Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) for depression by computer vs. therapist: patient experiences and therapeutic processes

This case series compares patient experiences and therapeutic processes between two modalities of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) for depression: computerized CBT (cCBT) and therapist-delivered CBT (tCBT). In a mixed-methods repeated-measures case series, six participants were offered cCBT and tCBT in sequence, with the order of delivery randomized across participants. Questionnaires about patient experiences were administered after each session and a semi-structured interview was completed with each participant at the end of each therapy modality. Therapy expectations, patient experiences and session impact ratings in this study generally favoured tCBT. Participants typically experienced cCBT sessions as less meaningful, less positive and less helpful compared to tCBT sessions in terms of developing understanding, facilitating problem-solving and building a therapeutic relationship.

A influência da informação háptica do gênero e do conhecimento da categoria nas percepções de risco, qualidade e confiança

A literatura de marketing aponta que os indivíduos diferem quanto à necessidade de tocar os objetos. A informação obtida fazendo uso das mãos – ou informação háptica – é relevante na avaliação dos produtos. Este estudo buscar avaliar se a necessidade de tocar (NFT, do inglês need for touch) afeta a confiança na avaliação do produto à venda, na sua qualidade percebida e no risco percebido com a compra, considerando duas diferentes situações de compra: quando o produto é comprado para uso próprio e quando o produto é comprado como um presente para outra pessoa. Esta pesquisa também examina o efeito moderador do gênero e do conhecimento prévio sobre a categoria de produto. Um experimento foi conduzido usando amostra por conveniência composta de 171 homens e 153 mulheres estudantes de graduação. As escalas foram testadas com análise fatorial confirmatória e atingiram adequação satisfatória. As hipóteses foram testadas usando regressão linear múltipla. A confiança na avaliação foi influenciada positivamente pelo conhecimento do produto e pela situação de compra, sendo maior quando o produto é para uso próprio. A qualidade percebida sofreu os efeitos do conhecimento do produto e do gênero – as mulheres percebem menor qualidade do que os homens. O risco percebido foi influenciado de forma significativa pela situação de compra, sendo maior quando a compra é para presente. Os resultados mostraram que NFT não tem impacto direto no risco percebido, mas por meio da sua interação com o gênero. Portanto, este estudo não encontrou influência direta da NFT nas variáveis dependentes, sugerindo que outros aspectos podem prevalecer sobre os efeitos da NFT nos processos de decisão de compra.

Efeitos de um programa de intervenção metatextual em escolares com dificuldades de aprendizagem

Pós-graduação em Educação - FFC

A continuous multi-millennial record of surficial bivalve mollusk shells from the Sao Paulo Bight, Brazilian shelf

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

Effects of a metatextual intervention program in developing written narratives of students with learning difficulties

This study aimed to verify the effects of a metatextual intervention program, in the elaboration of stories written by students with learning difficulties. Four students were included in the sample of both genders, with ages ranging between eight years and four months and ten years and two months of age. The program was implemented at the participant schools, using an approach of multiple baseline within-subjects, with two conditions: baseline and intervention. Data analysis was based on the classification of stories produced by the students. Mann-Whitney testing was also applied, to analyze whether there have been significant changes in these productions. The results indicated that all students have improved performance in relation to the categories of produced stories, from elementary schemas (33%), for a more elaborate scheme (77%), with a better structuring of the elements that constitute a story. Statistical analysis also showed that the intervention has produced significant results for all variables analyzed. The data obtained have shown that the program was effective.

