59,620 research outputs found
The Colombian conflict: a description of a mental health program in the Department of Tolima.
Colombia has been seriously affected by an internal armed conflict for more than 40 years affecting mainly the civilian population, who is forced to displace, suffers kidnapping, extortion, threats and assassinations. Between 2005 and 2008, Médecins Sans Frontières-France provided psychological care and treatment in the region of Tolima, a strategic place in the armed conflict. The mental health program was based on a short-term multi-faceted treatment developed according to the psychological and psychosomatic needs of the population. Here we describe the population attending during 2005-2008, in both urban and rural settings, as well as the psychological treatment provided during this period and its outcomes.We observed differences between the urban and rural settings in the traumatic events reported, the clinical expression of the disorders, the disorders diagnosed, and their severity. Although the duration of the treatment was limited due to security reasons and access difficulties, patient condition at last visit improved in most of the patients. These descriptive results suggest that further studies should be conducted to examine the role of short-term psychotherapy, adapted specifically to the context, can be a useful tool to provide psychological care to population affected by an armed conflict
Directed transport of Brownian particles in a double symmetric potential
We investigate the dynamics of Brownian particles in internal state-
dependent symmetric and periodic potentials. Although no space or time symmetry
of the Hamiltonian is broken, we show that directed transport can appear. We
demonstrate that the directed motion is induced by breaking the symmetry of the
transition rates between the potentials when these are spatially shifted.
Finally, we discuss the possibility of realizing our model in a system of cold
particles trapped in optical lattices.Comment: to appear in Physical Review
AVOCADO: A Virtual Observatory Census to Address Dwarfs Origins
Dwarf galaxies are by far the most abundant of all galaxy types, yet their
properties are still poorly understood -especially due to the observational
challenge that their intrinsic faintness represents. AVOCADO aims at
establishing firm conclusions on their formation and evolution by constructing
a homogeneous, multiwavelength dataset for a statistically significant sample
of several thousand nearby dwarfs (-18 < Mi < -14). Using public data and
Virtual Observatory tools, we have built GALEX+SDSS+2MASS spectral energy
distributions that are fitted by a library of single stellar population models.
Star formation rates, stellar masses, ages and metallicities are further
complemented with structural parameters that can be used to classify them
morphologically. This unique dataset, coupled with a detailed characterization
of each dwar's environment, allows for a fully comprehensive investigation of
their origins and to track the (potential) evolutionary paths between the
different dwarf types.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. To appear in the proceedings of IAU Symposium 277,
"Tracing the Ancestry of Galaxies on the Land of our Ancestors", Carignan,
Freeman, and Combes, ed
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