Increasing Emotional Intelligence through Training: Current Status and Future Directions

Emotional intelligence consists of adaptive emotional functioning involving inter-related competencies relating to perception, understanding, utilising and managing emotions in the self and others. Researchers in diverse fields have studied emotional intelligence and found the construct to be associated with a variety of intrapersonal and interpersonal factors such as mental health, relationship satisfaction, and work performance. This article reviews research investigating the impact of training in emotional-intelligence skills. The results indicate that it is possible to increase emotional intelligence and that such training has the potential to lead to other positive outcomes. The paper offers suggestions about how future research, from diverse disciplines,can uncover what types of training most effectively increase emotional intelligence and produce related beneficial outcomes

Living at home with eating difficulties following stroke: a phenomenological study of younger people's experiences.

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked Files. This article is open access.AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To explore and describe the experience of eating and eating-related difficulties in stroke survivors living at home. BACKGROUND: The ability to consume food and to take pleasure in eating is an essential part of life. For people with stroke, eating difficulties are frequent. A phenomenological perspective of stroke survivors' experience of eating difficulties exceeding the acute stroke event and in-hospital rehabilitation is missing. DESIGN: A qualitative study founded on the Husslarian descriptive phenomenology. METHODS: Colaizzi's seven phases of data analysis provided a systematic approach to explore 17 in-depth interviews from seven participants and how eating difficulties influenced their daily lives. RESULTS: Eating difficulties revealed themselves in participants' relationship with the outer world in far-reaching disruptions of habits, capacities and actions. Four key themes illuminating the eating difficulties emerged: (1) preserving dignity by not conveying serious problems, (2) staying vigilant to bodily limitations, (3) stepping out of the security zone and (4) moving on without missing out. The findings exposed that eating difficulties might not only lead to serious consequences such as malnutrition but also, and equally importantly, lead to losses in the existential, social and cultural lifeworld. CONCLUSIONS: The experience of eating difficulties entails an ongoing readjustment process, which is strongly influenced by interactions with other people. The findings suggest that individualised long-term support is needed to facilitated the use of helpful strategies to manage eating difficulties. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The long-term losses that people with eating difficulties experience are not reflected in conventional screening tools and interventions. To avoid haphazard identification presupposes professional knowledge of how eating difficulties are woven into daily life. This knowledge may inform innovative nursing strategies reaching beyond immediate rehabilitation. Partnership-based practice may provide an important framework to establish unique needs and to mobilise relevant actions and resources.Icelandic Nurses Association Research Assistant Fund of the University of Icelan

The radical character of the acenes: A density matrix renormalization group study

We present a detailed investigation of the acene series using high-level wavefunction theory. Our ab-initio Density Matrix Renormalization Group algorithm has enabled us to carry out Complete Active Space calculations on the acenes from napthalene to dodecacene correlating the full pi-valence space. While we find that the ground-state is a singlet for all chain-lengths, examination of several measures of radical character, including the natural orbitals, effective number of unpaired electrons, and various correlation functions, suggests that the longer acene ground-states are polyradical in nature.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, supplementary material, to be published in J. Chem. Phys. 127, 200

Association between plasma activities of semicarbazide-sensitive amine oxidase and angiotensin-converting enzyme in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus

Aims/hypothesis: Plasma semicarbazide-sensitive amine oxidase (SSAO) is elevated in patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes and has been implicated in the pathophysiology of diabetic late complications. The regulation of SSAO production remains unknown. We studied correlations between plasma SSAO activity and parameters associated with diabetic late complications. Methods: Plasma SSAO was measured in a well-characterised group of 287 patients with type 1 diabetes. Standard statistical methods were used to investigate correlations with clinical parameters and components of the renin-angiotensin system. Results: Overall, plasma SSAO was elevated, at 693±196 mU/l (mean±SD; normal controls 352±102 mU/l). Plasma SSAO was higher in the group with late complications or hypertension, and in patients treated with ACE-inhibitors. In univariate analysis a significant positive correlation (p<0.001, r=0.27) was found between plasma SSAO and serum ACE activity in patients untreated with ACE inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor antagonists (n=221), but plasma SSAO did not differ by ACE I/D genotype. Plasma SSAO correlated positively with duration of diabetes, HbA1c and plasma renin, and negatively with plasma angiotensinogen and body mass index. A multiple regression analysis including these variables resulted in serum ACE activity (p<0.001), ACE genotype (negatively, p<0.001) and HbA 1c (p=0.023) as explaining variables. Conclusions/interpretation: Results suggest that a common factor is involved in the regulation of both plasma SSAO and serum ACE, which is different from the genetic determination of ACE activity

日本語における語認識と平板型アクセント

博士（文学）神戸大

Mitochondrial uncoupling proteins regulate angiotensin-converting enzyme expression: crosstalk between cellular and endocrine metabolic regulators suggested by RNA interference and genetic studies.

