A randomized controlled trial of the therapeutic workplace for community methadone patients: A partial failure to engage.

The Therapeutic Workplace is an employment-based treatment for drug addiction that uses wages for work to reinforce drug abstinence. The Therapeutic Workplace has promoted abstinence from heroin and cocaine in treatment-resistant mothers in methadone treatment. This study attempted to replicate that effect in crack cocaine users recruited from community-based methadone programs. Participants were randomly assigned to a Therapeutic Workplace (n=22) or usual care control (n=25) group. Therapeutic Workplace participants were invited to work in the workplace and earn vouchers every weekday for 9 months contingent on documented opiate and cocaine abstinence. The two groups did not differ significantly on measures of cocaine or opiate use collected during study participation. Daily attendance and urinalysis results of the Therapeutic Workplace group were analyzed, and only 7 of the 22 participants initiated consistent periods of abstinence and workplace attendance. Two individuals gained access to the workplace on a few days, and 9 participants attempted to gain access to the workplace but never provided a drug-negative urine sample. Possible reasons for differences between the current study and the previous Therapeutic Workplace study are considered. Procedures that increase participant contact with the Therapeutic Workplace and its reinforcement contingencies might increase the likelihood of these individuals being successful in the treatment program. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pavlovian contingencies and temporal information.

The effects of altering the contingency between the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the unconditioned stimulus (US) on the acquisition of autoshaped responding was investigated by changing the frequency of unsignaled USs during the intertrial interval. The addition of the unsignaled USs had an effect on acquisition speed comparable with that of massing trials. The effects of these manipulations can be understood in terms of their effect on the amount of information (number of bits) that the average CS conveys to the subject about the timing of the next US. The number of reinforced CSs prior to acquisition is inversely related to the information content of the CS. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contingency planning in the banking community

This article deals with computer contingency planning in the banking community. Its focus is on Federal regulatory banking agencies and various banking associations and their parts in influencing banks to develop contingency plans. Examples of specific banks' contingency plans are presented.     

Some cautions in large-scale system design and implementation

Virtually all large-scale system implementations will benefit from the application of certain management techniques. Awareness (and avoidance) of erroneous assumptions as to system requirements and objectives, data reliability, human interface, and testing methods is important. Strategies such as phased implementation, use of pilots and packaged software, and categorizing and reducing risks are useful. Knowledgeable selection of applicable developments in computer architecture and serious use of planning and control techniques are advocated.Today's trends include well-informed users, better hardware and networking facilities, analysis and study of alternatives, and heavy user involvement in the entire system design and implementation process.     

Graphic determination of significance of 2 X 2 contingency tables.

There are several techniques available for determining the significance of differences in proportions, or frequencies in the 2 X 2 contingency tables. All of these techniques have their limitations. A method is proposed which overcomes some of these limitations. The method is applicable for the situation where the two samples being compared are independently selected and contain the same number of Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Delay of gratification, motivation for the prohibited gratification, and responses to temptation.

Yielding to temptation, in a situation in which attainment of achievement rewards is contingent upon deviant (cheating) behavior, was conceptualized to be a function of (a) the strength of the motivation to attain the prohibited gratification, and (b) the inability to delay immediate gratification. 6th-grade boys participated in an experimentally controlled "shooting gallery" game of skill in which attainment of achievement rewards (prizes) was contingent upon the child's falsifying his own scores. Motivation for the prohibited gratification was inferred from "n Achievement" scores: preference for immediate, smaller (ImR) or delayed, larger (DelR) rewards in choice situations was the index of the ability to delay gratification. Achievement motivation was related to the S's producing sufficiently deviant scores to obtain an achievement reward, and preference for DelR was related negatively to the amount of cheating and positively to the latency of cheating, i.e., the number of trials before the occurrence of the 1st deviation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

基于N-k故障的地区电网脆弱性评估

电力系统N-k故障与电网中的脆弱环节有着紧密的联系,脆弱性评估已成为预防连锁故障的热门课题。为了辨识这些脆弱故障路径,在功能组分解的基础上,提出N-k故障路径搜索方法及其概率模型。引入效用理论来定义故障严重度函数,并基于熵值法和层次分析法对各项风险指标加权得到系统N-k故障综合风险指标。根据路径风险脆弱性和结构脆弱性函数,进一步提出适用于电网N-k故障的脆弱性指标,用以定量分析故障路径以及电网整体的脆弱程度。将该算法应用在河南某一地区电网,指出其中的脆弱线路和节点。仿真分析表明:与单一考虑风险的脆弱度评估方法相比,考虑了结构重要度的风险脆弱性评估的准确度更高,评估结果对电网监控亦更有意义。     

电网断面热稳定限额计算模型及方法

分析了电网预想开断前后设备组(并联运行的线路或并列运行的主变压器)的有功潮流变化情况。通过剩余/转移系数将预想开断后的设备组有功潮流表示为设备组初始有功潮流的线性函数。依据设备短时、长期运行载流量确定设备组初始有功潮流的约束条件,根据设备组热稳定限额与初始有功潮流的最小比值最大原则,提出了设备组热稳定限额的优化计算模型。运用线性规划单纯形法进行求解,并通过分岛计算提高算法的执行效率。根据用户定义的断面集,对设备组的热稳定限额进行叠加,给出断面热稳定限额。浙江电网的实际算例结果验证了所述模型的正确性和求解方法的有效性。     

考虑备自投的地区电网静态安全分析设计与应用

针对地区电网存在大量备自投装置这一特点,对各种类型备自投的动作原理进行了分析,提出了4种简单备自投模型和3种复合备自投模型,同时讨论了备自投的动作配合问题,提出了按电压等级设计备自投动作时限的方案。在此基础上,提出了考虑备自投的地区电网静态安全分析方法。该方法可以方便、准确地模拟各种类型备自投的动作。实际运行表明该算法得出的安全分析结果能够较好地符合地区电网运行的实际情况,表明了此算法的有效性和实用性。     

在线电压稳定监测中的一种事故扫描新方法

根据事故后稳态潮流与它们各自的电压稳定裕度指标的对应关系,提出了一种新的事故筛选指标,并从所有预想事故中筛选出一定数量的事故进入严重事故集,然后用改进连续潮流法求解对应的有功裕度指标并进行排序,极大地提高了事故扫描的速度,可应用于在线电压稳定监测。同时将该方法用于某省网系统的在线电压稳定监测计算,取得了显著的效果。