Social class and wellbeing among staff and students in higher education settings: Mapping the problem and exploring underlying mechanisms

Within Higher Education (HE), staff and students from lower social class backgrounds often experience poorer wellbeing than their higher social class counterparts. Previous research conducted outside educational contexts has linked social class differences in wellbeing with differences in the extent to which low and high social class individuals feel respected (i.e., status), in control (i.e., autonomy), and connected with others (i.e., inclusion). However, to our knowledge, there has been no research that has investigated those psychosocial needs within HE settings. Furthermore, inclusion, status and autonomy are correlated, yet little is known about how these psychosocial needs contribute to wellbeing simultaneously, and independently, of one another. To fill these gaps, we report the results of two studies; firstly with HE students (Study 1; N = 305), and secondly with HE staff (Study 2; N = 261). Consistently across studies, reports of poor wellbeing were relatively common and more than twice as prevalent amongst lower social class staff and students compared to higher social class staff and students. Inclusion, status and autonomy each made a unique contribution and accounted for the relationship between social class and wellbeing (fully amongst students, and partially amongst staff members). These relationships held across various operationalisations of social class and when examining a range of facets of wellbeing. Social class along with inclusion, status and autonomy explained a substantial 40% of the variance in wellbeing. The present research contributes to the literature exploring how social class intersects with psychosocial needs to impact the wellbeing of staff and students within HE

Targeting RANKL in metastasis

Acting through its cognate receptor, receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB (RANK), RANK ligand (RANKL) is an essential mediator of osteoclast function and survival. Preclinical data have now firmly established that blockade of tumor-induced osteoclastogenesis by RANKL inhibition will not only protect against bone destruction but will also inhibit the progression of established bone metastases and delay the formation of de novo bone metastases in cancer models. In patients with bone metastases, skeletal complications are driven by increased osteoclastic activity and may result in pathological fractures, spinal cord compression and the need for radiotherapy to the bone or orthopedic surgery (collectively known as skeletal-related events (SREs)). Denosumab, a fully human monoclonal antibody against RANKL, has been demonstrated to prevent or delay SREs in patients with solid tumors that have metastasized to bone. In addition to its central role in tumor-induced osteolysis, bone destruction and skeletal tumor progression, there is emerging evidence for direct pro-metastatic effects of RANKL, independent of osteoclasts. For example, RANKL also stimulates metastasis via activity on RANK-expressing cancer cells, resulting in increased invasion and migration. Pharmacological inhibition of RANKL may also reduce bone and lung metastasis through blockade of the direct action of RANKL on metastatic cells. This review describes these distinct but potentially overlapping mechanisms by which RANKL may promote metastases

Pulsed ultraviolet light decontamination of artificially-generated microbiological aerosols

Airborne transmission of infectious organisms is a major public health concern, particularly within healthcare and communal public environments. Methods of environmental decontamination utilising pulsed ultraviolet (UV) light are currently available, however it is important that germicidal efficacy against airborne contamination is established. In this study bacterial aerosols were generated and exposed to short duration pulses (~20 µs) of UV-rich light emitted from a xenon-filled flashlamp. The lamp was operated using a 1 kV solid–state pulsed power source, with a pulse frequency of 1 Hz, and output energy of 20 J/pulse. Post-treatment, air samples were extracted from the chamber and the surviving fraction was enumerated using standard microbiological culture methods. Results demonstrate successful aerosol inactivation, with a 92.1% reduction achieved with only 5 pulses of UV-rich light (P=<0.0002). Inactivation using continuous UV light was also investigated in order to quantify the comparative efficacy of these antimicrobial light sources. Overall, results provide evidence of the comparative efficacy of pulsed and continuous UV light for inactivation of airborne bacterial contamination. For practical application, given the safety restrictions limiting its application for decontamination of unoccupied environments, or within sealed enclosures such as air handling units, the reduced treatment times with PUV provides significant operational advantages over continuous light treatment

Heavy-Quark Symmetry and the Electromagnetic Decays of Excited Charmed Strange Mesons

