Optimal information transmission in organizations: Search and congestion

We propose a stylized model of a problem-solving organization whoseinternal communication structure is given by a fixed network. Problemsarrive randomly anywhere in this network and must find their way to theirrespective specialized solvers by relying on local information alone.The organization handles multiple problems simultaneously. For this reason,the process may be subject to congestion. We provide a characterization ofthe threshold of collapse of the network and of the stock of foatingproblems (or average delay) that prevails below that threshold. We buildupon this characterization to address a design problem: the determinationof what kind of network architecture optimizes performance for any givenproblem arrival rate. We conclude that, for low arrival rates, the optimalnetwork is very polarized (i.e. star-like or centralized ), whereas it islargely homogenous (or decentralized ) for high arrival rates. We also showthat, if an auxiliary assumption holds, the transition between these twoopposite structures is sharp and they are the only ones to ever qualify asoptimal.

Translation to success of surgical innovation.

Contemporary thoracic and cardiovascular surgery uses extensive equipment and devices to enable its performance. As the specialties develop and new frontiers are crossed, the technology needs to advance in a parallel fashion. Strokes of genius or problem-solving brain-storming may generate great ideas, but the metamorphosis of an idea into a physical functioning tool requires a lot more than just a thinking process. A modern surgical device is the end-point of a sophisticated, complicated and potentially treacherous route, which incorporates new skills and knowledge acquisition. Processes including technology transfer, commercialisation, corporate and product development, intellectual property and regulatory routes all play pivotal roles in this voyage. Many good ideas may fall by the wayside for a multitude of reasons as they may not be marketable or may be badly marketed. In this article, we attempt to illuminate the components required in the process of surgical innovation, which we believe must remain in the remit of the modern-day thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon.

Resolución de problemas de materiales como herramienta de aprendizaje autónomo

El principal objetivo de la actividad es proporcionar herramientas al alumnado para consolidar losconocimientos teóricos adquiridos en el ámbito de los materiales, mediante aprendizaje autónomobasado en la resolución de ejercicios prácticos.

Grundriss innovativer Polizeiansätze. Eine kritische Begutachtung verschiedener Strategien und Tätigkeiten und deren Implementierung in der Schweiz in Theorie und Praxis.

This thesis contains three parts. The first one offers the theoretical basement, where the history of the police from their beginning in the early 19th century to this day is shown. The emphasis however is laid on the last 40 years, which gave birth to a multitude of innovations, such as community, problem-oriented, hot-spots or zero-tolerance policing. Those innovations are described in detail and are critically commented. At the end of this section, I present a scheme, where all the approaches are classified as strategic or methodic innovations, but united under a model called "modern policing". The fact that the innovations are not competitive but rather complementary is the most important finding of this examination. The second part of this work deals with a unique survey about the implementation of four innovations and eight problem- and community-oriented activities in 85 Swiss police forces. This explorative study shows that in the last 15 years the Swiss police forces have increasingly adopted innovative approaches. The most frequent innovation is community policing, which has been implemented all over the country. Due to the results, we can also assume that the implementation of the innovations is mostly substantial and profound. However, particularly in the area of problem-solving there is still a need for improvements. The third section consists of a scientific evaluation of a temporary special unit of the municipal police Zurich, which, during nine months, fought against public drug dealing and illegal prostitution in a particular neighborhood called Langstrasse. The effects of this hot-spot project were measured with police data, observations and several population surveys. In general, the special unit achieved a positive outcome and helped to defuse the hot-spot. Additionally, a survey conducted within the police department showed that the personal attitude towards the special unit differed widely between the policemen. We found significant differences between both police regions East and West, rank-and-file and higher ranking officers, different ages and the personal connection to the special unit. In fact, the higher the rank, the lower the age, and the closer the relationship, the more positive the officers were towards the unit.

Metacognitive training for schizophrenia: a multicentre randomised controlled trial.

A psychotherapeutic approach for schizophrenia is now recommended as an adjuvant for psychopharmacology, since antipsychotic medications only have a partial impact especially as regards positive symptoms and insight. In addition, cognitive distortions and the lack of metacognitive skills might increase positive symptoms leading to poor social functioning. This underlines the need for specific approaches which target cognitive processes relevant for insight, and abilities in metacognition. Metacognitive training (MCT) is a structured group intervention, which enhances a patient's reflection on cognitive biases and improves problem-solving. The aim of our study was to assess MCTs' short term impact on insight, symptoms and quality of life. Fifty patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders and persistent positive symptoms (delusions or hallucinations) were enrolled in the study. After baseline assessment participants were randomised either to supportive therapy or MCT. Both groups used the same design (1h-session twice a week during 8weeks) although the basic knowledge given to participants was different between interventions. Participants were assessed at eight weeks based on the Scale to Assess Unawareness of Mental Disorder, Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Psychotic Symptom Rating Scales, the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia and the Quality of Life Scale. Between-group differences were significant in favour of MCT on the PANSS positive scale. Between-group differences in post- and pre-test values showed a trend in favour of MCT for insight on hallucinations. Results of our study indicate that the MCT has an effect on reducing positive symptomatology, and a trend impact on insight and social functioning.

