Planning for Emotional Labor and Secondary Traumatic Stress in Child Welfare Organizations

This analysis provides an emergent framework that emphasizes a neglected component of both direct practice with families and organizational development. Human emotions, both beneficial (positive emotional labor) and harmful (negative emotional labor), have received short shrift in leadership development, supervision, direct practice preparation and supports, and workforce stabilization, and professionalization. Significantly, a key indicator of negative emotional labor—secondary traumatic stress (STS)—often has been ignored and neglected, despite the fact that it may be endemic in the workforce. STS typically results from traumatic events in practice, but it also stems from workplace violence. Often undetected and untreated, STS is at least a hidden correlate and perhaps a probable cause of myriad problems such as questionable practice with families, life-work conflicts, undesirable workforce turnover, and a sub-optimal organizational climate. Special interventions are needed. At the same time, new organizational designs are needed to promote and reinforce positive emotional labor. Arguably, positive emotional labor and the positive organizational climates it facilitates are requisites for harmonious relations between jobs and personal lives, desirable workforce retention, and better outcomes for children and families. What’s more, specialized interventions for positive emotional labor constitute a key component in the prevention system for STS. A dual design for positive emotional labor and STS (and other negative emotional labor) prevention/intervention is provided herewith. Early detection and rapid response systems for STS, with social work leadership, receive special attention. Guidelines for new organizational designs for emotional labor in child welfare are offered in conclusion.

The Darién Region, Connecting Road of the Americas, among the expressions of hydric wealth, land vocation and the extractive exploration on its violated forms

Colombia has oceanic waters, catchment areas, like lakes, cienagas and swamps, water flows, like rivers, gorges and streams, small rivers and groundwater. The oceanic waters are the Caribbean Sea-1600 km and the Pacific Ocean-1300 km that comprise the north and west continental territory, respectively. Actually the Region of Darién, geographically bounded by the Carribean Sea to the north is becoming to be focused by studies due to use conflicts and disputes about water and a forest reserve on its territories. Considering its location, strategic at northwestern Colombia, frontier region with Central America, several dynamics are imposed. One of them is the implantation of a road system entitled Connecting Road of the Americas. This fact means the construction of an infra-structure that will cross a special zone formed by swamps and jungle known as The Darién Gap. Evidences of such interests are revealed by projects like the constructions of Turbo's Port in the Atlantic Ocean, Department of Antioquia and Tribugá's Port in the Pacific Ocean, Department of Choco, the mountain road and the coastal conection Colombia-Venezuela attending to the main intentions of the central region of the department (Metropolitan Area of Aburrá Valley-AMVA). Human settlements form a productive system, based on small and medium familiar agriculture's production, corresponding to the western portion and piedmont of Abibe's mountain at its antioquian portion, alluvial plan that forms the rivers on this area, the littoral zone that delimits the Carribean Sea, the Darién and Baudó Mountains and the gulf that receives, among other waters, the ones from Atrato and León, as well as the exodus process constitutes a forced exit resulting from actions of several armed groups. It can be identified intense historical, cultural, political and environmental relations, specially the last one associated with strategic ecosystems that are fundamental for the hydric regulation of the region, as well as food safety of the local inhabitants. Results from two researches (UPB, 2007 y 2010) reveals this quick transformation in the spatial re-configuration, demographical and economical indicators and the exacerbated fight for resources, damaging the extractive vocation in the Region. Path to commerce of illegalities (drugs, guns) and to implementation of the agroindustrial project for biofuel production, cooperation program that involves Venezuela, Brazil and Colombia. Appropriation modes allow the existence of strategies since global interests revealing a development logic that privileges the conception of an artificialized nature. Since the smallest portion of rural areas, specific modes of resources exploration are linked to imposed interests of transnational corporations. Disparate consequences are going deeper evidenced by social, technical and nature transformations, envisioning risks for the habitability's condition

La ira en la primera tradición cidiana

Las manifestaciones de la ira en el Cantar de Mio Cid engloban un con-junto de tradiciones de diferente índole que constituyen un punto de partida para la cabal interpretación del texto. Por una parte, la ira regia se relaciona con la teoría medieval emocional sobre la ira y, por otra parte, el examen de la dimensión política de la ira en el Cantar y la tradición cidiana precedente aporta nuevos elementos sobre las prácticas culturales y los sistemas jurídicos de la Edad Media.

