Sudden Surges Research Articles

Empirical comparison of three treatments for adolescent males with physical and sexual aggression: Mode deactivation therapy, cognitive behavior therapy and social skills training.

This research study compared the efficacy of three treatment methodologies for adolescent males in residential treatment with conduct disorders and/or personality dysfunctions and documented problems with physical and sexual aggression. The results showed that Mode Deactivation Therapy, an advanced form of cognitive behavioral therapy based on Beck's theory of modes, was superior to traditional Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Social Skills Therapy in reducing both physical and sexual aggression. At the same time, Mode Deactivation Therapy was the only treatment of the three that significantly reduced sexual aggression for these youth. Keywords: Treatment Effectiveness, Conduct Disorders, Adolescent Sex Offenders, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Mode Deactivation Therapy, Personality Disorders INTRODUCTION Youth with conduct disorders and personality dysfunctions are extremely difficult to conceptualize and treat effectively. Such youth typically come from deprived environments with multiple stressors and often extensive histories of physical, and sexual victimization and neglect. As a group, conduct disordered youth present with a complex array of recurrent behavioral problems, including aggression, bullying, violence, intimidation, delinquency, rule violations, recklessness, property destruction, callous disregard for others, substance abuse, sexual abuse and other disruptive and anti-social behaviors (Kazdin and Weisz, 2003). In fact, the prevalence rate for conduct disorder is 6% to 16% for males under age 18 and it is one of the most frequent problems diagnosed in outpatient and inpatient mental health programs. Moreover, 80% of these youth are likely to meet criteria for psychiatric disorders in the future (Kazdin and Weisz, 2003). For example, a longitudinal study by Johnson, Cohen, Brown, Smailes, and Bernstein (1999) showed a clear connection between childhood maltreatment and the development of cluster B personality disorders in later adolescence. Moreover, conduct disorder is by far the most frequent psychiatric diagnosis given to youth involved in the juvenile justice system with rates as high as 81% to 91% of incarcerated youth (Boesky, 2002). Dodge, Lochman, Harnish, Bates and Petti (1997) have contributed a useful distinction between two types of conduct disordered youth: Reactive youth show extremely strong responses to perceived threats and then react aggressively. The second type, proactive youth, initiate or use violence and aggression in an instrumental fashion to gain an objective or pay-off. The former category appear to share a common characteristic pattern of emotional dysregulation, in which the youth is overwhelmed by a sudden surges of intense emotions, sensations and irrational thoughts that are occur in combination and are disproportionate to the situation. Koenigsberg, Harvey, Mitropoulou, Antonia, Goodman, Silverman, Serby, Schopick and Siever (2001) found that many types of aggression, including self-destructive behavior, are linked to the personality disordered traits of affective instability and impulsivity (i.e., dysregulation). Our research and clinical experience with violent and sexually aggressive youth suggests that this common phenomenon of emotional dysregulation is the same process that Aaron Beck (1996) has described as modes and that treatment must be modified to accommodate and address this process in order to be effective. Need for Effective Treatment Given the prevalence of conduct disorders and its major contribution to juvenile crime, societal violence, delinquency and sexual violence, there is a urgent need for effective treatment methods for such youth. While Kazdin and Weisz (2003) delineates some evidence-based treatment practices for children with Conduct Disorder, the same has been not achieved for adolescents over 14 years old. In recent years, Multisystemic Treatment has shown promise for antisocial youth (Henggeler, Schoenwald, Borduin, Rowland and Cunningham, 1998) and for adolescent sex offenders (Swenson, Henggeler, Schoenwald, Kaufman, and Randall, 1998), but it requires a resource-rich combination of services, one of which is psychotherapy, and it is not a realistic option for most such youth. …

The Agonies of Choice: Gender, the Family, and Individualization in Birgit Vanderbeke's Das Muschelessen