Dealing with clients' diversity in test situations: Client categorisations in psychologists' accounts of their practices

Reducing a test administration to standardised procedures reflects the test designers' standpoint. However, from the practitioners' standpoint, each client is unique. How do psychologists deal with both standardised test administration and clients' diversity? To answer this question, we interviewed 17 psychologists working in three public services for children and adolescents about their assessment practices. We analysed the numerous "client categorisations" they produced in their accounts. We found that they had shared perceptions about their clients' diversity, and reported various non-standard practices that complemented standardised test administration, but also differed from them or were even forbidden. They seem to experience a dilemma between: (a) prescribed and situated practices; (b) scientific and situated reliability; (c) commutative and distributive justice. For practitioners, dealing with clients' diversity this is a practical problem, halfway between a problem-solving task and a moral dilemma.

Psychometric properties of the french translation of the constructive thinking inventory in a sample of adolescents and young adults

The Constructive Thinking Inventory (CTI) measures cognitive coping strategies used in everyday problem solving. The main objective of this study was to assess the factorial structure, the internal consistency, the correspondence with the American normative values, and the discriminant validity of the French translation. A community sample of 777 students aged 12 to 26 years, recruited from schools, colleges and universities, answered the 108item selfreport CTI questionnaire during a class period. A sample of 60 male adolescent offenders aged 13 to 18 years, recruited from two institutions for juvenile offenders, answered the CTI during an individual interview. Results show that the French translation of the CTI follows an identical factorial structure as the Epstein's American version in both adolescents and young adults, and that its internal consistency is satisfactory. Differences in Constructive Thinking profiles according to gender and age and between Swiss and American samples, are discussed. Juvenile offenders differed from community youths on most of the scales, speaking for a good discriminant validity of the CTI. In conclusion, the French translation of the CTI appears to preserve the original version's psychometric properties. The present study provides normative values from a community sample of Swiss adolescents and young adults.

Teaching evidence-based management with a focus on producing local evidence

We present an approach to teaching evidence-based management (EBMgt) that trains future managers how to produce local evidence. Local evidence is causally interpretable data, collected on-site in companies to address a specific business problem. Our teaching method is a variant of problem-based learning, a method originally developed to teach evidence-based medicine. Following this method, students learn an evidence-based problem-solving cycle for addressing actual business cases. Executing this cycle, students use and produce scientific evidence through literature searches and the design of local, experimental tests of causal hypotheses. We argue the value of teaching EBMgt with a focus on producing local evidence, how it can be taught, and what can be taught. We conclude by outlining our contribution to the literature on teaching EBMgt and by discussing limitations of our approach.

Sustained antipsychotic effect of metacognitive training in psychosis: a randomized-controlled study.

Persistent psychotic symptoms represent a major challenge for psychiatric care. Basic research has shown that psychotic symptoms are associated with cognitive biases. Metacognitive training (MCT) aims at helping patients to become aware of these biases and to improve problem-solving. Fifty-two participants fulfilling diagnostic criteria of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders and persistent delusions and stabilized antipsychotic medication were enrolled in this study. Following baseline assessment patients were randomized either to treatment as usual (TAU) conditions or TAU+MCT. The intervention consisted of eight weekly 1-hour sessions (maximum: 8 hours). Participants were assessed at 8 weeks and 6-months later by blind assessors. Participants were assessed with the Psychotic Symptoms Rating Scales (PSYRATS) and the positive subscale of the PANSS. Between-group differences in post- and pre-test values were significant at a medium effect size in favor of the MCT for the PSYRATS delusion scale and the positive scale of the PANSS both at post and follow-up. The results of this study indicate that MCT training has a surplus antipsychotic effect for patients suffering from schizophrenia-related disorders who demonstrate only a partial response to antipsychotic treatment and that the effect of the intervention persists for at least 6 months after the intervention.

