Phason elastic constants of the icosahedral Al-Pd-Mn phase derived from diffuse scattering measurements

The diffuse scattering in the diffraction pattern of the icosahedral Al-Pd-Mn quasicrystalline phase has been measured on an absolute scale by X-ray and neutron scattering on single-grain samples. Most of the diffuse scattering can be interpreted in the framework of the elasticity theory of icosahedral quasicrystals considering only phason fluctuations. At room temperature the absolute values of the K₁/k_BT and K₂/k_B T phason elastic constants are of the order of 0.06 and 0.031atom^-1. The amount of diffuse scattering intensity is insensitive to the sample annealing treatment.     

Big Five personality dimensions in Italian and Dutch adolescents: A cross-cultural comparison of mean-levels, sex differences, and associations with internalizing symptoms

In the present cross-national comparison, self-reported Big Five personality data on large samples of Dutch (N = 1521) and Italian (N = 1975) adolescents were employed. Results suggest that the personality of Dutch and Italian adolescents can be described by the same Big Five traits, but that these might have slightly different meanings to the Dutch and Italian adolescent respondents. Supplementary analyses uncovered that sex differences are largest among Italian adolescents. Further comparisons reveal subtle cross-national differences in personality-psychopathology relationships, with stronger associations of Emotional Stability with depression for Italian when compared to Dutch adolescents. Results underscore that cross-national comparisons of personality may be alluring to use in research, however the findings of these comparisons should be interpreted with caution.     

Adaptation to continuous perturbation of balance: progressive reduction of postural muscle activity with invariant or increasing oscillations of the center of mass depending on perturbation frequency and vision conditions

We investigated the adaptation of balancing behavior during a continuous, predictable perturbation of stance consisting of 3-min backward and forward horizontal sinusoidal oscillations of the support base. Two visual conditions (eyes-open, EO; eyes-closed, EC) and two oscillation frequencies (LF, 0.2 Hz; HF, 0.6 Hz) were used. Center of Mass (CoM) and Center of Pressure (CoP) oscillations and EMG of Soleus (Sol) and Tibialis Anterior (TA) were recorded. The time course of each variable was estimated through an exponential model. An adaptation index allowed comparison of the degree of adaptation of different variables. Muscle activity pattern was initially prominent under the more challenging conditions (HF, EC and EO; LF, EC) and diminished progressively to reach a steady state. At HF, the behavior of CoM and CoP was almost invariant. The time-constant of EMG adaptation was shorter for TA than for Sol. With EC, the adaptation index showed a larger decay in the TA than Sol activity at the end of the balancing trial, pointing to a different role of the two muscles in the adaptation process. At LF, CoM and CoP oscillations increased during the balancing trial to match the platform translations. This occurred regardless of the different EMG patterns under EO and EC. Contrary to CoM and CoP, the adaptation of the muscle activities had a similar time-course at both HF and LF, in spite of the two frequencies implying a different number of oscillation cycles. During adaptation, under critical balancing conditions (HF), postural muscle activity is tuned to that sufficient for keeping CoM within narrow limits. On the contrary, at LF, when vision permits, a similar decreasing pattern of muscle activity parallels a progressive increase in CoM oscillation amplitude, and the adaptive balancing behavior shifts from the initially reactive behavior to one of passive riding the platform. Adaptive balance control would rely on on-line computation of risk of falling and sensory inflow, while minimizing balance challenge and muscle effort. The results from this study contribute to the understanding of plasticity of the balance control mechanisms under posture-challenging conditions.     

Adaptive and Maladaptive Dependency in Bereavement: Distinguishing Prolonged and Resolved Grief Trajectories

Interpersonal dependency is typically viewed as a risk factor for prolonged grief among conjugally bereaved adults. However, emerging empirical evidence and theoretical advances suggest that one manifestation of interpersonal dependency – adaptive dependency – may serve as a protective factor in coping with loss. This study compared adaptive and maladaptive dependency across three matched groups: prolonged grievers, asymptomatically bereaved adults, and a married comparison group. Results suggest a link between adaptive dependency and asymptomatic bereavement, and between maladaptive dependency and prolonged grief.     