Contingências facilitadoras de comportamento verbal em crianças usuárias de implante coclear e práticas parentais: uma intervenção com mães

Pós-graduação em Psicologia do Desenvolvimento e Aprendizagem - FC

The effect of overweight/obesity on cognitive function in euthymic individuals with bipolar disorder

Background. - Persistent impairment in cognitive function has been described in euthymic individuals with bipolar disorder. Collective work indicates that obesity is associated with reduced cognitive function in otherwise healthy individuals. This sub-group post-hoc analysis preliminarily explores and examines the association between overweight/obesity and cognitive function in euthymic individuals with bipolar disorder. Methods. - Euthymic adults with DSM-IV-TR-defined bipolar I or II disorder were enrolled. Subjects included in this post-hoc analysis (n = 67) were divided into two groups (normal weight, body mass index [BMI] of 18.5-24.9 kg/m(2); overweight/obese, BMI >= 25.0 kg/m(2)). Demographic and clinical information were obtained at screening. At baseline, study participants completed a comprehensive cognitive battery to assess premorbid IQ, verbal learning and memory, attention and psychomotor processing speed, executive function, general intellectual abilities, recollection and habit memory, as well as self-perceptions of cognitive failures. Results. - BMI was negatively correlated with attention and psychomotor processing speed as measured by the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (P < 0.01). Overweight and obese bipolar individuals had a significantly lower score on the Verbal Fluency Test when compared to normal weight subjects (P < 0.05). For all other measures of cognitive function, non-significant trends suggesting a negative association with BMI were observed, with the exception of measures of executive function (i.e. Trail Making Test B) and recollection memory (i.e. process-dissociation task). Conclusion. - Notwithstanding the post-hoc methodology and relatively small sample size, the results of this study suggest a possible negative effect of overweight/obesity on cognitive function in euthymic individuals with bipolar disorder. Taken together, these data provide the impetus for more rigorous evaluation of the mediational role of overweight/obesity (and other medical co-morbidity) on cognitive function in psychiatric populations. (C) 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Do College Women Facilitate the Sexual Assault of Their Same-Gender Peers?

National studies indicate that approximately 25 percent of women have been sexually assaulted by the time they finish college. Although male peers are often the perpetrators, women also engage in behaviors with their female peers that may increase the risk of sexualassault. In the present study, we sought to determine how often college women engaged in these behaviors (i.e. “female facilitation”). Participants were 373 female students (sophomorethrough senior; Greek and independent) who completed an online survey containing measures of sexual assault, alcohol consumption, and female facilitation. The female facilitation measure indexed both “facilitator” behaviors (those directed toward others thatlikely increase the risk of sexual assault victimization) and “facilitatee” behaviors (those that may increase risk of sexual assault victimization), and the two sets of items werecounterbalanced across participants. Descriptive statistics showed an overall prevalence rate for any type of sexual assault was 44.2%. Scores on the facilitator and facilitatee versions ofthe female facilitation measure were highly correlated. Facilitation was highly correlated with alcohol consumption, and being a faciltatee was moderately correlated with sexual assault. Results were consistent with some of our expectations regarding the relationships among facilitation, alcohol consumption, sexual assault, and demographic variables. Limitations of the methods and the implications of the findings for understanding campussexual assault will be discussed.

Female preference for male color is necessary and sufficient for assortative mating in 2 cichlid sister species

A critical step for speciation in the face of gene flow is the origination of reproductive isolation. The evolution of assortative mating greatly facilitates this process. Assortative mating can be mediated by one or multiple cues across an array of sensory modalities. We here explore possible cues that may underlie female mate choice in a sympatric species pair of cichlid fish from Lake Victoria, Pundamilia pundamilia and Pundamilia nyererei. Previous studies identified species-specific female preferences for male coloration, but effects of other cues could not be ruled out. Therefore, we assessed female choice in a series of experiments in which we manipulated visual (color) and chemical cues. We show that the visibility of differences in nuptial hue (i.e., either blue or red) between males of the 2 species is necessary and sufficient for assortative mating by female mate choice. Such assortment mediated by a single cue may evolve relatively quickly, but could make reproductive isolation vulnerable to environmental changes. These findings confirm the important role of female mate choice for male nuptial hue in promoting the explosive speciation of African haplochromine cichlids.

