Dialogical Integration of Life Experiences and Successful Aging.

This article examines the hypothesis that the dialogical integration of life experiences is related to successful aging. Life story interviews with 93 older Czech adults were sorted into categories characterized by specific patterns of life experience integration: (i) without dialogical processes, (ii) with differentiated I-positions, (iii) with dialogical relationships, (iv) partially integrated, and (v) completely integrated. The results indicated that the categories were ordered, yielding low-level correlations with scales of successful aging in predicted directions. A comparison of the categories revealed that they were related to successful aging in a cumulative way, starting with the most essential indicator (lower scores of rumination) in the participants who had developed at least dialogical relationships, continuing to higher well-being linked with partial integration, and ending with an advanced indicator (optimism toward future) linked with complete integration. These relationships were summarized in a hypothetical model that is open to further examination.

Is it Important to Talk About Technologies with Eating Disorder Clients? The Health-Care Professional Perspective.

Nowadays, the use of digital technology is an important issue that should be addressed during the treatment of people who have eating disorders. The involvement or absence of this issue reflects the understanding, experience, and atttude of health-care professionals toward their clients' use of technology. The aim of the present study was to investigate the perceptions of health-care professionals and their assessment of their clients' usage of digital technology while developing strategies for treatment. Semistructured interviews with 30 professionals were performed from October 2015 to June 2016 and a thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. The health-care professionals' views could be summarized in three thematic groups: (1) technology use is not relevant for the cooperation; (2) technology use is relevant for the cooperation and addressed generally; and (3) technology use is relevant for the cooperation and addressed specifically. The results are discussed in relation to the theoretical model presented by Rodgers about the impact of technology on disordered eating behaviors and the implications for practice.

Is risk-taking behaviour more prevalent among adolescents with learning disabilities?

Background: Reports from schools indicate that adolescents with learning disabilities (LD) frequently show risk-taking behaviour (RTB), but evidence is lacking. The aim of the study was to assess the associations between LD status and RTBs among Slovak adolescents and to explore whether family affluence and family composition have a moderating or mediating role in these associations. Data from the Slovak national HBSC study 2014 were analyzed. The sample comprised 1549 15-year-old adolescents (mean age: 15.4; 52.5% boys). RTBs were defined as early sexual experience, truancy, fighting, bullying, early smoking initiation and drunkenness. The associations between LD status and RTBs were assessed using binary logistic regression; the mediating as well as moderating role of family affluence and family composition was explored as well. Adolescents with LD are two times more likely to be engaged in early sexual experiences (OR 2.39; 95% CI 1.45-3.95), fighting (OR 1.72; 95% CI 1.01-2.95) and bullying (OR 2.08; 95% CI 1.26-3.44), but not in early smoking initiation, drunkenness or truancy. Family affluence and family composition did not moderate or mediate these associations. Adolescents with LD are at high risk of early sexual experiences, fighting and bullying but not of smoking initiation, drunkenness or truancy. Non-intact and poor families do not increase the risks associated with LD status of adolescents; however, in these families adolescents with LD are more prevalent.

Linear trap with three orthogonal quadrupole fields for dust charging experiments.

Investigations of charging processes on a single dust grain under controlled conditions in laboratory experiments are the unique way to understand the behavior of dust grains in complex plasma (in space, in laboratory, or in technological applications). An electrodynamic trap is often utilized for both holding a single grain and continuously measuring its charge-to-mass ratio. We propose a modified design of the linear quadrupole trap with the electrodes split into two parts; each of them being supplied by a designated source. The paper presents basic calculations and the results of the trap prototype tests. These tests have confirmed our expectations and have shown that the suggested solution is fully applicable for the dust charging experiments. The uncertainty of determination of the dust grain charge does not exceed 10(-3). The main advantages of the suggested design in comparison with other traps used for dust investigations can be summarized as: The trap (i) is more opened, thus it is suitable for a simultaneous application of the ion and electron beams and UV source; (ii) facilitates investigations of dust grains in a broader range of parameters; and (iii) allows the grain to move along the axis in a controlled way.

Psychotherapist development: integration as a way to autonomy.

This study deals with the question of how therapists naturally develop an integrative perspective. A grounded theory analysis was conducted, based on retrospective interviews with seven experienced therapists (working together in the same training program). Adoption of an integrative perspective was found to be an unintended consequence of the development towards an autonomous personal therapeutic approach. This development is directed by two autonomous criteria (congruence and perceived efficacy) and results in intuitive integration. Complementary to this aspect is a heteronomous line of personal therapeutic approach development, characterized by two criteria (adherence and legitimization) and leading to identification. Autonomy and heteronomy are understood as general principles along which a therapist's development can be organized.

Interaction between single dust grains and ions or electrons: laboratory measurements and their consequences for the dust dynamics.

The present paper reviews our latest, and brings several new, results on charging of dust grains of various materials and sizes. Charging processes of dust in space and their influence on the dust dynamics are analyzed in laboratory simulations of secondary emission, field ion and electron emissions, and dust sputtering. Single micrometre-sized grains and grain clusters are stored in a hyperbolic quadrupole field under ultra-high vacuum conditions for long time periods. The charge state of the grain and its evolution are recorded while the grain is exposed to ion or electron beams of various energies and fluxes. The influence of the secondary electron emission on the charge state is measured and compared with a computer model. Limitations on the grain charge by the field electron and ion emission are considered next. The measurements allow analyzing field emission from conductive and dielectric grains. The existence of long-lived surface states on insulating materials, which are probably responsible for the anomalous behavior of field electron emission and the low threshold of the field ion emission, is indicated. The observation of sputtering by energetic ions showing a surprising anisotropic erosion of a conductive grain is analyzed. The sputtering and the field ion emission are discussed as possible sources of the so-called pick-up ions.