4,417 research outputs found
Lung sound amplitude measured by vibration response imaging is influenced by the presence of secretions
Online Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Treatment: Preliminary Results of the "OCD? Not Me!" Self-Guided Internet-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Program for Young People
BACKGROUND: The development and evaluation of Internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT) interventions provides a potential solution for current limitations in the acceptability, availability, and accessibility of mental health care for young people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Preliminary results support the effectiveness of therapist-assisted iCBT for young people with OCD; however, no previous studies have examined the effectiveness of completely self-guided iCBT for OCD in young people. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to conduct a preliminary evaluation of the effectiveness of the OCD? Not Me! program for reducing OCD-related psychopathology in young people (12-18 years). This program is an eight-stage, completely self-guided iCBT treatment for OCD, which is based on exposure and response prevention. METHODS: These data were early and preliminary results of a longer study in which an open trial design is being used to evaluate the effectiveness of the OCD? Not Me! PROGRAM: Participants were required to have at least subclinical levels of OCD to be offered the online program. Participants with moderate-high suicide/self-harm risk or symptoms of eating disorder or psychosis were not offered the program. OCD symptoms and severity were measured at pre- and posttest, and at the beginning of each stage of the program. Data was analyzed using generalized linear mixed models. RESULTS: A total of 334 people were screened for inclusion in the study, with 132 participants aged 12 to 18 years providing data for the final analysis. Participants showed significant reductions in OCD symptoms (P<.001) and severity (P<.001) between pre- and posttest. CONCLUSIONS: These preliminary results suggest that fully automated iCBT holds promise as a way of increasing access to treatment for young people with OCD; however, further research needs to be conducted to replicate the results and to determine the feasibility of the program. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR): ACTRN12613000152729; https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=363654 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/ 6iD7EDFqH)
HIV prevalence and undiagnosed infection among a community sample of gay and bisexual men in Scotland, 2005-2011: implications for HIV testing policy and prevention
<b>Objective</b><p></p>
To examine HIV prevalence, HIV testing behaviour, undiagnosed infection and risk factors for HIV positivity among a community sample of gay men in Scotland.<p></p>
<b>Methods</b><p></p>
Cross-sectional survey of gay and bisexual men attending commercial gay venues in Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland with voluntary anonymous HIV testing of oral fluid samples in 2011. A response rate of 65.2% was achieved (1515 participants).<p></p>
<b>Results</b><p></p>
HIV prevalence (4.8%, 95% confidence interval, CI 3.8% to 6.2%) remained stable compared to previous survey years (2005 and 2008) and the proportion of undiagnosed infection among HIV-positive men (25.4%) remained similar to that recorded in 2008. Half of the participants who provided an oral fluid sample stated that they had had an HIV test in the previous 12 months; this proportion is significantly higher when compared to previous study years (50.7% versus 33.8% in 2005, p<0.001). Older age (>25 years) was associated with HIV positivity (1.8% in those <25 versus 6.4% in older ages group) as was a sexually transmitted infection (STI) diagnosis within the previous 12 months (adjusted odds ratio 2.13, 95% CI 1.09–4.14). There was no significant association between age and having an STI or age and any of the sexual behaviours recorded.<p></p>
<b>Conclusion</b><p></p>
HIV transmission continues to occur among gay and bisexual men in Scotland. Despite evidence of recent testing within the previous six months, suggesting a willingness to test, the current opt-out policy may have reached its limit with regards to maximising HIV test uptake. Novel strategies are required to improve regular testing opportunities and more frequent testing as there are implications for the use of other biomedical HIV interventions.<p></p>
Anodic-oxide-induced intermixing in GaAs-AlGaAs quantum-well and quantum-wire structures
Anodic oxides of GaAs were shown to enhance the intermixing in GaAs-AlGaAs quantum wells (QW) during rapid thermal processing. Proximity of the anodic oxide to the QW has been shown to influence the photoluminescence (PL) energy shift due to intermixing. Anodic oxide induced intermixing has been used to enhance quantum-wire PL in the structures grown on V-groove patterned GaAs substrates. This has been attributed to enhanced lateral confinement in these structures. Injection of defects such as group-III vacancies or interstitials was considered to be driving force for the intermixing.published_or_final_versio
Linking dwarf galaxies to halo building blocks with the most metal-poor star in Sculptor
Current cosmological models indicate that the Milky Way's stellar halo was
assembled from many smaller systems. Based on the apparent absence of the most
metal-poor stars in present-day dwarf galaxies, recent studies claimed that the
true Galactic building blocks must have been vastly different from the
surviving dwarfs. The discovery of an extremely iron-poor star (S1020549) in
the Sculptor dwarf galaxy based on a medium-resolution spectrum cast some doubt
on this conclusion. However, verification of the iron-deficiency and
measurements of additional elements, such as the alpha-element Mg, are
mandatory for demonstrating that the same type of stars produced the metals
found in dwarf galaxies and the Galactic halo. Only then can dwarf galaxy stars
be conclusively linked to early stellar halo assembly. Here we report
high-resolution spectroscopic abundances for 11 elements in S1020549,
confirming the iron abundance of less than 1/4000th that of the Sun, and