Effects of arm training with the robotic device ARMin I in chronic stroke: three single cases

BACKGROUND: Several clinical studies on chronic stroke conducted with end-effector-based robots showed improvement of the motor function in the affected arm. Compared to end-effector-based robots, exoskeleton robots provide improved guidance of the human limb and are better suited to train task-oriented movements with a large range of motions. OBJECTIVE: To test whether intensive arm training with the arm exoskeleton ARMin I is feasible with chronic-stroke patients and whether it improves motor function in the paretic arm. METHODS: Three single cases with chronic hemiparesis resulting from unilateral stroke (at least 14 months after stroke). A-B design with 2 weeks of multiple baseline measurements (A), 8 weeks of training (B) with repetitive measurements and a follow-up measurement 8 weeks after training. The training included shoulder and elbow movements with the robotic rehabilitation device ARMin I. Two subjects had three 1-hour sessions per week and 1 subject received five 1-hour sessions per week. The main outcome measurement was the upper-limb part of the Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA). RESULTS: The ARMin training was well tolerated by the patients, and the FMA showed moderate, but significant improvements for all 3 subjects (p < 0.05). Most improvements were maintained 8 weeks after discharge. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that intensive training with an arm exoskeleton is feasible with chronic-stroke patients. Moderate improvements were found in all 3 subjects, thus further clinical investigations are justified.

Structural Organization of the Corpus Callosum Predicts Attentional Shifts after Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) applied over the right posterior parietal cortex (PPC) in healthy participants has been shown to trigger a significant rightward shift in the spatial allocation of visual attention, temporarily mimicking spatial deficits observed in neglect. In contrast, rTMS applied over the left PPC triggers a weaker or null attentional shift. However, large interindividual differences in responses to rTMS have been reported. Studies measuring changes in brain activation suggest that the effects of rTMS may depend on both interhemispheric and intrahemispheric interactions between cortical loci controlling visual attention. Here, we investigated whether variability in the structural organization of human white matter pathways subserving visual attention, as assessed by diffusion magnetic resonance imaging and tractography, could explain interindividual differences in the effects of rTMS. Most participants showed a rightward shift in the allocation of spatial attention after rTMS over the right intraparietal sulcus (IPS), but the size of this effect varied largely across participants. Conversely, rTMS over the left IPS resulted in strikingly opposed individual responses, with some participants responding with rightward and some with leftward attentional shifts. We demonstrate that microstructural and macrostructural variability within the corpus callosum, consistent with differential effects on cross-hemispheric interactions, predicts both the extent and the direction of the response to rTMS. Together, our findings suggest that the corpus callosum may have a dual inhibitory and excitatory function in maintaining the interhemispheric dynamics that underlie the allocation of spatial attention. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: The posterior parietal cortex (PPC) controls allocation of attention across left versus right visual fields. Damage to this area results in neglect, characterized by a lack of spatial awareness of the side of space contralateral to the brain injury. Transcranial magnetic stimulation over the PPC is used to study cognitive mechanisms of spatial attention and to examine the potential of this technique to treat neglect. However, large individual differences in behavioral responses to stimulation have been reported. We demonstrate that the variability in the structural organization of the corpus callosum accounts for these differences. Our findings suggest novel dual mechanism of the corpus callosum function in spatial attention and have broader implications for the use of stimulation in neglect rehabilitation.

The Adaptation Effect in Bilingual People who Stutter: An Examination of the Oral-Motor Rehearsal Theory

The present study provided further information about stuttering among bilingual populations and attempted to assess the significance of repeated oral-motor movements during an adaptation task in two bilingual adults. This was accomplished by requesting that bilingual people who stutter to complete an adaptation task of the same written passage in two different languages. Explored was the following research question: In bilingual speakers who stutter, what is the effect of altering the oral-motor movements by changing the language of the passage read during an adaptation task? Two bilingual adults were each requested to complete an adaptation task consisting of 10 readings in two separate conditions. Participants 1 and 2 completed two conditions, each of which contained a separate passage. Condition B consisted of an adaptation procedure in which the participants read five successive readings in English followed by five additional successive readings in Language 1 (L1). Following the completion of the first randomly assigned condition, the participant was given a rest period of 30 minutes before beginning the remaining condition and passage. Condition A consisted of an adaptation procedure in which the participants read five successive readings in L1 followed by five additional successive readings in English. Results across participants, conditions, and languages indicated an atypical adaptation curve over 10 readings characterized by a dramatic increase in stuttering following a change of language. Closer examination of individual participants revealed differences in stuttering and adaptation among languages and conditions. Participants 1 and 2 demonstrated differences in adaptation and stuttering among languages. Participant 1 demonstrated an increase in stuttering following a change in language read in Condition B and a decrease in stuttering following a change in language read in Condition A. It is speculated that language proficiency contributed to the observed differences in stuttering following a change of language. Participant 2 demonstrated an increase in stuttering following a change in language read in Condition A and a minimal increase in stuttering following a change in language read in Condition B. It is speculated that a change in the oral-motor plan contributed to the increase in stuttering in Condition A. Collectively, findings from this exploratory study lend support to an interactive effect between language proficiency and a change in the oral-motor plan contributing to increased stuttering following a change of language during an adaptation task.

