Young Children's Ability to Engage in Cognitive Therapy Tasks: Associations With Age and Educational Experience

Abstract. In two linked studies we examined children’s performance on tasks required for participation in cognitive therapy. In Study 1 we piloted some new tasks with children aged 5 to 11 years. In study 2 the effects of IQ, age and educational experience were examined in children aged 5 to 7 years. In study 1, 14 children aged 5 to 11 completed three tasks related to cognitive therapy; generating post-event attributions, naming emotions, and linking thoughts and feelings. Study 2 used a between-subjects design in which 72 children aged 5, 6, or 7 years from two primary schools completed the three tasks and the Block Design and Vocabulary sub-tests from the WISC III or WPPSI-R. Children were tested individually during the school day. All measures were administered on the same occasion. In study 2 administration order of the cognitive therapy task and the WISC III/WPPSI-R were randomized. The majority of children demonstrated some ability on each of the three tasks. In study 2, performance was associated with school and with IQ but not with age. There were no gender differences. Children attending a school with an integrated thinking skills programme and those with a higher 1Q were more successful on the cognitive therapy tasks. These results suggest that many young children could engage in cognitive therapy given age-appropriate materials. The effects of training in relevant meta-cognitive skills on children’s ability to use concepts in CBT may warrant further research. Keywords: Cognitive behaviour therapy, young children, cognitive development

Reframing resistance to change: experience from General Motors Poland

This paper describes the successful introduction of a kaizen scheme in a General Motors factory plant in Gliwice, Poland. Employee value systems changed, despite the presence of strong, pre-existing values that might have inhibited this process. These findings are drawn on to examine the concept of ‘resistance to change’ and replace it with a notion of ‘functional persistence’. Our case study illustrates how assuming this position can aid the development of new work attitudes, as opposed to constraining the old ones.

Urban economic openness and IPO underpricing

We examine the empirical impact of trade openness on the short-run underpricing of initial public offerings (IPOs) using city-level real estate data. This paper represents a first attempt to employ a macroeconomic approach to explain IPO performance. We investigate an openness effect in which urban economic openness (UEO) has a significant impact on the productivity and on the prices of both direct and indirect real estate due to productivity gains of companies in more open areas. This in turn positively affects the firm’s profitability, enhancing the confidence in the local real estate market and the future company performance and decreasing the uncertainty of the IPO valuation. And as a result, we find that issuers have less incentive to underprice the IPO shares. China provides a suitable experimental ground to study the immense underpricing in developing markets, which cannot solely be accounted for by firm specific effects. First, Chinese real estate companies show strong geographic patterns focusing their businesses locally – usually at a city level. Second, we observe a degree of openness which is significantly heterogeneous across Chinese cities. Controlling for company-specific variables, location and state ownership, we find the evidence that companies whose businesses are in economically more open areas experience less IPO underpricing. Our results show high explanatory power and are robust to diverse specifications.

Manoeuvring between anxiety and control : Patients experience of learning to live with diabetes: a lifeworld phenomenological study

Research shows that people with diabetes want their lives to proceed as normally as possible, but some patients experience difficulty in reaching their desired goals with treatment. The learning process is a complex phenomenon interwoven into every facet of life. Patients and healthcare providers often have different perspectives in care which gives different expectations on what the patients need to learn and cope with. The aim of this study, therefore, is to describe the experience of learning to live with diabetes. Interviews were conducted with 12 patients afflicted with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. The interviews were then analysed with reference to the reflective lifeworld research approach. The analysis shows that when the afflicted realize that their bodies undergo changes and that blood sugar levels are not always balanced as earlier in life, they can adjust to their new conditions early. The afflicted must take responsibility for balancing their blood sugar levels and incorporating the illness into their lives. Achieving such goals necessitates knowledge. The search for knowledge and sensitivity to changes are constant requirements for people with diabetes. Learning is driven by the tension caused by the need for and dependence on safe blood sugar control, the fear of losing such control, and the fear of future complications. The most important responsibilities for these patients are aspiring to understand their bodies as lived bodies, ensuring safety and security, and acquiring the knowledge essential to making conscious choices.

Bank transactions tax: pathway to the single tax ideal: a modern tax technology, the Brazilian experience with a bank transactions tax (1993-2007)

Lançado por Marcos Cintra nos EUA, é mais uma contribuição ao debate envolvendo os impostos e a ideia do Imposto Único.

Anxiolytic-like effect of way-100635 microinfusions into the median (but not dorsal) raphe nucleus in mice exposed to the plus-maze: influence of prior test experience

Studies in several laboratories have confirmed the anxiolytic potential of a wide range of 5-HT1A receptor antagonists in rats and mice, with recent evidence pointing to a postsynaptic site of action in the ventral hippocampus. It would, therefore, be predicted that blockade of 5-HT1A somatodendritic autoreceptors in the midbrain raphe nuclei should produce anxiogenic-like effects. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the effects of WAY-100635 microinfusions (0, 1.0 or 3.0 mug in 0.1 mul) into the dorsal (DRN) or median (MRN) raphe nuclei on behaviours displayed by male Swiss-Webster mice in the elevated plus-maze. As this test is sensitive to prior experience. The effects of intra-raphe infusions were examined both in maze-naive and maze-experienced subjects. Sessions, were videotaped and subsequently scored for conventional indices of anxiety (open arm avoidance) and locomotor activity (closed arm entries), as well as a range of ethological measures (e.g. risk assessment). In maze-naive mice, intra-MRN (but not intra-DRN) infusions of WAY-100635 (3.0 mug) increased open arm exploration and reduced risk assessment. Importantly, these effects could not be attributed to a general reduction in locomotor activity. A similar, though somewhat weaker, pattern of behavioural change was observed in maze-experienced animals. This unexpected anxiolytic effect of 5-HT1A autoreceptor blockade in the MRN cannot be accounted fur by a disinhibition of 5-HT release in forebrain targets (e.g. hippocampus and amygdala), where stimulation of postsynaptic 5-HT1A receptors enhances anxiety-like responses. However, as the MRN also projects to the periaqueductal gray matter (PAG), an area known to be sensitive to the anti-aversive effects or 5-HT, it is argued that present results may reflect increased 5-HT release at this crucial midbrain locus within the neural circuitry of defense. (C) 2002 Elsevier B.V. B.V. All rights reserved.