The massive changes that took place over a decade ago at the end of the Cold War with the unification of Germany and the collapse of Eastern European communism left virtually nothing in the lives of the citizens from the former GDR unaffected. With breathtaking speed one economic system was replaced by another, new political and legal systems were installed, and new social ground rules were imposed on the East German population. The social impact of these structural changes, which, in the words of sociologists Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim, are attributable to sudden surges in (9), was immense and profound. In particular, the individualized society into which East Germans were inserted posed unprecedented challenges to love, marriage, and the family (Bauman, The Individualized Society). As GDR biographies were removed from their socialist life worlds and exposed to the vagaries of choice and the free market economy, the domains of love, marriage, and the nuclear family were also transformed in a myriad of ways. As these individualization processes accelerated with the exposure to what Zygmunt Bauman refers to eponymously as liquid modernity, there were colossal pressures on individuals and their families to maximize their opportunities for success and happiness in the West. Unification appeared to herald a new era of free choice in which individuals were able to avail themselves of the greater range of consumer goods and lifestyles. The advent of greater personal freedoms, however, also exacerbated the pressures on individuals and families to make the right choices in their lives, choices, for instance, that would increase their chances of success and help them attain the necessary accoutrements of status and class as quickly as possible. Not only were families swept up by a compulsion to consume (Hettlage and Lenz 191), they were also caught up in the race to acquire – and not merely of the economic kind. To succeed in the West they had to acquire the other less tangible forms of capital that, according to French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, represent key markers of distinction and difference in the modern world: social, cultural, and symbolic (The Field of Cultural Production). The agonies of choice that this race precipitated were to change drastically the nature of families and irrevoc-

Autonomic activity in trauma patients based on variability of heart rate and respiratory rate.

To evaluate the effects of sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activity on the heart rate and other hemodynamic variables in acute emergency patients with mild to moderately severe trauma. Clinical study. Level 1 university-run trauma service. Fourteen trauma patients studied immediately after admission to the emergency department. We measured heart rate and respiratory rate variability by spectral analysis in the early period of mildly to moderately injured patients and compared the patterns of the low- (Lfa) and high-frequency (Hfa) areas of variability. The Lfa is the area under the spectral analysis curve within the frequency range of 0.04-0.10 Hz. This area reflects primarily the tone of the sympathetic nervous system as mediated by the cardiac nerve. The respiratory area or Hfa is a 0.12 Hz-wide frequency range centered around the fundamental respiratory frequency defined by the peak mode of the respiratory power spectrum. It is indicative of vagal outflow reflecting parasympathetic nervous system activity. The Lfa/Hfa, or "L/R ratio," reflects the balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. The hemodynamic effects of bursts of autonomic activity in response to injury were explored by heart rate and respiratory rate variability measured with non-invasive hemodynamic monitoring consisting of bioimpedance cardiac output, heart rate, and mean arterial pressure to measure cardiac function and transcutaneous oxygen (PtcO2) to reflect tissue perfusion. During sudden surges of autonomic activity, we described increased heart rate variability reflecting increased Lfa and to a lesser degree to Hfa. Slightly later there was increased heart rate, mean arterial pressure, and cardiac index but decreased tissue perfusion indicated by the decreased PtcO2/FIO2 ratio. Surges in autonomic activity in the period immediately after emergency department admission of trauma patients were associated with pronounced increases in cardiac index, mean arterial pressure, and heart rate and reduced tissue oxygenation.

Analysis of a Phase Change Energy Storage System for Pulsed Power Dissipation

The melting of a phase change material in a container of rectangular cross-section with multiple discrete heat sources mounted on one side is investigated for electronics cooling by latent heat energy storage. This numerical study focuses on the thermal management issues that arise when electronic components experience sudden surges in power dissipation. The transient response of the energy storage system to short pulses in power dissipation is studied. Convective cooling using air-cooled heat sinks on the sides of the containment remote from the heat sources provides for heat rejection to ambient air. The analysis is performed under different pulse frequencies. Different aspect ratios for the containment volume as well as different locations for the heat sources are studied in order to identify an optimal arrangement. Conduction and convection in the phase change material as well as conduction through the containment walls are considered in the computations. The constitutive equations are implicitly solved using a fully transient method on fixed orthogonal co-located finite volumes. The system is characterized based on the rate of heat absorption as well as the maximum temperatures experienced at the heat sources. Improvements that can be made in the application of latent heat energy storage to electronics cooling applications are discussed based on the results from the present study.

