Qualitative analysis of feedback on functional imagery training: A novel motivational intervention for type 2 diabetes

Objective: Effective motivational support is needed in chronic disease management. This study was undertaken to improve a novel type 2 diabetes motivational intervention, (functional imagery training, FIT) based on participant feedback and results from a self-management randomised controlled trial.

Design: Qualitative inductive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews.

Main outcome measures: Open-ended questions on participant experiences of the FIT intervention content, process, most/least helpful features, suggestions for improvement and general feedback.

Results: Eight themes emerged. Participants thought FIT promoted autonomy and self-awareness. They found the intervention interesting and helpful in keeping their health on track through accountability provided by regular phone calls. However, boredom with repetitive use of imagery, feeling inadequately equipped to manage unhealthy cravings, and difficulty with the time commitment was reported by some. Supplementary written material was recommended.

Conclusion: Several well-received features of FIT overlapped with those from traditional motivational interviewing. FIT sessions should ensure content is regularly adapted to new health-enhancing goals. After self-management behaviour becomes habitual, imagery practice could be restricted to challenging contexts. Provision of a written rationale and use of mindfulness for cravings is recommended. With these improvements, the impact of FIT on diabetic control may be substantially enhanced.     

Participatory and multiobjective development of watercourse regulation—creation of regulation alternatives from stakeholders' preferences

Multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods have been recently applied in many environmental problems. Major aims have been to structure and to analyse multifaceted and complex problems, to compare incommensurable impacts and to clarify the preference order of alternatives. Most MCDA tools concentrate on aiding the process of choice among alternatives. The choice usually occurs at the end of the decision‐making process, but MCDA tools can also assist earlier in the process. In this article, we present a new MCDA‐based method in order to create watercourse regulation alternatives, which meet the objectives of stakeholders. The method is comprised of three elements: (1) framework for the planning and learning process partly based on the Image Theory, (2) analysis and evaluation of ecological, social and economic impacts of regulation, and (3) visual interactive Excel implementation of value‐tree analysis (REGAIM‐model). We show how the method was applied in a complex watercourse regulation development project in Finland. Altogether 36 face‐to‐face computer‐aided interviews were undertaken with the REGAIM model with representatives of different stakeholder groups. We present the main results of the interviews and discuss how these interviews supported generation of new watercourse regulation alternatives. We also describe the advantages of the new approach in the participatory watercourse management, and discuss the applicability of Image Theory in the watercourse regulation context. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of goal orientation during expatriation: a cross-sectional and longitudinal investigation

Using cross-sectional and longitudinal data from expatriates in China, the authors investigated the roles of general, work, and interaction adjustment, as well as work stress, as mediators between the antecedents (learning, proving, and avoiding goal orientations, and perceived organizational support) and expatriate outcome (job performance and premature return intention) relationships. Results indicated that goal orientations toward overseas assignments had differential relationships with expatriate job performance and premature return intention. In addition, it was found that these relationships were partially mediated by expatriate adjustment facets. Implications for expatriate adjustment research and practice are discussed.     

The Psychological Cost of Racial Discrimination: What is the Role of Residential Segregation?

Racial discrimination is known to harm health, but to what extent the health burden of racial discrimination is contingent on residential contexts is understudied. This study examines the moderating role of racial residential segregation in the relationship between racial discrimination and psychological distress. Nationally representative data from the 2002–2003 National Latino and Asian American Study were merged with metropolitan-level data from the U.S. Census. Logistic regression models were used to test the independent and joint contributions of racial discrimination and residential segregation to psychological distress among Asians and Latinxs, stratified by nativity status. Higher residential segregation (measured by the interaction index) is associated with lower odds of distress among U.S.-born Asians but not among other groups. As for the moderating effect, residential segregation exacerbates the positive association between discrimination and distress among foreign-born Asians (measured by the dissimilarity index) and foreign-born Latinxs (measured by the interaction index), but not among their respective U.S.-born counterparts. Taken together, the present study highlights that strategies to mitigate the psychological burden of racial discrimination need to move beyond individual-level efforts to incorporate neighborhood-based approaches. In particular, results provide empirical support for efforts to reduce residential segregation, particularly among immigrants who are discriminated against.     