La ira en la primera tradición cidiana

Las manifestaciones de la ira en el Cantar de Mio Cid engloban un con-junto de tradiciones de diferente índole que constituyen un punto de partida para la cabal interpretación del texto. Por una parte, la ira regia se relaciona con la teoría medieval emocional sobre la ira y, por otra parte, el examen de la dimensión política de la ira en el Cantar y la tradición cidiana precedente aporta nuevos elementos sobre las prácticas culturales y los sistemas jurídicos de la Edad Media.

The Darién Region, Connecting Road of the Americas, among the expressions of hydric wealth, land vocation and the extractive exploration on its violated forms

Colombia has oceanic waters, catchment areas, like lakes, cienagas and swamps, water flows, like rivers, gorges and streams, small rivers and groundwater. The oceanic waters are the Caribbean Sea-1600 km and the Pacific Ocean-1300 km that comprise the north and west continental territory, respectively. Actually the Region of Darién, geographically bounded by the Carribean Sea to the north is becoming to be focused by studies due to use conflicts and disputes about water and a forest reserve on its territories. Considering its location, strategic at northwestern Colombia, frontier region with Central America, several dynamics are imposed. One of them is the implantation of a road system entitled Connecting Road of the Americas. This fact means the construction of an infra-structure that will cross a special zone formed by swamps and jungle known as The Darién Gap. Evidences of such interests are revealed by projects like the constructions of Turbo's Port in the Atlantic Ocean, Department of Antioquia and Tribugá's Port in the Pacific Ocean, Department of Choco, the mountain road and the coastal conection Colombia-Venezuela attending to the main intentions of the central region of the department (Metropolitan Area of Aburrá Valley-AMVA). Human settlements form a productive system, based on small and medium familiar agriculture's production, corresponding to the western portion and piedmont of Abibe's mountain at its antioquian portion, alluvial plan that forms the rivers on this area, the littoral zone that delimits the Carribean Sea, the Darién and Baudó Mountains and the gulf that receives, among other waters, the ones from Atrato and León, as well as the exodus process constitutes a forced exit resulting from actions of several armed groups. It can be identified intense historical, cultural, political and environmental relations, specially the last one associated with strategic ecosystems that are fundamental for the hydric regulation of the region, as well as food safety of the local inhabitants. Results from two researches (UPB, 2007 y 2010) reveals this quick transformation in the spatial re-configuration, demographical and economical indicators and the exacerbated fight for resources, damaging the extractive vocation in the Region. Path to commerce of illegalities (drugs, guns) and to implementation of the agroindustrial project for biofuel production, cooperation program that involves Venezuela, Brazil and Colombia. Appropriation modes allow the existence of strategies since global interests revealing a development logic that privileges the conception of an artificialized nature. Since the smallest portion of rural areas, specific modes of resources exploration are linked to imposed interests of transnational corporations. Disparate consequences are going deeper evidenced by social, technical and nature transformations, envisioning risks for the habitability's condition

The Darién Region, Connecting Road of the Americas, among the expressions of hydric wealth, land vocation and the extractive exploration on its violated forms

Colombia has oceanic waters, catchment areas, like lakes, cienagas and swamps, water flows, like rivers, gorges and streams, small rivers and groundwater. The oceanic waters are the Caribbean Sea-1600 km and the Pacific Ocean-1300 km that comprise the north and west continental territory, respectively. Actually the Region of Darién, geographically bounded by the Carribean Sea to the north is becoming to be focused by studies due to use conflicts and disputes about water and a forest reserve on its territories. Considering its location, strategic at northwestern Colombia, frontier region with Central America, several dynamics are imposed. One of them is the implantation of a road system entitled Connecting Road of the Americas. This fact means the construction of an infra-structure that will cross a special zone formed by swamps and jungle known as The Darién Gap. Evidences of such interests are revealed by projects like the constructions of Turbo's Port in the Atlantic Ocean, Department of Antioquia and Tribugá's Port in the Pacific Ocean, Department of Choco, the mountain road and the coastal conection Colombia-Venezuela attending to the main intentions of the central region of the department (Metropolitan Area of Aburrá Valley-AMVA). Human settlements form a productive system, based on small and medium familiar agriculture's production, corresponding to the western portion and piedmont of Abibe's mountain at its antioquian portion, alluvial plan that forms the rivers on this area, the littoral zone that delimits the Carribean Sea, the Darién and Baudó Mountains and the gulf that receives, among other waters, the ones from Atrato and León, as well as the exodus process constitutes a forced exit resulting from actions of several armed groups. It can be identified intense historical, cultural, political and environmental relations, specially the last one associated with strategic ecosystems that are fundamental for the hydric regulation of the region, as well as food safety of the local inhabitants. Results from two researches (UPB, 2007 y 2010) reveals this quick transformation in the spatial re-configuration, demographical and economical indicators and the exacerbated fight for resources, damaging the extractive vocation in the Region. Path to commerce of illegalities (drugs, guns) and to implementation of the agroindustrial project for biofuel production, cooperation program that involves Venezuela, Brazil and Colombia. Appropriation modes allow the existence of strategies since global interests revealing a development logic that privileges the conception of an artificialized nature. Since the smallest portion of rural areas, specific modes of resources exploration are linked to imposed interests of transnational corporations. Disparate consequences are going deeper evidenced by social, technical and nature transformations, envisioning risks for the habitability's condition