Diesel exhaust particles exert acute effects on airway inflammation and function in murine allergen provocation models

Background Epidemiologic studies show that sudden surges in ambient particulate matter (PM) levels can trigger acute asthma exacerbations. Although diesel exhaust particles (DEPs) act as an adjuvant for allergic sensitization, this is a delayed response and does not explain acute PM effects on airway hyperreactivity (AHR). Objective Our aim was to determine the acute effects of DEPs on AHR using a mouse model. Methods Three protocols were developed, 2 of which require OVA sensitization, whereas the third was OVA independent. In the mild sensitization protocol BALB/c mice receive intraperitoneal OVA without alum and are then challenged with aerosolized OVA with or without DEPs. In the postchallenge model DEPs are delivered after OVA challenge to animals sensitized by intraperitoneal OVA plus alum. In the third protocol nebulizer DEPs were also delivered to IL-5—overexpressing mice that exhibit constitutive airway inflammation. Animals were subjected to whole-body plethysmography (WBP) and then killed for performance of bronchoalveolar lavage, histology, and serology. Results DEP delivery concomitant with OVA challenge or after the induction of airway inflammation with this allergen induced increased AHR in models 1 and 2, respectively. Although these animals showed DEP-induced inflammation and mucus production in the intermediary airways, there was no effect on OVA-specific IgE or T H2 cytokine production. In the IL-5 transgenic mice it was possible to induce similar effects with DEPs in the absence of an allergen. Conclusion We demonstrate that DEPs induced AHR independent of their adjuvant effects, suggesting the use of these models to study the mechanism or mechanisms of acute asthma exacerbation by means of PM.

Risk, randomness, crashes and quants

Market movements, whether short-term fluctuations, long-term trends, or sudden surges or crashes, have an immense and widespread economic impact. These movements are suggestive of the complex behaviour seen in many non-equilibrium physical systems. Not surprisingly, therefore, the characterization of market behaviour presents an inviting challenge to the physical sciences and, indeed, many concepts and methods developed for modelling non-equilibrium natural phenomena have found fertile ground in financial settings. In this review, we begin with the simplest random process, the random walk, and, assuming no prior knowledge of markets, build up to the conceptual and computational machinery used to analyse and model the behaviour of financial systems. We then consider the evidence that calls into question several aspects of the random walk model of markets and discuss some ideas that have been put forward to account for the observed discrepancies. The application of all of these methods is illustrated with examples of actual market data.

A dynamic call admission policy with precision QoS guarantee using stochastic control for mobile wireless networks

Call admission control is one of the key elements in ensuring the quality of service in mobile wireless networks. The traditional trunk reservation policy and its numerous variants give preferential treatment to the handoff calls over new arrivals by reserving a number of radio channels exclusively for handoffs. Such schemes, however, cannot adapt to changes in traffic pattern due to the static nature. This paper introduces a novel stable dynamic call admission control mechanism (SDCA), which can maximize the radio channel utilization subject to a predetermined bound on the call dropping probability. The novelties of the proposed mechanism are: (1) it is adaptive to wide range of system parameters and traffic conditions due to its dynamic nature; (2) the control is stable under overloading traffic conditions, thus can effectively deal with sudden traffic surges; (3) the admission policy is stochastic, thus spreading new arrivals evenly over a control period, and resulting in more effective and accurate control; and (4) the model takes into account the effects of limited channel capacity and time dependence on the call dropping probability, and the influences from nearest and next-nearest neighboring cells, which greatly improve the control precision. In addition, we introduce local control algorithms based on strictly local estimations of the needed traffic parameters, without requiring the status information exchange among different cells, which makes it very appealing in actual implementation. Most of the computational complexities lie in off-line precalculations, except for the nonlinear equation of the acceptance ratio, in which a coarse-grain numerical integration is shown to be sufficient for stochastic control. Extensive simulation results show that our scheme steadily satisfies the hard constraint on call dropping probability while maintaining a high channel throughput.