Heavy-hadron chiral perturbation theory (HH$\chi$PT) is applied to the decays of the even-parity charmed strange mesons, D_{s0}(2317) and D_{s1}(2460). Heavy-quark spin symmetry predicts the branching fractions for the three electromagnetic decays of these states to the ground states D_s and D_s^* in terms of a single parameter. The resulting predictions for two of the branching fractions are significantly higher than current upper limits from the CLEO experiment. Leading corrections to the branching ratios from chiral loop diagrams and spin-symmetry violating operators in the HH$\chi$PT Lagrangian can naturally account for this discrepancy. Finally the proposal that the D_{s0}(2317) (D_{s1}(2460)) is a hadronic bound state of a D (D^*) meson and a kaon is considered. Leading order predictions for electromagnetic branching ratios in this molecular scenario are in very poor agreement with existing data.Comment: 25 pages, 3 figure

Depression, drugs and dental anxiety in prisons:A mediation model explaining dental decay experience

Funding: Scottish Government (award number: 121.804485) and support from the Scottish Prison Service and participating NHS Boards.Objective To test a theoretical mediation model and investigate whether drug use and/or dental anxiety act as mediating factors between depression and dental decay experience among prisoners. Method A cross‐sectional survey was conducted on a convenience sample of 300 prisoners across three prison establishments in Scotland. Depression and dental anxiety were measured using the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale and the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale, respectively. Drug use was assessed using three yes (scoring 1)/ no (scoring 0) questions: ‘ever taken (illegal) drugs’, ‘injecting drugs’ and ‘ever participated in a rehabilitation programme’. Participants had an oral examination to determine dental caries experience (missing [MT] and untreated decay [D3cvT]) in all four quadrants. Latent variable path analysis was conducted to test the mediation model. Results A total of 342 prisoners participated, of which 298 yielded a complete data set. Depression was associated with missing teeth and untreated decay (D3T) through an indirect pathway (Total standardized indirect effects = 0.11, P < .01) via drug use and dental anxiety (X2 [71] = 89.8, P = .07; Root Mean Square Error of Approximation: 0.03; Comparative Fit Index: 0.994 and Tucker‐Lewis index: 0.992). Twenty‐two percent of the variance in untreated decay and missing teeth was explained by both drug use and dental anxiety; however, the strongest predictor was drug use (total standardized direct effects = 0.45, P < .001). Conclusion A relatively simple model to assist understanding dental decay experience of people in prison has been proposed. The data collected were consistent with our specified model. Drug use acted as the primary mediator and dental anxiety as a secondary mediator between depression and dental decay experience. Given the co‐morbidity between mental health and drug use and dental decay experience, an integrated or shared approach is proposed. We recommend that future research should concentrate on building a firmer picture by replicating and extending the framework presented.PostprintPeer reviewe

Exact Absorption Probability in the Extremal Six-Dimensional Dyonic String Background

We show that the minimally coupled massless scalar wave equation in the background of an six-dimensional extremal dyonic string (or D1-D5 brane intersection) is exactly solvable, in terms of Mathieu functions. Using this fact, we calculate absorption probabilities for these scalar waves, and present the explicit results for the first few low energy corrections to the leading-order expressions. For a specific tuning of the dyonic charges one can reach a domain where the low energy absorption probability goes to zero with inverse powers of the logarithm of the energy. This is a dividing domain between the regime where the low energy absorption probability approaches zero with positive powers of energy and the regime where the probability is an oscillatory function of the logarithm of the energy. By the conjectured AdS/CFT correspondence, these results shed novel light on the strongly coupled two-dimensional field theory away from its infrared conformally invariant fixed point (the strongly coupled ``non-critical'' string).Comment: Latex (3 times), 23 page

Patient factors associated with SSRI dose for depression treatment in general practice: A primary care cross sectional study

