The Effectiveness of Functional Family Therapy in Reducing Adolescent Mental Health Risk and Family Adjustment Difficulties in an Irish Context

To evaluate the effectiveness of Functional Family Therapy (FFT) 42 cases were randomized to FFT and 55 to a waiting‐list control group. Minimization procedures controlled the effects of potentially confounding baseline variables. Cases were treated by a team of five therapists who implemented FFT with a moderate degree of fidelity. Rates of clinical recovery were significantly higher in the FFT group than in the control group. Compared to the comparison group, parents in the FFT group reported significantly greater improvement in adolescent problems on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and both parents and adolescents reported improvements in family adjustment on the Systemic Clinical Outcomes and Routine Evaluation (SCORE). In addition, 93% of youth and families in the treatment condition completed FFT. Improvements shown immediately after treatment were sustained at 3‐month follow‐up. Results provide a current demonstration of FFT's effectiveness for youth with behavior problems in community‐based settings, expand our understanding of the range of positive outcomes of FFT to include mental health risk and family‐defined problem severity and impact, and suggests that it is an effective intervention when implemented in an Irish context.     

Age-related effects of practice experience on collective behaviours of football players in small-sided games

The purpose of this study was to examine whether offensive and defensive collective behaviours emerging in six-a-side football games (GK+5 vs. 5+GK) varied according to age-related practice experience of young, male players (U16, U17 and U19 yrs). Players’ were not instructed to implement specific tactical plans and their movement trajectories (2D analyses) were recorded using 10 GPS units. Four common measures of team dispersion investigated in previous research (surface area, stretch index, length and width of a team) were used to analyse team performance behaviours. After recording these collective variables, we used sample entropy (SampEn) and cross-sample entropy (Cross-SampEn) measures to assess the regularity and synchronization of participant actions in teams. Results demonstrated clear age-related variations in effects on the collective performance measures analysed. In attacking phases, older and more experienced players occupied a greater surface area and displayed higher values of team width and stretch index. In defensive phases, significant differences were observed in team length and stretch index. Cross-SampEn analysis demonstrated a greater synchronization between offensive and defensive surface areas and team width in older age groups (U17 and U19 yrs). Data suggest how coaches can manipulate practice task constraints to enhance development of team tactical performance behaviours in developing footballers between 16 and 19 yrs of age.     

The notion of professional identity among practitioners working with asylum seekers. A discursive analysis of practitioners’ experience of clinical supervision and working context in work with asylum seekers

The present study analyses interviews that were conducted with eight professionals who have provided therapeutic work to asylum seekers. It explores practitioners’ perspective on the impact of clinical supervision on their work as well as the impact of their working organisational context on the way they experience their professional identity. The findings of the study suggest that the experience of working with this population produces a notion of professional identity that offers a more politicised engagement with clinical work. This politicised notion of professional identity is reflected in the practitioners’ perspective on the use of clinical supervision as well as in the manner in which they position themselves within their organisational context.     

L’acceptation située des technologies dans et par l’activité : premiers étayages pour une clinique de l’usage

The aim of this paper is to consider that a complementary way to evaluate the acceptance of technology in the work is possible; the acceptance situated. From a critical review of the classical models of acceptability (social and practical) on the one hand, and relying on models of the activity and theories of appropriation on the other hand, we show that it is necessary to insert the ICT in its social thickness, that is to say in a more comprehensive and complex as richer activity system (real). We will discuss the four dimensions to be considered to evaluate this acceptance situated. We also indicate how this approach can become an instrument of the development of activity and can contribute to a process of (re)creation of technical instruments, laying the foundations of what we have named a clinical usage.     

Faster,slower or real time? Perceptual-cognitive skills training with variable video speeds

ObjectiveWe examined whether a short-term, off-field training intervention using different video speed manipulations (i.e., normal speed, 75%, and 125% of normal speed), enhances the offside decision-making performance of international level assistant referees. Moreover, we explored the optimal sequence of various video speed manipulations during training.DesignAll groups were exposed to a pre- and posttest. During acquisition, the assistant referees assessed 60 offside video simulations during three different training sessions. The order of the video speed conditions varied during the training intervention depending on participant group assignment: increasing speed group (n = 33; 75%–100%–125%); decreasing speed group (n = 33; 125%–100%–75%); and arbitrary speed group (n = 30; 100%–75%–125%).ResultsFirst, the decision-making accuracy was higher during the presentation of real time and faster video conditions when compared to the slower video condition. Second, only the decreasing speed group improved their offside decision-making performance from pre- to posttest.ConclusionsWe conclude that scheduling a decreasing video speed sequence throughout training is more beneficial to enhance learning than increasing or arbitrary speed conditions. Although it is too premature to replace existing training protocols that typically use constant speed videos, the present study offers evidence to suggest that training interventions for elite performers that decreasing the speed of exposure during the learning process may have some benefits over regular speed presentations.     