Behavior of OH and HO2 radicals during the Observations at a Remote Island of Okinawa (ORION99) field campaign: 2. Comparison between observations and calculations

The OH and HO2 concentrations observed during the Observations at a Remote Island of Okinawa intensive field campaign (ORION99) were compared with those calculated by using the ancillary observations as input parameters. Detailed comparisons were performed for HO2 with the time resolution of 10 min. During daytime, the observed HO2 concentration levels and variations were basically well reproduced by the model calculations without including heterogeneous processes. On average, the model underestimated daytime HO2 by only 20%. The squared correlation coefficient between observed and calculated HO2 was 0.79. The model underestimated HO2 significantly during a morning period with high NOx concentrations by up to a factor of 3 and for sudden surges observed during noontime on two days by a factor of 1.5. The basically good agreement between measured and calculated HO2 at Okinawa Island was in contrast with the significant model's overestimation of midday HO2 by a factor of 2 at Oki Island. The causes for the difference are discussed. For OH, detailed comparisons were not possible owing to the large uncertainties of measurements and calculations. However, diurnal patterns of OH on several days calculated by a simple steady state model were similar to those observed, indicating the observed OH data were statistically significant when they were averaged hourly. During one night, HO2 concentrations were observed to be 2–5 pptv, positively correlating with NO2. The model significantly underestimated HO2 by up to a factor of 4 and did not reproduce the positive correlation. Currently, no explanations can be given for the nocturnal behaviors.

The "Sherman effect": decreased ambulatory care volumes in Atlanta during the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.

To estimate the effect of the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games on visits to local ambulatory healthcare facilities. Comparison of median visit rates by time period, obtained from retrospective review of administrative data. The emergency department of the designated athletes' hospital, the public hospital's adult emergency department and adult walk-in clinics, and the adult and paediatric outpatient facilities of a large health maintenance organisation. All 132,826 visitors to the designated facilities during the study interval. Daily visit frequencies at each facility. Our informal observations had suggested that volumes were not as high as expected. In all but the athletes' designated hospital, there was a decrease in average volumes the week before the opening ceremonies, ranging from zero to 8.4% of baseline. Average daily volumes in these non-venue facilities varied from 3.2% above to 16.1% below baseline during the two weeks of the Games, but all experienced an increase in volumes the week after the closing ceremonies, ranging from 3.0% to 13.7% of baseline. Unlike the venue-related facility, community ambulatory care sites did not encounter a significant rise in volumes until after the closing ceremonies. Although confirmation from other events is needed, our data suggest that, in addition to increased preparedness for sudden volume surges, overtime staffing of local facilities during planned mass gatherings should occur not during, but immediately after, the event.

Winter cover crops in a vegetable cropping system: Impacts on nitrate leaching, soil water, crop yield, pests and management costs

Plant-soil relationships in the surface soil layer affect other processes in agroecosystems, including crop productivity, nitrate leaching and plant-pest interactions. This study investigated the effect of altering surface soil dynamics, using a winter cover crop rotation, on biotic and abiotic characteristics of the soil profile. Two cover crop treatments, phacelia and Merced rye ( Phacelia tanacetifolia cv. ‘Phaci’, and Secale cereale cv. ‘Merced’), with a fallow control, were planted in November after harvest of a broccoli crop on a commercial farm site, and were incorporated using reduced tillage techniques the following March. Changes in plant and soil N pools throughout the profile were described, emphasizing nitrate (NO − 3-N) leaching during winter, and N availability during the subsequent broccoli crop. Changes in other aspects of the ecosystem, such as plant-pest interactions and plant disease incidence, were monitored after cover crop incorporation. The on-farm economic costs of cover cropping were calculated. There was a 65–70% reduction in nitrate leaching from the cover-cropped plots compared with the fallow control during winter, because plant roots in the surface soil removed N and water that would have otherwise been lost from the profile. Incorporation caused sudden large surges in inorganic N pools, net mineralizable N, and microbial biomass N and C in the surface soil, which subsided within 6 weeks, by the time the broccoli crop was planted, but which did result in increased yield at harvest in the phacelia cover-cropped treatment. No insect or disease problems which threatened the cash crops were introduced or increased as a result of the cover crops. The economic analysis indicated that the costs of cover cropping were minor compared with conventional winter management of fallowed fields, and compared with the cost of producing broccoli. The cover crops therefore provided a clear advantage during winter by significantly reducing nitrate leaching, but the effects of one cover crop rotation on subsequent nutrient dynamics in the surface soil were mostly short-lived and possibly masked by large fertilizer applications.

