Self-preserving Function Research Articles

Understanding the Psychodynamics of Chronic Homelessness from a Self Psychological Perspective

Self psychology can help explain multiple meanings and experiences of being chronically homeless. While it is clear that homelessness is primarily caused by structural deficits and not individual characteristics, for people who are chronically homeless, this way of existence may have developed to serve a variety of coping, cohesive, and self-preserving functions as they have learned to survive and adapt to hostile environments. Through the use of self psychologically informed clinical practice, this paper explores the subject’s multiple meanings and experiences as well as the nuanced processes that led her to successfully attain permanent housing. The paper begins by discussing macro etiologies of homelessness, constructs in self psychology and strives to link the two in theory and practice by exploring one person’s life of chronic homelessness. The paper also explores ethical challenges as coercive elements factor into the case.

A theoretical study of the equilibrium particle size distribution of aerosols

Changes in the size distribution of small aerosol particles were computed for nineteen cases with various initial size distributions, patterns of particle generation, and mechanisms of particle aging. It was proven that, for the majority of the cases, the equilibrium size distribution for the larger particle sizes may be expressed as n ( v) = C v − β , and that the self-preserving function may also be expressed in the same form, [ n ( v) is the number concentration of particles of volume v.]

On the theory of the coagulation of noninteracting particles in brownian motion

The theory for coagulation of particles in Brownian motion is reviewed. The effects of heterogeneity in particle size, and of particle motion in a rarefied medium are examined using numerical solutions of the coagulation equations. Heterogeneity and increased values of the ratio of the mean free path of the medium to the particle radius (the Knudsen number for particles) increased the rate of coagulation. According to the results of the numerical experiments, a self-preserving function for the size distribution develops after dimensionless coagulation times of about 3. The self-preserving spectrum was found to be independent of the initial distribution after a sufficiently long time. The shape of the asymptotic distribution varied with the ratio of the mean free path of the medium to the particle radius ( λ/ r 1). A cumulative distribution rapidly formed which was insensitive to time, to initial conditions, and to variations in λ/ r 1 up to one. The average cumulative distribution compared fairly well with an experimentally determined distribution.