BackgroundAntidepressant prescribing continues to rise. Increased long-term prescribing and higher doses are contributing to current growth; however, patient factors associated with the use of higher doses remain unknown. This study’s aim was to investigate patient factors associated with selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor (SSRI) prescribed daily dose for depression treatment in general practice.MethodsA stratified sample of low to high prescribing practices were selected. Routine individual patient-level data were extracted one practice at a time: September 2009 to January 2011. Patients included were ≥18 years, and prescribed an SSRI for depression. Logistic regression analysis was undertaken to assess individual predictor variables on SSRI daily dose by standard therapeutic dose versus higher dose, as SSRIs demonstrate flat dose response curves for depression treatment. Predictor variables included: age, gender, deprivation, co-morbidity, smoking status, being prescribed the same SSRI for ≥2 years, and patients’ general practice. For a subgroup of patients a second sub-group analysis included long-term benzodiazepine and/or z-hypnotic (B&Z) as a predictor variable.ResultsInter-practice SSRI prescribing varied significantly; practice point prevalence ranged from 2.5% (94/3697) to 11.9% (359/3007) of the practice population ≥18 years old; median 7.3% (250/3421) (χ2 = 2277.2, df = 10, p

Waiting for Precise Measurements of K^+->pi^+ nu nu and K_L->pi^0 nu nu

In view of future plans for accurate measurements of the theoretically clean branching ratios Br(K+ -> pi+ nu nu) and Br(KL -> pi0 nu nu), that should take place in the next decade, we collect the relevant formulae for quantities of interest and analyze their theoretical and parametric uncertainties. We point out that in addition to the angle beta in the unitarity triangle (UT) also the angle gamma can in principle be determined from these decays with respectable precision and emphasize in this context the importance of the recent NNLO QCD calculation of the charm contribution to K+ -> pi+ nu nu and of the improved estimate of the long distance contribution by means of chiral perturbation theory. In addition to known expressions we present several new ones that should allow transparent tests of the Standard Model (SM) and of its extensions. While our presentation is centered around the SM, we also discuss models with minimal flavour violation and scenarios with new complex phases in decay amplitudes and meson mixing. We give a brief review of existing results within specific extensions of the SM, in particular the Littlest Higgs Model with T-parity, Z' models, the MSSM and a model with one universal extra dimension. We derive a new "golden" relation between B and K systems that involves (beta,gamma) and Br(KL -> pi0 nu nu) and investigate the virtues of (R_t,beta), (R_b,gamma), (beta,gamma) and (etabar,gamma) strategies for the UT in the context of K -> pi nu nu decays with the goal of testing the SM and its extensions.Comment: 56 pages, 18 figures, Section on Long Distance Contributions, 2 Figures and few References added, Uses Rev Mod Phys Style; Includes new results of NNLO calculation as well as matrix elements, extended and modified sections on new physic

Nutrition and physical activity recommendations for cancer survivors in Scotland: feasibility of a short course to promote behaviour change.

More people are living for longer following a cancer diagnosis, however long-term survivors are more likely to experience chronic illnesses. Improving their diet and physical activity behaviours may increase survival and reduce the risk of cancer recurrence and other non-communicable diseases. The World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research recommend that cancer survivors aim to be a healthy weight and physically active; eat a diet rich in wholegrains, vegetables, fruits and beans; limit consumption of ‘fast foods’, red and processed meat, sugar sweetened drinks and alcohol; and meet nutritional needs through diet alone rather than relying on supplements. Evidence suggests that cancer survivors are receptive to receiving advice and making dietary and physical activity changes, but barriers to improving the diet and being physically active need to be explored and addressed. We collaborated with CLAN Cancer Support (an independent charity) to assess the feasibility of a two-day course designed to improve diet and physical activity in cancer survivors in Scotland. Further, it explored the barriers and facilitators that cancer survivors identify in relation to eating a healthy diet and being physically active. The course included presentations, practical activities and group discussions. Initial analysis indicates that factors specific to this population need to be designed into the delivery of the course to enhance recruitment and promote behaviour change. Research then needs to be translated into sustainable support programmes accessible by all cancer survivors. This article describes the rationale behind the study, its design and expected outcomes