Therapists' reactions to treatment of survivors of political torture.

Working with survivors of political torture and war trauma can trigger strong emotional responses in the therapist. As more survivors seek treatment, it is essential to identify and develop robust support systems for therapists who help their clients confront nearly unspeakable experiences. The emotional reactions of 6 psychotherapists who worked with traumatized survivors in a refugee treatment center were explored. The psychotherapists' reactions were compared with those of therapists who worked in different treatment settings with other presenting problems. The results of the study show that the strong level of responsibility therapists feel for their traumatized clients may hide an emotional strain and may lead to burnout. Suggestions are offered for supporting therapists in this difficult but important work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding users and their needs

Gaze-control enables people to control a computer by using eye-gaze to select items on screen. Gaze-control is a necessity for people who have lost all motor control of their body and only have control over eye movements. In addition, gaze-control can be the quickest and least tiring option for a far broader group of people with varying disabilities. This paper reports findings from gaze-control user trials involving users from both groups: people who are totally paralyzed, as well as people with a wide range of complex disabilities. The trials conducted involved four different centres supporting people with disabilities in three different European countries. Several gaze-control systems were trialled by a large number of users with varying needs and abilities. The perceived benefits of gaze-control are described, and recommendations for successful assessment and implementation of gaze-control are provided.     

Interactive fiction: Artificial intelligence as a mode of sign production

Interactive media need their own idioms that exploit the characteristics of the computer based sign. The fact that the reader can physically influence the course of events in the system changes the author's role, since he no longer creates a linear text but anarrative space that the reader can use to generate stories. Although stories are not simulations of the real world, they must still contain recognizable parts where everyday constraints of time and space hold. AI-techniques can be used to implement these constraints. In fact, we suggest that AI is probably best seen as an aesthetic phenomenon.     

Ultrafiltration of kraft cooking liquors from a continuous cooking process

Two cooking liquors and a black liquor were fractionated by ultrafiltration. The liquors were withdrawn from different stages in a kraft pulp mill employing continuous digestion. The ultrafiltration was performed at 90°C with two ceramic membranes with cut-offs of 5 kDa and 15 kDa. Only small differences in membrane performance were observed when concentrating the three liquors to 90% volume reduction. The average flux was 55 l/m² h for the 5 kDa membrane and about 115 l/m² h for the 15 kDa membrane. The concentration of lignin was on average 230 and 155 g/L in the retentate from the 5 kDa and 15 kDa cut-off membranes. The ash content was reduced from 37–40 g/g total dry solids to 20–30 g/g after ultrafiltration.     

Agility through scenario development and continuous implementation: a global aftermarket logistics case

This paper examines a business and IS/IT initiative at Volvo that involves managing the development and implementation of an agile aftermarket supply chain. The case is based on Volvo's global initiative to create a platform, Web services, and a Web portal for selling spare parts over the Internet. Creating and integrating a new platform is difficult, and establishing new relations in global aftermarket logistics is even more challenging. Agility relates to an organisation's ability to sense and respond rapidly to unpredictable events in order to satisfy changing customer demands. Volvo's effort illustrates agility as achieved by working continuously with scenario development and keeping implementation projects to a comprehendible size in order to nurture learning. The effort involved direct actions to manage both the technology and the relations among supply chain actors. As this case shows, continuous implementation projects can deliver innovation in new relations and through new channels – particularly if projects address agility from the start.     

The patient's contribution to the therapist's countertransference feelings

Countertransference feelings of psychiatric milieu therapists toward their patients were studied by using a self-report feeling word checklist. The feelings were scored on subscales of feeling states in a circumplex model. By using an analysis of variance model, comparisons between reactions to patients individually and reactions to patients with different personality organizations and with different Health-sickness rating scale scores could be made. A total number of 244 therapists at 21 small treatment homes were studied. It was found that approximately 15% of the therapists' countertransference feeling reactions could be accounted for by recurrent reactions to patients individually. Surprisingly, the personality organization and the Health-sickness rating scale score of the patient accounted for almost no variance in therapists' feelings. The results are discussed, and possible explanations are evaluated.     