Hallucinations and REM sleep behaviour disorder in Parkinson's disease: dream imagery intrusions and other hypotheses

REM sleep behaviour disorder (RBD) is a REM sleep-related parasomnia which may be considered a “dissociated state of wakefulness and sleep”, given that conflicting elements of REM sleep (dreaming) and of wakefulness (sustained muscle tone and movements) coexist during the episodes, leading to motor and behavioural manifestations reminiscent of an enacted dream. RBD has been reported in association with α-synucleinopathies: around a third of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) have full-blown RBD.Recent data indicate that PD patients with RBD are more prone to hallucinations than PD patients without this parasomnia. However it is still not clear why RBD in PD is associated with an increased prevalence of VHs.Data exist which suggest that visual hallucinations in PD may be the result of untimely intrusions of REM visual imagery into wakefulness. RBD, which is characterised by a REM sleep dissociation pattern, might be a condition that particularly favours such intrusions. However, other hypotheses may be advanced. In fact, deficits in attentional, executive, visuoperceptual and visuospatial abilities have been documented in RBD and found to occur far more frequently in PD with RBD than in PD without RBD. Neuropsychological deficits involving visual perception and attentional processes are thought to play an important role in the pathophysiology of VHs. On this basis, RBD in PD could be viewed as a contributory risk factor for VHs.     

Measuring Religiosity in a Majority Muslim Context: Gender,Religious Salience,and Religious Experience Among Kuwaiti College Students—A Research Note

The meaning of traditional and alternative measures of religiosity in a majority Muslim context is examined using the Islamic Social Attitudes Survey (ISAS). Specifically, this article reports a test of whether traditional religiosity measures are useful in a majority Muslim context. Differences between men and women are explored as well as the extent to which demographics, schools of thought, and religious socialization are significantly correlated to religious salience and religious experience. Results suggest the need to use alternative measures of Islamic religiosity and to take gender difference into account. Islamist political affiliation and religious socialization are positively associated with religious salience and experience for women, while more traditional measures such as mosque attendance and Qur’anic reading are associated with religious salience and experience for men, even after controlling for religious sect.     

Building the boundaries of a science: First representations of Italian social psychology between 1875 and 1954

The present study embraces the critical traditions of "New History" and of social representations theory articulated with the mainstream historiographical tradition of a bibliometric approach. The historical analysis deals with the early representations of Italian social psychology articulated and disseminated by some of the main Italian scientific-cultural and philosophical journals. We examined seven journals published between 1875 and 1954, and gathered 2,030 texts dealing with the various forms of social and collective psychology. We have applied a grid of content analysis whose data have been transcribed to a numerical file. At the same time, we have created a textual file containing the titles of the contributions as well as the names of the authors and scholars reviewed. The two files have been processed by SPAD-T for a correspondence analysis in which both lexical data and category variables have been considered as active variables. Through the scree-test, two factors that explain 18.90% of the variance have been singled out. Their combination has produced a factorial plan able to highlight three distinct areas differently characterized from journals and years. The results are also discussed with regard to the contextual historical frame.     

A First-Person Account of Using Mindfulness as a Therapeutic Tool in the Palestinian Territories

This is a personal account of the clinical work done in the Palestinian Territories by a clinical psychologist working with an international medical Non Governmental Organization (NGO). In her interventions the author used mindfulness-based therapy with people who suffered from severe psychological distress due to the political conflict. Such interventions can be therapeutic and heal deep suffering, whilst offering clients coping strategies when possibly facing other traumatic events in a situation of “chronic emergency” such as the one that people have to face in a country that has been under military occupation for over 40 years. Using a case study approach, the author discusses the intervention with two women, one suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following the loss of her baby after being kept at a military check-point, and the other suffering from depression following the killing of her son. The mindfulness-based intervention allowed them to explore a therapeutic approach which helped them to overcome their symptoms and “get unstuck”.     

Power cut in the countertransference

This paper is an attempt to describe and understand a certain type of defence that I shall call a 'power cut' because of its crippling and anti-relational nature. I will take extracts from a baby observation to show how this type of defence can be adopted from the beginning of life, followed by vignettes from my work with a young child and an adult patient which addresses the particular kind of difficulty the analyst has to face with patients who resort to such a defence. I am arguing that while defending from another, the patient is able to destabilize not only the connection between himself and this other, the analyst, but also that between the analyst and the analyst's internal world. I understand this as the violent re-enactment of the patient's uncontained and split off primitive experience. I see recovery from 'power cuts' as the main challenge for the analyst who is helping the patient to recover from an early failure in containment which has led to defective splitting. Only when the unthinkable experience of 'power cut' can become an experience that can be lived through and converted into a deintegrate, may integration be achieved.