The adaptation of cognitive behavioural therapy for adult Maori clients with depression: A pilot study

A semistructured cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) programme for depression was adapted for use with Maori adult clients with depression. Adaptations were developed in consultation with an advisory group consisting of Maori clinical psychologists and kaumatua with experience working in mental health services. The programme was piloted with 2 participants who were clients of a Maori mental health service. The programme builds on a more traditional CBT treatment programme by integrating concepts such as whakatauki, whanaungatanga, whanau involvement, and whakapapa into the therapeutic context. Despite limitations the results demonstrate considerable promise. Depressive symptoms increased substantially in both cases and both clients reflected positively on the adaptations incorporated into therapy

Measurement of the Crab nebula polarization at 90 GHz as a calibrator for CMB experiments

CMB experiments aiming at a precise measurement of the CMB polarization, such as the Planck satellite, need a strong polarized absolute calibrator on the sky to accurately set the detectors polarization angle and the cross-polarization leakage. As the most intense polarized source in the microwave sky at angular scales of few arcminutes, the Crab nebula will be used for this purpose. Our goal was to measure the Crab nebula polarization characteristics at 90 GHz with unprecedented precision. The observations were carried out with the IRAM 30m telescope employing the correlation polarimeter XPOL and using two orthogonally polarized receivers. We processed the Stokes I, Q, and U maps from our observations in order to compute the polarization angle and linear polarization fraction. The first is almost constant in the region of maximum emission in polarization with a mean value of alpha_Sky=152.1+/-0.3 deg in equatorial coordinates, and the second is found to reach a maximum of Pi=30% for the most polarized pixels. We find that a CMB experiment having a 5 arcmin circular beam will see a mean polarization angle of alpha_Sky=149.9+/-0.2 deg and a mean polarization fraction of Pi=8.8+/-0.2%.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 9 pages, 4 figure

Adolescent stress: a multi-ethnic Asian perspective

The purpose of this study was to examine gender and ethnic differences in adolescent stress in a non–Western context; multi-ethnic Malaysia. A Malay language version of the Adolescent Stress Questionnaire was administered to 300 adolescents aged from 13 to 17 years (Mean = 14.4 years). There were no statistically significant differences between genders or the three ethnic groups (Chinese, Indian, and Malay) across the 10 subscales. There was a significant gender x ethnicity interaction for the school performance subscale with Indian boys reporting significantly higher stress. Gender and ethnic differences were evident at the item level with boys reporting higher stress than girls on 12% of the items. For 27 (47%) of the items on the scale the most frequent response was not at all stressful (or irrelevant to me). Discussion highlights the importance of further research on adolescent stress in the Asian context and acknowledges that Western cultural understandings of stress are not necessarily or inevitably the same as that found in Asian cultures

How should discrepancy be assessed in perfectionism research? A psychometric analysis and proposed refinement of the Almost Perfect Scale–Revised

Research on perfectionism with the Almost Perfect Scale-Revised (APS-R) distinguishes adaptive perfectionists versus maladaptive perfectionists based primarily on their responses to the 12-item unidimensional APS-R discrepancy subscale, which assesses the sense of falling short of standards. People described as adaptive perfectionists have high standards but low levels of discrepancy (i.e., relatively close to attaining these standards). Maladaptive perfectionists have perfectionistic high standards and high levels of discrepancy. In the current work, we re-examine the psychometric properties of the APS-R discrepancy subscale and illustrate that this supposedly unidimensional discrepancy measure may actually consists of more than one factor. Psychometric analyses of data from student and community samples distinguished a pure fiveitem discrepancy factor and a second four-item factor measuring dissatisfaction. The five-item factor is recommended as a brief measure of discrepancy from perfection and the four-item factor is recommended as a measure of dissatisfaction with being imperfect. Overall, our results confirm past suggestions that most people with maladaptive perfectionism are characterized jointly by chronic dissatisfaction as well as a sense of being discrepant due to having fallen short of expectations. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the assessment of perfectionism, as well as the implications for research and practice

Implications of exclusive J/ψJ/\psi photoproduction in a tamed collinear factorisation approach to NLO

We discuss exclusive $J/\psi$ photoproduction, initially in conventional collinear factorisation at NLO and then subsequently in a refined approach with a programme of low $x$ resummation and implementation of a crucial low $Q_0$ subtraction included. We compare and contrast predictions in both frameworks and remark about the possibility to constrain and ultimately determine the low $x$ and low scale gluon PDF, emphasising the significance of this for future global PDF analyses.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Presented by C. Flett at the 51st International Symposium on Multiparticle Dynamics (ISMD2022) Pitlochry, Scottish Highlands, 1-5 August 202

