Pathways to inflated responsibility beliefs in adolescent obsessive-compulsive disorder: a preliminary investigation

Background: An inflated sense of responsibility is characteristic of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). No previous studies have investigated its origins. Five potential pathways to inflated responsibility beliefs have been proposed; these are tested in this study. Method: A novel measure, the Origins Questionnaire for Adolescents (OQA), was developed to assess experiences on these five pathways. Reliability of the OQA was investigated. The experiences on the five pathways to inflated responsibility beliefs of sixteen adolescents with a history of OCD were compared to sixteen adolescents with no history of OCD. Parents also reported on adolescents’ experiences on the five pathways. Results: Inter-rater reliability was high. The internal consistency of the subscales were only partly satisfactory. The groups differed on one pathway; the clinical group reported a higher sense of responsibility for significant incidents with a negative outcome prior to onset of OCD. Conclusions: An inflated sense of responsibility, in combination with the occurrence of specific incidents, might act as a vulnerability factor for development of OCD. Future research should consider how to measure the subtle effects of experiences of responsibility over the course of development

Aerial Port of the Future: Developing Paperless Operations

Air Mobility Command (AMC) is combatting manning mismatches with antiquated processes and equipment in Aerial Port operations, and has chosen to address these issues through an initiative called “Aerial Port of the Future.” This initiative is designed to understand challenges in Aerial Ports and implement technological tools, where appropriate, to aid AMC Airmen in their duties of transporting goods and personnel through military channels. Oftentimes, personnel are forced to utilize technology that may not meet their needs, and in turn may resist implementation of the imposed technology. Therefore, first, this research identifies potential technologies designed to improve Aerial Port efficiency and effectiveness. Next, through a survey of Aerial Port technicians, this study evaluates the attitudes and perceptions of personnel toward implementation and use of the selected technologies. Overall, the study provides AMC the necessary insight to increase the chances of successful implementation of “Port of the Future” technology

A review of data visualization: opportunities in manufacturing sequence management.

Data visualization now benefits from developments in technologies that offer innovative ways of presenting complex data. Potentially these have widespread application in communicating the complex information domains typical of manufacturing sequence management environments for global enterprises. In this paper the authors review the visualization functionalities, techniques and applications reported in literature, map these to manufacturing sequence information presentation requirements and identify the opportunities available and likely development paths. Current leading-edge practice in dynamic updating and communication with suppliers is not being exploited in manufacturing sequence management; it could provide significant benefits to manufacturing business. In the context of global manufacturing operations and broad-based user communities with differing needs served by common data sets, tool functionality is generally ahead of user application

Potential Capabilities of Lunar Laser Ranging for Geodesy and Relativity

Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR), which has been carried out for more than 35 years, is used to determine many parameters within the Earth-Moon system. This includes coordinates of terrestrial ranging stations and that of lunar retro-reflectors, as well as lunar orbit, gravity field, and its tidal acceleration. LLR data analysis also performs a number of gravitational physics experiments such as test of the equivalence principle, search for time variation of the gravitational constant, and determines value of several metric gravity parameters. These gravitational physics parameters cause both secular and periodic effects on the lunar orbit that are detectable with LLR. Furthermore, LLR contributes to the determination of Earth orientation parameters (EOP) such as nutation, precession (including relativistic precession), polar motion, and UT1. The corresponding LLR EOP series is three decades long. LLR can be used for the realization of both the terrestrial and selenocentric reference frames. The realization of a dynamically defined inertial reference frame, in contrast to the kinematically realized frame of VLBI, offers new possibilities for mutual cross-checking and confirmation. Finally, LLR also investigates the processes related to the Moon's interior dynamics. Here, we review the LLR technique focusing on its impact on Geodesy and Relativity. We discuss the modern observational accuracy and the level of existing LLR modeling. We present the near-term objectives and emphasize improvements needed to fully utilize the scientific potential of LLR.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables. Talk given at `Dynamic Planet 2005: Monitoring and Understanding a Dynamic Planet with Geodetic and Oceanographic Tools,'' a Joint Assembly of International Associations: IAG, IAPSO and IABO, Cairns, Australia, 22-26 August 200

