Validity and reliability of the Structured Clinical Interview for Depersonalization-Derealization Spectrum (SCI-DER).

This study evaluates the validity and reliability of a new instrument developed to assess symptoms of depresonalization: the Structured Clinical Interview for the Depersonalization-Derealization Spectrum (SCI-DER). The instrument is based on a spectrum model that emphasizes soft-signs, sub-threshold syndromes as well as clinical and subsyndromal manifestations. Items of the interview include, in addition to DSM-IV criteria for depersonalization, a number of features derived from clinical experience and from a review of phenomenological descriptions. Study participants included 258 consecutive patients with mood and anxiety disorders, 16.7% bipolar I disorder, 18.6% bipolar II disorder, 32.9% major depression, 22.1% panic disorder, 4.7% obsessive compulsive disorder, and 1.5% generalized anxiety disorder; 2.7% patients were also diagnosed with depersonalization disorder. A comparison group of 42 unselected controls was enrolled at the same site. The SCI-DER showed excellent reliability and good concurrent validity with the Dissociative Experiences Scale. It significantly discriminated subjects with any diagnosis of mood and anxiety disorders from controls and subjects with depersonalization disorder from controls. The hypothesized structure of the instrument was confirmed empirically

Neutrino Detection with Inclined Air Showers

The possibilities of detecting high energy neutrinos through inclined showers produced in the atmosphere are addressed with an emphasis on the detection of air showers by arrays of particle detectors. Rates of inclined showers produced by both down-going neutrino interactions and by up-coming $\tau$ decays from earth-skimming neutrinos as a function of shower energy are calculated with analytical methods using two sample neutrino fluxes with different spectral indices. The relative contributions from different flavors and charged, neutral current and resonant interactions are compared for down-going neutrinos interacting in the atmosphere. No detailed description of detectors is attempted but rough energy thresholds are implemented to establish the ranges of energies which are more suitable for neutrino detection through inclined showers. Down-going and up-coming rates are compared.Comment: Submitted to New Journal of Physic

Towards a consolidation of worldwide journal rankings - A classification using random forests and aggregate rating via data envelopment analysis

AbstractThe question of how to assess research outputs published in journals is now a global concern for academics. Numerous journal ratings and rankings exist, some featuring perceptual and peer-review-based journal ranks, some focusing on objective information related to citations, some using a combination of the two. This research consolidates existing journal rankings into an up-to-date and comprehensive list. Existing approaches to determining journal rankings are significantly advanced with the application of a new classification approach, ‘random forests’, and data envelopment analysis. As a result, a fresh look at a publication׳s place in the global research community is offered. While our approach is applicable to all management and business journals, we specifically exemplify the relative position of ‘operations research, management science, production and operations management’ journals within the broader management field, as well as within their own subject domain

Research through Design for accounting values in design

Although Value Sensitive Design offers a theoretical and methodological framework to account for values in design, many questions and controversies are left. The current work aims to contribute to this value debate, by taking stock of large Research through Design (RtD) programs including their developed artifacts, to explore to what extent the explicit and tacit knowledge generated enabled actors to make public and cultural values explicit. Differently put, seven ongoing RtD projects have been studied in an elaborate RtD process articulated in three phases, differentiating in their focus: 1) understanding the values involved in the RtD projects; 2) share insights to steer peer debate on Research on Values, and 3) co-analyse the data and generate further insights. The current research brings forward two main contributions to the RTD community. On the one hand, using ongoing RtD projects in an RtD approach provides a kaleidoscopic perspective on how research and design constantly inform each other through the application of design. On the other hand, the adoption of this kaleidoscopic RtD approach in the context of multidisciplinary research on values acts as a catalyst that generated knowledge and insights to stimulate the debate on accounting values in design research.Design Conceptualization and Communicatio

Personality profiles and aggressive behaviour of heroin use disorder patients compared with non-substance-use peers

Background: Personality characteristics and aggressive behaviour have long been considered factors that pre-exist addiction. Cattell’s 16-Personality Factor Questionnaire and the Buss-Durkee Inventory have been used in psychosomatic medicine, and in psychiatric as well as Substance Use Disorder patients, to study psychological profiles and aggressive behaviour. Methods: In this study, we verified the existence of the factors that pre-exist heroin. Using Cattell’s 16PF Questionnaire and the Buss-Durkee Inventory, we have, at both the univariate and multivariate level, compared 73 Heroin Use Disorder (HUD) patients with a sample of 45 Substance Non-User (SNU) peers, selected after matching their respective socio-demographic data. Our expectation was, that among the characteristics that show the most evident deviance from the general population, those that differentiate HUD patients most sharply from their SNU peers should be considered as factors pre-existing heroin addiction. Results: HUD patients and SNU peers, regarding psychological profiles, differ from the general population in the same way. As to the significant univariate differences, the 8-Sensitivity and 6-Rule-Consciousness factors are the only deviants from the general population in all individuals (higher scores in 8-Sensitivity and lower values in 6-Rule-Consciousness). Conversely, the 4-Dominance factor and 2-Reasoning factors are deviant only in the HUD patients, while 10-Abstractedness was not deviant in all our subjects. Differences in the 4-Dominance factor did not enter into the multivariate analysis. Being introverted, expedient in rule consciousness, abstracted in abstractedness, but less sensitive and more concrete in reasoning, are the prominent characteristics that allow HUD patients to be differentiated from their SNU peers. Regarding aggressive behaviour, HUD patients are deviant in all factors, whereas their SNU peers are deviant in only two elements: 2-Indirect Aggression and 6-Suspiciousness. These two factors do not, however, have a high profile at the multivariate level, and HUD patients can be distinguished by the higher values recorded for the 1-Assault and 4-Negativism factors. Conclusions: Psychological profiles that show deviance from those of the general population are unable to differentiate HUD patients from their SNU peers, with the sole exceptions of rule-consciousness and sensitivity, which, in any case, show greater deviance in their SNU peers. Assault and Negativism are not deviant in SNU peers and can be considered as probable consequences of heroin use. © 2018, Pacini Editore S.p.A. All rights reserved