Dialogical self strategies of self-organization: psychotherapy and restructuring of internal management

A identidade tem sido um conceito central na literatura em psicologia e na forma como as diferentes abordagens terapêuticas têm concebido os processos de mudança. Entre as inúmeras perspectivas desenvolvidas sobre essa dimensão do ser humano, destacamos o paradigma dialógico que tem vindo a influenciar de forma crescente a teoria e prática em psicoterapia. Segundo esta perspectiva, a funcionalidade psicológica está relacionada com o modo como os indivíduos conseguem articular e colocar em diálogo produtivo as suas várias vozes ou posições de identidade. Neste artigo apresentamos uma revisão da literatura sobre as estratégias que subjazem a essa capacidade auto-organizadora do sistema identitário e sobre as diretrizes que poderão orientar uma intervenção terapêutica dialógica quando essa capacidade se torna disfuncional.Self-concept has been playing a crucial role in psychological literature and in the way the different therapeutic approaches conceive the processes of change. From the diverse perspectives developed about this human dimension, we emphasise the dialogical paradigm that has been increasingly influential in the psychotherapeutic theory and practice. According to the dialogical perspective the psychological well-being is dependent on the way individuals articulate and maintain productive dialogues between the different voices of the self or “I-Positions”. In this paper we present a review of the literature on the strategies that underlie this self-regulatory ability of the self-system and the guidelines of the dialogical therapeutic intervention that could be used when these self-regulatory strategies become dysfunctional.(undefined

Triple minima in free energy of semiflexible polymers

We study the free energy of the worm-like-chain model, in the constant-extension ensemble, as a function of the stiffness for finite chains of length L. We find that the polymer properties obtained in this ensemble are "qualitatively" different from those obtained using constant-force ensembles. In particular we find that as we change the stiffness parameter, the polymer makes a transition from the flexible to the rigid phase and there is an intermediate regime of parameter values where the free energy has three minima and both phases are stable. This leads to interesting features in the force-extension curves.Comment: Published version, 4 pages, 5 figures, revte

Olfactomedin 4 Serves as a Marker for Disease Severity in Pediatric Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Infection

Funding: Statement of financial support: The study was financially supported by the VIRGO consortium, an Innovative Cluster approved by the Netherlands Genomics Initiative and partially funded by the Dutch Government (BSIK 03012). The authors have indicated they have no personal financial relationships relevant to this article to disclose. Data Availability Statement: The data is accessible at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE69606.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Humoral immune response to influenza vaccination in patients with primary immunoglobulin A nephropathy. An analysis of isotype distribution and size of the influenza-specific antibodies.

Primary IgA nephropathy (IgAN) is characterized by mesangial deposits of IgA1, increased serum IgA1 levels, and circulating immune complexes containing predominantly IgA1. It has previously been found that patients with IgAN have a higher than normal IgA response to vaccination, but the IgA subclasses have not been studied. To investigate whether the IgA hyperresponsiveness is limited to the subclass IgA1, which is involved in the pathogenesis of IgAN, we compared the immune responses of 18 patients with 22 healthy controls after intramuscular vaccination with inactivated influenza virus. Antibody titers were significantly higher (P less than 0.0001) for the IgA1 subclass in patients versus controls, but not for the other isotypes. A substantial portion of the IgA and IgA1 antiinfluenza immune response comprised polymers in both patients and controls. There was no preferential response of polymers in patients. Patients produced significantly more monomeric IgA1 antibodies than controls. These results show that patients with IgAN have a hyperresponsiveness limited to the subclass IgA1 and mainly expressed by an excess of monomers

Price-based control of ancillary services for power balancing

A reliable and an efficient power system is a necessity for any industrialized society. Governments have to enforce regulations to guarantee that such a power system, in spite of many competing stakeholders, participants, companies, and regulating agencies can be operational. This paper analyzes the present arrangements and the future requirements to be posed on incentives and regulation for ancillary services (AS) for power balancing. The paper proposes companies to assess their own needs for AS. A two-sided market for AS is being described to replace the existing arrangements for secondary control. The proposed solution guarantees a reliable and efficient operation of power systems in a market environment with responsive, reliable, and accountable but also competing prosumers, a large penetration of less-predictable renewables and continent-spanning transmission networks

Reservoir Computing Approach to Robust Computation using Unreliable Nanoscale Networks

As we approach the physical limits of CMOS technology, advances in materials science and nanotechnology are making available a variety of unconventional computing substrates that can potentially replace top-down-designed silicon-based computing devices. Inherent stochasticity in the fabrication process and nanometer scale of these substrates inevitably lead to design variations, defects, faults, and noise in the resulting devices. A key challenge is how to harness such devices to perform robust computation. We propose reservoir computing as a solution. In reservoir computing, computation takes place by translating the dynamics of an excited medium, called a reservoir, into a desired output. This approach eliminates the need for external control and redundancy, and the programming is done using a closed-form regression problem on the output, which also allows concurrent programming using a single device. Using a theoretical model, we show that both regular and irregular reservoirs are intrinsically robust to structural noise as they perform computation

