No Significant Evidence of Cognitive Biases for Emotional Stimuli in Children At-Risk of Developing Anxiety Disorders.

This paper explores whether the increased vulnerability of children of anxious parents to develop anxiety disorders may be partially explained by these children having increased cognitive biases towards threat compared with children of non-anxious parents. Parents completed questionnaires about their child’s anxiety symptoms. Children aged 5–9 (n = 85) participated in two cognitive bias tasks: 1) an emotion recognition task, and 2) an ambiguous situations questionnaire. For the emotion recognition task, there were no significant differences between at-risk children and children of non-anxious parents in their cognitive bias scores for reaction times or for accuracy in identifying angry or happy facial expressions. In addition, there were no significant differences between at-risk children and children of non-anxious parents in the number of threat interpretations made for the ambiguous situations questionnaire. It is possible that these cognitive biases only become present subsequent to the development of an anxiety disorder, or only in older at-risk children

Prevalence, incidence, and risk factors for shoulder and neck dysfunction after neck dissection: a systematic review

Introduction Shoulder pain and dysfunction may occur following neck dissection among people being treated for head and neck cancer. This systematic review aims to examine the prevalence and incidence of shoulder and neck dysfunction after neck dissection and identify risk factors for these post-operative complications. Methods Electronic databases (Pubmed, CINAHL, EMBASE, Cochrane) were searched for articles including adults undergoing neck dissection for head and neck cancer. Studies that reported prevalence, incidence or risk factors for an outcome of the shoulder or neck were eligible and assessed using the Critical Review Form – Quantitative Studies. Results Seventy-five articles were included in the final review. Prevalence rates for shoulder pain were slightly higher after RND (range, 10–100%) compared with MRND (range, 0–100%) and SND (range, 9–25%). The incidence of reduced shoulder active range of motion depended on surgery type (range, 5–20%). The prevalence of reduced neck active range of motion after neck dissection was 1–13%. Type of neck dissection was a risk factor for shoulder pain, reduced function and health-related quality of life. Conclusions The prevalence and incidence of shoulder and neck dysfunction after neck dissection varies by type of surgery performed and measure of dysfunction used. Pre-operative education for patients undergoing neck dissection should acknowledge the potential for post-operative shoulder and neck problems to occur and inform patients that accessory nerve preservation lowers, but does not eliminate, the risk of developing musculoskeletal complications

Health and healthcare for people with disabilities in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic

Background: While emerging evidence shows increased mortality from COVID-19 among people with disability, evidence regarding whether there are disability-related inequalities in health during the pandemic is lacking. Objective: This study compares access to COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 related health care and mental health of people with and without disability. Methods: Longitudinal analysis of 12,703 adults (16–64 years) who participated in W9 (2017–2019) and the April and/or May COVID-19 special surveys of the UK Understanding Society study. Descriptive analyses and Poisson regression (adjusted for age, gender, ethnicity and financial stress) were conducted to estimate associations between disability (measured at Wave 9) and a number of different COVID-19-related health and health care outcomes (COVID-19 symptoms, testing and hospitalisation), mental health and loneliness, and non-COVID-19 related health care (e.g. outpatient and inpatient hospital care, prescription medications). Results: Results from the fully-adjusted regression models found that people with disability were more likely: to be hospitalised if symptomatic (adjusted PRR 3.0 95% 1.07–8.43); to experience current symptoms of psychological distress (PRR 1.15, 95% CI 1.05–1.26) and to report being lonely (PRR 1.75, 95% CI 1.46–2.09) compared to non-disabled people. People with disability reported much higher levels of comorbidities than people without disability. However, inability to access health care and treatment were similar. Conclusions: As the UK opens up, it is important that health care services and social policy address the poor mental health and social isolation of people with disability so that the inequalities occurring early in the pandemic do not become further entrenched

Capacitive Deionization -- defining a class of desalination technologies

Over the past decade, capacitive deionization (CDI) has realized a surge in attention in the field of water desalination and can now be considered as an important technology class, along with reverse osmosis and electrodialysis. While many of the recently developed technologies no longer use a mechanism that follows the strict definition of the term "capacitive", these methods nevertheless share many common elements that encourage treating them with similar metrics and analyses. Specifically, they all involve electrically driven removal of ions from a feed stream, storage in an electrode (i.e., ion electrosorption) and release, in charge/discharge cycles. Grouping all these methods in the technology class of CDI makes it possible to treat evolving new technologies in standardized terms and compare them to other technologies in the same class

Enabling the Collaborative Definition of DSMLs

International audienceSoftware development processes are collaborative in nature. Neglecting the key role of end-users leads to software that does not satisfy their needs. This collaboration becomes specially important when creating Domain-Specific Modeling Languages (DSMLs), which are (modeling) languages specifically designed to carry out the tasks of a particular domain. While end-users are actually the experts of the domain for which a DSML is developed, their participation in the DSML specification process is still rather limited nowadays. In this paper we propose a more community-aware language development process by enabling the active participation of all community members (both developers and end-users of the DSML) from the very beginning. Our proposal is based on a DSML itself, called Collaboro, which allows representing change proposals on the DSML design and discussing (and tracing back) possible solutions, comments and decisions arisen during the collaboration

A demonstration of an affinity between pyrite and organic matter in a hydrothermal setting

