Understanding jumping to conclusions in patients with persecutory delusions: working memory and intolerance of uncertainty

Background. Persecutory delusions are a key psychotic experience. A reasoning style known as ‘jumping to conclusions’ (JTC) – limited information gathering before reaching certainty in decision making – has been identified as a contributory factor in the occurrence of delusions. The cognitive processes that underpin JTC need to be determined in order to develop effective interventions for delusions. In the current study two alternative perspectives were tested: that JTC partially results from impairment in information-processing capabilities and that JTC is a motivated strategy to avoid uncertainty.Method. A group of 123 patients with persistent persecutory delusions completed assessments of JTC (the 60:40 beads task), IQ, working memory, intolerance of uncertainty, and psychiatric symptoms. Patients showing JTC were compared with patients not showing JTC.Results. A total of 30 (24%) patients with delusions showed JTC. There were no differences between patients who did and did not jump to conclusions in overall psychopathology. Patients who jumped to conclusions had poorer working memory performance, lower IQ, lower intolerance of uncertainty and lower levels of worry.Working memory and worry independently predicted the presence of JTC.Conclusions. Hasty decision making in patients with delusions may partly arise from difficulties in keeping information in mind. Interventions for JTC are likely to benefit from addressing working memory performance, while in vivo techniques for patients with delusions will benefit from limiting the demands on working memory. The study provides little evidence for a contribution to JTC from top down motivational beliefs about uncertainty

Chiral Reductions in the Salam-Sezgin Model

Reductions from six to four spacetime dimensions are considered for a class of supergravity models based on the six-dimensional Salam-Sezgin model, which is a chiral theory with a gauged U(1) R-symmetry and a positive scalar-field potential. Reduction on a sphere and monopole background of such models naturally yields four-dimensional theories without a cosmological constant. The question of chirality preservation in such a reduction has been a topic of debate. In this article, it is shown that the possibilities of dimensional reduction bifurcate into two separate consistent dimensional-reduction schemes. One of these retains the massless SU(2) vector gauge triplet arising from the sphere's isometries, but it produces a non-chiral four-dimensional theory. The other consistent scheme sets to zero the SU(2) gauge fields, but retains the gauged U(1) from six dimensions and preserves chirality although the U(1) is spontaneously broken. Extensions of the Salam-Sezgin model to include larger gauge symmetries produce genuinely chiral models with unbroken gauge symmetries.Comment: 37 page

FOULING DURING THE USE OF ‘FRESH’ WATER AS COOLANT- THE DEVELOPMENT OF A ‘USER GUIDE’

IHS ESDU recently published its latest ‘User Guide’ to fouling in heat exchange systems, for systems with fresh water as the coolant. ESDU 07006 [1] is the third in a group, following the development of the Crude Oil Fouling User Guide [2] issued in 2000 and the Seawater Fouling User Guide [3] issued in 2004. ESDU 07006 was developed by IHS ESDU over a period of five years under the guidance of the Oil Industry Fouling Working Party, a collaborative team of oil refiners, heat transfer equipment and services suppliers and Universities. It provides designers and operators of cooling water facilities with a practical source of guidance on the occurrence, the mechanisms and the mitigation of fresh water fouling in these systems. IHS ESDU’s Oil Industry Fouling Working Party was formed in recognition of the huge economic and environmental importance of heat exchanger fouling and the potential benefits that can accrue from better understanding of mitigation strategies. Work is now underway on reboiler and FCCU fouling. The development of the User Guide ESDU 07006 is discussed in this paper and its technical content is summarized

Usability testing of an e-learning resource designed to improve medical students' physical activity prescription skills: a qualitative think-aloud study.

OBJECTIVE: An e-learning resource (MEdic GAming, MEGA) was developed based on the contents of the Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine exercise prescription booklet. This study aimed to (i) explore medical students' perspectives of physical activity promotion and e-learning and (ii) investigate medical students' response to the design, content and usability of the MEGA e-learning resource. DESIGN: Qualitative think-aloud interview study. SETTING: A London medical school. PARTICIPANTS: 19 undergraduate medical students were interviewed using the think-aloud method while using the e-learning resource concurrently. RESULTS: In general, medical students felt current education on physical activity is inadequate and held a strong desire for more teaching on exercise medicine. Students believed the MEGA e-learning resource addressed a gap in their knowledge on physical activity but noted e-learning should not replace face-to-face teaching and suggested physical activity education would be best delivered through a blended learning approach. Students felt such an approach would allow better opportunity to practice physical activity counselling skills with patients while on clinical placement. Students' motivation to engage with the MEGA e-learning resource was positively impacted by aesthetically appealing design and interactive gamification elements such as self-assessment quizzes and visual progress tracking. CONCLUSION: Medical students value the role of physical activity in health but are disappointed by the lack of teaching within the current medical curriculum. E-learning resources, such as MEGA, which contain interactive features are a viable means to integrate physical activity into the undergraduate curriculum but should be supplemented by the opportunity to practice physical activity counselling in-person

Integrating physical activity promotion into UK medical school curricula: testing the feasibility of an educational tool developed by the Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine.

