Does life satisfaction moderate the effects of stressful life events on psychopathological behavior during adolescence?

Psychologists within a positive psychology framework have proposed the existence of a set of psychological strengths that buffer against the development of psychopathology. To date, most research efforts in positive psychology have focused on adults. This longitudinal study tested the prediction that adolescents' judgments of life satisfaction moderate the influence of stressful life events on the subsequent development of psychopathological behavior. Using a sample of 816 middle and high school students, the study demonstrated support for the moderational model for externalizing behavior outcomes, but not internalizing behavior problems. Specifically, adolescents with positive life satisfaction (vs. those who were dissatisfied with their lives) were less likely to develop later externalizing behaviors in the face of stressful life events. The study also revealed that adolescent life satisfaction reports show moderate stability across a one-year time frame and independently predict subsequent externalizing behavior even while controlling for prior levels of externalizing behavior... (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychologists in secondary schools in the 1990s: Current functions, training, and job satisfaction.

Surveyed 173 school psychologists serving secondary schools concerning their current roles and functions, training needs, and general job satisfaction. Results revealed that many school psychologists in secondary schools are providing a wide variety of services, including direct (e.g., counseling) and indirect (e.g., consultation) services. Approximately three-quarters of the Ss reported being satisfied with their work in secondary schools. Job satisfaction was related to increased time spent in intervention-related activities and decreased time spent in psychological assessment activities. Data reflected encouraging findings regarding the scope of school psychological services in secondary settings but also underscored the need for diversified training of school psychologists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship between attachment, psychopathology, and childhood disability.

Analyzes the literature on 3 aspects of attachment—neurobiological influences, interpersonal and intrapersonal factors, and societal factors—in the psychological development of chronically disabled children. Evidence suggests that neurochemical substances such as cortisol and brain biogenic amine systems reciprocally interact with psychological and psychosocial factors to influence attachment. Interpersonal and intrapersonal factors such as temperamental characteristics of children, severity and type of disability, and family influences interact in the process of attachment. Social perceptions and prejudices about the disabled individual increase parental stress, and diminish parental involvement and resources, which are necessary for attachment. These 3 processes are powerful and interrelated forces in child development, with potential to modify social competence, neurological development, and psychosocial adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cover Picture: Functionalization of Crystalline Colloidal Arrays through Click Chemistry (Adv. Mater. 21/2007)

Photonic crystals based on electrostatically‐stabilized colloidal arrays dispersed in a liquid medium are of interest to materials scientists partly because of the optical tuning afforded to theses systems with a variation in interparticle distance. On p. 3507, Stephen Foulger and co‐workers from Clemson University, USA report on a general strategy for the preparation of well‐defined and regioselectively functionalized ordered colloidal particles through the exploitation of “click” chemistry. Click transformations have found utility in the synthesis and/or functionalization of a range of systems. In addition, the solvochromic tuning of the ordered arrays is employed to modify the emission spectra of the surface‐attached photoluminescent dyes.     

Correlation properties of combiners with memory in stream ciphers

For pseudo-random generators where one or several LFSRs are combined by a memoryless function, it is known that the output sequences are correlated to certain LFSR-sequences whose correlation coefficients c _t satisfy the equation _i c ₂ ⁱ = 1. In this paper it is proved that a corresponding result also holds for generators whose LFSRs are connected to a combiner with memory.If correlation probabilities are conditioned on side information, e.g., on known output digits, it is shown that new or stronger correlations may occur. This is exemplified for the summation cipher with only two LFSRs where such correlations can be exploited in a known plaintext attack. A cryptanalytic algorithm is given which is shown to be successful for LFSRs of considerable length and with arbitrary feedback connection.A preliminary version of this paper was presented at Eurocrypt '90, May 21–24, Århus, Denmark, and has appeared in the proceedings, pp. 204–213.     

