Separate But Not Alone: Separation-Individuation Issues in College Students with Eating Disorders

It sometimes seems that the college experience is tailor-made for the development of eating disorders. Overwhelmed and bombarded by their feelings, college students often turn to behavioral means, like eating disorders, to cope. Contemporary research (e.g., Christenson et al., 1994) has shown that good and bad emotions alike can be managed by starvation, bingeing, overeating, purging, and/or obsessive exercise. For college students, many of the overwhelming feelings that are titrated by eating disorders are directly linked to the separation process. Adolescence has been called a second individuation. While Mahler et al. (1975) viewed separation-individuation as both a developmental stage and a lifetime's work, contemporary therapists often concentrate on the importance of early separation experiences. A postmodern perspective, however, recognizes the importance of connection as well as separation. Our culture is so focused on independence that many parents of college students do not recognize the importance of maintaining active contact with their older adolescents. It can be very helpful to view an eating disorder as representing a college student's attempt to negotiate separation and connection, dependence and autonomy. This article examines some of these dynamics and the implications for therapy with this population.     

Directed Steiner trees with diffusion costs

Given a directed arc-weighted graph G with n nodes, a root r and k terminals, the directed steiner tree problem (DST) consists in finding a minimum-weight tree rooted at r and spanning all the terminals. If this problem has several applications in multicast routing in packet switching networks, the modeling is not adapted anymore in networks based upon the circuit switching principle in which some nodes, called non diffusing nodes, are unable to duplicate packets. We define a more general problem, namely the directed steiner tree with a limited number of diffusing nodes (DSTLD), that enables us to model multicast in a network containing at most d diffusing nodes. We show that DSTLD is XP with respect to d, and use this result to build a \(\left\lceil \frac{k-1}{d} \right\rceil \)-approximation algorithm for DST that is XP in d. We deduce from that result a strong inapproximability property. In particular, we prove that, under the assumption that NP \(\not \subseteq \) ZTIME \([n^{\log ^{O(1)}n}]\), there is no polynomial-time approximation algorithm for DSTLD with ratio \(\varOmega \left( \frac{k}{d}\right) \). We finally give an evaluation of performances of an exact algorithm dedicated to the case \(d \le 3\).     

Do higher wages come at a price?

Using linked employer-employee data for Britain we find that higher wages are associated with higher job satisfaction and higher job anxiety. The association between wages and non-pecuniary job satisfaction disappears with the inclusion of effort measures whereas the positive association between wages and job anxiety remains strong and significant providing no support for a compensating differential explanation, but rather for a ‘gift exchange’ type of reciprocal behaviour. No support is found for the proposition that within-workplace wage differentials are a source of job anxiety.     

The Zero program

Zero is a schoolwide antibullying program developed by the Centre for Behavioural Research at the University of Stavanger, Norway. It is based on three main principles: a zero vision of bullying, collective commitment among all employees at the school using the program, and continuing work. Based on these principles, the program aims to reduce student bullying by increasing the school's ability to uncover and stop bullying, and eventually to prevent it. The Zero program was launched in 2003, but the work that led to it goes back to the first national steps against bullying in 1983. The program extends over sixteen months as teachers develop their awareness of bullying and their competence in addressing it. Students and parents are involved in the program as well. The role of the school leadership is very important. More than 360 Norwegian schools have carried out the program.     

Listening to Words,Hearing Feelings: Links Between Eating Disorders and Alexithymia

Research suggests that eating disorders often involve difficulty with affect regulation and processing of emotions. Studies also show that many individuals with these difficulties suffer from alexithymia, or an impaired ability to use language to tolerate or process emotions. Many clients with eating disorders are highly verbal, able to talk about feelings and even have good insight into the causes of their behaviors. Yet their verbal and cognitive strengths may disguise their inability to use thoughts to manage their emotions. Such clients often have a lifelong experience of appearing more capable and competent than they feel. Self-criticism and negative self-image concretized in a negative body image are part of their eating disorder. Therapeutic exploration can increase anxiety and self-criticism, aggravating feelings of inadequacy and the concomitant need for self-soothing. Techniques that focus on affect regulation have been shown to be effective, yet a psychodynamic approach can be an important tool in such an integrative practice. In this article, clinical material and theory will illustrate some of the ways that incorporating an understanding of alexithymia into the work can enhance the use of both psychodynamic exploration of meaning and also tools to manage affect and change behavior.     

Gender Roles in the Romantic Relationships of Women in STEM and Female-Dominated Majors: A Study of Heterosexual Couples

Gender Issues - Based upon social structural accounts of mate preferences and career interest, it is often suggested that women avoid high status, traditionally masculine careers such as those in...     

Insights from big Data Analytics in supply chain management: an all-inclusive literature review using the SCOR model

Abstract

When supply chain management (SCM) intersects with Big Data Analytics (BDA), uncountable opportunities for research emerge. Unfortunately, how analytics can be applied to supply chain processes is still unclear for both academics and industries. To better connect SC processes needs and what BDA offer, we present a structured review of academic literature that addresses BDA methods in SCM using the supply chain operations reference (SCOR) model. The literature since 2001 is reviewed to provide a taxonomy framework resulting in a nomenclature grids and a SCOR-BDA matrix. The most important result of this paper indicates a clear disparity and points to an urgent need to bring the efforts closer in a collaborative way for more intelligent use of BDA in SCM. Furthermore, this paper highlights a misalignment between data scientists and SC managers in BDA applicability. It also highpoints upcoming research tracks and the main gaps that need to be stunned.     

Analysis of Two‐Level Support Systems with Time‐Dependent Overflow—A Banking Application

In this paper, we analyze the performance of call centers of financial service providers with two levels of support and a time‐dependent overflow mechanism. Waiting calls from the front‐office queue flow over to the back office if a waiting‐time limit is reached and at least one back‐office agent is available. The analysis of such a system with time‐dependent overflow is reduced to the analysis of a continuous‐time Markov chain with state‐dependent overflow probabilities. To approximate the system with time‐dependent overflow, some waiting‐based performance measures are modified. Numerical results demonstrate the reliability of this Markovian performance approximation for different parameter settings. A sensitivity analysis shows the impact of the waiting‐time limit and the dependence of the performance measures on the arrival rate.