Evidence from the Oman ophiolite for sudden stress changes during melt injection at oceanic spreading centres

THE system of dikes in the uppermost mantle below oceanic spreading centres bears witness to the processes involved in the supply of melt to the ridge. Such systems cannot be studied on currently active ridges, but can be seen in ophiolites; in particular, the Oman ophiolite allows us to examine segments of a fast-spreading ridge1. Here we present a statistical analysis of the orientation of intrusions in the uppermost mantle section of the Oman ophiolite spreading centres, which points to the existence of two systems: dikes whose azimuth is parallel to the sheeted dikes (which we thus consider as related to the extensional lithospheric stress field) and sills, roughly parallel to the Moho2. Branching contemporaneous dikes and sills are frequently observed. We suggest that these relations can be explained by repeated sudden changes of the dominant stress field from lithospheric to asthenospheric. Such changes could result from the episodic relaxation of lithospheric stress in response to tension fracturing of the lithospheric lid, related to sudden melt surges. This episodic behaviour is recorded in the sheeted dike complex, with each dike (each about one metre wide) representing one of these fractures.

Computer processing of artifact and arrhythmias in heart rate variability analysis

Analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) with Holter monitoring is often difficult due to excessive artifacts and arrhythmias. While short sudden surges are treated successfully by most methods, slow heart rate (HR) variations, nocturnal trapezoidally-shaped HR increases and special types of arrhythmias which are similar to normal HRV fluctuations may distort further time domain and spectral analysis. This paper examines the advantages and disadvantages of different methods for preprocessing of HR data. We have developed the following approach to the analysis of HRV. (1) A combination method based on the absolute difference between HR values and both the last normal HR value and an updated mean is used for removal of artifacts and arrhythmias. This method can detect both sudden surges in HR values as well as longer periods of noise combined with slow normal variations. An additional stage of wild point removal is then optionally applied. (2) Certain special problems such as large T-waves, bigeminal rhythm, slow HR variations and nocturnal trapezoidally-shaped HR increases are also identified. Although none of the algorithms can be applied successfully to all cases, the final computer analysis for preprocessing described in the present study has proved to be superior to the simplified methods which are usually used and provides more suitable data for HRV analysis.

Single pentacene molecules detected by fluorescence excitation in a p-terphenyl crystal.

Experiments clearly prove that narrow peaks in the fluorescence-excitation spectrum of a pentacene-doped p-terphenyl crystal stem from single molecules. This claim is supported by the distribution, width, and height of the peaks, as well as by the correlation of the emitted light and the sudden drops and surges of the emission of certain peaks. We attribute these to the hole burning of a single molecule. These results show the feasibility of the optical study of a single molecule and its local environment.

Payments Imbalances Sudden Surges and Safeguards

Payments Imbalances Sudden Surges and Safeguards

Performance and Operation of Small Activated Sludge Plants in Tourist Areas

Small scale activated sludge plants are used extensively in tourist areas for the treatment of wastewaters from hotels and other tourist establishments. A recent survey carried out in a big tourist island of Greece showed that the majority of small plants did not perform satisfactorily. The most important problems identified were associated with diurnal flow fluctuations, inadequate control of air supply and sludge return rates, accumulation of grease and fats in the plant and bad design. Another important problem appeared to be the lack of trained personnel for the operation and maintenance of the plant. These problems are discussed in detail and possible measures are presented. Experimental results from the monitoring of two small extended aeration plants confirmed the bad effect of sudden surges of flow on effluent quality. Moreover it was found that the time required for the startup of the plant was approximately six weeks.