普通语言学指导下的翻译札记

外语教学中普通语言学课程的开设为学习外国语言文学专业的广大学习者垫定了语言学基础,一定程度上弥补了语言学上的知识空白。作为研究语言的基础课程,普通语言学对各门语言均有适用性,其中很多理论都会给予语言学习者颇多启发,本文将主要围绕两点：符号的任意性和语言的纵横特征,来谈谈其在翻译实践中的应用。     

The effects of clinical supervision on supervisees and patients in cognitive behavioral therapy: a systematic review

Clinical supervision is a central part of psychotherapist training but the empirical support for specific supervision theories or features is unclear. The aims of this study were to systematically review the empirical research literature regarding the effects of clinical supervision on therapists’ competences and clinical outcomes within Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT). A comprehensive database search resulted in 4103 identified publications. Of these, 133 were scrutinized and in the end 5 studies were included in the review for data synthesis. The five studies were heterogeneous in scope and quality and only one provided firm empirical support for the positive effects of clinical supervision on therapists’ competence. The remaining four studies suffered from methodological weaknesses, but provided some preliminary support that clinical supervision may be beneficiary for novice therapists. No study could show benefits from supervision for patients. The research literature suggests that clinical supervision may have some potential effects on novice therapists’ competence compared to no supervision but the effects on clinical outcomes are still unclear. While bug-in-the-eye live supervision may be more effective than standard delayed supervision, the effects of specific supervision models or features are also unclear. There is a continued need for high-quality empirical studies on the effects of clinical supervision in psychotherapy.     

近年结肠癌NCCN指南变化初探

NCCN结肠癌临床实践指南是基于丰富循证医学证据建立的高水平、规范化治疗指南。近年来,随着临床证据的不断丰富和积累,指南对一些临床问题的处理进行了调整,有的原则发生了变化。本文通过对历年不同版本指南的比较,对手术方式及病理评估、术后辅助化疗、晚期治疗方案和分子靶向治疗等几方面指导意见的变化进行了初步探讨分析。     

Relationship between religion and obsessive phenomena

The study examined the relationship between religion and symptoms of psychopathology, particularly obsessive‐compulsive (OC) and scrupulosity symptoms. Religious affiliation, religiosity variables (strength of faith, religious application, the beliefs about God's nature), and cognitive factors (e.g., obsessive beliefs) were studied as predictors of OC and scrupulosity symptoms in 179 non‐clinical participants. The main groups (Catholic, Protestant, and no religion) were not different with regard to measures of wellbeing or symptoms of general psychopathology (depression, anxiety, and stress), but were different with regard to OC symptoms. Consistent with cognitive theory, OC beliefs strongly predicted both OC and scrupulosity symptoms, even when general levels of psychopathology were controlled. Religion bore a less major but significant association with OC phenomena. Religious affiliation (being Catholic) was associated with higher levels of OC symptoms, and higher levels of personal religiosity (strength of faith) were associated with higher levels of scrupulosity.     

Object recognition and Random Image Structure Evolution

We present a technique called Random Image Structure Evolution (RISE) for use in experimental investigations of high-level visual perception. Potential applications of RISE include the quantitative measurement of perceptual hysteresis and priming, the study of the neural substrates of object perception, and the assessment and detection of subtle forms of agnosia. In simple terms, RISE involves the measurement of perceptual and/or neural responses as visual stimuli are systematically transformed—in particular, as recognizable objects evolve from, then dissolve into, randomness. Points along the sequences corresponding to the onset and offset of subjects’ percepts serve as markers for quantitatively and objectively characterizing several perceptual phenomena. Notably, these image sequences are created in a manner that strictly controls a number of important low-level image properties, such as luminance and frequency spectra, thus reducing confounds in the analysis of high-level visual processes. Here we describe the RISE paradigm, report the results of a few basic RISE experiments, and discuss a number of experimental and clinical applications of this approach.