Constructing desirable identities—Self-presentation in psychotherapy and daily life: Comment on Kelly (2000).

A. E. Kelly's (see record 2000-08364-001) thesis that psychotherapy clients benefit from withholding negative information is considered in flight of current social-psychological theory and research. Positive illusions about oneself are associated with indexes of mental health; this is consistent with treating therapy as positive identity development. Self-presentation can shape self-concept, even apart from the feedback that an audience might provide; the social construction of identity is a powerful process, suggesting that withholding negative and presenting only positive information is adaptive. However, evidence concerning the level of identification of one's actions suggests complexities in understanding ways clients might deal with disclosing negative information; the authors argue that the impact on self-concept is probably more complex than A. E. Kelly's characterization and that the implications are of a broader scope than indicated so far. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Functional recovery of respiratory behavior during axonal regeneration in snails (Lymnaea stagnalis) is experience dependent.

This study investigated the role of experience in recovery of pulmonary respiration during axonal regeneration in Lymnaea stagnalis. Pulmonary respiration occurs when snails break the water surface and open the lung orifice, the pneumostome. It was shown that axotomy of all the axons innervating the pneumostome and surrounding area prevents the occurrence of lung respiration in 69% of snails. In the remaining 31%, lung respiration persisted, indicating that peripheral components alone are capable of initiating pneumostome openings and closures. Five weeks postsurgery, all snails with previous nerve crushes showed opening of the pneumostome with normal latency after breaking the water surface. However, prevention of pulmonary respiration during the recovery period dramatically changed the recovered behavior. Thus, experience in pulmonary respiration during axonal regeneration plays a role in the recovery of this behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Determination of site-specific D/H isotope ratios of glycerol from different sources by 2H-NMR spectroscopy

 A method was developed for the preparation of glycerol from wines and from naturally occuring lipids. In addition, the D/H isotopic ratios of glycerol from these sources was determined using site specific natural isotopic fractionation. Glycerol from four different sources was examined: glycerol isolated from vegetable oils and animal fats, glycerol obtained by chemical synthesis and glycerol which is a byproduct of the alcoholic fermentation of grape musts. Depending on the origin of the glycerol, different isotopic ratios were found; these can be used for the detection of adulterated food or as proof of the authenticity of a given product, such as wine. Received: 13 May 1998     

Eigenoscillations of a thin-walled azimuthally closed,axially open shell of revolution

This paper generalizes earlier authors’ results on the analytical approximation of the singularly perturbed boundary problem describing the eigenoscillations of a thin-walled axisymmetric shell. The asymptotic behavior of the eigenmodes at the clamped ends is studied, and a set of trial functions capturing this behavior is constructed to be used in the Ritz method. Illustrative numerical examples demonstrate a fast convergence so that the eigenmodes are accurately approximated in a uniform metric together with their second-, third-, and fourth-order derivatives. The numerical results are validated by comparing them with an asymptotic eigensolution and computations done by the ANSYS codes based on the finite-element method.     

Latent structure and factorial invariance of a neuropsychological test battery for the study of preclinical Alzheimer's disease.

Objective: To examine the latent structure of a test battery currently being used in a longitudinal study of asymptomatic middle-aged adults with a parental history of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and test the invariance of the factor solution across subgroups defined by selected demographic variables and known genetic risk factors for AD. Method: An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a sequence of confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were conducted on 24 neuropsychological measures selected to provide a comprehensive estimate of cognitive abilities most likely to be affected in preclinical AD. Once the underlying latent model was defined and the structural validity established through model comparisons, a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis model was used to test for factorial invariance across groups. Results: The EFA solution revealed a factor structure consisting of five constructs: verbal ability, visuospatial ability, speed & executive function, working memory, and verbal learning & memory. The CFA models provided support for the hypothesized 5-factor structure. Results indicated factorial invariance of the model across all groups examined. Conclusions: Collectively, the results suggested a relatively strong psychometric basis for using the factor structure in clinical samples that match the characteristics of this cohort. This confirmed an invariant factor structure should prove useful in research aimed to detect the earliest cognitive signature of preclinical AD in similar middle aged cohorts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adaptive Modulation and Multiple Access for the OFDM Transmission Technique

For the transmission of flexible andhigh data rates in future mobile communicationsystems, the multicarrier transmission technique(Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing, OFDM) canbe regarded as a possible alternative tosingle-carrier transmission that is used in today'ssystems. One of the advantages of OFDM is theflexibility concerning modulation and multiple accesstechniques. Since in OFDM the total bandwidth isdivided into a large number of subcarriers, it can beflexibly shared among all the users. In addition, themodulation scheme can be individually chosen for eachsubcarrier, thus granting the possibility of anadaptation to the radio channel characteristics. Inthis paper, the combination of two different multipleaccess schemes, OFDM-FDMA and OFDM-TDMA, and anappropriate adaptive modulation technique isconsidered for the downlink of a communication system.Different degrees of adaptivity are analysed andcompared to show the benefit of an ``intelligent'multiple access and modulation strategy. For thegiven parameters and assumptions, OFDM-TDMA withadaptive modulation yields an improvement of 6 dB insignal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at a bit error rate (BER)of 10^-2. When OFDM-FDMA with adaptive subcarrierallocation is applied, the SNR gain amounts to 12.5 dB(BER of 10^-2).     

Exploring sitting posture and discomfort using nonlinear analysis methods.

-The possibilities for describing sitting postural control using nonlinear methods was investigated during long-term driving. A total of 85 min of motorway driving intervals (n=12) were used for analysis. The results show that contrary to conventional analysis techniques, nonlinear measures were able to identify a threshold behavior describing the change in discomfort. Visual recurrence plots showed a clear change in the underlying dynamics after 1 hr of driving. The result was confirmed by the statistically significant differences in the stability and complexity of the COP time series, as explored using recurrence quantification analysis and spatio-temporal entropy. The findings of the experiment are consistent with the literature, and present a novel way to uncover transitions of discomfort stages in sitting behavioral research.