirical study on the process of reciprocity in caregiver-infant/child interactions (Spagnuolo Lobb, 2016), the authors have worked on the construction of an observational tool to look at the co-creation of meaningful experiences, switching the focus from the child to the “dance” of reciprocity between caregiver and infant/child. Considering the contextualization in the field of Pediatric Psychology, this pilot study aimed to test the tool’s application with caregiverpreterm infant dyads, but exclusively referring to moderately preterm birth condition and with lack of disability or in any case serious evolutionary compromises. The study measured: 1. the content/construct validity of the tool, 2. its internal reliability, 3. its “sensitivity” to grasp the changing of the relational “dance” in the transition from one developmental step of the infant to another, regarding the times considered (between 6-9-12 months of corrected age), 4. co-occurrences between the behavioral flows of the infant-caregiver dyad in the 3 developmental stages considered. 32 expert psychotherapists were involved in measuring the instrument’s validity, and 13 caregiver-infant dyads were observed in their interactions at 6-9-12 months of corrected age of the infant. This pilot study promises to define – both for preventative and psychotherapeutic interventions – specific parental competencies for the infant’s neurodevelopment in the first year of lif