Measuring Mental Health Literacy: Development of the Mental Health Awareness and Advocacy Assessment Tool

Background: Mental health literacy programs are a common community-based approach used to address the prevention of mental health issues on college campuses. Current assessment strategies used to evaluate the effectiveness of these programs often lack strong theoretical rational and psychometric rigor. Purpose: The purpose of this study was twofold. First, based upon extant literature, theory, and standard clinical practice, we propose a process-based model of mental health literacy that includes three macro factors—identifying mental health issues, locating empirically based resources, and responding to mental health issues—and three micro processes of how they unfold—acquiring knowledge, building self-efficacy, and applying skills (behavior). The second aim was to test the psychometric properties of a new tool created to evaluate this process-based model—the Mental Health Awareness and Advocacy Assessment Tool (MHAA-AT). Setting: Not applicable. Intervention: Not applicable. Research Design: A national sample of 296 college attending participants were recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Participants responded to a demographic questionnaire and the newly developed MHAA-AT. Psychometric properties were examined through item response theory, exploratory factor analyses, and bivariate correlations. Findings: Results suggest the MHAA-AT is a sound measure and demonstrates appropriate item, person, and trait characteristics on declarative knowledge items, and single factor structures on self-efficacy and behavior items with moderate to high reliability and validity. While additional testing is need among other samples, results suggest that the MHAA-AT is a quality assessment tool. Keywords: College students; mental health literacy; item response theory; measuremen

Was the GLE on May 17, 2012 linked with the M5.1-class flare the first in the 24th solar cycle?

On May 17, 2012 an M5.1-class flare exploded from the sun. An O-type coronal mass ejection (CME) was also associated with this flare. There was an instant increase in proton flux with peak at $\geq 100$ MeV, leading to S2 solar radiation storm level. In about 20 minutes after the X-ray emission, the solar particles reached the Earth.It was the source of the first (since December 2006) ground level enhancement (GLE) of the current solar cycle 24. The GLE was detected by neutron monitors (NM) and other ground based detectors. Here we present an observation by the Tupi muon telescopes (Niteroi, Brazil, $22^{0}.9 S$, $43^{0}.2 W$, 3 m above sea level) of the enhancement of muons at ground level associated with this M5.1-class solar flare. The Tupi telescopes registered a muon excess over background $\sim 20\%$ in the 5-min binning time profile. The Tupi signal is studied in correlation with data obtained by space-borne detectors (GOES, ACE), ground based neutron monitors (Oulu) and air shower detectors (the IceTop surface component of the IceCube neutrino observatory). We also report the observation of the muon signal possibly associated with the CME/sheath striking the Earth magnetosphere on May 20, 2012. We show that the observed temporal correlation of the muon excess observed by the Tupi muon telescopes with solar transient events suggests a real physical connection between them. Our observation indicates that combination of two factors, the low energy threshold of the Tupi muon telescopes and the location of the Tupi experiment in the South Atlantic Anomaly region, can be favorable in the study and detection of the solar transient events. Our experiment provides new data complementary to other techniques (space and ground based) in the study of solar physics.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figure

Magnetic Structures of High Temperature Phases of TbBaCo2O5.5

Neutron diffraction studies have been carried out on a single crystal of oxygen-deficient perovskite TbBaCo2O5.5 in the temperature range of 7-370 K. There have been observed several magnetic or structural transitions. Among these, the existence of the transitions to the insulating phase from the metallic one at ~340 K, to the one with the ferromagnetic moment at ~280 K and possibly to the antiferromagnetic one at ~260 K, with decreasing temperature T correspond to those reported in former works. We have studied the magnetic structures at 270 K and 250 K and found that all Co3+ ions of the CoO6 octahedra are in the low spin state and those of the CoO5 pyramids carry spins which are possibly in the intermediate spin state. Non-collinear magnetic structures are proposed at these temperatures. Two other transitions have also been observed at the temperatures, ~100 K and ~250 K.Comment: 9 pages, 2 tables, 10 figure

Upper Campanian calcareous nannofossils from the Core 2-RSS-1, Pelotas Basin, Brazil

The deep wells drilled in the Pelotas Basin, located in the southernmost of Brazil, represent a rare opportunity to understand the geological evolution of the region during the Cretaceous. The biostratigraphic framework proposed for the basin used outdated data, demanding new studies for its improvement. The calcareous nannofossils of the core 2-RSS-1 (depth interval 4480.35 - 4487.70 meters), drilled by Petrobras in the offshore portion of the basin are reported here. Thirty species were recognized, the most important of them are Arkhangelskiella cymbiformis Vekshina, Broinsonia parca constricta (Stradner) Hattner, Wind and Wise, Calculites obscurus (Deflandre) Prins and Sissingh, Eiffellithus turriseiffelii (Deflandre) Reinhardt, Microrhabdulus decoratus Deflandre, Micula decussata Vekshina, Reinhardtites levis Prins and Sissingh, Retecapsa crenulata (Bramlette and Martini) Grün, Tranolithus orionatus (Reinhardt) Reinhardt, and Uniplanarius sissinghii Perch-Nielsen. The co-occurrence of Broinsonia parca constricta and Reinhardtites levis indicates that the studied rocks are included in the Standard biozones CC22b to CC23a. According to the Cretaceous Standard zonation used in the present work, the studied interval is deposited close to the Upper Campanian boundary. The present and forthcoming studies will contribute to the improvement of the biostratigraphic scheme previously proposed for the Cretaceous of the Pelotas Basin.Simposio VI: Microfósiles del Mesozoico y Cenozoico de América del Sur y Antártida. Nuevas aplicaciones y problemáticas asociadasFacultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse