333 research outputs found
Self-concealment: Integrative review and working model
An extensive empirical literature has focused on the self-concealment (SC) construct. In this article, we review 137 studies that used the Self-Concealment Scale (SCS) with varied populations (e.g., adolescent; intercultural; international; lesbian, gay, and bisexual; and intimate partner). We propose a working model for the psychology of SC and the mechanisms of action for its effects on well-being. A dual-motive conflict between urges to conceal and reveal is seen to play a central role in these health effects. Meta-analytic techniques identify significant associations for SC with 18 constructs falling into six general categories: antecedents, disclosure and concealment, emotion regulation, social well-being, psychological and physical health, and psychotherapy. We interpret these findings with reference to current research and theory on secret keeping and health as well as emotion- and self-regulatory processes. This first integrative review supports the construct validity of the SCS and demonstrates the value of the SC construct for the study of psychological phenomena in which secret keeping is a recognized issue
Empathic reflections by themselves are not effective: Meta-analysis and qualitative synthesis
Objective: We present a mixed methods systematic review of the effectiveness of therapist empathic reflections, which have been adopted by a range of approaches to communicate an understanding of client communications and experiences.
Methods: We begin with definitions and subtypes of empathic reflection, drawing on relevant research and theory, including conversation analysis. We distinguish between empathic reflections, reviewed here, and the relational quality of empathy (reviewed in previous meta-analyses). We look at how empathic reflections are assessed and present examples of successful and unsuccessful empathic reflections, also providing a framework of the different criteria used to assess their effectiveness (e.g., association with session or treatment outcome, or client next-turn good process).
Results: In our meta-analysis of 43 samples, we found virtually no relation between presence/absence of empathic reflection and effectiveness, both overall and separately within-session, post-session and post-treatment. Although not statistically significant, we did find weak support for reflections of change talk and summary reflections.
Conclusions: We argue for research looking more carefully at the quality of empathy sequences in which empathic reflections are ideally calibrated in response to empathic opportunities offered by clients and sensitively adjusted in response to client confirmation/disconfirmation. We conclude with training implications and recommended therapeutic practices
Improving Ecological Restoration to Curb Biotic InvasionâA Practical Guide
Common practices for invasive species control and management include physical, chemical, and biological approaches. The first two approaches have clear limitations and may lead to unintended (negative) consequences, unless carefully planned and implemented. For example, physical removal rarely completely eradicates the targeted invasive species and can cause disturbances that facilitate new invasions by nonnative species from nearby habitats. Chemical treatments can harm native, and especially rare, species through unanticipated side effects. Biological methods may be classified as biocontrol and the ecological approach. Similar to physical and chemical methods, biocontrol also has limitations and sometimes leads to unintended consequences. Therefore, a relatively safer and more practical choice may be the ecological approach, which has two major components: (1) restoration of native species and (2) biomass manipulation of the restored community, such as selective grazing or prescribed burning (to achieve and maintain viable population sizes). Restoration requires well-planned and implemented planting designs that consider alpha-, beta-, and gamma-diversity and the abundance of native and invasive component species at local, landscape, and regional levels. Given the extensive destruction or degradation of natural habitats around the world, restoration could be most effective for enhancing ecosystem resilience and resistance to biotic invasions. At the same time, ecosystems in human-dominated landscapes, especially those newly restored, require close monitoring and careful intervention (e.g., through biomass manipulation), especially when successional trajectories are not moving as intended. Biomass management frequently uses prescribed burning, grazing, harvesting, and thinning to maintain overall ecosystem health and sustainability. Thus, the resulting optimal, balanced, and relatively stable ecological conditions could more effectively limit the spread and establishment of invasive species. Here we review the literature (especially within the last decade) on ecological approaches that involve biodiversity, biomass, and productivity, three key community/ecosystem variables that reciprocally influence one another. We focus on the common and most feasible ecological practices that can aid in resisting new invasions and/or suppressing the dominance of existing invasive species. We contend that, because of the strong influences from neighboring areas (i.e., as exotic species pools), local restoration and management efforts in the future need to consider the regional context and projected climate changes
Objective physical activity and physical performance in middle-aged and older adults
Background: Older adults may have difficulty meeting the Physical Activity (PA) Guidelines. A favorable balance between PA and sedentary time (SED) is an important determinant of physical performance in older adults. Our objective was to explore associations of PA/SED with physical performance across mid-older age in adults without overt mobility disability. Methods: Framingham Offspring Study participants free of mobility disability with accelerometry and physical performance data (gait speed, chair stand time, and handgrip strength), were studied in cross-sectional analysis (n = 1352). We regressed physical performance on PA level, measured using steps, moderate to vigorous (MV)PA and SED. We stratified by age groups, adjusted for covariates, and modelled MVPA and SED separately and together as predictors. Results: Only 38% of adults 50â64 years and 15% of adults â„75 years met the PA Guidelines (i.e., 150 min MVPA per week). Individuals achieving at least 5 min/day of MVPA had 0.062 ± 0.013 m/s greater gait speed and better chair stands and handgrip strength (in women) than those with 0.05). For adults â„75 years, every 5000 more steps/day related to ~0.045 m/s greater gait speed (p = 0.006). Conclusion: Our cross-sectional study demonstrated that, across mid-older adulthood, MVPA related to better physical performance, but in adults â„75 years, total steps walked associated with better gait speed. These data warrant future research on the impact of PA on physical performance and health outcomes in older age
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How market standards affect building design: the case of low energy design in commercial offices
This paper develops existing work on building design through a focus on one important yet understudied form of regulation: market standards. Market standards are agreed upon definitions of ânecessaryâ provision in buildings and are fundamental in âformattingâ markets and determining the value of a building in the market. The paper presents a case study of the design of ten commercial offices in London, UK, the effects of market standards on the designs and on the potential for the development of lower energy buildings. Theoretically, the paper integrates literatures on standards, institutions and markets to argue that market standards do important âworkâ in design processes that requires closer scrutiny. In particular, we show that market standards: are an important form of normative and cultural regulation in the field of commercial office design; format and act as calculative devices in property markets; and result in forms of knowledge diminution that break the relationship between building design and occupiersâ practices. Together, these effects result in particular designs being legitimised and valued, and lower energy designs being delegitimised, devalued and pushed to the periphery of the attention of commercial office designers
Training of Instrumentalists and Development of New Technologies on SOFIA
This white paper is submitted to the Astronomy and Astrophysics 2010 Decadal
Survey (Astro2010)1 Committee on the State of the Profession to emphasize the
potential of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) to
contribute to the training of instrumentalists and observers, and to related
technology developments. This potential goes beyond the primary mission of
SOFIA, which is to carry out unique, high priority astronomical research.
SOFIA is a Boeing 747SP aircraft with a 2.5 meter telescope. It will enable
astronomical observations anywhere, any time, and at most wavelengths between
0.3 microns and 1.6 mm not accessible from ground-based observatories. These
attributes, accruing from the mobility and flight altitude of SOFIA, guarantee
a wealth of scientific return. Its instrument teams (nine in the first
generation) and guest investigators will do suborbital astronomy in a
shirt-sleeve environment. The project will invest $10M per year in science
instrument development over a lifetime of 20 years. This, frequent flight
opportunities, and operation that enables rapid changes of science instruments
and hands-on in-flight access to the instruments, assure a unique and extensive
potential - both for training young instrumentalists and for encouraging and
deploying nascent technologies. Novel instruments covering optical, infrared,
and submillimeter bands can be developed for and tested on SOFIA by their
developers (including apprentices) for their own observations and for those of
guest observers, to validate technologies and maximize observational
effectiveness.Comment: 10 pages, no figures, White Paper for Astro 2010 Survey Committee on
State of the Professio
Physical activity measured by accelerometry and its associations with cardiac structure and vascular function in young and middle-aged adults
Background Physical activity is associated with several health benefits, including lower cardiovascular disease risk. The independent influence of physical activity on cardiac and vascular function in the community, however, has been sparsely investigated.
Measures and Results We related objective measures of moderateâ to vigorousâintensity physical activity (MVPA, assessed by accelerometry) to cardiac and vascular indices in 2376 participants of the Framingham Heart Study third generation cohort (54% women, mean age 47 years). Using multivariable regression models, we related MVPA to the following echocardiographic and vascular measures: left ventricular mass, left atrial and aortic root sizes, carotidâfemoral pulse wave velocity, augmentation index, and forward pressure wave. Men and women engaged in MVPA 29.9±21.4 and 25.5±19.4 min/day, respectively. Higher values of MVPA (per 10âminute increment) were associated with lower carotidâfemoral pulse wave velocity (estimate â0.53 ms/m; P=0.006) and lower forward pressure wave (estimate â0.23 mm Hg; P=0.03) but were not associated with augmentation index (estimate 0.13%; P=0.25). MVPA was associated positively with loge left ventricular mass (estimate 0.006 loge [g/m2]; P=0.0003), left ventricular wall thickness (estimate 0.07 mm; P=0.0001), and left atrial dimension (estimate 0.10 mm; P=0.01). MVPA also tended to be positively associated with aortic root dimension (estimate 0.05 mm; P=0.052). Associations of MVPA with cardiovascular measures were similar, in general, for bouts lasting <10 versus â„10 minutes. Conclusions In our communityâbased sample, greater physical activity was associated with lower vascular stiffness but with higher echocardiographic left ventricular mass and left atrial size. These findings suggest complex relations of usual levels of physical activity and cardiovascular remodeling
Outside-in Shrinking of the Star-forming Disk of Dwarf Irregular Galaxies
We have studied multi-band surface brightness profiles of a representative
sample of 34 nearby dwarf irregular galaxies (dIrrs). Our data include GALEX
FUV/NUV, UBV, H\alpha, and Spitzer 3.6 \mum images. These galaxies constitute
the majority of the LITTLE THINGS survey. By modeling the azimuthal averages of
the spectral energy distributions with a complete library of star formation
(SF) histories, we derived the stellar mass surface density distributions and
the SF rate averaged over three different timescales: the recent 0.1 Gyr, 1 Gyr
and a Hubble time. We find that, for \sim 80% (27 galaxies) of our sample
galaxies, radial profiles (at least in the outer part) at shorter wavelengths
have shorter disk scale lengths than those at longer wavelengths. This
indicates that the star-forming disk has been shrinking. In addition, the
radial distributions of the stellar mass surface density are well described as
piece-wise exponential profiles, and \sim 80% of the galaxies have steeper mass
profiles in the outer disk than in the inner region. The steep radial decline
of SF rate in the outer parts compared to that in the inner disks gives a
natural explanation for the down-bending stellar mass surface density profiles.
Within the inner disks, our sample galaxies on average have constant ratios of
recent SF rate to stellar mass with radius. Nevertheless, \sim 35% (12
galaxies, among which 7 have baryonic mass < 10^8 M\odot) of the sample exhibit
negative slopes across the observed disk, which is in contrast with the
"inside-out" disk growth scenario suggested for luminous spiral galaxies. The
tendency of SF to become concentrated toward the inner disks in low mass dIrrs
is interpreted as a result of their susceptibility to environmental effects and
regulation through stellar feedback.Comment: 40 pages. The Astronomical Journal, in pres
Ubiquitous outflows in DEEP2 spectra of star-forming galaxies at z=1.4
Galactic winds are a prime suspect for the metal enrichment of the
intergalactic medium and may have a strong influence on the chemical evolution
of galaxies and the nature of QSO absorption line systems. We use a sample of
1406 galaxy spectra at z~1.4 from the DEEP2 redshift survey to show that
blueshifted Mg II 2796, 2803 A absorption is ubiquitous in starforming galaxies
at this epoch. This is the first detection of frequent outflowing galactic
winds at z~1. The presence and depth of absorption are independent of AGN
spectral signatures or galaxy morphology; major mergers are not a prerequisite
for driving a galactic wind from massive galaxies. Outflows are found in
coadded spectra of galaxies spanning a range of 30x in stellar mass and 10x in
star formation rate (SFR), calibrated from K-band and from MIPS IR fluxes. The
outflows have column densities of order N_H ~ 10^20 cm^-2 and characteristic
velocities of ~ 300-500 km/sec, with absorption seen out to 1000 km/sec in the
most massive, highest SFR galaxies. The velocities suggest that the outflowing
gas can escape into the IGM and that massive galaxies can produce
cosmologically and chemically significant outflows. Both the Mg II equivalent
width and the outflow velocity are larger for galaxies of higher stellar mass
and SFR, with V_wind ~ SFR^0.3, similar to the scaling in low redshift
IR-luminous galaxies. The high frequency of outflows in the star-forming galaxy
population at z~1 indicates that galactic winds occur in the progenitors of
massive spirals as well as those of ellipticals. The increase of outflow
velocity with mass and SFR constrains theoretical models of galaxy evolution
that include feedback from galactic winds, and may favor momentum-driven models
for the wind physics.Comment: Accepted by ApJ. 25 pages, 17 figures. Revised to add discussions of
intervening absorbers and AGN-driven outflows; conclusions unchange
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