Impact on assertivity of a social skills training with adolescents suffering from psychotic or anxiety/mood disorders: An exploratory study

During adolescence numerous of important social abilities are acquired within interactions with peers. Severe psychiatric disorders interfere with the acquisition of these social skills. For example, due to excessive shyness, adolescents with psychiatric disorders may not experiment positive social interactions. Social skills training (SKT) may help adolescents to remediate to these diffi culties. This exploratory study aims to assess the SKT's effect on assertivity, in a population of adolescents presenting psychiatric disorder and attending a day care unit for adolescents. The SKT, delivered in group, deals with different themes such as contact, conversation, problem solving, confl ict, fail, success, learning, effort, separation, breakdown, and project. In this context, 38 adolescents (19 suffering from anxiety / mood disorder and 19 suffering from psychotic disorder) rate their level of assertivity before and after a SKT with the Rathus assertivity scale. This scale allows to differentiate between inhibited, assertive and assertiveaggressive adolescents. Results showed a general improvement on assertivity after the SKT. More specifi cally, adolescents suffering from anxiety disorder and the 'inhibited' adolescents showed the higher benefi t from the SKT. Thus, two hours per week of SKT seems to enhance social abilities in a population with severe psychiatric disorders. More specifi - cally, adolescents with anxiety / mood disorders reported more benefi ts of the SKT on their assertivity. Nevertheless, adolescents with psychotic disorders did not report strong benefi ts from the SKT despite the improvement observed at a clinical level. This observation raises questions about the usefulness of self-reported questionnaire to measure such benefi t for adolescents with psychosis.

Spatial relational learning and memory abilities do not differ between men and women in a real-world, open-field environment

This study assesses gender differences in spatial and non-spatial relational learning and memory in adult humans behaving freely in a real-world, open-field environment. In Experiment 1, we tested the use of proximal landmarks as conditional cues allowing subjects to predict the location of rewards hidden in one of two sets of three distinct locations. Subjects were tested in two different conditions: (1) when local visual cues marked the potentially-rewarded locations, and (2) when no local visual cues marked the potentially-rewarded locations. We found that only 17 of 20 adults (8 males, 9 females) used the proximal landmarks to predict the locations of the rewards. Although females exhibited higher exploratory behavior at the beginning of testing, males and females discriminated the potentially-rewarded locations similarly when local visual cues were present. Interestingly, when the spatial and local information conflicted in predicting the reward locations, males considered both spatial and local information, whereas females ignored the spatial information. However, in the absence of local visual cues females discriminated the potentially-rewarded locations as well as males. In Experiment 2, subjects (9 males, 9 females) were tested with three asymmetrically-arranged rewarded locations, which were marked by local cues on alternate trials. Again, females discriminated the rewarded locations as well as males in the presence or absence of local cues. In sum, although particular aspects of task performance might differ between genders, we found no evidence that women have poorer allocentric spatial relational learning and memory abilities than men in a real-world, open-field environment.

Författningsändring och problemlösning: en studie av kvalificerade majoriteter i 34 stater

Abstract: Constitutional amendment and problem-solving: supermajorities in 34 states.

Functional remediation for bipolar disorder

Neurocognitive impairment constitutes a core feature of bipolar illness. The main domains affected are verbal memory, attention, and executive functions. Deficits in these areas as well as difficulties to get functional remission seem to be increased associated with illness progression. Several studies have found a strong relationship between neurocognitive impairment and low functioning in bipolar disorder, as previously reported in other illnesses such as schizophrenia. Cognitive remediation strategies, adapted from work conducted with traumatic brain injury patients and applied to patients with schizophrenia, also need to be adapted to individuals with bipolar disorders. Early intervention using functional remediation, involves neurocognitive techniques and training, but also psychoeducation on cognition-related issues and problem-solving within an ecological framework.

Reduced left hemisphere dominance for multiple versus single anagram solutions and its modulation by individuals' schizotypy

Problem solving (including insight, divergent thinking) seems to rely on the right hemisphere (RH). These functions are difficult to assess behaviorally. We propose anagram resolution as a suitable paradigm. University students (n=32) performed three tachistoscopic lateralized visual half-field experiments (stimulus presentation 150ms). In Experiment 1, participants recalled four-letter strings. Subsequently, participants provided solutions for four-letter anagrams (one solution in Experiment 2; two solutions in Experiment 3). Additionally, participants completed a schizotypy questionnaire (O-LIFE). Results showed a right visual field advantage in Experiment 1 and 2, but no visual field advantage in Experiment 3. In Experiment 1, increasing positive schizotypy associated with a RH performance shift. Problem solving seems to require increasingly the RH when facing several rather than one solution. This result supports previous studies on the RH's role in remote associative, metaphor and discourse processing. The more complex language requirements, the less personality traits seem to matter.