La ira en la primera tradición cidiana

Las manifestaciones de la ira en el Cantar de Mio Cid engloban un con-junto de tradiciones de diferente índole que constituyen un punto de partida para la cabal interpretación del texto. Por una parte, la ira regia se relaciona con la teoría medieval emocional sobre la ira y, por otra parte, el examen de la dimensión política de la ira en el Cantar y la tradición cidiana precedente aporta nuevos elementos sobre las prácticas culturales y los sistemas jurídicos de la Edad Media.

Video-based tasks for emotional processing rehabilitation in schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a breakdown of cognitive processes and by a deficit of typi-cal emotional responses. Effectiveness of computerized task has been demonstrated in the field of cognitive rehabilitation. However, current rehabilitation programs based on virtual environments normally focus on higher cognitive functions, not covering social cognition training. This paper presents a set of video-based tasks specifically designed for the rehabilita-tion of emotional processing deficits in patients in early stages of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders. These tasks are part of the Mental Health program of Guttmann NeuroPer-sonalTrainer® cognitive tele-rehabilitation platform, and entail innovation both from a clinical and technological per-spective in relation with former traditional therapeutic con-tents.

Diseño y validación de un cuestionario socio-emocional para jóvenes futbolistas de élite. Desing and validation of a socio-emotional questionnaire for yourh footbal players

Validación de un cuestionario socio-emocional en fútbol

Explicit Expressions for Solar Panel Equivalent Circuit Parameters Based on Analytical Formulation and the Lambert W-Function

Due to the high dependence of photovoltaic energy efficiency on environmental conditions (temperature, irradiation...), it is quite important to perform some analysis focusing on the characteristics of photovoltaic devices in order to optimize energy production, even for small-scale users. The use of equivalent circuits is the preferred option to analyze solar cells/panels performance. However, the aforementioned small-scale users rarely have the equipment or expertise to perform large testing/calculation campaigns, the only information available for them being the manufacturer datasheet. The solution to this problem is the development of new and simple methods to define equivalent circuits able to reproduce the behavior of the panel for any working condition, from a very small amount of information. In the present work a direct and completely explicit method to extract solar cell parameters from the manufacturer datasheet is presented and tested. This method is based on analytical formulation which includes the use of the Lambert W-function to turn the series resistor equation explicit. The presented method is used to analyze commercial solar panel performance (i.e., the current-voltage–I-V–curve) at different levels of irradiation and temperature. The analysis performed is based only on the information included in the manufacturer’s datasheet.

Explicit expressions for solar panel equivalent circuit parameters based on analytical formulation and the Lambert W - Function

Due to the high dependence of photovoltaic energy efficiency on environmental conditions (temperature, irradiation...), it is quite important to perform some analysis focusing on the characteristics of photovoltaic devices in order to optimize energy production, even for small-scale users. The use of equivalent circuits is the preferred option to analyze solar cells/panels performance. However, the aforementioned small-scale users rarely have the equipment or expertise to perform large testing/calculation campaigns, the only information available for them being the manufacturer datasheet. The solution to this problem is the development of new and simple methods to define equivalent circuits able to reproduce the behavior of the panel for any working condition, from a very small amount of information. In the present work a direct and completely explicit method to extract solar cell parameters from the manufacturer datasheet is presented and tested. This method is based on analytical formulation which includes the use of the Lambert W-function to turn the series resistor equation explicit. The presented method is used to analyze the performance (i.e., the I - V curve) of a commercial solar panel at different levels of irradiation and temperature. The analysis performed is based only on the information included in the manufacturer's datasheet.

