Externalizing psychopathology and marital adjustment in long-term marriages: Results from a large combined sample of married couples.

The current study evaluated the associations between externalizing psychopathology and marital adjustment in a combined sample of 1,805 married couples. We further considered the role of personality in these associations, as personality has been found to predict both the development of externalizing psychopathology as well as marital distress and instability. Diagnostic interviews assessed conduct disorder, adult symptoms of antisocial personality disorder, and alcohol dependence. Personality was assessed using the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire. The Dyadic Adjustment Scale was used to measure marital adjustment. Results indicate that more externalizing psychopathology, greater negative emotionality, and lower communal positive emotionality were associated with reduced marital adjustment in both individuals and their spouses. Low constraint was associated with reduced marital adjustment for individuals but not for their spouses. Multivariate analyses indicated externalizing psychopathology continued to predict marital adjustment even when accounting for overlap with personality. These results highlight the importance of examining the presence of externalizing psychopathology and the personality attributes of both members of a dyad when considering psychological predictors of marital adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effective components of TORDIA cognitive–behavioral therapy for adolescent depression: Preliminary findings.

In this report, we conducted a secondary analysis of the Treatment of SSRI-Resistant Depression in Adolescents (TORDIA) study to explore the impact of specific cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT) treatment components on outcome. In TORDIA, 334 youths (ages 12 to 18 years) with major depressive disorder who had failed to respond to an adequate course of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) medication were randomized to a medication switch (either to an alternative SSRI or venlafaxine) with or without 12 weeks of adjunctive CBT. Participants who had more than 9 CBT sessions were 2.5 times more likely to have adequate treatment response than those who had 9 or fewer sessions. CBT participants who received problem-solving and social skills treatment components, controlling for number of sessions and other confounding variables, were 2.3 and 2.6 times, respectively, more likely to have a positive response. These preliminary findings underscore the importance of receiving an adequate number of sessions to attain an adequate clinical response. Finally, social skills and problem solving may be active elements in CBT for adolescent depression and should be considered in treatment by those working with seriously depressed youths. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Advances in research with sexual minority people: Introduction to the special issue.

Presents an introduction to a special issue of the Journal of Counseling Psychology. This editorial discusses advances in research with sexual minority people. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Renewable rural electrification: Sustainability assessment of mini-hybrid off-grid technological systems in the African context

The investigation summarised in this paper applied a sustainability assessment methodology on a renewable energy technological system in a rural village project that was commissioned by the South African Department of Minerals and Energy. The project comprised of wind, solar and lead-acid battery energy storage technologies that were implemented as a mini-hybrid off-grid electrification system for the village. The sustainability assessment methodology predicts the outcomes of such interventions by way of a learning model using discipline experts in the fields of economics, sociology, ecosystem sustainability, institutional governance, and the physics and chemistry of energy conversion processes. The comparison of the project's outcomes with a South African sustainable development framework shows that the specific village renewable off-grid electrification system is not viable. The main reason is that charges for electricity supply costs in village grids are too high for available subsidies; the economies of scale for renewable energy supply technologies favour national grids. The failure of the integrated system may also be attributable to the complexity of the social-institutional sub-system, which resulted in uncertainty for project planners and system designers, and the lack of resilience of the technological system to demands from the socio-economic and institutional sub-systems. Policy-related recommendations are made accordingly.     

Experimental and computational infrared imaging of bluff body stabilized laminar diffusion flames

The concept of comparing measured and computed images is extended to the mid-infrared spectrum to provide a non-intrusive technique for studying flames. Narrowband radiation intensity measurements of steady and unsteady bluff body stabilized laminar ethylene diffusion flames are acquired using an infrared camera. Computational infrared images are rendered by solving the radiative transfer equation for parallel lines-of-sight through the flame and using a narrowband radiation model with computed scalar values. Qualitative and quantitative comparisons of the measured and computed infrared images provide insights into the flame stabilization region and beyond. The unique shapes and sizes of the flames observed in the measured and computed infrared images are similar with a few exceptions which are shown to be educational. The important differences occur in the flame stabilization region suggesting improvements in thermal control of the experiment and soot formation and heat loss models.     

Modifications in stability and structure of whey protein-coated o/w emulsions by interacting chitosan and gum arabic mixed dispersions

The influence of chitosan and gum arabic mixtures on the behaviour of o/w emulsions has been investigated at pH = 3.0. The emulsion behaviour, properties and microstructure were found to be greatly dependent on the precise gum arabic to chitosan ratio. Mixing of gum arabic with chitosan leads to the formation of coacervates of a size dependent on their ratio. Incorporation of low gum arabic to chitosan weight ratios into whey protein-coated emulsions causes depletion flocculation and gravity-induced phase separation. Increasing the polysaccharide weight ratio further, a droplet network with a rather high viscosity (at low shear stress) is generated, which prevents or even inhibits phase separation. At even higher gum arabic to chitosan ratios, the emulsion droplets were immobilised into clusters of an insoluble ternary matrix. Although the emulsion droplet charge had the same sign as that of the coacervates, clusters of oil droplets in a ternary matrix were generated. A mechanism to explain the behaviour of the whey protein-stabilised o/w emulsions is described on the basis of confocal and phase contrast microscopic observations, rheological data, zeta potential measurements, particle size analysis and visual assessment of the macroscopic phase separation events.     

