Time perspective, depression, and substance misuse among the homeless

Using the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI; P. G. Zimbardo & J. N. Boyd, 1999), the authors found that homeless people, in comparison with a control group, had a significantly more negative outlook concerning their past and present as evinced by high Past-Negative and Present-Fatalistic scores and low Past-Positive scores on the ZTPI. However, the homeless individuals were almost indistinguishable from control participants on measures of Present-Hedonism and Future thinking. The homeless individuals had significantly higher levels of depression, with 31 out of 50 (62%) reaching criteria for probable depression. However, this finding was unrelated to their atypical time perspective. There was no significant relation between substance misuse and time perspective. Despite their current difficulties, including depression and drug abuse, the homeless individuals maintained a propensity toward future thinking characterized by striving to achieve their goals.

Inductive Lusternik-Schnirelmann category in a model category

We introduce the notion of inductive category in a model category and prove that it agrees with the Ganea approach given by Doeraene. This notion also coincides with the topological one when we consider the category of (well-) pointed topological spaces.Comment: 14 page

Is anxiety associated with negative interpretations of ambiguity in children and adolescents? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background The tendency to interpret ambiguity as threat (‘negative interpretation’) has been implicated in cognitive models of anxiety. A significant body of research has examined the association between anxiety and negative interpretation, and reviews suggest there is a robust positive association in adults. However, evidence with children and adolescents has been inconsistent. This study aimed to provide a systematic quantitative assessment of the association between anxiety and negative interpretation in children and adolescents. Methods Following systematic searches and screening for eligibility, 345 effects sizes from 77 studies were meta-analysed. Results Overall a medium positive association was found between anxiety and negative interpretation in children and adolescents (d ̂ = 0.62). Two variables significantly moderated this effect. Specifically, the association increased in strength with increasing age and when the content of ambiguous scenarios matched the anxiety subtype under investigation. Conclusions Results extend findings from adult literature by demonstrating an association in children and adolescents with evidence for content specificity in the association. Age effects imply a role for development. Results raise considerations for when and for whom clinical treatments for anxiety focusing on interpretation bias are appropriate. The vast majority of studies included in the review have used correlational designs and there are a limited number of studies with you ng children. The results should be considered with these limitations in mind

Geodiversity Supports Cultural Ecosystem Services: an Assessment Using Social Media

Geodiversity is under threat from both anthropogenic activities and environmental change which therefore requires active management in the form of geoconservation to minimise future damage. As research on the role of geodiversity on ecosystem service (ES) provision has been limited, there is a need to improve our understanding of which aspects are most important to providing ES to better inform approaches to its conservation. Here, we focus on the cultural ES of hiking in Wales, UK. Harnessing big data from the social media website Flickr, we used the locations of geotagged images of hiking and a range of spatial layers representing geodiversity, biodiversity and anthropogenic predictor variables in habitat suitability models. To gain a deeper understanding of the role of geodiversity in driving the distribution of this cultural service, we estimated the strength and nature of the relationship of each geodiversity, biodiversity and anthropogenic indicator with hiking. Our models show that three geodiversity (distance from coast, range in slope and range in elevation) and two anthropogenic (distance from greenspace access point and distance from road) variables were the most important drivers of hiking. Furthermore, we assessed the content of the images to understand which features of geodiversity people interact with while hiking. We found that people generally take images of geomorphological and hydrological features, such as mountains and lakes. Through understanding the geodiversity, biodiversity and anthropogenic drivers of hiking in Wales, as well as identifying the geodiversity features people interact with while hiking, this analysis can help to inform future geoconservation methods by focusing efforts on these important features

Delivering relational continuity of care in UK general practice: a scoping review

Background: Relational continuity of care (patients seeing the same GP) is associated with better outcomes for patients, but it has been declining in general practice in the UK. Aim: To understand what interventions have been tried to improve relational continuity of care in general practice in the UK. Design & setting: Scoping review Method: An electronic search of MEDLINE, Embase and Scopus from 2002 to the present day was undertaken. Sources of grey literature were also searched. Studies that detailed service-level methods of achieving relational continuity of care with a GP in the UK were eligible for inclusion. Interventions were described narratively in relation to the elements listed in the Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR). A logic model describing the rationale behind interventions was constructed. Results: 17 unique interventions were identified. The interventions used a wide variety of strategies to try to improve relational continuity. This included personal lists, amended booking processes, regular reviews, digital technology, facilitated follow ups, altered appointment times, and use of acute hubs. 12 of the interventions targeted specific patient groups for increased continuity whilst others focused on increasing continuity for all patients. Changes in continuity levels were measured inconsistently using several different methods. Conclusion: Several different strategies have been used in UK general practices in an attempt to improve relational continuity of care. Whilst there is a similar underlying logic to these interventions, their scope, aims and methods vary considerably. Furthermore, due to a weak evidence base, comparing their efficacy remains challenging

Scaling anomaly in cosmic string background

We show that the classical scale symmetry of a particle moving in cosmic string background is broken upon inequivalent quantization of the classical system, leading to anomaly. The consequence of this anomaly is the formation of single bound state in the coupling interval \gamma\in(-1,1). The inequivalent quantization is characterized by a 1-parameter family of self-adjoint extension parameter \omega. It has been conjectured that the formation of loosely bound state in cosmic string background may lead to the so called anomalous scattering cross section for the particles, which is usually seen in molecular physics.Comment: 4 pages,1 figur

What are communities of practice? A comparative review of four seminal works

This paper is a comparative review of four seminal works on communities of practice. It is argued that the ambiguities of the terms community and practice are a source of the concept's reusability allowing it to be reappropriated for different purposes, academic and practical. However, it is potentially confusing that the works differ so markedly in their conceptualizations of community, learning, power and change, diversity and informality. The three earlier works are underpinned by a common epistemological view, but Lave and Wenger's 1991 short monograph is often read as primarily about the socialization of newcomers into knowledge by a form of apprenticeship, while the focus in Brown and Duguid's article of the same year is, in contrast, on improvising new knowledge in an interstitial group that forms in resistance to management. Wenger's 1998 book treats communities of practice as the informal relations and understandings that develop in mutual engagement on an appropriated joint enterprise, but his focus is the impact on individual identity. The applicability of the concept to the heavily individualized and tightly managed work of the twenty-first century is questionable. The most recent work by Wenger – this time with McDermott and Snyder as coauthors – marks a distinct shift towards a managerialist stance. The proposition that managers should foster informal horizontal groups across organizational boundaries is in fact a fundamental redefinition of the concept. However it does identify a plausible, if limited, knowledge management (KM) tool. This paper discusses different interpretations of the idea of 'co-ordinating' communities of practice as a management ideology of empowerment

Analytical and numerical investigation of escape rate for a noise driven bath

We consider a system-reservoir model where the reservoir is modulated by an external noise. Both the internal noise of the reservoir and the external noise are stationary, Gaussian and are characterized by arbitrary decaying correlation functions. Based on a relation between the dissipation of the system and the response function of the reservoir driven by external noise we numerically examine the model using a full bistable potential to show that one can recover the turn-over features of the usual Kramers' dynamics when the external noise modulates the reservoir rather than the system directly. We derive the generalized Kramers' rate for this nonequilibrium open system. The theoretical results are verified by numerical simulation.Comment: Revtex, 25 pages, 5 figures. To appear in Phys. Rev.