Modelling and verification of delay-insensitive circuits using CCS and the Concurrency Workbench

The modelling of delay-insensitive asynchronous circuits in the process calculus CCS is addressed. MUST-testing (rather than bisimulation) is found to support verification both of the property of delay-insensitivity and of design by stepwise refinement. Automated verification is possible with a well-known tool, the Edinburgh Concurrency Workbench.     

A review of 50 years of research on naturally occurring family routines and rituals: Cause for celebration?

This article is a qualitative review of 32 publications appearing since J. Bossard and E. Boll's (1950) seminal work on family rituals was conducted. Definitions are offered whereby a distinction is made between family routines as observable practices and family rituals as symbolic representations of collective events. The relative occurrence of family routines, as described in the literature, appears to follow a developmental course and is affected by the cultural environment. Family routines and rituals were found to be related to parenting competence, child adjustment, and marital satisfaction. The studies were limited by inconsistent methods of assessing family routines, reliance on samples of convenience, and a failure to distinguish between direct and indirect effects. Recommendations are made to better integrate theory with empirical efforts to demonstrate the importance of family routines and rituals in contemporary life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Applications of asynchronous circuits

A comparison with synchronous circuits suggests four opportunities for the application of asynchronous circuits: high performance, low power; improved noise and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) properties, and a natural match with heterogeneous system timing. In this overview paper each opportunity is reviewed in some detail, illustrated by examples, compared with synchronous alternatives, and accompanied by numerous pointers to the literature. Conditions for applying asynchronous circuit technology, such as the existence and availability of computer-aided design (CAD) tools, circuit libraries, and effective test approaches, are discussed briefly. Asynchronous circuits do offer advantages for many applications, and their design methods and tools are now starting to become mature     

The Analysis of Meaninglessness.

Patients who are severely inhibited in their capacity to free associate and reflect on their associations present a technical challenge. Such inhibitions threaten the treatment with a form of communication breakdown. There is often a sense of futility and a sense that someone must be to blame for the treatment impasse. Efforts to interpret such severe inhibitions often result in intensification of the impasse. Working through such enactments is facilitated not only through accurate psychodynamic understanding but also through a willingness to engage in some degree of spontaneous emotional engagement, self-disclosure, and mutual analysis. When the patient is in a state of psychic equivalence, a particular quality of relational experience is sometimes required for the patient to perceive how external and internal reality are not necessarily equivalent. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pursuing the kernel of truth in the psychotherapy of schizophrenia.

This article concerns the utility of pursuing the kernels of truth in the delusions of schizophrenic patients as a means of empathizing with their unique personal experience of events. Pursuing the kernel of truth implies listening for the real interpersonal experiences past and present that are represented within delusions, as opposed to focusing on derivatives of infantile fantasy. This orientation restores the rights of the schizophrenic person as a perceptive observer of events with a valid, although not commonly understood, point of view. A clinical case example is presented in which the delusion of being raped while others stand idly by both literally and metaphorically described a wide variety of interpersonal experiences which had shaped the patient's life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The learning curve as a metacognitive tool.

A series of 4 experiments demonstrated that when practicing for a test of problem solving, recognition and selection of a particular stopping signal was shown to depend on the within-set variability (statistical noise) of a problem set. When noise was high, participants used a nondiagnostic stopping signal based on the initial size of the problem set. However, when noise was low, access to evidence of learning was possible, resulting in the operation of a stopping signal based on learning curve characteristics. By blocking access to local segments of the learning curve through the use of variability masking, it was demonstrated that participants were sensitive to changes throughout the entire curve. In spite of a long history associated with the psychological study of the learning curve, these results provide the first demonstration of the learning curve as a source of metacognitive judgment and regulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The retroperitoneal incision. An evaluation of postoperative flank 'bulge'

OBJECTIVES: To determine if intercostal nerve injury is related to postoperative flank "bulge" and to determine whether the extent of the retroperitoneal incision is related to the incidence of flank bulge following abdominal aortic aneurysm repair. DESIGN: Bilateral dissection of the 11th intercostal nerve on seven cadavers; neurophysiological evaluation of five patients, three with a flank bulge and two without; and retrospective analysis of the extent of retroperitoneal incision and incidence of postoperative flank bulge in 63 consecutive patients. SETTING: Urban academic medical center. PATIENTS: Sixty-three consecutive patients who underwent retroperitoneal repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm and neurophysiological evaluation of five volunteer patients. INTERVENTIONS: Retroperitoneal repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Reduction of injury to the 11th intercostal nerve by avoiding extension of the retroperitoneal incision into the intercostal space. RESULTS: Of 14 dissections of 11th intercostal nerves, there were bifurcations of the main trunk within the intercostal space in four, at the tip of the 11th rib in seven, and at least 2 cm distal to the tip of the rib in three. Neurophysiological evaluation revealed iterative discharges, polyphasia, fibrillation potentials, and altered recruitment patterns compatible with intercostal nerve injury in patients with a bulge but not in the opposite abdominal wall musculature or in patients without a bulge. Seven (11.11%) of 63 patients had a bulge. Thirty-one of 63 patients had incisions into the 11th intercostal space in which a bulge developed in six (19.35%). Thirty-two patients had incisions that avoided extension into the intercostal space; a bulge developed in one (0.03%) (P = .53). CONCLUSIONS: Postoperative bulge is related to intercostal nerve injury with subsequent paralysis of abdominal wall musculature. Intercostal nerve injury can be reduced by avoiding extension of the incision into the 11th intercostal space.     

Die quantitative Auswertung von Gas-Chromatogrammen VI: Verhalten von Ölsäure-methylester bei der GLC-Analyse

Quantitative Evaluation of Gas Chromatograms VI: Behaviour of Methyl Oleate in GLC Analysis The present investigations have confirmed and supplemented the previous findings that losses can occur during the gas chromatography of methyl esters of unsaturated fatty acids. The extent of the losses is influenced by the polarity of the stationary phase and the retention time of the ester. A limited part of the amount of substance retained by the column can be eluted in an unchanged state. The remaining amount is rigidly bound.