Affirmation and Denial in Aristotle’s De interpretatione

Topoi - Modern logicians have complained that Aristotelian logic lacks a distinction between predication (including negation) and assertion, and that predication, according to the Aristotelians,...     

Ethnic minority adolescents and the use of community mental health care services

Examined the utilization rates, treatment dropout rates, and length of treatment for minority adolescents in the mental health care system. Data from the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health from 1983 to 1988 were used. Ss were 853 African Americans, 704 Asian Americans, 964 Hispanics, and 670 whites. Analyses showed that Asian Americans and Hispanics are underrepresented in existing public mental health facilities while African Americans are overrepresented. For dropout rates, no ethnic differences are found between minority groups and whites; but, for length of treatment, Asian Americans tend to stay longer in treatment while African Americans tend to stay in treatment for a shorter period of time than whites. African Americans also have more outpatient episodes than whites. Implications of the results are discussed, and recommendations for future research are suggested.     

Guilt by association and honor by association: The role of acquired equivalence

Guilt by association and honor by association are two types of judgments that suggest that a negative or positive quality of a person or object can transfer to another person or object, merely by co-occurrence. Most examples have been demonstrated under conditions of direct associations. Here, we provide experimental evidence of guilt by association and honor by association via indirect associations. We show that participants may treat two individuals alike if they have been separately paired with a common event using an acquired-equivalence paradigm. Our findings suggest that association fallacies can be examined using a paradigm originally developed for research with nonhuman animals and based on a representation mediation account.     

The role of learning experience on the perceptual organization of Chinese characters

The effect of learning experience on the perceived graphemic similarity of Chinese characters was examined by comparing results of the constrained (Experiment 1) and unconstrained (Experiment 2) shape-sorting tasks obtained from various groups of participants with different learning experiences and ages. The results from hierarchical cluster analysis showed that both Taiwanese and Japanese undergraduates classified characters in relation to their configurational structures, whereas American undergraduates, Taiwanese illiterate adults, and kindergartners categorized characters based on strokes or components. Although a trend of developmental changes from local details to more globally defined patterns was found, the identification of structure as consistently perceived by skilled readers has to be nourished by learning experience and cannot be obtained solely through maturation.     

New stable icosahedral phases in Al-Pd-Ru and Al-Pd-Os systems

We have found stable icosahedral (i) phases in alloys with nominal compositions around Al 72 Pd 17 Ru 11 and Al 72 Pd 17 Os 11 . They display very sharp X-ray diffraction peaks, indicating high structural order as in other Al-based i-phases such as i-(Al-Pd-TM) (transition metal TM = Mn or Re) and i-(Al-Cu-TM) (TM =Fe, Ru or Os). The i phases are formed via peritectic reaction and, upon heating, they transform into a mixture of a liquid and the 1/0 cubic approximant phase. The electrical resistivity of the i phases was measured in a wide temperature range from 14K to above their melting points and a reversible change of the resistivity across the melting point has been observed in situ for the first time.     

Thermal expansion of icosahedral Al-Pd-Mn and decagonal Al-Cu-Co quasicrystals

Thermal expansion measurements have been performed by X-ray diffractometry on icosahedral Al-Pd-Mn (i-(Al-Pd-Mn)) in the temperature range between 10 and 700K and on decagonal Al-Cu-Co (d-(Al-Cu-Co)) in the range between 100 and 750K. The linear thermal expansion coefficient alpha(T) of i-(Al-Pd-Mn) is about half of that for the pure aluminium phase at room temperature and does not show a negative thermal expansion at low temperatures. The degree of anisotropy in the thermal expansion of d-(Al-Cu-Co) is small; the ratio of the average alpha between the tenfold periodic direction and a quasiperiodic direction perpendicular to it is 0:93 +/- 0:05. The Gruneisen parameter gamma(T) has been evaluated from the measured alpha(T). gamma for d-(Al-CuCo) is almost isotropic, similar to alpha. The gamma values for the two phases lie in the range between 1.5 and 1.8, which are comparable with those for conventional metallic crystals. They are almost constant over the temperature range studied.