One of the key-principles of the iron-sulphur world theory is to bring organic molecules close enough to interact with each other, using the surface of pyrite as a substrate in a hydrothermal setting. The present paper explores the relationship of pyrite and organic matter in a hydrothermal setting from the geological record; in hydrothermal calcite veins from Carboniferous limestones in central Ireland. Here, the organic matter is accumulated as coatings around, and through, pyrite grains. Most of the pyrite grains are euhedral-subhedral crystals, ranging in size from ca 0.1-0.5 mm in diameter, and they are scattered throughout the matrix of the vein calcite. The organic matter was deposited from a hydrothermal fluid at a temperature of at least 200°C, and gives a Raman signature of disordered carbon. This study points to an example from a hydrothermal setting in the geological record, demonstrating that pyrite can have a high potential for the concentration and accumulation of organic materials

Vaccine hesitancy among working-age adults with/without disability in the UK

OBJECTIVES: To estimate levels of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among working-age adults with disabilities in the United Kingdom. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. METHODS: Secondary analysis of data collected on a nationally representative sample of 10,114 respondents aged 16-64 years. RESULTS: The adjusted relative risk for hesitancy among respondents with a disability was 0.92 (95% CI 0.67-1.27). There were stronger associations between gender and hesitancy and ethnic status and hesitancy among participants with a disability. The most common reasons cited by people with disabilities who were hesitant were: concern about the future effects of the vaccine, not trusting vaccines and concern about the side effects of vaccination. CONCLUSIONS: The higher rates of vaccine hesitancy among women with disabilities and among people from minority ethnic groups with disabilities are concerning

High-resolution global map of closed-canopy coconut palm

Demand for coconut is expected to rise, but the global distribution of coconut palm has been studied little, which hinders the discussion of its impacts. Here, we produced the first 20m global coconut palm layer using a U-Net model that was trained on annual Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 composites for the year 2020. The overall accuracy was 99.04±0.21%, which was significantly higher than the no-information rate. The producer's accuracy for coconut palm was 71.51±23.11% when only closed-canopy coconut palm was considered in the validation, but this decreased to 11.30±2.33% when sparse and dense open-canopy coconut palm was also taken into account. This indicates that sparse and dense open-canopy coconut palm remains difficult to map with accuracy. We report a global coconut palm area of 12.66±3.96×106ha for dense open-and closed-canopy coconut palm, but the estimate is 3 times larger (38.93±7.89×106ha) when sparse coconut palm is included in the area estimation. The large area of sparse coconut palm is important as it indicates that production increases can likely be achieved on the existing lands allocated to coconut. The Philippines, Indonesia, and India account for most of the global coconut palm area, representing approximately 82% of the total mapped area. Our study provides the high-resolution, quantitative, and precise data necessary for assessing the relationships between coconut production and the synergies and trade-offs between various sustainable development goal indicators. The global coconut palm layer is available at 10.5281/zenodo.8128183 (Descals, 2023)

Enhanced antibacterial ability of electrospun PCL scaffolds incorporating ZnO nanowires

The infection of implanted biomaterial scaffolds presents a major challenge. Existing therapeutic solutions, such as antibiotic treatment and silver nanoparticle-containing scaffolds are becoming increasingly impractical because of the growth of antibiotic resistance and the toxicity of silver nanoparticles. We present here a novel concept to overcome these limitations, an electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffold functionalised with zinc oxide nanowires (ZnO NWs). This study assessed the antibacterial capabilities and biocompatibility of PCL/ZnO scaffolds. The fabricated scaffolds were characterised by SEM and EDX, which showed that the ZnO NWs were successfully incorporated and distributed in the electrospun PCL scaffolds. The antibacterial properties were investigated by co-culturing PCL/ZnO scaffolds with Staphylococcus aureus. Bacterial colonisation was reduced to 51.3% compared to a PCL-only scaffold. The biocompatibility of the PCL/ZnO scaffolds was assessed by culturing them with HaCaT cells. The PCL scaffolds exhibited no changes in cell metabolic activity with the addition of the ZnO nanowires. The antibacterial and biocompatibility properties make PCL/ZnO a good choice for implanted scaffolds, and this work lays a foundation for ZnO NWs-infused PCL scaffolds in the potential clinical application of tissue engineering

Helping parents to help children overcome fear: the influence of a short video tutorial

Objectives Anxiety runs in families, and its transmission is largely environmental. However, studies rarely explore this process in clinically anxious parents or ask participants to face a genuine fear. We also do not know whether this process is modifiable. This study will explore these questions using a sample of clinically anxious parents. Design Experimental design comparing clinically anxious parents with non‐anxious parents, and exploring the effects of a tutorial intervention versus a control group. Methods Parents with and without anxiety disorders and their children (5–9 years) participated (N = 72). Children chose two fearful animal stimuli. Parents helped the child approach the first in graded steps. The following parental behaviours were recorded: positive/negative verbal information; positive/negative modelling; encouragement/praising of approach/avoidance behaviours. Half the parents were then randomly assigned to a short video tutorial advising how to help children cope with fearful situations. The remainder watched a control video. The approach task was repeated with the second stimulus. Results Parenting behaviours fell into two categories: ‘approach parenting’ (encouraging/praising/modelling approach; positive verbal information) and ‘avoidance parenting’ (encouraging/praising/modelling avoidance; negative verbal information). The parenting tutorial increased ‘approach parenting’ and decreased ‘avoidance parenting’ and was associated with increased child approach towards fearful stimuli. This was not moderated by parent or child anxiety. Conclusions Parenting, particularly ‘avoidance parenting’, is associated with children's approach and avoidance. A short video tutorial modified these parenting behaviours and reduced avoidance. These effects were apparent regardless of parent or child anxiety level