Justice as a principle for the distribution of open space maintenance: the conceptions of housing staff and tenants

This paper is about what people conceive as just principles for the distribution of open space maintenance. Housing staff and residents’ conceptions of just distribution of open space maintenance were studied in rental housing areas with large green open spaces in Sweden. Qualitative interviews with nine housing staff members and 27 tenants in three multi-family housing areas owned and managed by different municipal housing companies revealed widely varying conceptions. These could be partly classified into three basic principles: equal outcome, same inputs and less inputs (when decline is high). The conceptions varied among interviewees with different roles in providing upkeep, suggesting that they partly depended on the individual’s insight into the services. These personal conceptions of justice influence how people experience service distribution in a neighbourhood and pose a challenge for actors dealing with strategic decisions on open space maintenance.     

Both sides of the employment interview interaction: Perceptions of interviewers and applicants with disabilities.

Examined perceptions of the interview process in a correlational field study of 70 applicants (APs) with disabilities and 36 interviewers (IRs) without disabilities. IRs provided ratings of APs. 56 APs responded to questions about the IR and the interview. Results support hypotheses contending that the interview is a mutual influence process. IRs' preinterview impressions were positively correlated with their postinterview evaluations. However, time spent actively recruiting the AP was negatively correlated with the APs' ratings of IRs. AP disclosure of some types of disability-related information was positively related with IRs' ratings of APs' interview performances. Findings suggest that APs may want to discuss job-related aspects of their disability in the interview. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Endophthalmitis in eyes following vitrectomy

The authors describe two patients who underwent pars plana vitrectomy for nonclearing vitreous hemorrhage. Both patients had severe pain, increased intraocular pressure, and orbital swelling. The anterior chamber became flat in a phakic eye. The infection progressed rapidly, and ultimately evisceration was required in both cases. The presence of a flat anterior chamber in gas-filled, phakic eyes and a severe orbital inflammatory reaction in the early postoperative period should alert the physician to the possibility of endophthalmitis.     

Methodological issues in meta-analyzing standard deviations: Comment on Bond and DePaulo (2008).

In this comment on C. F. Bond and B. M. DePaulo (see record 2008-08177-001), the authors raise methodological concerns about the approach used to analyze the data. The authors suggest further refinement of the procedures used, and they compare the approach taken by Bond and DePaulo with standard methods for meta-analysis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A more natural approach for use in the evaluation of infants' stranger reactions.

Proposes an approach to 7-12 mo old infants in seeking to evaluate their social, emotional, cognitive, and/or physiological responses to a stranger, in a fashion that is consistent with a standardization that controls a multitude of possible variables while retaining sufficient spontaneity to prevent the stranger from appearing peculiar to the child. The approach is semistructured but integrates the findings of a previous study by R. Shaffran (1972) which concluded that the ideal way to avoid inhibition of stranger behavior imposed by a structured approach was not to standardize it and to do a post-facto analysis of the stranger-child interaction. In the proposed approach, the naive stranger is very spontaneous, he introduces several actions (as compared with one action) at once, he speaks frequently in various tones using various phrases, and he includes the mother in the interaction with the child. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship between expectancies for a helping relationship and tendency to seek help from a campus help provider.

236 undergraduate volunteers were randomly assigned to 1 of 7 experimental groups or a control group to complete a tendency-to-seek-help questionnaire. In addition, Ss in the experimental groups completed an expectancies-about-counseling questionnaire, designed to measure their expectancies about a helping interview with 7 campus help providers: advisor, career counselor, clinical psychologist, college counselor, counseling psychologist, peer counselor, and psychiatrist. Analysis of the data revealed (a) differences in the expectancies Ss held for the 7 campus help providers, (b) differences in the Ss' tendency to seek help from the 7 campus help providers for personal and career problems, and (c) relationships between the Ss' expectancies for a help provider and their tendency to turn to that help provider for assistance with a personal or career concern. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Creating therapeutic rituals in the psychotherapy of the bereaved.

Suggests that the creation of rituals in therapy for the bereaved offers methods of addressing grief work and constitutes an adjunct to traditional forms of counseling and psychotherapy. Nine specifically therapeutic properties of rituals are discussed. Psychological, social, physical, cultural, religious, and philosophical characteristics specific to the loss should determine the design of the therapeutic ritual. Case vignettes are included. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bounded-Degree Independent Sets in Planar Graphs

An independent set of a graph is a set of vertices without edges between them. Every planar graph has an independent set of size at least (1/4)n and there are planar graphs for which any independent set has size at most (1/4)n. In this paper similar bounds are provided for the problem of bounded-degree independent set, i.e., an independent set where additionally all vertices have degree less than a pre-specified bound D. Our upper and lower bounds match (up to a small constant) for D 16.     

Implementation of energy efficiency measures in compressed air systems: barriers,drivers and non-energy benefits

Increased global competition and resource scarcity drives industrial companies to cut costs. Energy can be a significant component of such cuts, particularly for energy-intensive companies. Improving energy efficiency in industry is complex, as it pertains to various energy-using processes that are heavily intertwined. One such process is the compressed air system (CAS), which is used in most industrial companies worldwide. Since energy efficiency improvement measures for various types of energy-using processes differ, technology-specific measures might encounter different barriers to and drivers for energy efficiency. The same applies to the non-energy benefits (NEBs) related to energy efficiency improvement measures; since measures vary between various energy-using processes, the perceived NEBs might be different as well. The aim of this paper is to study the barriers to, drivers for and NEBs of CAS energy efficiency improvement measures from the perspectives of three actors. Carried out as an interview study combined with a questionnaire, the paper merges the perspectives of users, audit experts and suppliers of CASs. The results showed that the major barriers are related to the investment, or are of an organisational character, and that organisational and economic factors seemed to be important for making positive decisions on energy efficiency investments and measures in CASs. Major NEBs for CASs include productivity gains and the avoidance of capital expenditures. The results of this study also address the importance of having a comprehensive approach to recognise additional effects of energy efficiency improvements in CASs.