Resilienz- vs. problemorientierte Beratung von Studierenden

Zusammenfassung. Theoretischer Hintergrund: Studierende suchen zunehmend psychologische Beratung wegen Stressbelastung oder psychischer Störungen auf. Während viele Interventionen auf die Reduktion psychopathologischer Symptome fokussieren, nutzt das persönliche Resilienzmodell (PRM) vorhandene Stärken zur Bewältigung von Hindernissen. Fragestellung: Das PRM sollte mit einer problemorientierten Intervention (ABC-Modell) als aktive Kontrollbedingung und einer Wartekontrollgruppe (WKG) über sechs Wochen hinweg verglichen werden. Methode: In einer randomisierten kontrollierten Studie mit n = 57 Studierenden (Completer) wurde das PRM mit ABC-Modell und WKG verglichen. Ergebnisse: Bei beiden Interventionen zeigten sich überwiegend signifikante Verbesserungen oder Trends in Psychopathologie, Inkongruenz, Depressivität, Selbstwert und Resilienz im Vergleich zur WKG. Die mittleren Prä-Post-Effektstärken lagen bei d = 0.62 (PRM), d = 0.42 (ABC) und d = 0.07 (WKG). Schlussfolgerungen: Das PRM bietet eine ökonomische und ressourcenorientierte Alternative zu problemorientierter Studienberatung.

[Fostering Resilience while Waiting for Psychotherapy: Evaluation of a Group Intervention in an Outpatient Care Setting]

Background: High untreated prevalence of mental disorders and long waiting lists for psychotherapy at the same time call for innovative intervention concepts. The positive brief intervention "Personal Model of Resilience" 1 is offered as group training and evaluated for the first time in a naturalistic clinical setting. Method: In a pre-post-design data from 84 wait-list patients are analysed via intention-to-treat (n=84) and completer analysis at 6-week-follow-up (n=54). Results: Repeated measures ANOVAs demonstrate significant improvements in psychopathology, incongruence and self-esteem. Effect sizes range from d=0.30-0.49 at follow-up. Intention-to-treat analyses support these results with significant improvements for all evaluation instruments. Discussion: The "Personal Model of Resilience" is a promising intervention module that may be offered to patients while waiting for psychotherapy.

Spontaneous melanotic lesions in axillary seabream, Pagellus acarne (Risso)

In this article, we describe spontaneous melanotic lesions in the skin of axillary seabream, Pagellus acarne (Risso), from a defined area of the Portuguese Coast, located in Cabo da Roca and Foz do Arelho. The lesions corresponded to the black pigmentation spots on the skin of the head, fins, lips and conjunctiva and, additionally, black nodules on the skin of the head and lips. In some specimens, the nodular formations in the head changed their anatomical conformation. Histologically, there were melanophores scattered along the basement membrane or forming aggregates in the dermis, infiltrating the subcutaneous tissue but not invading the adjacent muscle tissue. The aim of this study was to characterize the macroscopic and microscopic features of the pigmented lesions. These fish show sessile hyperpigmented lesions (spots) that correspond to proliferative lesions of melanophores in the dermis and nodular lesions that correspond to neoplastic lesions, melanophoromas. The melanophores in such lesions showed high concentration of melanin in the cytoplasm, moderate pleomorphism and compact distribution throughout all of the dermis.

Fatigue resistance of aligned carbon nanotube arrays under cyclic compression

Structural components subject to cyclic stress can succumb to fatigue, causing them to fail at stress levels much lower than if they were under static mechanical loading. However, despite extensive research into the mechanical properties of carbon nanotube structures for more than a decade, data on the fatigue behaviour of such devices have never been reported. We show that under repeated high compressive strains, long, vertically aligned multiwalled nanotubes exhibit viscoelastic behaviour similar to that observed in soft-tissue membranes. Under compressive cyclic loading, the mechanical response of the nanotube arrays shows preconditioning, characteristic viscoelasticity-induced hysteresis, nonlinear elasticity and stress relaxation, and large deformations. Furthermore, no fatigue failure is observed at high strain amplitudes up to half a million cycles. This combination of soft-tissue-like behaviour and outstanding fatigue resistance suggests that properly engineered nanotube structures could mimic artificial tissues, and that their good electrical conductivity could lead to their use as compliant electrical contacts in a variety of applications.

Direct growth of aligned carbon nanotubes on bulk metals

There are several advantages of growing carbon nanotubes (CNTs) directly on bulk metals, for example in the formation of robust CNT-metal contacts during growth. Usually, aligned CNTs are grown either by using thin catalyst layers predeposited on substrates or through vapour-phase catalyst delivery. The latter method, although flexible, is unsuitable for growing CNTs directly on metallic substrates. Here we report on the growth of aligned multiwalled CNTs on a metallic alloy, Inconel 600 (Inconel), using vapour-phase catalyst delivery. The CNTs are well anchored to the substrate and show excellent electrical contact with it. These CNT-metal structures were then used to fabricate double-layer capacitors and field-emitter devices, which demonstrated improved performance over previously designed CNT structures. Inconel coatings can also be used to grow CNTs on other metallic substrates. This finding overcomes the substrate limitation for nanotube growth which should assist the development of future CNT-related technologies.

Nanospring pressure sensors grown by glancing angle deposition

Arrays of Cr zigzag nanosprings and slanted nanorods, 15-55 nm and 40-80-nm-wide, respectively, were grown on SiO2/Si substrates by glancing angle deposition. The arrays exhibit a reversible change in resistivity upon loading and unloading, by 50% for nanosprings and 5% for nanorods, indicating their potential as pressure sensors. The resistivity drop is due to a compression of nanosprings (by a measured 19% for an applied external force of 10(-10) N per spring), which causes them to physically touch their neighbors, providing a path for electric current to flow between nanosprings. Repeated loading and unloading at large loads (> or =1 MPa) results in irreversible plastic deformation and a degradation of the pressure sensitivity.