Interviewing forensic mental health patients who have a history of aggression: considerations and suggestions

This paper discusses issues arising when interviewing men and women in forensic mental health services, noting that many patients in these settings have significant histories of aggression or violence. The differences between interviews conducted for assessment purposes and those that are conducted as part of treatment are noted. We identify some important considerations for interviewers. These relate to characteristics of the client, characteristics of the interviewer, and features of the mental health setting that might impact on the interview. Some practical recommendations are offered to assist forensic mental health practitioners who conduct both types of interview

Variations in cesarean deliveries associated with payer type

Objective: The rates of cesarean deliveries (CD) in the United States (U.S.) have been increasing since the 1990s making it the most common operating room procedure in U.S. hospitals. CD may be necessary due to a variety of medical indications; however, it is not clear whether socioeconomic factors affect CD rates. This study examines the association between type of insurance coverage pregnant women have and rates of CD in the U.S.Methods: This is a retrospective analysis of the discharge records of pregnant women admitted to U.S. hospitals between 2012 and 2014 extracted from the National Inpatient Sample dataset. The study population was divided into two groups according to insurance coverage (public vs private). Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association between type of insurance and CD rates while controlling for an array of demographic, medical, social and behavioral confounding factors.Results: 12,450,349 subjects were included in the analysis, of those, 29.9% had a CD. 82.6% of women are between 18-34 years old and 49.5% are Caucasians. 48.9% of women have private insurance. Women with private insurance received a higher percentage of cesarean deliveries (31.8%) compared to women with public insurance (28.3%), adjusted odds ratio (aOR): 1.30 (CI: 1.29-1.30, p<0.001). This ratio was more significant in AMA women (aOR: 1.37) but not among teenagers. Although, higher in all race/ethnicity groups, African American, Hispanic and Native American women have more significant association to receive CD when covered by private insurance compared to Caucasian women. Giving birth at an urban-teaching hospital was associated with a higher CD rate (31.9% vs. 27.4%), aOR: 1.42. Delivery in the Northeast was associated with increased CD rates (32.8% vs. 27.5%) when covered with private insurance, aOR: 1.43, while in the West, private insurance was associated with less CD, aOR: 1.17.Conclusion: After controlling for demographic, clinical, behavioral, and system variables, private insurance was associated with a 30% increase in rate of CD compared to public insurance

Cervical radiofrequency Neurotomy reduces psychological features in individuals with chronic whiplash symptoms

Background: Individuals with chronic whiplash associated disorder (WAD) demonstrate various psychological features. It has previously been demonstrated that cervical radiofrequency neurotomy (cRFN) resolves psychological distress and anxiety. It is unknown if cRFN also improves or reduces a broader spectrum of psychological substrates now commonly identified in chronic whiplash, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and pain catastrophizing

The Canada-UK Deep Submillimetre Survey - VIII. Source identifications in the 3-hour field

We present optical, near-infrared (IR) and radio observations of the 3-hour field of the Canada-UK Deep Submillimetre Survey (CUDSS). Of the 27 submillimetre sources in the field, nine have secure identifications with either a radio source or a near-IR source. We show that the percentage of sources with secure identifications in the CUDSS is consistent with that found for the bright ‘8-mJy' submillimetre survey, once allowance is made for the different submillimetre and radio flux limits. Of the 14 secure identifications in the two CUDSS fields, eight are very red objects (VROs) or extremely red objects (EROs), five have colours typical of normal galaxies and one is a radio source that has not yet been detected at optical/near-IR wavelengths. 11 of the identifications have optical/near-IR structures which are either disturbed or have some peculiarity that suggests that the host galaxy is part of an interacting system. One difference between the CUDSS results and the results from the 8-mJy survey is the large number of low-redshift objects in the CUDSS. We give several arguments why these are genuine low-redshift submillimetre sources rather than being gravitational lenses that are gravitationally amplifying a high-z submillimetre source. We construct a K-z diagram for various classes of high-redshift galaxy and show that the SCUBA galaxies are on average less luminous than classical radio galaxies, but are very similar in both their optical/IR luminosities and their colours to the host galaxies of the radio sources detected in μJy radio survey

The Canada-UK Deep Submillimetre Survey VIII: Source Identifications in the 3-hour field