Grapheme-color synesthetes show peculiarities in their emotional brain: cortical and subcortical evidence from VBM analysis of 3D-T1 and DTI data

Grapheme-color synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon in which viewing achromatic letters/numbers leads to automatic and involuntary color experiences. In this study, voxel-based morphometry analyses were performed on T1 images and fractional anisotropy measures to examine the whole brain in associator grapheme-color synesthetes. These analyses provide new evidence of variations in emotional areas (both at the cortical and subcortical levels), findings that help understand the emotional component as a relevant aspect of the synesthetic experience. Additionally, this study replicates previous findings in the left intraparietal sulcus and, for the first time, reports the existence of anatomical differences in subcortical gray nuclei of developmental grapheme-color synesthetes, providing a link between acquired and developmental synesthesia. This empirical evidence, which goes beyond modality-specific areas, could lead to a better understanding of grapheme-color synesthesia as well as of other modalities of the phenomenon.

Estimación eficiente de atributos demográficos del rostro humano en imágenes

Sin duda, el rostro humano ofrece mucha más información de la que pensamos. La cara transmite sin nuestro consentimiento señales no verbales, a partir de las interacciones faciales, que dejan al descubierto nuestro estado afectivo, actividad cognitiva, personalidad y enfermedades. Estudios recientes [OFT14, TODMS15] demuestran que muchas de nuestras decisiones sociales e interpersonales derivan de un previo análisis facial de la cara que nos permite establecer si esa persona es confiable, trabajadora, inteligente, etc. Esta interpretación, propensa a errores, deriva de la capacidad innata de los seres humanas de encontrar estas señales e interpretarlas. Esta capacidad es motivo de estudio, con un especial interés en desarrollar métodos que tengan la habilidad de calcular de manera automática estas señales o atributos asociados a la cara. Así, el interés por la estimación de atributos faciales ha crecido rápidamente en los últimos años por las diversas aplicaciones en que estos métodos pueden ser utilizados: marketing dirigido, sistemas de seguridad, interacción hombre-máquina, etc. Sin embargo, éstos están lejos de ser perfectos y robustos en cualquier dominio de problemas. La principal dificultad encontrada es causada por la alta variabilidad intra-clase debida a los cambios en la condición de la imagen: cambios de iluminación, oclusiones, expresiones faciales, edad, género, etnia, etc.; encontradas frecuentemente en imágenes adquiridas en entornos no controlados. Este de trabajo de investigación estudia técnicas de análisis de imágenes para estimar atributos faciales como el género, la edad y la postura, empleando métodos lineales y explotando las dependencias estadísticas entre estos atributos. Adicionalmente, nuestra propuesta se centrará en la construcción de estimadores que tengan una fuerte relación entre rendimiento y coste computacional. Con respecto a éste último punto, estudiamos un conjunto de estrategias para la clasificación de género y las comparamos con una propuesta basada en un clasificador Bayesiano y una adecuada extracción de características. Analizamos en profundidad el motivo de porqué las técnicas lineales no han logrado resultados competitivos hasta la fecha y mostramos cómo obtener rendimientos similares a las mejores técnicas no-lineales. Se propone un segundo algoritmo para la estimación de edad, basado en un regresor K-NN y una adecuada selección de características tal como se propuso para la clasificación de género. A partir de los experimentos desarrollados, observamos que el rendimiento de los clasificadores se reduce significativamente si los ´estos han sido entrenados y probados sobre diferentes bases de datos. Hemos encontrado que una de las causas es la existencia de dependencias entre atributos faciales que no han sido consideradas en la construcción de los clasificadores. Nuestro resultados demuestran que la variabilidad intra-clase puede ser reducida cuando se consideran las dependencias estadísticas entre los atributos faciales de el género, la edad y la pose; mejorando el rendimiento de nuestros clasificadores de atributos faciales con un coste computacional pequeño. Abstract Surely the human face provides much more information than we think. The face provides without our consent nonverbal cues from facial interactions that reveal our emotional state, cognitive activity, personality and disease. Recent studies [OFT14, TODMS15] show that many of our social and interpersonal decisions derive from a previous facial analysis that allows us to establish whether that person is trustworthy, hardworking, intelligent, etc. This error-prone interpretation derives from the innate ability of human beings to find and interpret these signals. This capability is being studied, with a special interest in developing methods that have the ability to automatically calculate these signs or attributes associated with the face. Thus, the interest in the estimation of facial attributes has grown rapidly in recent years by the various applications in which these methods can be used: targeted marketing, security systems, human-computer interaction, etc. However, these are far from being perfect and robust in any domain of problems. The main difficulty encountered is caused by the high intra-class variability due to changes in the condition of the image: lighting changes, occlusions, facial expressions, age, gender, ethnicity, etc.; often found in images acquired in uncontrolled environments. This research work studies image analysis techniques to estimate facial attributes such as gender, age and pose, using linear methods, and exploiting the statistical dependencies between these attributes. In addition, our proposal will focus on the construction of classifiers that have a good balance between performance and computational cost. We studied a set of strategies for gender classification and we compare them with a proposal based on a Bayesian classifier and a suitable feature extraction based on Linear Discriminant Analysis. We study in depth why linear techniques have failed to provide competitive results to date and show how to obtain similar performances to the best non-linear techniques. A second algorithm is proposed for estimating age, which is based on a K-NN regressor and proper selection of features such as those proposed for the classification of gender. From our experiments we note that performance estimates are significantly reduced if they have been trained and tested on different databases. We have found that one of the causes is the existence of dependencies between facial features that have not been considered in the construction of classifiers. Our results demonstrate that intra-class variability can be reduced when considering the statistical dependencies between facial attributes gender, age and pose, thus improving the performance of our classifiers with a reduced computational cost.

