Do personality problems improve during psychodynamic supportive–expressive psychotherapy? Secondary outcome results from a randomized controlled trial for psychiatric outpatients with personality disorders.

Studies involving patients with personality disorders (PDs) have not focused on improvement of core aspects of the PD. The authors examined changes in quality of object relations, interpersonal problems, psychological mindedness, and personality traits in a sample of 156 patients with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.) PD diagnoses being randomized to either manualized or nonmanualized dynamic psychotherapy. Effect sizes adjusted for symptomatic change and reliable change indices were calculated. The authors found that both treatments were equally effective at reducing personality pathology. Only in neuroticism did the nonmanualized group do better during the follow-up period. The largest improvement was found in quality of object relations. For the remaining variables, only small and clinically insignificant magnitudes of change were found. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of handedness and reachability on perceived distance.

Previous research has suggested that perceived distances are scaled by the action capabilities of the body. The present studies showed that when “reachability” is constrained due to a difficult grasp required to pick up an object, perceived distance to the object increases. Participants estimated the distances to tools with handle orientations that made them either easy or difficult to grasp with their dominant and nondominant hands. Right-handed participants perceived tools that were more difficult to grasp to be farther away than tools that were easier to grasp. However, perceived distance did not differ in left-handed participants. These studies suggest that, when reaching toward a target, the distance to that target is scaled in terms of how far one can effectively reach, given the type of reaching posture that is executed. Furthermore, this effect is modulated by handedness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Institutionalizing infrastructure: photo-elicitation of cultural-cognitive knowledge of development

Infrastructure that goes unused – for example, after constructing the first water, electricity, sewers or road infrastructure in an infrastructure-poor community – is a common issue in new infrastructure development in the global south. In this case, while infrastructure has diffused, it has not become institutionalized. To better understand this problem, photo-elicitation methods are used to explore cultural-cognitive frames used by research respondents as they create and explain photograph symbols that represent change in their built environment. For example, respondents advocate for infrastructure they have reason to believe outsiders will provide as they evaluate the infrastructure against local utility in an early phase of institutionalization. Respondents also frame the research undertaking as an opportunity to actively diffuse infrastructure practices they have recently adopted themselves. By making these and other frames explicit, the photo-elicitation method reveals the elusive cultural-cognitive pillar of institutionalization and also provides insight into sources of self-reporting bias. The method also has particular advantages for research dealing with disadvantaged respondents, reduces issues of free recall bias and increases the length and depth of research interviews. Given the relative novelty of this method in construction research, its theory, advantages and limitations are discussed in some depth.     

A genetic algorithm for energy-efficiency in job-shop scheduling

Many real-world scheduling problems are solved to obtain optimal solutions in term of processing time, cost, and quality as optimization objectives. Currently, energy-efficiency is also taken into consideration in these problems. However, this problem is NP-hard, so many search techniques are not able to obtain a solution in a reasonable time. In this paper, a genetic algorithm is developed to solve an extended version of the Job-shop Scheduling Problem in which machines can consume different amounts of energy to process tasks at different rates (speed scaling). This problem represents an extension of the classical job-shop scheduling problem, where each operation has to be executed by one machine and this machine can work at different speeds. The evaluation section shows that a powerful commercial tool for solving scheduling problems was not able to solve large instances in a reasonable time, meanwhile our genetic algorithm was able to solve all instances with a good solution quality.     

Examining Open Data at the Urban Level: An Exploration of “Wellbeing Toronto”

This paper examines how Wellbeing Toronto (WT)—a free, open data, GIS tool that allows users to map information—has evolved into an extensive data repository with robust data analysis capabilities. Explored is the progress of open data scholarship in relation to municipal government and civic participation. Based on this, the authors note the following: (1) as open data becomes increasingly prevalent, a more varied understanding of the organization and structure of municipal government may emerge. (2) There is a need for measures of civic engagement to move beyond data co-production towards an organization-based interactive approach.     

Effect of Alumina on the Structure and Mechanical Properties of Spark Plasma Sintered Boron Carbide

Uniform densification of relatively thick (~7 mm) consolidated boron carbide plates at relatively low temperatures (e.g. 1800°C) and low facture toughness are two of the primary challenges for further development of boron carbide applications. This work reports that these two challenges can be overcome simultaneously by adding 5 wt% alumina as a sintering aid. Nearly fully dense (97%), fine grained boron carbide (B₄C) samples were produced using spark plasma sintering at 1700°C and above in the B₄C‐5 wt% Al₂O₃ system. The alumina and boron carbide matrix reacted to form an Al₅O₆BO₃ (a mullite‐like phase) during sintering. The Al₅O₆BO₃ phase facilitated uniform densification via liquid phase sintering. This secondary phase is dispersed throughout the intergranular pores, providing obstacles for crack propagation and resulting in tougher boron carbide ceramics.     

Coarse-Grained and Atomistic MD Simulations of RNA and DNA Folding

Although the main features of the protein folding problem are coming into clearer focus, the microscopic viewpoint of nucleic acid folding mechanisms is only just beginning to be addressed. Experiments, theory, and simulations are pointing to complex thermodynamic and kinetic mechanisms. As is the case for proteins, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations continue to be indispensable tools for providing a molecular basis for nucleic acid folding mechanisms. In this review, we provide an overview of biomolecular folding mechanisms focusing on nucleic acids. We outline the important interactions that are likely to be the main determinants of nucleic acid folding energy landscapes. We discuss recent MD simulation studies of empirical force field and Go-type MD simulations of RNA and DNA folding mechanisms to outline recent successes and the theoretical and computational challenges that lie ahead.