Uncoupling proteins (UCPs) regulate mitochondrial function, and thus cellular metabolism. Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) is the central component of endocrine and local tissue renin-angiotensin systems (RAS), which also regulate diverse aspects of whole-body metabolism and mitochondrial function (partly through altering mitochondrial UCP expression). We show that ACE expression also appears to be regulated by mitochondrial UCPs. In genetic analysis of two unrelated populations (healthy young UK men and Scandinavian diabetic patients) serum ACE (sACE) activity was significantly higher amongst UCP3-55C (rather than T) and UCP2 I (rather than D) allele carriers. RNA interference against UCP2 in human umbilical vein endothelial cells reduced UCP2 mRNA sixfold (P < 0·01) whilst increasing ACE expression within a physiological range (<1·8-fold at 48 h; P < 0·01). Our findings suggest novel hypotheses. Firstly, cellular feedback regulation may occur between UCPs and ACE. Secondly, cellular UCP regulation of sACE suggests a novel means of crosstalk between (and mutual regulation of) cellular and endocrine metabolism. This might partly explain the reduced risk of developing diabetes and metabolic syndrome with RAS antagonists and offer insight into the origins of cardiovascular disease in which UCPs and ACE both play a role

Attenuation of acoustic waves in glacial ice and salt domes

Two classes of natural solid media (glacial ice and salt domes) are under consideration as media in which to deploy instruments for detection of neutrinos with energy >1e18 eV. Though insensitive to 1e11 to 1e16 eV neutrinos for which observatories (e.g., AMANDA and IceCube) that utilize optical Cherenkov radiation detectors are designed, radio and acoustic methods are suited for searches for the very low fluxes of neutrinos with energies >1017 eV. This is because, due to the very long attenuation lengths of radio and acoustic waves in ice and salt, detection modules can be spaced very far apart. In this paper, I calculate the absorption and scattering coefficients as a function of frequency and grain size for acoustic waves in glacial ice and salt domes and show that experimental measurements on laboratory samples and in glacial ice and salt domes are consistent with theory. For South Pole ice with grain size 0.2 cm at -51 degrees C, scattering lengths are calculated to be 2000 km and 25 km at 10 kHz and 30 kHz, respectively, and the absorption length is calculated to be 9 km at frequencies above 100 Hz. For NaCl (rock salt) with grain size 0.75 cm, scattering lengths are calculated to be 120 km and 1.4 km at 10 kHz and 30 kHz, and absorption lengths are calculated to be 30,000 km and 3300 km at 10 kHz and 30 kHz. Existing measurements are consistent with theory. For ice, absorption is the limiting factor; for salt, scattering is the limiting factor.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Journal of Geophysical Research - Solid Eart

Detection of Potential Induced Degradation in c-Si PV Panels Using Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy

Impedance spectroscopy (IS) is an established characterization and diagnostic method for different electrical and chemical research areas such as batteries and fuel cells, but not yet widely adopted for photovoltaics (PV). This work, for the first time, investigates an IS based method for detecting potential-induced degradation (PID) in c-Si PV panels. The method has been experimentally tested on a set of panels that were confirmed to be affected by PID by using traditional current-voltage (I-V) characterization methods, as well as electroluminescence (EL) imaging. The results confirm the effectiveness of the new approach to identify PID in PV panels.</p

Tuning metal-insulator transitions in epitaxial V2_2O3_3 thin films

We present a study of the synthesis of epitaxial V$_2$O$_3$ films on $c$-plane Al$_2$O$_3$ substrates by reactive dc-magnetron sputtering. The results reveal a temperature window, at substantially lower values than previously reported, wherein epitaxial films can be obtained when deposited on [0001] oriented surfaces. The films display a metal-insulator transition with a change in resistance of up to four orders of magnitude, strongly dependent on the O$_2$ partial pressure during deposition. While the electronic properties of the films show sensitivity to the amount of O$_2$ present during deposition of the films, their crystallographic structure and surface morphology of atomically flat terraced structures with up to micrometer dimensions are maintained. The transition temperature, as well as the scale of the metal-insulator transition, is correlated to the stoichiometry and local strain in the films controllable by the deposition parameters.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Outdoor Electroluminescence Acquisition Using a Movable Testbed

The experimentation with a movable outdoor electroluminescence (EL) testbed is performed in this work. For EL inspections of PV power plants, the fastest scenario will include the use of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) performing image acquisition in continuous motion. With this motivation, we investigate the EL image quality of an acquisition in motion and the extent of image processing required to correct scene displacement. The results show processed EL images with a high level of information even when acquired at 1 m/s camera speed and at frame rate of 120 fps.</p