We present optical, near-infrared and radio observations of the 3-hour field of the Canada-UK Deep Submillimetre Survey. Of the 27 submillimetre sources in the field, nine have secure identifications with either a radio source or a near-IR source. We show that the percentage of sources with secure identifications in the CUDSS is consistent with that found for the bright `8 mJy' submillimetre survey, once allowance is made for the different submillimetre and radio flux limits. Of the 14 secure identifications in the two CUDSS fields, eight are VROs or EROs, five have colours typical of normal galaxies, and one is a radio source which has not yet been detected at optical/near-IR wavelengths. Eleven of the identifications have optical/near-IR structures which are either disturbed or have some peculiarity which suggests that the host galaxy is part of an interacting system. One difference between the CUDSS results and the results from the 8-mJy survey is the large number of low-redshift objects in the CUDSS; we give several arguments why these are genuine low-redshift submillimetre sources rather than being gravitational lenses which are gravitationally amplifying a high-$z$ submillimetre source. We construct a $K-z$ diagram for various classes of high-redshift galaxy and show that the SCUBA galaxies are on average less luminous than classical radio galaxies, but are very similar in both their optical/IR luminosities and their colours to the host galaxies of the radio sources detected in $\mu$Jy radio surveys.Comment: accepted for publication in MNRAS, 18 pages, full-resolution versions of Figure 1 and 2 can be found at http://www.astro.cf.ac.uk/groups/cosmo/papers.htm

Tropical nighttime warming as a dominant driver of variability in the terrestrial carbon sink

The terrestrial biosphere is currently a strong carbon (C) sink but may switch to a source in the 21st century as climate-driven losses exceed CO2-driven C gains, thereby accelerating global warming. Although it has long been recognized that tropical climate plays a critical role in regulating interannual climate variability, the causal link between changes in temperature and precipitation and terrestrial processes remains uncertain. Here, we combine atmospheric mass balance, remote sensing-modeled datasets of vegetation C uptake, and climate datasets to characterize the temporal variability of the terrestrial C sink and determine the dominant climate drivers of this variability. We show that the interannual variability of global land C sink has grown by 50–100% over the past 50 y. We further find that interannual land C sink variability is most strongly linked to tropical nighttime warming, likely through respiration. This apparent sensitivity of respiration to nighttime temperatures, which are projected to increase faster than global average temperatures, suggests that C stored in tropical forests may be vulnerable to future warming

Iron is a ligand of SecA-like metal-binding domains in vivo

Funding: JEL thanks the Royal Society for a University Research Fellowship and the Wellcome Trust for the Q-band EPR spectrometer (099149/Z/12/Z).The ATPase SecA is an essential component of the bacterial Sec machinery, which transports proteins across the cytoplasmic membrane. Most SecA proteins contain a long C-terminal tail (CTT). In Escherichia coli, the CTT contains a structurally flexible linker domain and a small metal-binding domain (MBD). The MBD coordinates zinc via a conserved cysteine-containing motif and binds to SecB and ribosomes. In this study, we screened a high-density transposon library for mutants that affect the susceptibility of E. coli to sodium azide, which inhibits SecA-mediated translocation. Results from sequencing this library suggested that mutations removing the CTT make E. coli less susceptible to sodium azide at subinhibitory concentrations. Copurification experiments suggested that the MBD binds to iron and that azide disrupts iron binding. Azide also disrupted binding of SecA to membranes. Two other E. coli proteins that contain SecA-like MBDs, YecA and YchJ, also copurified with iron, and NMR spectroscopy experiments indicated that YecA binds iron via its MBD. Competition experiments and equilibrium binding measurements indicated that the SecA MBD binds preferentially to iron and that a conserved serine is required for this specificity. Finally, structural modelling suggested a plausible model for the octahedral coordination of iron. Taken together, our results suggest that SecA-like MBDs likely bind to iron in vivo.PostprintPeer reviewe

Detecting forest response to droughts with global observations of vegetation water content

Droughts in a warming climate have become more common and more extreme, making understanding forest responses to water stress increasingly pressing. Analysis of water stress in trees has long focused on water potential in xylem and leaves, which influences stomatal closure and water flow through the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. At the same time, changes of vegetation water content (VWC) are linked to a range of tree responses, including fluxes of water and carbon, mortality, flammability, and more. Unlike water potential, which requires demanding in situ measurements, VWC can be retrieved from remote sensing measurements, particularly at microwave frequencies using radar and radiometry. Here, we highlight key frontiers through which VWC has the potential to significantly increase our understanding of forest responses to water stress. To validate remote sensing observations of VWC at landscape scale and to better relate them to data assimilation model parameters, we introduce an ecosystem-scale analog of the pressure-volume curve, the non-linear relationship between average leaf or branch water potential and water content commonly used in plant hydraulics. The sources of variability in these ecosystem-scale pressure-volume curves and their relationship to forest response to water stress are discussed. We further show to what extent diel, seasonal, and decadal dynamics of VWC reflect variations in different processes relating the tree response to water stress. VWC can also be used for inferring belowground conditions-which are difficult to impossible to observe directly. Lastly, we discuss how a dedicated geostationary spaceborne observational system for VWC, when combined with existing datasets, can capture diel and seasonal water dynamics to advance the science and applications of global forest vulnerability to future droughts