Critical Review of the LiteratureCan Borderline Personality Disorder be treated effectively in forensic settings? A systematic reviewBorderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a common diagnosis in forensic settings. Certain features of BPD, such as impulsivity and emotional dysregulation, can create a vulnerability to impulsive acts. The condition is also associated with poor mental and physical health, making the treatment of BPD and its clinical features an important goal in forensic settings. This paper reviews evidence for the effectiveness of treating BPD and its symptoms using psychological approaches in forensic settings. A systematic search found 2913 papers, of which 13 met the inclusion criteria. The papers reported nine separate studies (six controlled) that implemented four distinct interventions, often adapted for particular forensic settings. Improvements in overall BPD symptomatology and specific BPD symptoms were reported for all types of intervention, although few differences in outcome between intervention and control groups were found. There were also reported improvements in BPD-related behaviours, but data on offending behaviour were absent. Heterogeneity in study quality and design makes it challenging to draw any firm conclusions about the effectiveness of any one form of treatment over another, nor about which treatment may best suit a particular setting. Further randomised controlled trials are needed to answer these questions. Service Improvement ProjectEvaluation of a brief educational intervention for clinical staff aimed at promoting trauma-informed approaches to careThere is growing evidence that trauma plays an important role in the aetiology of severe and enduring mental health problems. Yet staff can be reluctant to ask patients about trauma for reasons such as anxiety about harming patients and limited access to training. Where services have adopted trauma-informed approaches (TIAs) to mental health care (i.e., considering the ways in which trauma affects individuals when planning and delivering services), improved clinical outcomes have been observed. With this in mind, a new educational video was developed for mental health staff at an NHS trust. The video was intended to be (a) brief (10 minutes); (b) contemporary and engaging; and (c) accessible using computers, smartphones and tablets. Forty-one multidisciplinary staff viewed the video. Quantitative and qualitative evaluation indicated improvements in self-reported knowledge and confidence with regard to trauma, and a decrease in worries with regard to asking patients about such experiences. Participants found the video to be enjoyable, understandable and informative. Importantly, many indicated that it spurred them to further action, such as further training and asking patients about possible trauma. These findings indicate that a video of this type can offer an important ‘taster’ of trauma-related learning, constituting an important step towards embedding trauma-informed ways of working at a service. Main Research ProjectThe Role of Intrusive Imagery in Hoarding DisorderThe cardinal feature of Hoarding Disorder (HD) is persistent difficulty discarding possessions, with the resulting clutter compromising the intended use of living areas. Within the dominant cognitive-behavioural model of hoarding (Frost & Hartl, 1996), hoarding behaviours are positively and negatively reinforced in the context of certain object-related beliefs. Available treatments for HD have so far yielded modest outcomes, indicating a need for new approaches. Intrusive imagery has so far been neglected in HD research, despite the frequency of trauma in the histories of people with the condition. To address this, 27 individuals who met the DSM-5 criteria for HD and 28 community controls (CCs) were interviewed about their everyday experiences of mental imagery. Participants were also asked about the images they experienced during two recent real-life examples of actual or attempted discard of (1) an object of low subjective value; and (2) an object of high subjective value. Everyday imagery in the HD group commonly reflected themes of illness, death and reminiscence. Imagery in HD participants tended to carry negative emotional valence in comparison with CCs, and was associated with greater interference in everyday life and attempts to avoid the imagery. HD participants reported more negative experiences of intrusive imagery in comparison with CCs during recent episodes of discarding objects of low subjective value. However, HD participants experienced positive imagery when discarding, or trying to discard, high value objects. These findings indicate that although people with HD frequently report traumatic histories, this is not reflected in the everyday imagery that they experience. There is some evidence to suggest that the negative and positive memories experienced in relation to low and high value objects may aid our understanding of discarding and saving behaviour in HD. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are further discussed.