Background: At present education on exercise medicine and physical activity (PA) promotion does not feature heavily within the medical curriculum. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to test the feasibility of a self-directed educational tool (Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine (FSEM) exercise prescription booklet) on medical students' understanding of PA in disease management. Methods: Students from 22 UK medical schools were invited to complete a brief online questionnaire before and after being provided access to the FSEM exercise prescription booklet. Results: A total of 205 students responded to the open invitation to participate. At baseline 59% of students agreed that PA promotion was an important part of a doctor's job with 86% agreeing that PA was important in the prevention of disease. However, confidence to prescribe PA and knowledge of chief medical officer's adult PA guidelines was low. Following use of the FSEM booklet students' (n=53) knowledge of PA guidelines and confidence to advise patients about PA significantly improved (p<0.05). Correct response answers to case scenarios covering PA in disease management (specifically osteoarthritis and cancer) also improved (32% and 44% increase, respectively, p<0.01). Conclusion: Self-guided educational tools have the potential to improve the exercise prescription skills of undergraduate medical students. Future research should compare different methods of delivering education on PA within medical schools to determine the most effective means of integrating PA into the curriculum

Antimatter production in proton-proton and heavy-ion collisions at ultrarelativistic energies

One of the striking features of particle production at high beam energies is the near equal abundance of matter and antimatter in the central rapidity region. In this paper we study how this symmetry is reached as the beam energy is increased. In particular, we quantify explicitly the energy dependence of the approach to matter/antimatter symmetry in proton-proton and in heavy-ion collisions. Expectations are presented also for the production of more complex forms of antimatter like antihypernuclei.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

The Lifestyle Information and Intervention Preferences of Teenage and Young Adult Cancer Survivors: A Qualitative Study

Background: Little is currently known about how best to promote healthy lifestyle choices among teenage and young adult (TYA) cancer survivors. Such data gathered from a patient-centered perspective are instrumental for the development of health behavior change interventions for young people with cancer. Objective: This study aimed to explore the lifestyle information needs of TYA cancer survivors and their preferences regarding lifestyle information and intervention delivery. Lifestyle behaviors of interest were physical activity, diet, smoking, alcohol consumption, and sun safety. Methods: A total of 13 TYA cancer survivors (mean age, 22.9 years) participated in 10 individual interviews and 1 focus group (n = 3). Each interview and focus group followed the same semistructured interview guide, which was designed to explore young peoples’ motivation behind leading a healthy lifestyle, their past experience of searching for lifestyle information, and their preferences relating to lifestyle information delivery. Results: Three core themes emerged: cancer as a catalyst to lifestyle behavior change, factors influencing health behavior change, and health behavior information preferences. Social support emerged as facilitator of both health behavior change and self-efficacy. Conclusion: Young people with cancer want age-appropriate lifestyle information on a range of topics delivered in multiple formats at various time points. Implications for Practice: Health professionals working with TYA cancer survivors should address young peoples’ lifestyle information needs throughout the cancer care pathway and support young people to foster the confidence to make, and sustain, positive lifestyle behavior changes

Induced Anisotropies in NiCo Obliquely Deposited Films and Their effect on Magnetic Domains

English Article: Oblique and in-plane anisotropies in obliquely evaporated NiCo thin films were investigated in order to understand their origin. All the compositions studied clearly show the effect of columnar grain morphology coupled with some intrinsic factors such as magnetostriction and crystallinity. Energy calculations are undertaken to explain the effect of

The clinical academic workforce of the future: a cross-sectional study of factors influencing career decision-making among clinical PhD students at two research-intensive UK universities

OBJECTIVES: To examine clinical doctoral students’ demographic and training characteristics, career intentions, career preparedness and what influences them as they plan their future careers. DESIGN AND SETTING: Online cross-sectional census surveys at two research-intensive medical schools in England in 2015–2016. PARTICIPANTS: All medically qualified PhD students (N=523) enrolled at the University of Oxford and University College London were invited to participate. We report on data from 320 participants (54% male and 44% female), who were representative by gender of the invited population. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Career intentions. RESULTS: Respondents were mainly in specialty training, including close to training completion (25%, n=80), and 18% (n=57) had completed training. Half (50%, n=159) intended to pursue a clinical academic career (CAC) and 62% (n=198) were at least moderately likely to seek a clinical lectureship (CL). However, 51% (n=163) had little or no knowledge about CL posts. Those wanting a CAC tended to have the most predoctoral medical research experience (χ2 (2, N=305)=22.19, p=0.0005). Key reasons cited for not pursuing a CAC were the small number of senior academic appointments available, the difficulty of obtaining research grants and work-life balance. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that urging predoctoral clinicians to gain varied research experience while ensuring availability of opportunities, and introducing more flexible recruitment criteria for CL appointments, would foster CACs. As CL posts are often only open to those still in training, the many postdoctoral clinicians who have completed training, or nearly done so, do not currently gain the opportunity the post offers to develop as independent researchers. Better opportunities should be accompanied by enhanced career support for clinical doctoral students (eg, to increase knowledge of CLs). Finally, ways to increase the number of senior clinical academic appointments should be explored since their lack seems to significantly influence career decisions