ANALYSIS OF FACIAL EXPRESSIONS IN PATIENTS WITH SCHZIOPHRENIA, IN COMPARISON WITH A HEALTHY CONTROL - CASE STUDY

Introduction: Deficits in area of communication, crucial for maintaining proper social bonds, may have a prominent adverse impact on quality of life in patients with schizophrenia. Social exclusion, lack of employment and deterioration of family life, may be consequences of aggravated social competencies, caused by inability to properly exhibit and interpret facial expressions. Although this phenomenon is known since first clinical descriptions of schizophrenia, lack of proper methodology limited our knowledge in this area. Aim of our study was to compare facial expressivity of the patient with schizophrenia, and the healthy individual. Methods: 47-years old patient suffering from schizophrenia, and 36-years old healthy individual were invited to participate in our study. They underwent the examination in Human Facial Modelling Lab in Polish-Japanese Institute of Information Technology in Bytom (Silesia, Katowice). Both participants were presented with two video materials, first one contained different facial expressions, which they had to imitate. Second one a part of comedy show, during which spontaneous reactions were recorded. Acquisition of facial expressions was conducted with marker-based technology of modelling. Obtained data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel. Results and conclusions: An overall facial expression intensity, expressed as an average value of distances traveled by markers during shifts from neutral position was higher in case of a healthy participant during both part of the study. The difference was especially visible in case of an upper half of the face. Utilization of marker-based methods in analysis of human facial expressions seem to be reliable and remarkably accurate

COMORBIDITY OF SUBSTANCE USE AND MENTAL DISORDERS

Introduction: Comorbidity is a term defined as the presence of two or more conditions occurring either at the same time or having a close relationship to the same individual. World Health Organization (WHO) define it as the “co-occurrence in the same individual of a psychoactive substance use disorder and another psychiatric disorder”. Progressive deinstitutionalisation, despite indisputable benefits and improvement of life quality in psychiatric patients, resulted in appearance of new burdens, such as deterioration of family life. Furthermore, wide availability of alcoholic beverages and drugs in communities where the patients live, led comorbid substance abuse disorders to emerge as one of the biggest challenges in the modern psychiatry. There is a limited amount of data concerning the background of the patients with a dual diagnosis, available in the literature, and therefore our aim was to create a sociodemographic profile of such individuals. Materials and methods: The study was conducted among the patients treated in a drug rehabilitation centre of the Upper Silesian Association “Familia” in Gliwice, Poland using authors’ own questionnaire, consisting of 75 items. The study group consisted of 9 females and 91 males (n=100), average age of the patients equalled 29.7 years (95%CI: 28.5-31 years; min/max value: 20/48 years), all the patients had an established dual diagnosis. Outcomes: 66% of the study group was single, with permanent residency, living with family either in city (47%) or in village (19%). Remaining 34% was spread through the other options (1-4%), with the highest percentage in “single, with permanent residency, living alone in the city” (4%). Conclusions: Obtained data, demonstrated high homogeneity among the patients with a dual diagnosis in terms of a sociodemographical profile

Analytical and Experimental Determination of FML Stiffness and Strength Properties.

The paper presents application of analytical methods of determining the mechanical properties of Fibre Metal Laminates. Chosen micromechanical methods were employed to predict elastic moduli and strength of FML panels. Prediction was conducted on two levels i.e. micromechanics where properties of a single composite lamina (prepreg) were analyzed, and macro–mechanics to determine properties of a full FML hybrid material. The properties of a single GFR lamina were predicted by Rule of Mixture Method (ROM), inverse Rule of Mixture Method with correction factor, Halpin Tsai Method, Tsai Method and Wilczynski Method application. Properties of full 3–2 FML lay–up were determined using the Rule of Mixtures. Analytical results were verified by experimental tests. Tensile and bending test were performed on rectangular standard coupons of 3–2 FMLs

Characterization of the atmospheric depth profile using the ground-level temperature: The case of Malargüe, Argentina

We present a study of the atmospheric depth profile and the dependence with its characteristic parameters. We introduce a new model, named GAMMA, based on a parameterization that allows us to obtain the atmospheric depth profile specifying only one simple physical parameter, namely the temperature at ground. The GAMMA model consists of a multilayer representation of the atmosphere that can be adjusted conveniently via constrained fits that are built to ensure interlayer continuity for both atmospheric depth and density profiles. Our analysis uses experimental data collected at Malargüe, Argentina by meteorological radiosondes. The GAMMA model can reproduce the averaged atmospheric depth profiles in all the cases available for analysis with good accuracy. The relative differences between model predictions and averaged data are always less than approximately 0.7%.Fil: Moreno, Juan Cruz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Departamento de Física; ArgentinaFil: Sciutto, Sergio Juan. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Departamento de Física; Argentin

An Approach to Modeling and Scaling of Hysteresis in Soft Magnetic Materials. I Magnetization Curve

A new mathematical model of hysteresis loop has been derived. Model consists in an extansion of tanh($\cdot$) by extanding the base of exp function into an arbitrary positive number. The presented model is self-similar and invariant with respect to scaling. Scaling of magnetic hysteresis loop has been done using the notion of homogenous function in general sense.Comment: 1 figure. This is the first paper on mathematical scaling applied to hysteresis loo

W.Wilczyński[4]introducedthe I-densitytopologyon R,whichhasmany propertiesincommonwiththedensitytopology,exceptthatitisbasedupon categoryinsteadofmeasure. (Foritsdefinitionsee[4]or[3].) The I-density topologyisdenotedhereby T I. The I-densitycontinuousfun

Abstract. Arealfunctionis I-densitycontinuousifitiscontinuouswiththe I-density topologyonboththedomainandtherange. If fisanalytic,then f is I-densitycontinuous. Thereexistsafunctionwhichisboth C ∞ andconvexwhichisnot I-density continuous

Quality of Life of Parents of Children with Asthma

An increased frequency of asthma in children has been lately observed. The course of asthma depends not only on treatment, but also on the actions taken by the parents of a sick child. Design: A non-experimental cross-sectional design. Methods: In this study the Pediatric Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (PACQLQ) and Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) were administered to 60 parents of children with asthma. Two groups of parents were compared. The first group consisted of parents of children who had been diagnosed with asthma less than three months before the beginning of the study. The second group consisted of parents of children who had been diagnosed at least one year previously. Results: It was observed that, in the group of parents aged 20-30 years, the level of life satisfaction was significantly higher for parents of children who had suffered from asthma for at least one year than for the parents of children recently diagnosed with asthma. There were no statistically significant differences in the other age groups. There was a positive correlation between the level of satisfaction with life and emotional functioning in the parents of children diagnosed recently. Conclusions: The results of the present study point to a general ability of parents to adapt to the situation of having an ill child. This may be related to the relative ease of access to information that enables parents to understand more about the condition