Recent empirical evidence supports the theoretical stance that fiction provides vicarious experiences of imagined spaces and situations that can help shape our perceptions of the real world, our social others, and the self. The implications for this are especially interesting for adolescents, as their brains undergo a restructuring during puberty, making them more responsive to change in executive function and social cognition. Few scholars have yet addressed how texts instruct young readers in how to use their developing cognition to assess characters' emotions and behavior, and how fiction can potentially affect these readers' cognitive and emotional development. This thesis analyzes the concept that potential adolescent readers can engage with a novel's characters' thoughts and behaviors by using their improving cognitive abilities to transmute what is on the page into real-life coping strategies. This phenomenon is especially compelling when considering the potential impact empowered female characters could have on adolescent girl readers, since their malleable brain around puberty makes them more receptive to accepting ideas - such as a person's gender not being a limitation. I examine what the primary texts themselves offer to potential readers, and analyze certain aspects of the texts that could be linked to potential readers' cognitive and affective engagement. The primary texts I have chosen are Tamora Pierce's two narrative quartets (The Song of the Lioness and Protector of the Small) that deal with characters from the fictional land of Tortall, as they focus closely on female characters in fantasy realms who are breaking gendered stereotypes by training to become knights. Pierce's books are representative of this adolescent feminist fantasy. I extrapolate that findings from this thesis will be applicable to other kinds of adolescent feminist fantasy texts; namely, that adolescent feminist fantasy fiction can beneficially change potential readers behavior and cognition.

Nous etudions dans cette these differentes lois de conservation hyperboliques associees a la modelisation des ecoulements en eaux peu profondes.<br />Nous nous consacrons d'abord a l'analyse numerique du systeme de Saint-Venant avec termes sources. Nous presentons un schema volumes finis bidimensionnel d'ordre 2, conservatif et consistant, qui s'appuie sur une interpretation cinetique du systeme et une methode de reconstruction hydrostatique des variables aux interfaces. Ce schema preserve la positivite de la hauteur d'eau et l'etat stationnaire associe au lac au repos.<br />Nous etendons ensuite l'interpretation cinetique au couplage du systeme avec une equation de transport. Nous construisons un schema volumes finis a deux pas de temps, qui permet de prendre en compte les differentes vitesses de propagation de l'information presentes dans le probleme. Cette approche preserve les proprietes de stabilite du systeme et reduit sensiblement la diffusion numerique et les temps de calcul.<br />Nous proposons egalement un nouveau modele de Saint-Venant multicouche, qui permet de retrouver des profils de vitesse non constants, tout en preservant le caractere invariant et bidimensionnel du domaine de definition. Nous presentons sa derivation a partir des equations de Navier-Stokes et une etude de stabilite - energie, hyperbolicite. Nous etudions egalement ses relations avec d'autres modeles fluides et sa mise en oeuvre numerique, la encore basee sur l'utilisation des schemas cinetiques.<br />Enfin nous etablissons un theoreme d'unicite pour les lois de conservation scalaires avec flux discontinus. La preuve est basee sur l'utilisation d'une nouvelle famille d'entropies, qui constituent une adaptation naturelle des entropies de Kruzkov classiques au cas discontinu. Cette methode permet de lever certaines hypotheses classiques sur le flux - convexite, existence de bornes BV, nombre fini de discontinuites - et ne necessite pas l'introduction d'une condition d'interface.

Cette thèse porte sur la restauration des signaux bruités observés sur des plans d'expérience aléatoires. Trois méthodes sont proposées. Dans les deux premières, on se ramène (soit par préconditionnement des données initiales, soit par régression polynomiale locale), à un problème de régression sur grille régulière. Des majorations asymptotiques de l'erreur d'estimation sont données pour les deux méthodes, sur des classes de fonctions holderiennes pour la première et sur des boules d'espaces de Besov pour la deuxième. La vitesse de décroissance de l'erreur est dans les deux cas très proche de la vitesse optimale. Un troisième algorithme concerne les plans d'expérience déterministes et utilise les ondelettes adaptées à la grille. Elles sont construites par des schémas de subdivision non réguliers, dont on étudie la convergence et les propriétés. Des nombreuses simulations et une étude comparative illustrent le comportement des trois algorithmes quand ils sont appliqués à des échantillons de taille finie.

