Efficacy of bifocal diagnosis-independent group psychoeducation in severe psychiatric disorders: results from a randomized controlled trial

Despite evidence for its efficacy, diagnosis-specific psychoeducation is not routinely applied. This exploratory randomized controlled trial analyses the efficacy of an easily implementable bifocal diagnosis-mixed group psychoeducation in the treatment of severe psychiatric disorders regarding readmission, compliance and clinical variables, for example global functioning. Inpatients of the Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel (N=82) were randomly assigned to a diagnosis-mixed psychoeducational (PE) or a non-specific intervention control group. Relatives were invited to join corresponding family groups. Results at baseline, 3- and 12-month follow-ups are presented. Better compliance after 3months and a lower suicide rate were significant in favour of PE. For most other outcome variables, no significant differences, however advantages, in PE were found. In summary, it can be concluded that diagnosis-mixed group psychoeducation is effective in the treatment of severe psychiatric disorders. The effects can be classified as induced by distinctive psychoeducational elements. Findings similar to those on psychosis-specific programmes justify clinical application and further investigatio

The Relationship between Trait Emotional Intelligence, Cognition, and Emotional Awareness: An Interpretative Model

Emotional awareness (EA) has been defined as the cognitive skill devoted to the identification and description of one\u2019s own and others\u2019 emotional experiences, an ability that has usually been conceptualized along with the development of cognitive intelligence. Despite this, EA has also been deemed a central constituent of Emotional Intelligence (EI), a construct that captures individual differences in how we perceive, communicate, regulate, and understand our own emotions, as well as the emotions of others. The overlap between the cognitive and the emotional domain in the definition of the EA construct has created several difficulties in both its understanding and its usage, so much so that several questions regarding its nature and structure remain unanswered. The aim of the present work was to test in a unique model the explanatory role of both trait EI and fluid nonverbal intelligence on EA variability in children, controlling for the effect of age, a variable strictly related to cognitive development, as well as gender, which is highly associated with trait EI during childhood. Four hundred and eighty-eight pupils (258 females and 230 males) ranging from 8 to 12 years old completed the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale for Children, the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire \u2013 Child Form, and a measure of pure non-verbal reasoning ability, the Raven\u2019s Progressive Matrices. The results of a structural equation model showed a positive explanatory power of both Raven and TEIQue scores on EA, revealing that both cognitive intelligence and trait EI significantly explained EA. The same model also showed an indirect effect of age, via intelligence scores, on EA, suggesting that the increase of EA with age could be partially imputed to the development of intelligence. Finally, a relation between gender and TEIQue scores confirmed higher trait EI scores in girls than in boys. The implications emerging from this model are discussed

Trait emotional intelligence and eating problems in adults: associations with alexithymia and substance use

Background: Eating Disorders (EDs) often co-occur with substance use contributing to increasing concern about the individual's health; both the conditions share several core features such as the tendency to use maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. The present study investigated associations between trait emotional intelligence (Trait EI), alexithymia and EDs, namely dieting, bulimia and oral control, in a nonclinical sample of adults. Moreover, the relationships with substance use frequencies were also examined with the aim of exploring the links between personality emotional competence traits (trait EI and alexithymia) and different addictive risk behaviours (EDs and substance use) in adulthood.Methods: Data were collected from a convenience sample composed of 394 (312 women; between ages 18 and 65; mean age = 32.34; SD = 11.97) participants, through online administration of questionnaires assessing trait emotional intelligence (TEIQue-SF), eating problems (EAT-26), alexithymia (TAS-20) and frequency of substance use (in the last year).Results: The group that exceeds the cut-off for EDs (n = 58; 14.7 %) has significantly lower trait EI scores (in all dimensions) and higher alexithymia scores than the other group. Some differences between the two groups were found on frequencies of nicotine and diuretics use. Age and all trait EI factors were negatively associated with eating disorders and alexithymia. Weak inverse correlations have emerged between EI and frequencies of substance use (namely cocaine, amphetamines, alcohol and tobacco). Female gender, well-being and self-control factors of EI emerged as significant predictors of EDs in adulthood.Conclusions: Our results suggest the importance of targeting emotion dysregulation for EDs and substance use behaviours. Interventions aimed at promoting healthy lifestyles could benefit from trait EI enhancement efforts. Practitioners and health educators need to recognize the potential efficacy of including trait EI within gender specific interventions planned to address ED symptoms and addictive behaviours in general

A stochastic gradient method with variance control and variable learning rate for Deep Learning

