A cross-sectional comparison of physical activity during COVID-19 in a sample of rural and non-rural participants in the US

Physical activity (PA) pre-COVID-19 was lower in rural areas compared to non-rural areas. The purpose of this study was to determine COVID-19\u27s impact on PA in rural and non-rural residents. A cross-sectional study consisting of a convenience sample of 278 participants (50% rural, 50% non-rural) from 25 states completed an online survey describing their PA behaviors and perceptions during COVID-19. The global physical activity questionnaire was used to determine PA in various domains and summed to determine if the participant met the PA guidelines. Rural participants had a significantly higher body mass index, lower income, and a lower educational attainment. Conversely, non-rural participants reported more barriers to PA. There was no difference in the perception of COVID-19\u27s impact on PA, specifically; however, rural participants were significantly less likely to meet cardiorespiratory PA recommendations compared to non-rural participants. Conclusions: This study demonstrates the continued disparity in PA between rural and non-rural residents, despite the supposition of COVID-19 being less impactful in rural areas due to sparse populations. Efforts should be pursued to close the PA gap between rural and non-rural residents

Self‐compassion, self‐ forgiveness, suicidal ideation and self‐harm: a systematic review

Self‐compassion has been implicated in the aetiology and course of mental health with evidence suggesting an association between greater self‐compassion and lower emotional distress. However, our understanding of the nature and extent of the relationship between self‐compassion and self‐harm (self‐injury regardless of suicidal intent) or suicidal ideation remains unclear. This review, therefore, aimed to critically evaluate the extant literature investigating this relationship. To do so, a systematic search, including terms synonymous with self‐compassion, was conducted on three main psychological and medical databases (Web of Science, PsycINFO and Medline). Only studies investigating self‐compassion or self‐forgiveness and self‐harm or suicidal ideation were found to be relevant to the review. 18 studies were included in the final narrative synthesis. Heterogeneity of studies was high and the majority of studies were quantitative and cross‐sectional (n=16) in design. All studies reported significant associations between higher levels of self‐forgiveness or self‐compassion and lower levels of self‐harm or suicidal ideation. Several studies suggested that self‐compassion or self‐forgiveness may weaken the relationship between negative life events and self‐harm. In conclusion, this review highlights the potential importance of self‐compassion in the aetiology of suicidal thoughts and self‐harm. We discuss the clinical and research implications

A meta-analysis of perceptions of defeat and entrapment in depression, anxiety problems, posttraumatic stress disorder, and suicidality

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Andy P. Siddaway, Peter J. Taylor, Alex M. Wood, and Joerg Schulz, ‘A meta-analysis of perceptions of defeat and entrapment in depression, anxiety problems, posttraumatic stress disorder, and suicidality’, Journal of Affective Disorders, Vol. 184: 149-159, September 2015. The final, published version is available online at: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2015.05.046Background: There is a burgeoning literature examining perceptions of being defeated or trapped in different psychiatric disorders. The disorders most frequently examined to date are depression, anxiety problems, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and suicidality. Aims: To quantify the size and consistency of perceptions of defeat and entrapment in depression, anxiety problems, PTSD and suicidality, test for differences across psychiatric disorders, and examine potential moderators and publication bias. Method:Random-effects meta-analyses based on Pearson's correlation coefficient r. Results: Forty studies were included in the meta-analysis (n=10,072). Perceptions of defeat and entrapment were strong (around r=0.60) and similar in size across all four psychiatric disorders. Perceptions of defeat were particularly strong in depression (r=0.73). There was no between-study heterogeneity; therefore moderator analyses were conducted in an exploratory fashion. There was no evidence of publication bias. Limitations: Analyses were cross-sectional, which precludes establishing temporal precedence or causality. Some of the meta-analyses were based on relatively small numbers of effect sizes, which may limit their generalisability. Conclusions: Perceptions of defeat and entrapment are clinically important in depression, anxiety problems, PTSD, and suicidality. Similar-sized, strong relationships across four different psychiatric disorders could suggest that perceptions of defeat and entrapment are transdiagnostic constructs. The results suggest that clinicians and researchers need to become more aware of perceptions of defeat and entrapmentPeer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

High angular resolution near-infrared integral field observations of young star cluster complexes in NGC1365