就筆者所觀察，至今有關日語動轉名詞之研究大都僅止於語義分類或是分析其句法現象，複合詞語義擴張之結構與因詞彙複合所產生的選擇制約(selectional restriction)之原因尚未闡明。然而，透過認知語意學之基模、理想化認知模組等，我們可以正確掌握在論元結構或是詞彙概念結構所無法得知之信息，如以下三點。 1. 複合詞的多義現象 2. 複合詞的選擇限制 3. 複合詞的句法特徵 　　首先，複合詞的多義現象所指的是同一個形態帶有兩種或兩種以上語義之詞彙，如「歯磨き」。在以往的研究皆被視為是動詞語基轉為名詞時所發生之現象，筆者則主張本現象是起因於轉喻。 　　其次，選擇限制所指的是如「?洗剤を水割りで使う」、「?部屋で立ち読みする」、「??こんにゃくを輪切りにする」之類，未必不合語法但會令人感到不自然之用法。本論文將由「命名功能」來探討此現象。 　　最後，複合詞的句法特徵所指的是，詞彙結構雖同樣能夠分解為「內部論元＋動詞」或「附加語＋動詞」，卻未必能夠與「-する」結合來做為一個動詞使用之現象。 　　以上三點中特別是1和2在先前研究中幾乎未被提及。筆者認為此二點在動轉名詞中尚有待研究。因此，本論文將藉由認知語意學之方法來嘗試提出新的構詞模式。 / In this paper, I attempt to interpret some phenomena of deverbal nouns in Japanese as shown following, by the method of cognitive semantics. 1. The polysemy of deverbal nouns 2. The selectional restriction of deverbal nouns 3. The syntactic characteristics of deverbal nouns At first, I will explain the polysemy of deverbal nouns as the lexicon “Hamigaki”, which is considered as a phenomenon of conversion of the base verb, is due to metonymy. Second, I will make an explanation about the selectional restriction of deverbal nouns such as “? Senzaiwo mizuwaride tsukau”, “? Heyade tachiyomi suru”, “??Konnyakuwo wagirini suru”, which are easy to be regarded unnatural but not ungrammatical usage via “naming function”. Last, I will discuss the relation of the affix “-suru” and deverbal nouns which can be analyzed to “theme + verb” or “adjunct + verb”.

The necessity of managing disparate data models is increasing within all IT areas. Emerging hybrid relational-XML systems are under development in this context to support both relational and XML data models. However, there are ever-growing needs for adequate data models for texts and multimedia, which are applications that require proper storage, and their capability to coexist and collaborate with other data models is as important as that of a relational-XML hybrid model. This work proposes a new data model named E-model that supports rich relations and reflects the dynamic nature of information. This E-model introduces abstract data typing objects and rules of relation that support: (1) the notion of time in object definition and relation, (2) multiple-type relations, (3) complex schema modeling methods using a relational directed acyclic graph, and (4) interoperation with popular data models. To implement the E-model prototype, extensive data operation APIs have been developed on top of relational databases. In processing dynamic queries, our prototype achieves an order of magnitude improvement in speed compared with popular data models. Based on extensive E-model APIs, a new language named EML is proposed. EML extends the SQL-89 standard with various E-model features: (1) unstructured queries, (2) unified object namespaces, (3) temporal queries, (4) ranking orders, (5) path queries, and (6) semantic expansions. The E-model system can interoperate with popular data models with its rich relations and flexible structure to support complex data models. It can act as a stand-alone database server or it can also provide materialized views for interoperation with other data models. It can also co-exist with established database systems as a centralized online archive or as a proxy database server. The current E-model prototype system was implemented on top of a relational database. This allows significant benefits from established database engines in application development. In addition to extensive features added to SQL, our EML prototype achieves an order of magnitude speed improvement in dynamic queries compared to popular database models. Availability Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide after my graduation.

Thesis (M.T.S.C.)--Miami University, Dept. of English, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 80-84).