Altered emotional and locomotor responses in mice deficient in the transcription factor CREM

Various transcription factors act as nuclear effectors of the cAMP-dependent signaling pathway. These are the products of three genes in the mouse, CREB, CRE modulator (CREM), and ATF-1. CREM proteins are thought to play important roles within the hypothalamic–pituitary axis and in the control of rhythmic functions in the pineal gland. We have generated CREM-mutant mice and investigated their response in a variety of behavioral tests. CREM-null mice show a drastic increase in locomotion. In contrast to normal mice, the CREM-deficient mice show equal locomotor activity during the circadian cycle. The anatomy of the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nuclei, the center of the endogenous pacemaker, is normal in mutant mice. Remarkably, CREM mutant mice also elicit a different emotional state, revealed by a lower anxiety in two different behavioral models, but they preserve the conditioned reactiveness to stress. These results demonstrate the high degree of functional specificity of each cAMP-responsive transcription factor in behavioral control.

Implications of EPHB6, EFNB2, and EFNB3 expressions in human neuroblastoma

Neuroblastoma (NB) is a common pediatric tumor that exhibits a wide range of biological and clinical heterogeneity. EPH (erythropoietin-producing hepatoma amplified sequence) family receptor tyrosine kinases and ligand ephrins play pivotal roles in neural and cardiovascular development. High-level expression of transcripts encoding EPHB6 receptors (EPHB6) and its ligands ephrin-B2 and ephrin-B3 (EFNB2, EFNB3) is associated with low-stage NB (stages 1, 2, and 4S) and high TrkA expression. In this study, we showed that EFNB2 and TrkA expressions were associated with both tumor stage and age, whereas EPHB6 and EFNB3 expressions were solely associated with tumor stage, suggesting that these genes were expressed in distinct subsets of NB. Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses revealed that high-level expression of EPHB6, EFNB2, and EFNB3 predicted favorable NB outcome (P < 0.005), and their expression combined with TrkA expression predicted the disease outcome more accurately than each variable alone (P < 0.00005). Interestingly, if any one of the four genes (EPHB6, EFNB2, EFNB3, or TrkA) was expressed at high levels in NB, the patient survival was excellent (>90%). To address whether a good disease outcome of NB was a consequence of high-level expression of a “favorable NB gene,” we examined the effect of EPHB6 on NB cell lines. Transfection of EPHB6 cDNA into IMR5 and SY5Y expressing little endogenous EPHB6 resulted in inhibition of their clonogenicity in culture. Furthermore, transfection of EPHB6 suppressed the tumorigenicity of SY5Y in a mouse xenograft model, demonstrating that high-level expressions of favorable NB genes, such as EPHB6, can in fact suppress malignant phenotype of unfavorable NB.