Mental health of UK military personnel while on deployment in Iraq

Background Most research on the mental health of UK armed forces personnel has been conducted either before or after deployment; there is scant evidence concerning personnel while they are on deployment. Aims To assess the mental health of UK armed forces personnel deployed in Iraq and identify gaps in the provision of support on operations. Method Personnel completed a questionnaire about their deployment experiences and health status. Primary outcomes were psychological distress (General Health Questionnaire–12, GHQ–12), symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and self-rating of overall health. Results Of 611 participants, 20.5% scored above the cut-off on the GHQ–12 and 3.4% scored as having probable PTSD. Higher risk of psychological distress was associated with younger age, female gender, weaker unit cohesion, poorer perceived leadership and non-receipt of a pre-deployment stress brief. Perceived threat to life, poorer perceived leadership and non-receipt of a stress brief were risk factors for symptoms of PTSD. Better self-rated overall health was associated with being a commissioned officer, stronger unit cohesion and having taken a period of rest and recuperation. Personnel who reported sick for any reason during deployment were more likely to report psychological symptoms. Around 11% reported currently being interested in receiving help for a psychological problem. Conclusions In an established operational theatre the prevalence of common psychopathology was similar to rates found in non-deployed military samples. However, there remains scope for further improving in-theatre support mechanisms, raising awareness of the link between reporting sick and mental health and ensuring implementation of current policy to deliver pre-deployment stress briefs

Identities for field extensions generalizing the Ohno-Nakagawa relations

In previous work, Ohno conjectured, and Nakagawa proved, relations between the counting functions of certain cubic fields. These relations may be viewed as complements to the Scholz reflection principle, and Ohno and Nakagawa deduced them as consequences of `extra functional equations' involving the Shintani zeta functions associated to the prehomogeneous vector space of binary cubic forms. In the present paper we generalize their result by proving a similar identity relating certain degree l fields with Galois groups D_l and F_l respectively, for any odd prime l, and in particular we give another proof of the Ohno-Nakagawa relation without appealing to binary cubic forms.Comment: Version 2, 16 pages, to appear in Compositi

Simon Messing oral history interview by Mark I. Greenberg, January 16, 2004

Simon Messing, retired professor of Anthropology, discusses his career at USF and the work he did on campus and in Ethiopia. Dr. Messing\u27s daughter is following in his footsteps, as she is currently a professor of Anthropology at USF

Creative Writing Research Benchmark Statement

The benchmark guidance for Creative Writing research from the National Association of Writers in Education, the subject association for creative writing

Can Music Increase Empathy? Interpreting Musical Experience Through the Empathizing–Systemizing (E-S) Theory: Implications for Autism

Recent research has provided evidence that musical interaction can promote empathy. Yet little is known about the underlying intrapersonal and social psychological processes that are involved when this occurs. For example, which types of music increase empathy and which types decrease it; what role, if any, does empathy play in determining individual differences in musical preference, perception, and performance; or, how do these psychological underpinnings help explain the musical experiences of people with autism spectrum conditions (ASC). To address these questions we employ the Empathizing–Systemizing (E-S) theory as a fruitful framework in which to understand these music-related phenomena. Specifically, we explore how individual differences in musical preference, perception, and performance can be explained by E-S theory. We provide examples from open-ended descriptions of strong musical experiences to demonstrate the ways in which empathy and music inter-relate. Importantly, we discuss the implications for the study of autism, and for how music therapists and clinicians can use music as a tool in their work with individuals diagnosed with ASC.

Schwinger Representation for the Symmetric Group: Two explicit constructions for the Carrier Space

We give two explicit construction for the carrier space for the Schwinger representation of the group $S_n$. While the first relies on a class of functions consisting of monomials in antisymmetric variables, the second is based on the Fock space associated with the Greenberg algebra.Comment: Latex, 6 page