Research-informed benchmarks for psychological treatments: Efficacy studies, effectiveness studies, and beyond.

To examine whether the results of effectiveness studies match those obtained for efficacy studies on the same treatments, we conducted a focused review of the published treatment effectiveness literature. A literature search yielded 35 effectiveness studies for adult disorders (N = 21) and child and adolescent disorders (N = 14). A comparison of data from these studies with benchmarks from recent reviews of efficacy trials revealed treatment completion rates comparable with those found in the efficacy benchmarks. The improvement rates were comparable in effectiveness studies with those reported in randomized clinical trials of treatment efficacy. Despite methodological limitations in many effectiveness studies, these initial data provide encouraging support for the transportability to clinical settings of treatments with established efficacy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Le questionnaire d'évaluation des relations parent/enfant (QéRPE): Une validation fran?aise de l'Egna Minnen Betr?ffende Uppfostran (EMBU).

Parents influence a child's development and his or her success in academic, sports or musical matters. Their support is essential for success. However, some of their behaviours may also have a negative impact. We need to better define parent/child relationships and their influence on the success and well-being of the child. Questionnaires are helpful in this respect, but few valid tools in French exist. Those available do not focus on evaluating dimensions central to child development. This article is aimed at validating the French translation of the EMBU questionnaire (Egna Minnen Betr?ffende Uppfostran, Perris, Jacobsson, Lindstr??m, von Knorring & Perris, 1980), the Questionnaire d'évaluation des relations parents/enfant (QéRPE), Questionnaire to Evaluate Parent/Child Relationships. It assesses the levels of parental support, overprotection and rejection experienced by children. We applied it to relationships between parents and sports-lovers. We tested the factorial structure (exploratory and confirmatory analyses) and the internal consistency of the QéRPE, and conducted external validation. Our results demonstrated that the psychometric qualities of the QéRPE are very acceptable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Patterns of growth in verbal abilities among children with autism spectrum disorder.

Verbal skills were assessed at approximately ages 2, 3, 5, and 9 years for 206 children with a clinical diagnosis of autism (n = 98), pervasive developmental disorders-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS; n = 58), or nonspectrum developmental disabilities (n = 50). Growth curve analyses were used to analyze verbal skills trajectories over time. Nonverbal IQ and joint attention emerged as strong positive predictors of verbal outcome. The gap between the autism and other 2 groups widened with time as the latter improved at a higher rate. However, there was considerable variability within diagnostic groups. Children with autism most at risk for more serious language impairments later in life can be identified with considerable accuracy at a very young age, while improvement can range from minimal to dramatic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inconsistency Management and View Updates

Inconsistency management in component-based languages is the identification and resolution of conflicting constraints or expectations between the different components which make up a system. Here we present a category theoretical framework for detecting and classifying those inconsistencies which can arise throughout a simulation. In addition, the framework permits us to apply techniques developed for defining database view updates. With these, we can analyse the set of traces of a system with respect to a particular behaviour in a subsystem.     

Attitude strength: One construct or many related constructs?

A variety of attributes differentiate attitudes that are stable and consequential from those that are not, including extremity, certainty, importance, knowledge, intensity, interest, direct experience, accessibility, latitudes of rejection and noncommitment, and affective–cognitive consistency. Although these dimensions are clearly conceptually and operationally distinct from one another, researchers have often assumed that some are interchangeable, or that 2 or more reflect common higher-order constructs. Three studies using multitrait-multimethod confirmatory factor analysis assessed the relations among these dimensions. Although some of these dimensions are strongly related, most are not, and a multifactor model seems necessary to account for their intercorrelations. Thus, it seems most sensible to think of all these dimensions as distinct rather than as multiple manifestations of a smaller set of underlying attributes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

élaboration et validation du Questionnaire des but ex contexte scolaire (QBCS).

Recent research on school motivation underlines the crucial role played by the types of goals chosen by students in determining their functioning and achievement. The aim of this study was to create and validate a questionnaire of goals in the academic setting adapted for a population of French students from high school to university. The 1st study comprised 542 students, and the factor analysis confirmed that the instrument allows for the discrimination of mastery, performance, and avoidance goals. The temporal stability of the instrument was shown in the 2nd study comprising 292 students, whereas the 3rd study, involving 355 students, confirmed its concurrent validity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Humanization of a mouse monoclonal antibody by CDR-grafting: the importance of framework residues on loop conformation

A mouse monoclonal antibody (mAb 425) with therapeutic potentialwas ‘humanized’ in two ways. Firstly the mouse variableregions from mAb 425 were spliced onto human constant regionsto create a chimeric 425 antibody. Secondly, the mouse complementarity–determiningregions (CDRs) from mAb 425 were grafted into human variableregions, which were then joined to human constant regions, tocreate a reshaped human 425 antibody. Using a molecular modelof the mouse mAb 425 variable regions, framework residues (FRs)that might be critical for antigen-binding were identified.To test the importance of these residues, nine versions of thereshaped human 425 heavy chain variable (VH) regions and twoversions of the reshaped human 425 light chain variable (VJregions were designed and constructed. The recombinant DNAscoding for the chimeric and reshaped human light and heavy chainswere coexpressed transiently in COS cells. In antigen-bindingassays and competition-binding assays, the reshaped human antibodieswere compared with mouse 425 antibody and to chimeric 425 antibody.The different versions of 425–reshaped human antibodyshowed a wide range of avidities for antigen, indicating thatsubstitutions at certain positions in the human FRs significantlyinfluenced binding to antigen. Why certain individual FR residuesinfluence antigen-binding is discussed. One version of reshapedhuman 425 antibody bound to antigen with an avidity approachingthat of the mouse 425 antibody.     

User interface—application communication in the Chimera user interface management system

Until quite recently, perhaps the least appreciated part of user interface management system (UIMS) architecture has been the interface to the application. A number of approaches to interface-application communication have been attempted, but these have suffered as a result of being non-programmable, unstructured and/or static. This paper presents the user-interface-application communication system developed for the Chimera UIMS, which attempts to address these problems. This system enables interprocess communication between user interface and application via an explicit, programmable UIMS component—an application linkage, which is structured, dynamic and reconfigurable at run-time. The internal structure of the linkage is described, along with the mechanism for communication with dialogue control and application. An extensive example is developed in order to illustrate the communication process to and from the user via dialogue control and linkage to the application.