Auditory verbal hallucinations in first-episode psychosis: a phenomenological investigation

Background In dimensional understanding of psychosis, auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) are unitary phenomena present on a continuum from non-clinical voice hearing to severe mental illness. There is mixed evidence for this approach and a relative absence of research into subjective experience of AVH in early psychosis. Aims To conduct primary research into the nature of subjective experience of AVH in first-episode psychosis. Method A phenomenological study using diary and photo-elicitation qualitative techniques investigating the subjective experience of AVH in 25 young people with first-episode psychosis. Results AVH are characterised by: (a) entity, as though from a living being with complex social interchange; and (b) control, exerting authority with ability to influence. AVH are also received with passivity, often accompanied by sensation in other modalities. Conclusions A modern detailed phenomenological investigation, without presupposition, gives results that echo known descriptive psychopathology. However, novel findings also emerge that may be features of AVH in psychosis not currently captured with standardised measures

Triplet lifetime in gaseous argon

MiniCLEAN is a single-phase liquid argon dark matter experiment. During the initial cooling phase, impurities within the cold gas ($<$140 K) were monitored by measuring the scintillation light triplet lifetime, and ultimately a triplet lifetime of 3.480 $\pm$ 0.001 (stat.) $\pm$ 0.064 (sys.) $\mu$s was obtained, indicating ultra-pure argon. This is the longest argon triplet time constant ever reported. The effect of quenching of separate components of the scintillation light is also investigated

newman_online_appendix – Supplemental material for Name Norms: A Guide to Casting Your Next Experiment

<p>Supplemental material, newman_online_appendix for Name Norms: A Guide to Casting Your Next Experiment by Leonard S. Newman, Mingxuan Tan, Tracy L. Caldwell, Kimberley J. Duff and E. Samuel Winer in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin</p

Quantifying quality: The impact of measures of school quality on children's academic achievement across diverse societies

Recent decades have seen a rapid acceleration in global participation in formal education, due to worldwide initiatives aimed to provide school access to all children. Research in high income countries has shown that school quality indicators have a significant, positive impact on numeracy and literacy—skills required to participate in the increasingly globalized economy. Schools vary enormously in kind, resources, and teacher training around the world, however, and the validity of using diverse school quality measures in populations with diverse educational profiles remains unclear. First, we assessed whether children's numeracy and literacy performance across populations improves with age, as evidence of general school-related learning effects. Next, we examined whether several school quality measures related to classroom experience and composition, and to educational resources, were correlated with one another. Finally, we examined whether they were associated with children's (4–12-year-olds, N = 889) numeracy and literacy performance in 10 culturally and geographically diverse populations which vary in historical engagement with formal schooling. Across populations, age was a strong positive predictor of academic achievement. Measures related to classroom experience and composition were correlated with one another, as were measures of access to educational resources and classroom experience and composition. The number of teachers per class and access to writing materials were key predictors of numeracy and literacy, while the number of students per classroom, often linked to academic achievement, was not. We discuss these results in the context of maximising children's learning environments and highlight study limitations to motivate future research