Peritoneal Dialysis-Related Peritonitis Due to Staphylococcus aureus: A Single-Center Experience over 15 Years

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Moving from reclusion to partial freedom: the experience of family caregivers for disabled elderly persons assisted in a day care center

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Effect of caries preventive measures directed to expectant mothers on caries experience in their children

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Phenomenology as a method to investigate the experience lived: a perspective from Husserl and Merleau Ponty's thought

Aim. By taking nursing as a human relationships activity, in spite of its strong technical-scientific features, this article reflects on the phenomenological method as one of the ways to develop ail investigation and acquire knowledge of the topic.Rationale. Based on Husserl's phenomenology, which is opposed to the way of doing science based on the laws that regulate the physics and mathematics, the article introduces Merleau Ponty's existential phenomenology as the theoretical foundation for the method it proposes. My existential conceptions-people as historic beings inserted in a world over which they act but which, in its turn, determines them; the human perception as reference for our way of being in the world; the space-time structure of perception-these are the key concepts that have led to the elaboration of ail approach to phenomenological research.Proposal of a methodology. Steps are proposed for such ail approach, namely phenomenological description, reduction and analysis. These lead to the building up of ideographic and nomothetic analyses, thus unveiling and describing general truths about the phenomenon studied. Finally, the possibilities for applying the methodology to nursing research are discussed, illustrated by my research into student nurses' perspectives on working oil an isolation ward.

Multidisciplinary approach to chronic pain from myofascial pain dysfunction syndrome: A four-year experience at a Brazilian center

Chronic pain is the major complaint of myofascial pain dysfunction syndrome (MPDS) and is a complex problem which involves physical, psychological and social aspects, the etiology of MPDS is multifactorial and the multidisciplinary approach is essential for differential diagnosis and for comprehensive treatment planning, In 1993, the Dental School of Piracicaba-UNICAMP, Brazil, opened a Center for Pain Studies (CPS), staffed by health care providers including, dentists, psychologists, physicians, physiotherapists and phonoaudiologists. The major aims of the CPS are to provide clinical care and to develop basic and applied research, Sixty-two MPDS patients had been admitted to the CPS by 1997, There were 60 females and 2 males, mean age -32.5 years, the mean duration of chronic pain was 48 months. Pain intensity and unpleasantness were measured employing the Visual Analogue Scale, the tendency to develop stress-related diseases was assessed by the Social Readjustment de Scale, There was a mean reduction of chronic pain of 69.89% and 71.78% relative to intensity and unpleasantness, respectively, the experience of clinical attendance at a multidisciplinary center showed the relevance of a team consisting of health care providers from different specialties with well-established aims, completely integrated and sensitive enough to understand the painful complaints of MPDS patients.

Are you experienced? Predator type and predator experience trade-offs in relation to tadpole mortality rates

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Neonatal meningitis according to the microbiological diagnosis: a decade of experience in a tertiary center

The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence of and mortality due to meningitis and compare data according to microbiological diagnosis. This was a ten-year retrospective study conducted at a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Newborns with meningitis confirmed by positive CSF culture were included; those with congenital infection or malformations that made lumbar puncture impossible were excluded. The variables investigated were birth weight, gestational and postnatal age, procedures, hematological and CSF parameters, and complications. Parametric and non-parametric tests were used (statistical value p<0.05). The incidence of meningitis was 0.6% and mortality was 27%. of the 22 cases, 59% involved Gram-negative bacteria; 36% Gram-positive and 5% fungi. The groups did not differ in relation to birth weight, gestational and postnatal age, procedures or hematological and CSF parameters. Sepsis, convulsions and deaths were frequent in both groups, without statistical difference. Gram-negative cases showed abscesses and higher frequency of ventriculitis and hydrocephaly. Meningitis was infrequent, but presented high mortality and frequent complications.

An integrated approach to identification and conservation of medicinal plants in the tropical forest - A Brazilian experience

An integrated and interdisciplinary research programme with native medicinal plants from tropical forests has been performed in order to obtain new forest products for sustainable use in regional markets vis-à-vis ecosystem conservation. For the success of this programme ethnopharmacological studies are very important with respect to (i) identification of useful plants including medicinal and aromatic species; (ii) recuperation and preservation of traditional knowledge about native plants; and (iii) identification of potential plants with economic value. The plants are selected with a view to evaluate efficacy and safety (pharmacological and toxicological studies), and phytochemical profile and quality control (phytochemical and chromatographic characterization). These studies are very important to add value to plant products and also to mitigate unscrupulous exploitation of medicinal plants by local communities, since multiple use of plants represents an excellent strategy for sustaining the tropical ecosystem through ex situ and in situ conservation. Thus, conservation of tropical resources is possible in conjunction with improvements in the quality of life of the traditional communities and production of new products with therapeutic, cosmetic and 'cosmeceutic' value. © NIAB 2005.