Consistency of Export‐restraint Arrangements with the GATT

ORTY years of stressful history would challenge the capacity of any international agreement on trade and commerce to cope with new developments and practices not carefully enough contemplated by the original draftsmen. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)’ is no exception. Indeed, the lack of an adequate institutional structure for the GATT’ renders it even more vulnerable than many agreements to the problem of ‘relevance’ in a world now substantially different from the one which existed in the immediate post-World War I1 period. Yet few practices have posed as large a problem for the policy objectives and ‘rule’ language of the GATT as those generally called ‘voluntary export restraints’ (VERs), ‘voluntary restraint arrangements’ (VRAs) or ‘orderly marketing arrangements’ (OMAs). In spite of extensive economic and policy criticism suggesting that, as an instrument of trade policy, export-restraint arrangements are usually a fourthor fifth-best choice4 (or worse), these arrangements have proliferated to such an extent that it appears that some countries prefer them to all other trade-restricting devices. Why this is so has been the subject of comment elsewhere. Clearly it relates, inter alia, to the national constitutional structures of governments which inhibit the use of other measures (such as tariffs or quantitative import restrictions, which may sometimes require parliamentary action or prerequisites specified in legislative delegations of power). It also relates to international rules such as the GATT’s Article XIX, its main ‘escape clause’ (providing for emergency protection against sudden surges of imports of a particular product), which requires an importrestricting country to ‘compensate’ exporting countries with new trade ‘concessions’. While economic and other policy considerations surrounding the use of exportrestraint arrangements have been amply explored, there is remarkably little analytical examination of the related legal question of whether such arrangements

Long-Term Estuarine Variability and Associated Biological Response

Corpus Christi Bay, one of seven major Texas estuaries, is characterized by low freshwater inflow, small tidal flushing, low annual rainfall, and high evaporation rates. Minimal exchange of water makes this estuary sensitive to episodic environmental variation caused by sudden surges of freshwater from flooding rains or hurricanes. It is suggested that this episodic variability stimulates estuarine production. For the last 11 years, detailed data have been collected on benthic community structure, primary and secondary productivity, and sediment nutrient regeneration which are combined with other information, such as fishery yields, into a reconstructed long-term data set. During this same period significant environmental changes in the estuary have been documented. In 1979 the lowest salinity recorded over the 11-year record was related to a short-term, high intensity rainfall. The benthos responded with abundance and biomass levels far greater than any other year during the study interval. Correlated with increased benthic production were large increases in shrimp yields. During more subtle changes with respect to freshwater input in 1981, significant alterations in primary productivity were quantified. Primary, secondary, and tertiary carbon production estimates derived from the reconstructed long-term data base indicated the benthos as a major link between primary producers and other consumers. Carbon flow from primary producers, however, appeared inadequate to support benthic production. Nutrient recycling was judged to provide more than 90% of nitrogen needed to support phytoplankton production and was considered a major factor influencing ecosystem function. The matching of biological responses to significant environmental changes in this estuary provided insight into ecosystem function and stressed the importance of short-term variability. Although recycling was identified as a major source of nutrients supporting primary production, it was concluded that episodic environmental change from freshwater input provided a much needed stimulus to productivity. These episodic changes replaced materials lost through recycling and sustained productivity over the long term.

Data Center; A Very Special Library

The name Data Center evokes images of computers and disks, of cubicles with people scanning computer screens, of sudden surges of mechanical typing by printers. It's ironical that the words “data center” apply now to electronically provided information.

Coupling Mini- and Microcomputers to Biological Early Warning Systems

There are two types of damage to ecosystems: (a) the insidious, incremental, practically undetectable long-term changes most commonly caused by persistent chemical substances that undergo biological magnification, and (b) sudden unexpected surges of dangerous materials into the environment usually caused by technological failures or human error. In short, Murphy's Law applies: If anything can go wrong, it will. Tankers crash upon rocks, and oil spills over the coasts of England and France. Someone turns the wrong valve, and thousands of gallons of hazardous material escape into the environment. Someone who con-

Periodic surging of the Antarctic ice sheet—an assessment by modelling / Mouvements pèriodiques de l'inlandsis antarctique—èvaluation par modèlisation

Abstract Sudden rapid advances or surges of glaciers and sections of smail ice caps are well known. After remaining dormant or in retreat over long periods of time these ice masses suddenly move forward rapidly with speeds about 2 orders of magnitude greater than usual. If such surges were to occur in large sections of the Antarctic ice sheet serious consequences could result. These include a significant rise of sea level, a substantial increase in the high-albedo ice cover around the continent especially in summer, and a cooling of the Antarctic ocean by the additional ice melting. A numerical model has now been developed which simulates surging in certain glaciers and ice sheets in an apparently realistic manner. This model has been found to give close representations to a number of existing real surging temperate ice masses from small mountain glaciers to large sectors of ice caps. The model reproduces realistically many features of these ice masses such as the period of the surge, the duration, the ve...