Comparison of T1 mapping techniques for ECV quantification. histological validation and reproducibility of ShMOLLI versus multibreath-hold T1 quantification equilibrium contrast CMR

BACKGROUND: Myocardial extracellular volume (ECV) is elevated in fibrosis or infiltration and can be quantified by measuring the haematocrit with pre and post contrast T1 at sufficient contrast equilibrium. Equilibrium CMR (EQ-CMR), using a bolus-infusion protocol, has been shown to provide robust measurements of ECV using a multibreath-hold T1 pulse sequence. Newer, faster sequences for T1 mapping promise whole heart coverage and improved clinical utility, but have not been validated. METHODS: Multibreathhold T1 quantification with heart rate correction and single breath-hold T1 mapping using Shortened Modified Look-Locker Inversion recovery (ShMOLLI) were used in equilibrium contrast CMR to generate ECV values and compared in 3 ways.Firstly, both techniques were compared in a spectrum of disease with variable ECV expansion (n=100, 50 healthy volunteers, 12 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, 18 with severe aortic stenosis, 20 with amyloid). Secondly, both techniques were correlated to human histological collagen volume fraction (CVF%, n=18, severe aortic stenosis biopsies). Thirdly, an assessment of test:retest reproducibility of the 2 CMR techniques was performed 1 week apart in individuals with widely different ECVs (n=10 healthy volunteers, n=7 amyloid patients). RESULTS: More patients were able to perform ShMOLLI than the multibreath-hold technique (6% unable to breath-hold). ECV calculated by multibreath-hold T1 and ShMOLLI showed strong correlation (r(2)=0.892), little bias (bias -2.2%, 95%CI -8.9% to 4.6%) and good agreement (ICC 0.922, range 0.802 to 0.961, p<0.0001). ECV correlated with histological CVF% by multibreath-hold ECV (r(2)= 0.589) but better by ShMOLLI ECV (r(2)= 0.685). Inter-study reproducibility demonstrated that ShMOLLI ECV trended towards greater reproducibility than the multibreath-hold ECV, although this did not reach statistical significance (95%CI -4.9% to 5.4% versus 95%CI -6.4% to 7.3% respectively, p=0.21). CONCLUSIONS: ECV quantification by single breath-hold ShMOLLI T1 mapping can measure ECV by EQ-CMR across the spectrum of interstitial expansion. It is procedurally better tolerated, slightly more reproducible and better correlates with histology compared to the older multibreath-hold FLASH techniques

Clathrin promotes incorporation of cargo into coated pits by activation of the AP2 adaptor mu 2 kinase

Endocytic cargo such as the transferrin receptor is incorporated into clathrin-coated pits by associating, via tyrosine-based motifs, with the AP2 complex. Cargo-AP2 interactions occur via the mu2 subunit of AP2, which needs to be phosphorylated for endocytosis to occur. The most likely role for mu2 phosphorylation is in cargo recruitment because mu2 phosphorylation enhances its binding to internalization motifs. Here, we investigate the control of mu2 phosphorylation. We identify clathrin as a specific activator of the mu2 kinase and, in permeabilized cells, we show that ligand sequestration, driven by exogenous clathrin, results in elevated levels of mu2 phosphorylation. Furthermore, we show that AP2 containing phospho-mu2 is mainly associated with assembled clathrin in vivo, and that the level of phospho-mu2 is strongly reduced in a chicken B cell line depleted of clathrin heavy chain. Our results imply a central role for clathrin in the regulation of cargo selection via the modulation of phospho-mu2 levels

Exclusive J/ψJ/\psi production in ultraperipheral Pb+Pb collisions to NLO pQCD

We present the first NLO pQCD study of coherent exclusive $J/\psi$ photoproduction in ultraperipheral heavy-ion collisions (UPCs) at the LHC. Taking the generalized parton distributions (GPDs) in their forward limit, as parton distribution functions (PDFs), we quantify the NLO contributions in the rapidity-differential cross section, show that the real part of the amplitude must not be neglected, study the gluon and quark contributions, chart the scale-choice and PDF uncertainties, and compare the NLO results with LHC and HERA data. We show that the scale dependence is significant but a scale choice can be found with which we reproduce the 2.76 and 5.02 TeV UPC data. In particular, we show that the process is clearly more sensitive to the nuclear quark PDFs than thought before.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, contributed talk by T.L. at the XXIX International Conference on Ultra-relativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions, Quark Matter 2022, 4-10 April, 2022, Krakow, Polan