Sibling relationships in the family of a child with a burn injury

Purpose. Understanding siblings' experiences after a major childhood burn injury was the purpose of this mixed method, qualitative dominant study. The following research questions guided this project: How do siblings describe the impact of a major childhood burn injury experience? How do sibling relationship factors of warmth/closeness, relative status/power, conflict, and rivalry further clarify their relationship and their experience after a major burn injury? ^ Methods. A mixed method, qualitative dominant, design was implemented to understand the sibling experiences in a family with a child suffering from a major burn injury. Informants were selected from patients with childhood burn injuries attending the reconstructive clinic at a Gulf coast children's specialty hospital. The qualitative portion used the life story method, a narrative process, to portray the long-term impact on sibling relationships. A "case" represents a family unit and could be composed of one or multiple family members. Participants from 22 cases (N = 40 participants) were interviewed. Interviews were conducted in person and via telephone. The quantitative portion, or the embedded part of this mixed method design, used the Sibling Relationship Questionnaire Revised (SRQ-R) to conduct an additional structured interview and acquire scoring data. It was postulated that the SRQ-R would provide another perspective on the sibling experience and expand the qualitative data analysis. Thematic analysis was implemented on the qualitative interview data including the qualitative data from the interviews structured on the SRQ-R. Additionally, scores on the SRQ-R were tabulated to further describe the cases. ^ Results. The overall thematic pattern for the sibling relationship in families having a child with a major burn injury was that of normalization. Areas of normalization as well as the process of adjustment were the major themes. Areas of normalization were found in play and other activities, in school and work, and in family relations with their siblings and their parents. The process of adjustment in the sibling relationship was described as varied, involved school and work re-entry, and might even change their life perspective. Further analysis included an examination of the cases in which more than one person were interviewed and completed the SRQ-R. Participants from five ( n = 11) of six cases (n = 14), scored above 3.0 on the five-point scale on the Warmth/Closeness construct, indicating they perceived the sibling relationship as close. Five participants scored high on the Conflict construct and four participants scored high on the Rivalry construct. Finally, Relative Status/Power was low or negative in the six cases (n = 13). ^ Conclusions/implications. These findings suggest the importance of returning to normalcy for many of the families and the significance of sibling relationships on the process. Some of these families were able to use this major life event in a positive way to promote normalization. ^

Seasonal and Rotational Influences on Corn Nitrogen Requirements

This project is designed to study the N fertilization needs in continuous corn (CC) and corn rotated with soybean (SC) as influenced by location and climate. Multiple rates of fertilizer N are spring applied, with the intent to measure yield response to N within each rotation on a yearly basis for multiple years at multiple sites across Iowa. This will allow the determination of N requirements for each rotation, differences that exist between the two rotations, responses to applied N across different soils and climatic conditions, and evaluation of tools used to adjust N application.

Seasonal and Rotational Influences on Corn Nitrogen Requirements

This project was designed to study the N fertilization needs in continuous corn (CC) and corn rotated with soybean (SC) as influenced by location and climate. Multiple rates of fertilizer N were spring applied, with the intent to measure yield response to N within each rotation on a yearly basis for multiple years at multiple sites across Iowa. This will allow the determination of N requirements for each rotation, differences that exist between the two rotations, responses to applied N across different soils and climatic conditions, and evaluation of tools used to adjust N application.