Curricular options and services for youth with disabilities

The purpose of this research was to identify and discuss the curricular options, modes of delivering services, and related instructional matters for youth with disabilities. To carry out that we gathered data in six high schools of various sizes and types. Based on a conceptual framework designed by Goodlad, we identified 12 research questions. Data of four types (observations, interviews, surveys, and documents) were gathered from all six sites in response to those questions. Reports were written for each of the high schools that included several recommendations. These recommendations were explained to individuals at the schools and researchers were apprised of the extent which the suggestions were either considered or put into practice. Results from the six schools with respect to the 12 research questions are summarized.     

A longitudinal study of school adjustment in urban,minority adolescents: Effects of a high school transition program

Described an intervention program designed to prepare elementary school (K-8) eighth-grade students for their transition to high school the following year. Participants in the study were 145, predominantly Hispanic, inner-city public school adolescents. The experimental group received an augmented condition, consisting of Education and Peer Support Components. The control group received a minimal condition consisting of only the Education Component. While no group effects were observed, time effects indicated experimental and control students' improved perceptions of school readiness, but deteriorated perceptions of support from both home and school and diminished grade-point averages and attendance. Time effects also revealed variable changes in school perceptions. Findings are discussed in terms of a developmental perspective of the school transition process. Implications for high school transition programming with the target population and directions for future research are also addressed.     

Art within analysis: scapegoat, transference and transformation

Through clinical example and pictorial illustration, the author examines ways in which art offers a particular means of psychological transformation in states which may otherwise be in expressable. A transference to the art work itself is proposed. It is submitted that, mediated within the transference/ countertransference dynamic, this 'scapegoat transference' facilitates a particular process of psychological differentiation. The aesthetic qualities of art presented within analysis will resonate with other countertransference affects. Clinical material demonstrates how observation of this--aesthetic countertransference--leads to a distinction between the 'diagrammatic' and the 'embodied image. The process of integration of shadow material is furthered by the temporary safe-keeping of the art work by the analyst.     

On the Art of Finding Arguments: What Ancient and Modern Masters of Invention Have to Tell Us About the "Ars Inveniendi"

This paper deals with what has been called "ars inveniendi" (art of finding) in antiquity, medieval and early modern times. A survey of different techniques of finding tenable and relevant arguments is presented (among them, the Topical tradition, Status theory, Debate theory, Encyclopedic systems, Creativity techniques). Their advantages and disadvantages are critically compared. It is suggested that a mixture of strategies of finding arguments should be used. Finally, a few remarks showing the relationship beween the strategies of finding arguments and creativity in general are given.     

管理者工作压力高阶因素结构分析

本研究通过对浙江省七家企业的中层管理者工作压力的调查 ,分析了管理者工作压力体验的因素构成 ,揭示了工作压力体验评价的三个维度 :心理、生理和情绪维度 ,并以此为基础确定了工作压力的评价量表。比较不同职能部门、不同知识水平的管理者的工作压力体验 ,发现工作压力体验与工作的生产介入程度有密切联系 ,生产介入程度越深 ,工作压力越大 ;另一方面 ,知识水平也影响着管理者的工作压力 ,学历较低 (如初中学历 )的管理者由于不能满足工作的技术发展要求 ,其工作压力体验显著高于学历较高的管理者。     

初中学生自尊特点的初步研究

对991名城乡在校初中生施以Coopersmith自尊问卷（25条目版）测验。对问卷的测量学分析发现：该自尊问卷的中文版具有较高的信度,其与有关测量工具之间的效标关联效度合乎逻辑;对被试自尊特点的分析发现：初中阶段学生的自尊存在极显著的年级差异,初中二年级开始自尊极显著地降低;初中生的自尊不存在性别差异;城市被试的自尊在总体上高于农村被试,但城乡因素与被试的性别有交互作用;独生子女的自尊高于非独生子女,但这一差异仅存在于初中一年级。     

Re-Collection in Existential Psychotherapy with Couples and Families Dealing with Death

Re-collection is a treatment dynamic in existential family therapy in which the client family is helped to remember and honor meanings that family members have previously actualized and deposited in the past. This shrinks the family meaning vacuum and those symptoms and problems that grow and flourish in a family meaning vacuum. In this article, an existential orientation to re-collection with families who are dealing with the death of a loved one is presented, described, and illustrated with case material.     

Adolescent Adjustment and the Transition to High School

We examined the impact of the transition from elementary to high school on the psychological adjustment of adolescents, and the effectiveness of an assessment procedure aimed at identifying adolescents experiencing emotional and behavioral problems. One hundred and ten children from 2 elementary schools within the greater Brisbane area were followed across the transition from elementary to high school and screened for emotional and behavioral problems in grade 7 and again in grade 8. It was found that, in general, the transition to high school did not coincide with a marked decrease in psychological adjustment. Structured clinical interviews with adolescents in grade 8 showed that 13% of boys and 15% of girls experienced a diagnosable DSM-IV psychological disorder and that a further 15% of boys and 15% of girls suffered from features of a psychological disorder. Furthermore, results of discriminant function analyses showed that a combination of self report of adjustment, teacher report of adjustment, and assessment of relevant family variables obtained in grade 7 predicted the absence or presence of emotional and behavioral problems, six months later, in up to 77% of children. Results are discussed in terms of the impact of the transition to high school, the effectiveness of community-based assessment programs for adolescents, and the stability of emotional and behavioral problems in childhood and adolescents.     

Is the heart preadapted to hypoxia? Evidence from fractal dynamics of heartbeat interval fluctuations at high altitude (5,050 m)

The dynamics of heartbeat interval time series over large time scales were studied by a modifed random walk analysis introduced recently asDetrended Fluctuation Analysis. In this analysis, the intrinsic fractal long-range power-law correlation properties of beat-to-beat fluctuations generated by the dynamical system (i.e., cardiac rhythm generator), after decomposition from extrinsic uncorrelated sources, can be quantified by the scaling exponent (α) which, in healthy subjects, for time scales of ∼10⁴ beats is ∼1.0. The effects of chronic hypoxia were determined from serial heartbeat interval time series of digitized twenty-four-hour ambulatory ECGs recorded in nine healthy subjects (mean age thirty-four years old) at sea level and during a sojourn at 5,050 m for thirty-four days (Ev-K2-CNR Pyramid Laboratory, Sagarmatha National Park, Nepal). The group averaged α exponent (±SD) was 0.99±0.04 (range 0.93–1.04). Longitudinal assessment of α in individual subjects did not reveal any effect of exposure to chronic high altitude hypoxia. The finding of α∼1 indicating scale-invariant long-range power-law correlations (1/f noise) of heartbeat fluctuations would reflect a genuinely self-similar fractal process that typically generates fluctuations on a wide range of time scales. Lack of a characteristic time scale along with the absence of any effect from exposure to chronic hypoxia on scaling properties suggests that the neuroautonomic cardiac control system is preadapted to hypoxia which helps prevent excessive mode-locking (error tolerance) that would restrict its functional responsiveness (plasticity) to hypoxic or other physiological stimuli. Editorial Note: A philosopher is, by definition, a lover of wisdom. In the following article, Dr. Dimitrov, as a philosopher, examines the principles that underlie being and thinking as performed by the structures of the brain. He reports his thoughts in a “virtual context.” Virtual, a word enjoying great popularity today, is derived from the Latin word for man; it describes manliness and implies apparent, but not actual, power. In his analysis of how information is dealt with by the human being, the author uses theoretical physics and mathematics that may seem arcane to some readers. A major aspect of his thesis declares that the effective performance of information systems relies not on the structures involved, but on the way they interact.