Influence of Environment on Tunneling Thermometry

The electromagnetic environment of a tunnel junction can influence significantly the tunneling characteristics. We investigate experimentally a particular environment formed by tunnel junctions and compare the results with a theoretical model. We discuss Single Junction Thermometer and a two junction Coulomb Blockade Thermometer as examples.     

Swedish social mix policy: a general policy without an explicit ethnic focus

Neighbourhood social mix is currently a pressing issue for both researchers and policy makers in the Western world. In an international perspective, Sweden offers an interesting case as both the structure of the housing market and the focus of the social mix policy differs from other countries’ policies. The introduction of a policy for social mixing in Sweden in 1974 was a reaction to the increasing socioeconomic segregation in the housing market. Swedish city planning and the conditions in the housing market have however changed dramatically since the policy was first introduced. This article is based on official housing policy documents and interviews with public actors. It seeks to analyse the policy makers’ understanding of Swedish social mix policy and how the policy is translated into practical planning. The overall aim is to analyse the Swedish policy in relation to similar policies in other countries, this to point at some of the existing differences, especially the different perspective on ethnic segregation. On the basis of document analysis and interviews with public actors, we come to the conclusion that the understanding and practice of the social mix policy in Sweden have been rather consistent over time. Even though Sweden has experienced increasing immigration, which has added an ethnic dimension to housing segregation, the Swedish social mix policy has remained a general policy for counteracting socioeconomic segregation, rather than ethnic segregation. This is an important difference compared to other mixing strategies in Europe and North America where ethnic mix has been, and still is, at the top of the agenda.     

Heavy metals and stable isotopes in a benthic omnivore in a trophic gradient of lakes

Heavy metals (Cd, Hg, and Pb) and stable isotopes (15N, 13C) in crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus) were studied in a trophic gradient of lakes (N=19) in southern Sweden. Trophic indicators of the lakes as total phosphorus (tot-P) varied from 5 to 93 microg/L. The examined lakes had no known point sources of heavy metals, but the catchment areas varied from mainly forested to agricultural land. Cd and Hg in crayfish were affected by the trophic status of the lakes, showing significant negative relationship with tot-P, total nitrogen, and chlorophyll A content and a positive relationship with lake transparency (Secchi depth). The concentration of these two heavy metals was thus higher in crayfish in the oligotrophic lakes and decreased linearly to the eutrophic ones. Pb was not related to any lake variable. Stable isotopes of carbon (delta(13)C) and nitrogen (delta(15)N) in crayfish were a reflection of that found in the sediment as shown by positive linear relationships for the lakes. In the sediment of the lakes, delta(13)C signature showed significant negative relationships with the trophic indicators but positive results were shown for lake transparency. The trophic gradient of the lakes was reflected by delta(13)C in the sediment and in the crayfish. delta(15)N in crayfish was a reflection of delta(15)N in the sediment, but the relationship was not coupled to the trophic status of the lakes. The results from the study show that Cd and Hg in benthic omnivores as crayfish are affected by ecological processes in lakes, such as eutrophication. Stable isotopes, such as 13C and 15N, can be used to study these ecological processes.     

Swedish Pasture—An Exploration of Perceptual Attributes and Categorisation

Abstract

This study explores the concept of pasture, looking at how people classify it and the features that determine how an image is classified. The analysis is based on two parallel studies that used the same image material. The first study was a web-based survey in which respondents were asked to make a pairwise comparison of the images they felt best corresponded to pasture. The second study used eye-tracking to investigate the elements viewed by respondents as they considered the degree to which images corresponded to pasture. It is found that the respondents had clear and mostly similar concepts of pasture and that they apply these consistently when categorising pasture.