Categories for classifying language in psychotherapy.

A review of language analysis systems employed in psychotherapy research suggests a typology based on the combination of 3 category types with 2 coding strategies. The types are content categories, intersubjective categories, and extralinguistic categories. They are defined by distinct sets of language features. The coding strategies are the classical coding strategy, in which categories describe the text, and the pragmatic coding strategy, in which categories describe the speaker. A review of research results suggests that the content, intersubjective, and extralinguistic features constitute distinct channels of communication and that (a) the content channel carries information pertaining to the speaker's psychodynamic process and personality structure, (b) the intersubjective channel carries information pertaining to the quality of the speaker's relationship with the other, and (c) the extralinguistic channel carries information pertaining to the speaker's transitory emotional state. Three system consistency criteria are suggested for use in conjunction with the typology to evaluate categories and category systems. Recommendations are made for meeting these criteria: categories should be pure types, and categories within a system (or subsystem) should be of the same type. (112 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A surface potential-based compact model of n-MOSFET gate-tunneling current

Aggressive scaling of the gate-oxide thickness has made gate-tunneling current an essential aspect of MOSFET modeling. This work presents a novel physics-based compact model of gate current in the n-MOSFET. A simplified version of the Esaki-Tsu formula is developed to calculate the tunneling current density, in which the original integral is approximated to retain the essential physics without sacrificing computational efficiency required in a compact model. The proposed model is surface potential-based in both the channel and source/drain overlap regions. The channel component of the gate current is physically partitioned into the source and drain parts using a symmetrically linearized version of the charge-sheet model. The partition is implemented in analytical form and accounts for the drain bias dependence of the channel component. A small number of adjustable parameters is sufficient to reproduce the experimentally observed bias and geometry dependence of the gate current for several advanced processes.     

Polarimetric calibration of SIR-C using point and distributedtargets

In preparation for the Shuttle Imaging Radar-C/XSAR (SIR-C/XSAR) flights, the University of Michigan has been involved in the development of calibration procedures and precision calibration devices to quantify the complex radar images with an accuracy of 0.5 dB in magnitude and 5 degrees in phase. In this paper, the preliminary results of the SIR-C calibration and a summary of the University of Michigan's activity in the Raco calibration super-site is presented. In this calibration campaign an array of point calibration targets including trihedral corner reflectors and polarimetric active radar calibrators (PARCs) in addition to a uniform distributed target were used for characterizing the radiometric calibration constant and the distortion parameters of the C-band SAR. Two different calibration methods, one based on the application of point targets and the other based on the application of the distributed target, are used to calibrate the SIR-C data and the results are compared with calibrated images provided by JPL. The distributed target used in this experiment was a field of grass, sometimes covered with snow, whose differential Mueller matrix was measured immediately after the SIR-C overpass using The University of Michigan polarimetric scatterometer systems. The scatterometers were calibrated against a precision metallic sphere and measured 100 independent spatial samples for characterizing the differential Mueller matrix of the distributed target to achieve the desired calibration accuracy. The L-band SAR has not yet been adequately calibrated for inclusion here     

Impact of Cluster C personality disorders on outcomes of contrasting brief psychotherapies for depression.

Twenty-seven of 114 depressed clients, stratified for severity of depression, obtained a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed.; DSM-III; American Psychiatric Association, 1980) diagnosis of Cluster C personality disorder, that is, avoidant, obsessive-compulsive or dependent personality disorder (PD clients), whereas the remaining 87 did not (non-personality-disorder [NPD] clients). All clients completed either 8 or 16 sessions of cognitive-behavioral (CB) or psychodynamic-interpersonal (PI) psychotherapy. On most measures, PD clients began with more severe symptomatology than NPD clients. Among those who received PI therapy, PD clients maintained this difference posttreatment and at 1-year follow-up. Among those who received CB therapy, posttreatment differences between PD and NPD groups were not significant. Treatment length did not influence outcome for PD clients. PD clients whose depression was also relatively severe showed significantly less improvement after treatment than either PD clients with less severe depression or NPD clients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A scattering model for thin dielectric cylinders of arbitrary crosssection and electrical length

A scattering solution for long, thin, dielectric cylinders of arbitrary cross section and electrical length is presented. The infinite-cylinder scattering formulation is shown to be an asymptotic solution for the finite-cylinder case, regardless of cylinder electrical length or cross section. The generalized Rayleigh-Gans (GRG) approximation for circular cylinders is shown to be a specific case of this general formulation, and therefore, the assertions of GRG are explicitly proven. A moment-method (MM) solution for thin circular cylinders is likewise presented and is used to examine and quantify the asymptotic errors associated with this solution     

Effervescent Solid Dispersions of Prednisone,Griseofulvin and Primidone

Various prednisone (Pd), griseofulvin (Gr), and primidone (Pr) solid dispersions mady by the fusion method utilizing diffent carriers and drug: carrier ratios were evaluated. Citric acid (CA), succinic acid (SA) and tartaric acid (TA) were employed in various ratios with sodium bicarbonate (SB) as carriers for the respective drugs.

CA:SB was the most effective carrier for releasing Pd and Pr, and SA:SB was found to be the best carrier for Gr. Results showed that there was an increase in in dissolution rate as the proportion of SB increased in the carrier system.     

Direction interval retrieval with thresholded nudging: a method forimproving the accuracy of QuikSCAT winds

The SeaWinds scatterometer was developed by NASA JPL, Pasadena, CA, to measure the speed and direction of ocean surface winds. It was then launched onboard the QuikSCAT spacecraft. The accuracy of the majority of the swath and the size of the swath are such that the SeaWinds on QuikSCAT Mission (QSCAT) meets its science requirements despite shortcomings at certain cross-track positions. Nonetheless, it is desirable to modify the baseline processing in order to improve the quality of the less accurate portions of the swath, in particular near the far swath and nadir. Two disparate problems have been identified for these regions. At far swath, ambiguity removal skill is degraded due to the absence of inner beam measurements, limited azimuth diversity and boundary effects. Near nadir, due to nonoptimal measurement geometry, (measurement azimuths approximately 180° apart) there is a marked decrease in directional accuracy even when ambiguity removal works correctly. Two algorithms have been developed: direction interval retrieval (DIR) to address the nadir performance issue and thresholded nudging (TN) to improve ambiguity removal at far swath. The authors illustrate the impact of the two techniques by exhibiting prelaunch simulation results and postlaunch statistical performance metrics with respect to ECMWF wind fields and buoy data     

Microwave scattering model for grass blade structures

The EM scattering solution for a grass blade with complex cross-section geometry is considered. It was previously shown that the scattering solution for such problems, in the form of a polarizability tensor, can be obtained using the low-frequency approximation in conjunction with the method of moments. In addition, that study showed that the relationship between the polarizability tensor of a dielectric cylinder and its dielectric constant can be approximated by a simple algebraic expression. The results of that study are used to show that this algebraic approximation is valid also for cylinders with cross sections the shape of grass blades, providing that proper values are selected for each of three constants appearing in the expression. These constants are dependent on cylinder shape, and if the relationship between the constants and the three parameters describing a grass blade shape can be determined, an algebraic approximation relating polarizability tensor to blade shape, as well as dielectric constant, can be formed. This algebraic approximation can replace the cumbersome method of moments model. The moment method model is therefore used to generate a small but representative set of polarizability tensor data over the range of values commonly observed in nature. A conjugate gradient method is then implemented to correctly determine the three constants of the algebraic approximation for each blade shape. A third-order polynomial fit to the data is then determined for each constant, thus providing a complete analytic replacement to the numerical (moment method) scattering model