The prognostic value of the hypoxia markers CA IX and GLUT 1 and the cytokines VEGF and IL 6 in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma treated by radiotherapy ± chemotherapy

BACKGROUND: Several parameters of the tumor microenvironment, such as hypoxia, inflammation and angiogenesis, play a critical role in tumor aggressiveness and treatment response. A major question remains if these markers can be used to stratify patients to certain treatment protocols. The purpose of this study was to investigate the inter-relationship and the prognostic significance of several biological and clinicopathological parameters in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) treated by radiotherapy ± chemotherapy. METHODS: We used two subgroups of a retrospective series for which CT-determined tumoral perfusion correlated with local control. In the first subgroup (n = 67), immunohistochemistry for carbonic anhydrase IX (CA IX) and glucose transporter-1 (GLUT-1) was performed on the pretreatment tumor biopsy. In the second subgroup (n = 34), enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to determine pretreatment levels of the cytokines vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in serum. Correlation was investigated between tumoral perfusion and each of these biological markers, as well as between the markers mutually. The prognostic value of these microenvironmental parameters was also evaluated. RESULTS: For CA IX and GLUT-1, the combined assessment of patients with both markers expressed above the median showed an independent correlation with local control (p = 0.02) and disease-free survival (p = 0.04) with a trend for regional control (p = 0.06). In the second subgroup, IL-6 pretreatment serum level above the median was the only independent predictor of local control (p = 0.009), disease-free survival (p = 0.02) and overall survival (p = 0.005). CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, we are the first to report a link in HNSCC between IL-6 pretreatment serum levels and radioresistance in vivo. This link is supported by the strong prognostic association of pretreatment IL-6 with local control, known to be the most important parameter to judge radiotherapy responses. Furthermore, the combined assessment of CA IX and GLUT-1 correlated independently with prognosis. This is a valuable indication that a combined approach is important in the investigation of prognostic markers

Nonuniversal Effects in the Homogeneous Bose Gas

Effective field theory predicts that the leading nonuniversal effects in the homogeneous Bose gas arise from the effective range for S-wave scattering and from an effective three-body contact interaction. We calculate the leading nonuniversal contributions to the energy density and condensate fraction and compare the predictions with results from diffusion Monte Carlo calculations by Giorgini, Boronat, and Casulleras. We give a crude determination of the strength of the three-body contact interaction for various model potentials. Accurate determinations could be obtained from diffusion Monte Carlo calculations of the energy density with higher statistics.Comment: 24 pages, RevTex, 5 ps figures, included with epsf.te

Expression of oncoproteins and the amount of eosinophilic and lymphocytic infiltrates can be used as prognostic factors in gastric cancer. Dutch Gastric Cancer Group (DGCG).

Preoperative staging of gastric cancer is difficult. Several molecular markers associated with initiation and progression of cancer seem promising for obtaining preoperative prognostic information. To investigate whether these markers are indicative especially for the presence of lymph node metastases in patients with gastric cancer, we have examined primary tumour specimens from 105 patients with primary adenocarcinoma of the stomach entered in a surgical trial. In this trial, lymph node status was determined by strictly quality-controlled lymph node dissection and examination. The selected markers were growth regulators (p53, Rb and myc), metastasis-suppressor gene product (nm23), adhesion molecules (Ep-CAM, E-cadherin, CD44v5 and CD44v6) and urokinase-type plasminogen activator (u-PA). Also, the amount of eosinophilic and lymphocytic infiltrates available post-operatively was analysed with respect to its prognostic value for lymph node status. Moreover, the association of these parameters with survival and disease-free period (DFP) was evaluated. Of all molecular markers investigated, only Rb expression had a significant association with the presence of lymph node metastasis in both univariate and multivariate analysis. For curative resectability, a significant association was found with Rb and E-cadherin expression, while in multivariate analysis Rb and myc were selected as the combination with additional independent prognostic value, and E-cadherin had no additional independent value. For overall survival in univariate analysis, the amount of both eosinophilic and lymphocytic infiltrates and Rb and myc expression were of significant prognostic value. Only the amount of lymphocytic infiltrate had a prognostic significance for DFP. In stepwise multivariate analysis, TNM stage (I + II) and marked lymphocytic infiltrate were associated with better overall survival and longer DFP. We conclude that, if these results are confirmed in a larger series of patients, molecular markers can provide useful prognostic information