A Panoply of Cepheid Light Curve Templates

We have generated accurate V and I template light curves using a combination of Fourier decomposition and principal component analysis for a large sample of Cepheid light curves. Unlike previous studies, we include short period Cepheids and stars pulsating in the first overtone mode in our analysis. Extensive Monte Carlo simulations show that our templates can be used to precisely measure Cepheid magnitudes and periods, even in cases where there are few observational epochs. These templates are ideal for characterizing serendipitously discovered Cepheids and can be used in conjunction with surveys such as Pan-Starrs and LSST where the observational sampling may not be optimized for Cepheids.Comment: 12 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for publication in AJ fixed embarrassing typo

Violence brief interventions: a rapid review

Provision of a Violence Brief Intervention (VBI) to young men undergoing treatment for a violent injury may represent a teachable moment for the prevention of future interpersonal violence in Scotland. Prior to intervention design, a rapid review of the research literature was necessary to examine existing programmes. After title and abstract screening, eight distinct VBIs were identified from full texts. Whilst none of the programmes were a perfect match for our intervention goals, they did demonstrate the potential effectiveness of brief interventions for violence prevention at both cognitive and behavioural levels. Key themes of successful interventions included brief motivational interviewing as an effective method of engaging with at-risk participants and encouraging change, the utility of social norms approaches for correcting peer norm misperceptions, the usefulness of working with victims of violence in medical settings (particularly oral and maxillofacial surgeries), the importance of addressing the role of alcohol after violent injury, the advantages of a computer-therapist hybrid model of delivery, and the need for adequate follow-up evaluation as part of a randomised control trial. This information has been used to design a VBI which is currently under evaluation

Adapting the International System of Units to the twenty-first century

We review the proposal of the International Committee for Weights and Measures (Comité International des Poids et Mesures, CIPM), currently being considered by the General Conference on Weights and Measures (Conférences Générales des Poids et Mesures, CGPM), to revise the International System of Units (Le Système International d’Unitès, SI). The proposal includes new definitions for four of the seven base units of the SI, and a new form of words to present the definitions of all the units. The objective of the proposed changes is to adopt definitions referenced to constants of nature, taken in the widest sense, so that the definitions may be based on what are believed to be true invariants. In particular, whereas in the current SI the kilogram, ampere, kelvin and mole are linked to exact numerical values of the mass of the international prototype of the kilogram, the magnetic constant (permeability of vacuum), the triple-point temperature of water and the molar mass of carbon-12, respectively, in the new SI these units are linked to exact numerical values of the Planck constant, the elementary charge, the Boltzmann constant and the Avogadro constant, respectively. The new wording used expresses the definitions in a simple and unambiguous manner without the need for the distinction between base and derived units. The importance of relations among the fundamental constants to the definitions, and the importance of establishing a mise en pratique for the realization of each definition, are also discussed

Impact of stout-link smearing in lattice fermion actions

The impact of stout-link smearing in lattice fermion actions is examined through the consideration of the mass and renormalization functions of the overlap quark propagator over a variety of smeared configurations. Up to six sweeps of stout-link smearing are investigated. For heavy quark masses, the quark propagator is strongly affected by the smearing procedure. For moderate masses, the effect appears to be negligible. A small effect is seen for light quark masses, where dynamical mass generation is suppressed through the smearing procedure.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, presented at the XXVII International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory - LAT2009, July 26-31 2009, Peking University, Beijing, Chin

Stout-link smearing in lattice fermion actions

The properties of the momentum space quark propagator in Landau gauge are studied for the overlap quark action in quenched lattice QCD. Numerical calculations are performed over four ensembles of gauge configurations, where three are smeared using either 1, 3, or 6 sweeps of stout-link smearing. We calculate the non-perturbative wave function renormalization function $Z(p)$ and the non-perturbative mass function $M(p)$ for a variety of bare quark masses. We find that the wave-function renormalization function is slightly sensitive to the number of stout-link smearing sweeps. For the mass function we find the effect of the stout-link smearing algorithm to be small for moderate to light bare quark masses. For a heavy bare quark mass we find a strong dependence on the number of smearing sweeps.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Low-lying Odd-parity States of the Nucleon in Lattice QCD

The world's first examination of the odd-parity nucleon spectrum at light quark masses in 2+1 flavor lattice QCD is presented. Configurations generated by the PACS-CS collaboration and made available through the ILDG are used, with the lightest pion mass at 156 MeV. A novel method for tracking the individual energy eigenstates as the quark mass changes is introduced. The success of this approach reveals the flow of the states towards the physical masses. Using the correlation matrix method, the two lowest-energy states revealed are found to be in accord with the physical spectrum of Nature.Comment: 5 page