Longitudinal analysis of the relationship between symptoms and quality of life in veterans treated for posttraumatic stress disorder.

This study examined how change in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms relates to change in quality of life. The sample consisted of 325 male Vietnam veterans with chronic PTSD who participated in a randomized trial of group psychotherapy. Latent growth modeling was used to test for synchronous effects of PTSD symptom change on psychosocial and physical health-related quality of life within the same time period and lagged effects of initial PTSD symptom change on later change in quality of life. PTSD symptoms were associated with reduced quality of life before treatment. There were synchronous effects of symptom change on change in quality of life but no significant lagged effects. Results indicate the importance of measuring quality of life in future investigations of PTSD treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Failures of retrieval and comparison constrain change detection in natural scenes.

In a change detection paradigm, a target object in a natural scene either rotated in depth, was replaced by another object token, or remained the same. Change detection performance was reliably higher when a target postcue allowed participants to restrict retrieval and comparison processes to the target object (Experiment 1). Change detection performance remained excellent when the target object was not attended at change (Experiment 2) and when a concurrent verbal working memory load minimized the possibility of verbal encoding. (Experiment 3). Together, these data demonstrate that visual representations accumulate in memory from attended objects as the eyes and attention are oriented within a scene and that change blindness derives, at least in part, from retrieval and comparison failure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of environmental context in mapping invasive plants with hyperspectral image data

Lepidium latifolium (perennial pepperweed) is a noxious Eurasian weed invading riparian and wetland areas of the western US. Effective management of Lepidium requires detailed, accurate maps of its distribution, as may be provided by remote sensing, to contain existing infestations and eradicate incipient populations. We mapped Lepidium with 3 m spatial resolution, 128-band HyMap image data in three sites of California's San Francisco Bay/Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta Estuary (Rush Ranch in Suisun Marsh and the Greater Jepson Prairie Ecosystem and the Cosumnes River Preserve in the Delta). These sites are markedly different in terms of hydrology, salinity, species composition, and structural and landscape diversity. Aggregated classification and regression tree models (CART), incorporating the results of mixture tuned matched filter (MTMF) analyses and spectral physiological indexes, were used to map Lepidium at the three sites. This approach was sufficiently flexible and robust to detect Lepidium with similar accuracies (~ 90%) at both Rush Ranch and Jepson Prairie, but was unsuccessful at Cosumnes River Preserve. Comparisons of the behavior of the MTMFs and the CARTs between sites reveal the importance of environmental context in species mapping. Rush Ranch presents the simplest conditions for mapping Lepidium: it is the wettest and least diverse site and Lepidium is spectrally distinct from co-occurring species. At Jepson Prairie, several co-occurring species closely resemble Lepidium spectrally. Nevertheless, hyperspectral data provide sufficient spectral detail to resolve Lepidium even at this challenging site, which is facilitated by phenological separation from the matrix of annual grasses. At Cosumnes River Preserve, however, Lepidium is neither spectrally nor phenologically distinct, and consequently could not be mapped successfully. Evidence suggests that the success of a remote sensing analysis declines as site complexity increases (species, structural, and landscape diversity; spectral variability; etc.), although this relationship is complex, indirect, and may be phenology-dependent.     

Modellierung in der Lehre an Hochschulen: Thesen und Erfahrungen

Zusammenfassung  Nicht erst seit Modellierung zum Modewort geworden ist, ist Modellierung ein wichtiges Thema in der Informatikausbildung. Dieser Beitrag beleuchtet in zw?lf Thesen das Warum, Was, Wie viel, Wo, Wann und Wie von Modellierung in der Lehre im Rahmen informatikbezogener Studieng?nge. Die Thesen basieren auf der Erfahrung des Verfassers mit einer seit über zehn Jahren gehaltenen Modellierungsvorlesung an der Universit?t Zürich sowie dem Gedankenaustausch mit anderen Hochschullehrerinnen und -lehrern im Rahmen der GI-Workshopreihe ,,Modellierung“. Zus?tzlich liefert eine Befragung von Absolventinnen und Absolventen an der Universit?t Zürich empirische Evidenz für eine Reihe der Thesen.     

Shear mode coupling and tilted grain growth of A1N thin films in BAW resonators.

Polycrystalline A1N thin films were deposited by RF reactive magnetron sputtering on Pt(111)/Ti electrode films. The substrates were tilted by an angle ranging from 40 degrees to 70 degrees with respect to the target normal. A low deposition temperature and a high sputter gas pressure were found ideal for tilted growth. The resulting grain tilt angle amounts to about half the substrate tilt angle. For coupling evaluation, 5 GHz solidly mounted resonator structures have been realized. The tilted grain A1N films exhibited a permittivity in the 9.5-10.5 range and loss tangent of 0.3%. Two shear modes as well as the longitudinal mode could be clearly identified. The coupling coefficient k2(eff) of the fundamental thickness shear mode (TS0) was found to be about 0.5%, which is compatible with a c-axis tilt of about 6 degrees.     

Modelling diffusion-controlled kinetics in equilibrium and driven alloys

Summary We introduce a very simple model for thermally activated atomic migration on a lattice, and several techniques to handle it. For thermodynamical systems, the model can be used for simulating decomposition paths taking into account relevant metallurgical features. Close to equilibrium, the simplest mean-field approximation of the model can be linearized with respect to the departure from equilibrium; one then gets a microscopic interpretation of classical phenomenological coefficients, such as mobility, interfacial transfer coefficient, rate constants for the coupled relaxation of concentration and order fields. Further away from the equilibrium, the nonlinearities can be taken into account in a consistent way. For driven alloys, i.e. alloys submitted to external forcing, forced atomic migration is added to the model and new features emerge: the model is supported by several experimental results some of which confirmed its predictions a posteriori.     

Metabolism-reproduction interactions in domestic animals

In farm animals as in human, reproduction is affected by changes in the level of energetic balance. The main factors that link metabolism and reproduction, like insulin, IGFs, glucose, FFA, leptin and NPY, act on hypothalamo-pituitary axis as well as on gonads by directly altering gametogenesis.     

Communication between patients with breast cancer and health care providers. Determinants and implications

BACKGROUND: This study evaluated the perceptions of patients with breast cancer of their medical interactions with providers. The determinants and psychological consequences of communication problems also were examined. METHODS: Ninety-seven patients with Stage I or II breast cancer completed a set of validated questionnaires before initiating postoperative therapy. Data on psychological distress were collected at baseline and 3-month follow-up, and multivariate models were fit to explain the relationship between pretreatment communication problems and subsequent psychological distress. Data on clinical variables were abstracted from medical records. RESULTS: A substantial proportion of patients (84%) reported difficulties communicating with the medical team. Communication problems were more common among patients who were less optimistic about their disease and had less assertive coping styles. Patient-reported communication problems were associated with increased anxiety, depression anger, and confusion at the 3-month follow-up. The association between communication problems and mood disturbance remained significant, although small, after adjusting for baseline mood disturbance, demographic, clinical, and coping style variables. CONCLUSION: Interventions that enhance communication between patients with breast cancer and their providers may improve patients' psychological adjustment to treatment. Conversely, interventions that lower distress and modify coping style may enhance communication.