This study investigated the use of ORM as a conceptual modelling technique by using the UML domain model class diagram as benchmark. The rationale was that if the ORM-class diagram compared favourably with the benchmark, then ORM could be proposed as an alternate conceptual modelling technique. Proponents of ORM suggest that it has significant advantages over other techniques for conceptual modelling. The benchmark UML class diagram was developed according to the Unified Process through use-cases and collaboration diagrams. The ORM-class diagram was derived using the Conceptual Schema Design Process and ORM-UML Mapping Process. The evaluation of the two class diagrams was conducted by means of a questionnaire, based on a set of principles for conceptual models. The study concluded that ORM could not be proposed as a conceptual modelling technique up to the UML domain class diagram level without considering additional techniques for capturing the dynamics of the system. / Computer Science / M.Sc. (Computer Science)

The purpose of this study is to design a database of resources for rational therapy. An investigation of the current health situation and reorientation towards primary health care (PHC) in South Africa evidenced the need for a database of resources which would meet the demand for rational therapy information made on the Helderberg College Library by various user groups as well as make a contribution to the national health information infrastructure. Rational therapy is viewed as an approach within PHC that is rational, common-sense, wholistic and credible, focusing on the prevention and maintenance of health. A model of the steps in database design was developed. A user study identified users' requirements for design and the conceptual schema was developed. The entities, attributes, relationships and policies were presented and graphically summarised in an Entity-Relationship (E-R) diagram. The conceptual schema is the blueprint for further design and implementation of the database. / Information Science / M.Inf.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:05:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 4370.pdf: 1089392 bytes, checksum: 82daa0e51d37184f8864bd92d9342dde (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-29 / In bioinformatics, there is a huge volume of data related to biomolecules and to nucleotide and amino acid sequences that reside (in almost their totality) in several Biological Data Bases (BDBs). For a specific sequence, there are some informational classifications: genomic data, evolution-data, structural data, and others. Some BDBs store just one or some of these classifications. Those BDBs are hosted in different sites and servers, with several data base management systems with different data models. Besides, instances and schema might have semantic heterogeneity. In such scenario, the objective of this project is to propose a biological data integration model, that adopts new schema integration and instance integration techniques. The proposed integration model has a special mechanism of schema integration and another mechanism that performs the instance integration (with support of a dictionary) allowing conflict resolution in the attribute values; and a Clustering Algorithm is used in order to cluster similar entities. Besides, a domain specialist participates managing those clusters. The proposed model was validated through a study case focusing on schema and instance integration about nucleotide sequence data from organisms of Actinomyces gender, captured from four different data sources. The result is that about 97.91% of the attributes were correctly categorized in the schema integration, and the instance integration was able to identify that about 50% of the clusters created need support from a specialist, avoiding errors on the instance resolution. Besides, some contributions are presented, as the Attributes Categorization, the Clustering Algorithm, the distance functions proposed and the proposed model itself. / Na bioinformática, existe um imenso volume de dados sendo produzidos, os quais estão relacionados a sequências de nucleotídeos e aminoácidos que se encontram, em quase a sua totalidade, armazenados em Bancos de Dados Biológicos (BDBs). Para uma determinada sequência existem algumas classificações de informação: dados genômicos, dados evolutivos, dados estruturais, dentre outros. Existem BDBs que armazenam somente uma ou algumas dessas classificações. Tais BDBs estão hospedados em diferentes sites e servidores, com sistemas gerenciadores de banco de dados distintos e com uso de diferentes modelos de dados, além de terem instâncias e esquemas com heterogeneidade semântica. Dentro desse contexto, o objetivo deste projeto de mestrado é propor um Modelo de Integração de Dados Biológicos, com novas técnicas de integração de esquemas e integração de instâncias. O modelo de integração proposto possui um mecanismo especial de integração de esquemas, e outro mecanismo que realiza a integração de instâncias de dados (com um dicionário acoplado) permitindo resolução de conflitos nos valores dos atributos; e um Algoritmo de Clusterização é utilizado, com o objetivo de realizar o agrupamento de entidades similares. Além disso, o especialista de domínio participa do gerenciamento desses agrupamentos. Esse modelo foi validado por meio de um estudo de caso com ênfase na integração de esquemas e integração de instâncias com dados de sequências de nucleotídeos de genes de organismos do gênero Actinomyces, provenientes de quatro diferentes fontes de dados. Como resultado, obteve-se que aproximadamente 97,91% dos atributos foram categorizados corretamente na integração de esquemas e a integração de instâncias conseguiu identificar que aproximadamente 50% dos clusters gerados precisam de tratamento do especialista, evitando erros de resolução de entidades. Além disso, algumas contribuições são apresentadas, como por exemplo a Categorização de Atributos, o Algoritmo de Clusterização, as funções de distância propostas e o modelo MIDB em si.