showing that the overall abundance pattern mirrors that seen in low-metallicity
halo stars, including the alpha-elements. Such chemical similarity indicates
that the systems destroyed to form the halo billions of years ago were not
fundamentally different from the progenitors of present-day dwarfs, and
suggests that the early chemical enrichment of all galaxies may be nearly
identical.Comment: 16 pages, including 2 figures. Accepted for publication in Nature. It
is embargoed for discussion in the press until formal publication in Natur
Radio-frequency dressed state potentials for neutral atoms
Potentials for atoms can be created by external fields acting on properties
like magnetic moment, charge, polarizability, or by oscillating fields which
couple internal states. The most prominent realization of the latter is the
optical dipole potential formed by coupling ground and electronically excited
states of an atom with light. Here we present an experimental investigation of
the remarkable properties of potentials derived from radio-frequency (RF)
coupling between electronic ground states. The coupling is magnetic and the
vector character allows to design state dependent potential landscapes. On atom
chips this enables robust coherent atom manipulation on much smaller spatial
scales than possible with static fields alone. We find no additional heating or
collisional loss up to densities approaching atoms / cm compared
to static magnetic traps. We demonstrate the creation of Bose-Einstein
condensates in RF potentials and investigate the difference in the interference
between two independently created and two coherently split condensates in
identical traps. All together this makes RF dressing a powerful new tool for
micro manipulation of atomic and molecular systems
5D gravity and the discrepant G measurements
It is shown that 5D Kaluza-Klein theory stabilized by an external bulk scalar
field may solve the discrepant laboratory G measurements. This is achieved by
an effective coupling between gravitation and the geomagnetic field.
Experimental considerations are also addressed.Comment: 13 pages, to be published in: Proceedings of the 18th Course of the
School on Cosmology and Gravitation: The gravitational Constant. Generalized
gravitational theories and experiments (30 April-10 May 2003, Erice). Ed. by
G. T. Gillies, V. N. Melnikov and V. de Sabbata, (Kluwer), 13pp. (in print)
(2003
The Precursors and Products of Justice Climates: Group Leader Antecedents and Employee Attitudinal Consequences
Drawing on the organizational justice, organizational climate, leadership and personality, and social comparison theory literatures, we develop hypotheses about the effects of leader personality on the development of three types of justice climates (e.g., procedural, interpersonal, and informational), and the moderating effects of these climates on individual level justice- attitude relationships. Largely consistent with the theoretically-derived hypotheses, the results showed that leader (a) agreeableness was positively related to procedural, interpersonal and informational justice climates, (b) conscientiousness was positively related to a procedural justice climate, and (c) neuroticism was negatively related to all three types of justice climates. Further, consistent with social comparison theory, multilevel data analyses revealed that the relationship between individual justice perceptions and job attitudes (e.g., job satisfaction, commitment) was moderated by justice climate such that the relationships were stronger when justice climate was high
Service employees and self-verification: The roles of occupational stigma consciousness and core self-evaluations
Despite the growing number and importance of service occupations, we know little about how jobholders’ perceptions of societal stigmas of service jobs influence their identification with and attitudes towards work. The present study presents a framework that accords key roles to research on occupational stigma consciousness and the verification of employees’ self-views (i.e. core self-evaluations) to understand employees’ responses to occupational stigmatization. Survey responses from call center employees revealed a negative relationship between occupational stigma consciousness and occupational identification and work meaningfulness and a positive relationship between occupational stigma consciousness and organizational production deviant behaviors for employees who have a positive self-view. Opposite patterns of results surfaced for employees who have a lower positive self-view
A probable stellar solution to the cosmological lithium discrepancy
The measurement of the cosmic microwave background has strongly constrained
the cosmological parameters of the Universe. When the measured density of
baryons (ordinary matter) is combined with standard Big Bang nucleosynthesis
calculations, the amounts of hydrogen, helium and lithium produced shortly
after the Big Bang can be predicted with unprecedented precision. The predicted
primordial lithium abundance is a factor of two to three higher than the value
measured in the atmospheres of old stars. With estimated errors of 10 to 25%,
this cosmological lithium discrepancy seriously challenges our understanding of
stellar physics, Big Bang nucleosynthesis or both. Certain modifications to
nucleosynthesis have been proposed, but found experimentally not to be viable.
Diffusion theory, however, predicts atmospheric abundances of stars to vary
with time, which offers a possible explanation of the discrepancy. Here we
report spectroscopic observations of stars in the metalpoor globular cluster
NGC 6397 that reveal trends of atmospheric abundance with evolutionary stage
for various elements. These element-specific trends are reproduced by
stellar-evolution models with diffusion and turbulent mixing. We thus conclude
that diffusion is predominantly responsible for the low apparent stellar
lithium abundance in the atmospheres of old stars by transporting the lithium
deep into the star.Comment: 10 pages, 3 two-panel figures, 2 tables, includes all Supplementary
Information otherwise accessible online via www.nature.co
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