Advancing disciplinary practice through critical thinking: A rejoinder to Bensley.

The authors respond to Bensley’s (see record 2009-12731-009) comment on their alternative formulation of critical thinking in psychology (see record 2008-11592-004). They argue that Bensley’s defense of the traditional critical thinking approach—which they term scientific analytic reasoning (SAR)—fails to address their main objections to SAR and their reasons for presenting an alternative. In particular, the openness, fairness, and generativity that Bensley references as strengths of SAR are themselves informed by scientific analytic assumptions and values, which, they argue, illustrates their original contention—that SAR offers an insular and insufficiently critical approach to critical thinking. The authors conclude by calling for future developments in critical thinking that are not driven by an implicit SAR agenda. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Challenges of Inclusive Cross-Scale Collective Action in Watersheds

Abstract

Increasing attention to watershed management is part of an international policy trend toward integrated water resource management. Integration is multidimensional—across sectors, administrative regions, ministerial portfolios and levels of hydrologic structure and socioeconomic organization. Collective action is key. Individuals need to work effectively together to share common water points; upstream land users and downstream water consumers need to manage and resolve potential conflicts over water quantity and quality, while all the industries, farming communities, urban residents and public agencies that have interests in resource use and environmental quality need to agree on development and conservation objectives and approaches at the basin level. Initiatives that seek to foster collective action in watersheds need to account for the very different interests in water and watershed management. While there may be relatively straightforward ways to foster collective action at a local scale, some forms of collective action may, in fact, be detrimental to other stakeholders. In the developing world in particular, there are often geographic pockets and social groups that are chronically disadvantaged in collective and public processes. Water-users' associations and basin authorities may exacerbate these disparities and further marginalize already poor people. New statutory institutions may intentionally or inadvertently disempower effective customary local institutions. To enable project and program designers to address these challenges better, this paper lays out a framework for assessing the potential for, and implications of, individual and collective decisions in a watershed context. The framework integrates concepts drawn from the biophysical and social sciences, including new perspectives on watershed components, poverty, and collective action. Collective action is seen as a fractal process: collective action for water management at one level of social-spatial organization can have spillover effects at lower and higher levels of social-spatial resolution. To be pro-poor, watershed-management institutions must be genuinely inclusive, deliberately recognizing the interests, perspectives and knowledge of groups that may be systematically excluded from other political and social processes. Researchers, evaluators, watershed-management practitioners and others who apply the framework should be better placed to lay the foundations for that illusive goal: pro-poor, inclusive and resource-conserving development.     

Electrical Resistance Tomography (ERT) applications to Chemical Engineering

Electrical Resistance Tomography (ERT) has the capability of offering time-evolving multidimensional comprehensive process knowledge, enrichment of fundamental process understanding and enhancement of the design and operation of process equipment by measuring the conductivity distribution within a process-plant of interest. This paper reviews the wide variety of previous work on ERT applications to Chemical Engineering. The applications are categorized based on the unit operations ERT has been applied to, the media under investigation, the purpose of ERT measurements and also other technologies used in conjunction with ERT. The aim of this taxonomy is to provide the reader with a general understanding of the current situation of ERT related research and proven applications in the Chemical Engineering field and to facilitate the recognition of research gaps for future investigation. Based on this detailed taxonomy and review the potential application of ERT to the milk powder processing industry was identified. Some results of the application of ERT to milk mixing/holding tanks and milk flow pipelines for the purpose of concentration and composition measurements, detection of abnormalities and faults, and multidimensional flow and velocity profile measurements have also been presented as a case study of using this taxonomy.     

Alternative Realizations of CMOS Current Feedback Amplifiers for Low Voltage Applications

Two variants of a new current feedback amplifier (CFA) are presented in this paper. These CFAs are realized in CMOS technology and both are capable of working at low voltages. It is shown that one circuit performs better than the other by virtue of an increased impedance at its Z terminal achieved through the use of additional transistors. Analysis of both variants of the current conveyor and buffer that form the current feedback amplifier gives an insight into the location of primary poles and zeros of the CFAs. Simulation results indicate an overall gain bandwidth product in excess of 59 MHz and 102 MHz for each circuit at a gain of –10 and with a 3.3 V supply. Experimental results from a chip fabricated in a 0.35 m CMOS technology agree closely with the simulation results.