Attachment to the therapist.

This study examines the ways in which therapists function as attachment figures for patients. Patients in long-term psychoanalytic therapy answered questionnaires about their feelings about their therapists and their closest personal relationships. Components of attachment prominent in the therapeutic relationships were looking up to the therapist and feeling the therapist was responsive to emotional needs. Stronger attachment to therapists was associated with greater frequency and duration of therapy, a stronger working alliance, and greater security of the patients' attachment style, as well as with the gender of the patient and therapist. Using attachment theory to understand psychoanalytic relationships emphasizes the unique importance of a therapist to a patient and can offer new perspectives on both therapeutic and attachment processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

New advances in the treatment of infertility in women with ovarian failure

Ovarian failure is heterogeneous in etiology and may occur at various points in a woman's life. As such, it may interfere with fertility. Clinical presentation ranges from complete cessation of menses to oligomenorrhea to the continuation of menses with elevated gonadotropins. Various therapies have been used in an attempt to induce fertility, including sex steroids and gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists to suppress circulating gonadotropin alone or in combination with estrogen or gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists to induce ovulation. Corticosteroids are also used to overcome autoimmunity. Randomized therapeutic trials are rare and fail to demonstrate any significant improvement in ovulation and pregnancy rates. Donor oocytes have demonstrated high success rates and have proven to be useful in patients with both premature ovarian failure and natural menopause. Pregnancies have been initiated and maintained in women through 60 years of age. Thus, for those accepting of the technique, oocyte donation appears to be the treatment of choice for hypergonadotropic hypogonadism.     

Generalized Gabor expansions of discrete-time signals in l2(Z) via biorthogonal-like sequences

In this paper, a biorthogonal-like sequences (BLS) theory and its application to the generalized Gabor expansions (equivalently, the generalized short-time Fourier transform/filterbank summation) are presented. A pair of BLS's are defined to be two sequences satisfying a biorthogonal-like condition (BLC), which is a moment equation and equivalent to a linear difference equation. We show that two collections in a Hilbert space generated by a pair of BLS's in the joint time-frequency domain are complete, either can be used as an analysis filter, and the other can be used as a synthesis filter for a generalized Gabor expansion of discrete-time signals. A sufficient and necessary condition on the existence of BLS's based on the moment equation is presented, which is simpler to use than frame theory. Given a filter generating a frame, its BLS's also generate frames. The dual frame is one of them. Given a FIR analysis/synthesis filter, there is a FIR synthesis/analysis filter if BLS's exist. The algorithm to compute FIR analysis and synthesis filters based on the linear difference equation is presented in this paper, which is simpler than frame operator     

An analysis of contemporary printed wiring board manufacturing environment in the USA

This article presents a comparative analysis of contemporary printed wiring assembly (PWA) batch manufacturing systems employing surface mount technology (SMT), This analysis is accomplished by reviewing a typical case study of PWA manufacturing system in the USA. A previously developed model is then applied to the system to predict the cost and performance in the production of typical PWA designs. Various modifications to the system are then proposed and evaluated. From the case study, conclusions concerning optimum manufacturing system configuration for this industry can be drawn and are presented.     

Off-Optimum Cure of Aerospace Epoxy Adhesives

Four epoxy film adhesives used in aircraft manufacture and repair have been examined to establish the effect of deviation from the cure cycle specified by the manufacturer. In addition to the variation of the cure cycle, two surface preparations of the aluminium adherends (chromic acid etch or grit blast followed by silane treatment) were evaluated. Thermal analysis was used to examine the cure envelope of the adhesive, and its extent of cure and glass transition temperature. The adhesive properties were assessed by shear strength (in both single lap joints and in Iosipescu configuration), durability (Boeing wedge test) and chemical resistance to selected aggressive fluids. The sensitivity of the performance of a particular adhesive to offoptimum cure conditions depends on its composition and needs to be determined, not predicted.     

Robot manipulator kinematic compensation using a generalized jacobian formulation

The kinematic error compensation of robot manipulators is at present being attempted by improving the precision of the nominal robot kinematic parameters. This paper addresses the problem of kinematic compensation using a new mathematical joint model proposed to account for shortcomings in existing methods. The corrected manipulator transformation is formulated in terms of “generalized Jacobians”: relating differential errors at the joints to the differential change in the manipulator transformation. The details of application are discussed for a particular industrial manipulator.     

Post-compaction heat-treatment response of dynamically-compacted Inconel 718 powder

Dynamically-compacted Inconel 718 powder has been heat treated in order to examine the evolution of microstructural recovery and hardness, recrystallization and grain coarsening, and interparticle-adhesion and fracture response. Following dynamic compaction the compacted powders are imperfectly bonded and the material is fairly brittle; the shock wave has caused significant hardening; local microstructures and properties are variable from particle surface to interior. Following annealing at 900 to 1000° C, virtually complete recrystallization occurs giving rise to a material which is softened and has a fine-scale microstructure. Little improvement in fracture response occurs, however, because the oxidized prior-particle surfaces do not weld together. Shock-wave consolidation offers the possibility of producing monolithic, microstructurally-fine materials, providing suitable post-consolidation thermo-mechanical processes are developed to overcome the limited bonding problem.     

Life stress and lymphocyte alterations among patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Studied the relation between life stress and immune parameters for 33 30–70 yr old female rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients interviewed during 3 routine monthly clinic checkups. Life stress from major and minor events, coping efficacy, and self-reported psychological distress were assessed, and immunofluorescence of T-cells and B-cells was performed on the blood drawn during each visit. Small stressful events were positively related to the proportion of circulating B-cells, psychological distress was inversely related to proportion of circulating T-cells, and major life events were associated with lower T-helper/T-suppressor cell ratios. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)