This paper presents and examines new near-infrared integral field observations of the three so-called 'embedded star clusters' located in the nuclear region of NGC1365. Adaptive-optics- corrected K-band data cubes were obtained with the ESO/VLT instrument SINFONI. The continuum in the K-band and emission lines such as HeI, Bracket-gamma, and several H2 lines were mapped at an achieved angular resolution of 0.2arcsec over a field of 3x3arcsec^2 around each source. We find that the continuum emission of the sources is spatially resolved. This means that they are indeed cluster complexes confined to regions of about 50pc extension. We performed robust measurements of the equivalent width of the CO absorption band at 2.3micro and of Bracket-gamma. For the main mid-infrared bright sources, the data only allow us to determine an upper limit to the equivalent width of the CO bands. Under the assumption of an instantaneously formed standard initial mass function Starburst99 model, the new measurements are found to be incompatible with previously published mid-infrared line ratios. We show that an upper mass limit of 25 to 30 solar masses, lower than the typically assumed 100solar masses, allows one to simply remove this inconsistency. For such a model, the measurements are consistent with ages in the range of 5.5Myr to 6.5Myr, implying masses in the range from 3 to 10 x 10^6 solar masses. We detect extended gas emission both in HII and H2. We argue that the central cluster complexes are the sources of excitation for the whole nebulae, through ionisation and shock heating. We detect a blue wing on the Bracket-gamma emission profile, suggesting the existence of gas outflows centred on the cluster complexes. We do not find any evidence for the presence of a lower mass cluster population, which would fill up a 'traditional' power law cluster mass function.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Guessing imagined and live chance events: adults behave like children with live events

An established finding is that adults prefer to guess before rather than after a chance event has happened. This is interpreted in terms of aversion to guessing when relatively incompetent: After throwing, the fall could be known. Adults (N=71, mean age 18;11, N=28, mean age 48;0) showed this preference with imagined die-throwing as in the published studies. With live die-throwing, children (N=64, aged 6 and 8 years; N=50, aged 5 and 6 years) and 15-year-olds (N=93, 46) showed the opposite preference, as did 17 adults. Seventeen-year-olds (N=82) were more likely to prefer to guess after throwing with live rather than imagined die-throwing. Reliance on imagined situations in the literature on decision-making under uncertainty ignores the possibility that adults imagine inaccurately how they would really feel: After a real die has been thrown, adults, like children, may feel there is less ambiguity about the outcome

Reflexivity and the construction of competing discourses of masculinity in a female-dominated profession

This paper contributes to the debates on reflexivity and change by extending our understanding of (non-)reflexivity mechanisms in the discursive constructions of gender. Specifically, I explore how and why women persistently construct contradictory discursive accounts of men and masculinity in a female-dominated profession of counselling psychology in Russia. Drawing on the concept of ‘interpretative repertoires’ I argue that female counsellors construct different kinds of masculinities based on three ‘repertoires’: psycho-biological, structural and relational. I demonstrate how these constructions of masculinity are imbued with different meanings and are used to explain only certain contexts, which precludes women's ability to reflect on their contradictory nature. I conclude by discussing how an exploration of discursive (non-)reflexivity extends our understanding of the conditions for gender transformation

Structured Sparsity: Discrete and Convex approaches

Compressive sensing (CS) exploits sparsity to recover sparse or compressible signals from dimensionality reducing, non-adaptive sensing mechanisms. Sparsity is also used to enhance interpretability in machine learning and statistics applications: While the ambient dimension is vast in modern data analysis problems, the relevant information therein typically resides in a much lower dimensional space. However, many solutions proposed nowadays do not leverage the true underlying structure. Recent results in CS extend the simple sparsity idea to more sophisticated {\em structured} sparsity models, which describe the interdependency between the nonzero components of a signal, allowing to increase the interpretability of the results and lead to better recovery performance. In order to better understand the impact of structured sparsity, in this chapter we analyze the connections between the discrete models and their convex relaxations, highlighting their relative advantages. We start with the general group sparse model and then elaborate on two important special cases: the dispersive and the hierarchical models. For each, we present the models in their discrete nature, discuss how to solve the ensuing discrete problems and then describe convex relaxations. We also consider more general structures as defined by set functions and present their convex proxies. Further, we discuss efficient optimization solutions for structured sparsity problems and illustrate structured sparsity in action via three applications.Comment: 30 pages, 18 figure