Interaction of Silver/Palladium Electrodes with Lead-and Bismuth-Based Electroceramics

In this study the phase relations between Pd or 70Ag/30Pd electrode systems with commercially important Bi-or Pb-based oxides were determined to establish the conditions under which detrimental interfacial chemical reactions may occur. For the reaction of Pd with Bi compounds, PdBi₂O₄ formation was observed if the reaction proceeded at temperatures less than 835°C. At higher temperatures a Pd (Bi) alloy formed containing the maximum solubility of the Bi, i.e., 16 at.%. For the reaction of Pd with Pb compounds, a Pd (Pb) alloy formed which in all instances exhibited the maximum solubility of the Pb, i.e., 14 at.%. These reactions had an adverse effect on the local stoichiometry and composition of the dielectric, causing depletion of Bi or Pb. Studies on commercial capacitor dielectrics from DuPont (X7R and Z5U formulations) and Pb (Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃ showed that the use of Pd electrodes decreased the dielectric constant substantially, which was due to the formation of a low permittivity phase in series connectivity with the unaltered dielectric.     

Increasing the usefulness of additive spline models by knot removal

Modern techniques for fitting generalized additive models mostly rely on basis expansions of covariates using a large number of basis functions and penalized estimation of parameters. For example, a mixed model approach is used to fit a model for children’s lung function that allows for non-linear influence of several covariates available in a substantial data set. While the resulting model is expected to have good prediction performance, its handling beyond simple visual presentation is problematic. It is shown how the number basis functions of the underlying B-spline representation can be reduced by knot removal techniques without refitting, while preserving the shape of the fitted functions. The condition for exact knot removal is extended towards approximate knot removal by incorporating the covariance matrix of the initial parameter estimates, resulting in considerable simplification of the model. Covariance matrices for the transformed parameter estimates are provided. It is demonstrated that enforcing the knot removal condition during estimation leads to the difference penalties employed in the P-spline approach for estimation of B-spline coefficients, and therefore provides a further justification for this type of penalty. A final transform to a truncated power basis provides a simple equation for the model. This increases transportability, while retaining properties of the initial fit such as good prediction performance.     

An Overview and Future Perspectives of Aluminum Batteries

A critical overview of the latest developments in the aluminum battery technologies is reported. The substitution of lithium with alternative metal anodes characterized by lower cost and higher abundance is nowadays one of the most widely explored paths to reduce the cost of electrochemical storage systems and enable long‐term sustainability. Aluminum based secondary batteries could be a viable alternative to the present Li‐ion technology because of their high volumetric capacity (8040 mAh cm^?3 for Al vs 2046 mAh cm^?3 for Li). Additionally, the low cost aluminum makes these batteries appealing for large‐scale electrical energy storage. Here, we describe the evolution of the various aluminum systems, starting from those based on aqueous electrolytes to, in more details, those based on non‐aqueous electrolytes. Particular attention has been dedicated to the latest development of electrolytic media characterized by low reactivity towards other cell components. The attention is then focused on electrode materials enabling the reversible aluminum intercalation‐deintercalation process. Finally, we touch on the topic of high‐capacity aluminum‐sulfur batteries, attempting to forecast their chances to reach the status of practical energy storage systems.     

The MORPHEUS Heterogeneous Dynamically Reconfigurable Platform

Reconfigurable computing offers a wide range of low cost and efficient solutions for embedded systems. The proper choice of the reconfigurable device, the granularity of its processing elements and its memory architecture highly depend on the type of application and their data flow. Existing solutions either offer fine grain FPGAs, which rely on a hardware synthesis flow and offer the maximum degree of flexibility, or coarser grain solutions, which are usually more suitable for a particular type of data flow and applications. In this paper, we present the MORPHEUS architecture, a versatile reconfigurable heterogeneous System-on-Chip targeting streaming applications. The presented architecture exploits different reconfigurable technologies at several computation granularities that efficiently address the different applications needs. In order to efficiently exploit the presented architecture, we implemented a complete software solution to map C applications to the reconfigurable architecture. In this paper, we describe the complete toolset and provide concrete use cases of the architecture.