In this paper we study a stochastic gradient algorithm which rules the increase of the minibatch size in a predefined fashion and automatically adjusts the learning rate by means of a monotone or non -monotone line search procedure. The mini -batch size is incremented at a suitable a priori rate throughout the iterative process in order that the variance of the stochastic gradients is progressively reduced. The a priori rate is not subject to restrictive assumptions, allowing for the possibility of a slow increase in the mini -batch size. On the other hand, the learning rate can vary non -monotonically throughout the iterations, as long as it is appropriately bounded. Convergence results for the proposed method are provided for both convex and non -convex objective functions. Moreover it can be proved that the algorithm enjoys a global linear rate of convergence on strongly convex functions. The low per -iteration cost, the limited memory requirements and the robustness against the hyperparameters setting make the suggested approach well -suited for implementation within the deep learning framework, also for GPGPU-equipped architectures. Numerical results on training deep neural networks for multiclass image classification show a promising behaviour of the proposed scheme with respect to similar state of the art competitors

Innovation Processes in the Car Industry: New Challenges for Management and Research

Over the past decades the development of a car has become a complex activity involving skills and resources from a variety of industries and actors, and requiring the accomplishment of tight regulatory norms and market needs. Technological and market forces have led incumbent firms to radically change the organization of their innovative activities, shifting from a closed vertically innovation model to a distributed one. The aim of this study is to review the main challenges carmakers are currently facing and the organizational and strategic solutions adopted to perform innovative and development activities within vertically fragmented networks. The chapter casts light on the organizational and strategic challenges of downstream development activities, then it also tries to overview the strategic role of up-front research activities, namely the research activities leading to patenting. The main changes brought by the distributed innovation model on new product development activities are discussed, focusing on the principles guiding outsourcing decisions and the governance mechanisms carmakers use to manage networks of external suppliers. The study, then, reviews the role of patenting in the industry as a means for carmakers to appropriate value from innovation in vertically fragmented networks. Finally, it discusses the changes on the organization of innovation activities that the emergence of the electric car-standard may imply for carmakers’ innovation strategy

Trait emotional intelligence and adolescent psychological well-being: a systematic review

Trait emotional intelligence (trait EI) has a protective role in adolescence, linked to better well-being and social interactions. However, research on these topics with adolescent samples is limited and has not yet been systematized in the field. The present work aims to scrutinize the extant trait EI literature and adolescent psychological well-being. Since operationalization is crucial for any EI model, the review focused on studies that used the adolescent forms of the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue). A search conducted in EBSCO Essentials, Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science, and Psyc Articles in October 2023 identified 34 articles. Findings are discussed under five subsections: gender differences, psychological constructs, parental relations, scholastic constructs, and practice-oriented topics. The review corroborates the protective role of trait EI in adolescent psychological well-being. Future studies should aspire to extend research in cross-cultural settings with more rigorous designs

The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic and Lockdown Measures on Quality of Life among Italian General Population

The COVID-19 pandemic that has hit the world in the year 2020 has put a strain on our ability to cope with events and revolutionized our daily habits. On 9 March, Italy was forced to lock down to prevent the spread of the infection, with measures including the mandatory closure of schools and nonessential activities, travel restrictions, and the obligation to spend entire weeks in the same physical space. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown measures on quality of life (QoL) in a large Italian sample, in order to investigate possible differences in QoL levels related to both demographic and pandemic-specific variables. A total of 2251 Italian adults (1665 women, mainly young and middle adults) were recruited via a snowball sampling strategy. Participants were requested to answer to an online survey, which included demographic and COVID-related information items, and theWorld Health Organization Quality of Life BREF questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF). The results showed statistically significant differences in QoL depending on a number of variables, including sex, area of residence in Italy, and being diagnosed with a medical/psychiatric condition. To our knowledge, this is the first study to assess QoL during COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, therefore the present findings can offer guidelines regarding which social groups are more vulnerable of a decline in QoL and would benefit of psychological interventions

Stopping and straggling of 60-250-keV backscattered protons on nanometric Pt films

The stopping power and straggling of backscattered protons on nanometric Pt films were measured at low to medium energies (60-250 keV) by using the medium-energy ion scattering technique. The stopping power results are in good agreement with the most recent measurements by Primetzhofer Phy s. Rev. B 86, 094102 (2012) and are well described by the free electron gas model at low projectile energies. Nevertheless, the straggling results are strongly underestimated by well-established formulas up to a factor of two. Alternatively, we propose a model for the energy-loss straggling that takes into account the inhomogeneous electron-gas response, based on the electron-loss function of the material, along with bunching effects. This approach yields remarkable agreement with the experimental data, indicating that the observed enhancement in energy-loss straggling is due to bunching effects in an inhomogeneous electron system. Nonlinear effects are of minor importance for the energy-loss straggling