Self-harm in UK armed forces personnel: Descriptive and case-control study of general hospital presentations

Background Little is known about self-harm in the armed forces. Aims To investigate the characteristics of armed forces personnel presenting to a general hospital following self-harm and compare these with matched controls who had self-harmed. Method Investigation of armed forces personnel presenting to hospital between 1989 and 2003 following self-harm and case-control comparison with people in the general population who had self-harmed. Results One hundred and sixty-six armed forces personnel presented with self-harm during the study period, of whom 72.3% (120) were male. Nearly two-thirds (62.7%) were aged under 25 years. Relationship problems (62.0%), employment problems (43.9%) and alcohol misuse (40.5%) were common. Fewer armed forces personnel than controls had evidence of current or past psychiatric disorders or treatment or a prior history of self-harm, and their suicidal intent was lower (males only). Of 64 people in the armed forces who presented during the first 9 years of the study period, 1 had died (from natural causes) by the end of 2000, compared with 9 (5.1%) of the controls, 6 by probable suicide. Conclusions Self-harm by armed forces personnel may often be a response to interpersonal and employment problems complicated by alcohol misuse, with relatively low suicide intent

Clinical characteristics associated with the prescribing of SSRI medication in adolescents with major unipolar depression.

Unipolar major depressions (MD) emerge markedly during adolescence. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) UK recommends psychological therapies, with accompanying selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) prescribed in severe cases only. Here, we seek to determine the extent and rationale of SSRI prescribing in adolescent MD before entering a randomised clinical trial. SSRI prescribing, together with their clinical characteristics was determined in 465 adolescent patients with MD prior to receiving a standardised psychological therapy as part of the Improving mood with psychoanalytic and cognitive therapies (IMPACT) clinical trial. Overall, 88 (19 %) had been prescribed antidepressants prior to psychological treatment. The clinical correlates varied by gender: respectively, depression severity in boys and self-harming behaviours in girls. Prescribing also differed between clinical research centres. Medical practitioners consider severity of depression in boys as an indicator for antidepressant prescribing. Self-injury in girls appears to be utilised as a prescribing aid which is inconsistent with past and current revised UK NICE guidelines.RCT Study supported by a grant to IMG (Chief Investigator) from the NIHR-HTA (trial number ISRCTN83033550, grant number 06/05/01).This is the author accepted manuscript. It is currently under an indefinite embargo pending publication by Springer

A nonlinear geometric model for pre-stressed steel–concrete composite beams

Steel–concrete composite beams are commonly employed in civil constructions such as multi-storey building foors and long-span bridges. In case of signifcant span to depth ratios, excessive defections and noticeable crack widths at the concrete slab may occur at the serviceability stage. In this context, internal or external pre-stressed tendons can be used as a remediation. In the latter case, signifcant efects of geometric non-linearity may arise due to the strain incompatibility between the external tendon and the composite member, resulting in a variable tendon eccentricity during deformation. In this paper, second-order efects are evaluated in eight pre-stressed steel–concrete composite beams for which experimental results are available. Hence, a three-dimensional fnite element model using a Lagrangian description is proposed. The external tendons are represented by one-dimensional catenary elements, whereas the reinforced concrete slab and steel profle are modeled by shells fnite elements. Slipping at the slab-beam interface and tendon-deviator locations are also included in the analysis. For the studied externally pre-stressed beams, the introduction of nonlinear geometric behavior yields lower collapses loads in relation to its linear counterpart, varying this diference between 6.4 and 9.1%

Passing through : negotiating identity, sexuality and movement in Ahmed Imamovic’s Go West

Bosnian director Ahmed Imamović’s 2005 film Go West, situated at the breakout of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the disintegration of Yugoslavia, follows an ethnically mixed gay couple as they attempt to escape war and gain entry to Europe. While hiding out in a small village in eastern Bosnia, Milan has his partner Kenan dress as a woman so that they can ‘pass’ as a married heterosexual couple. The notion of ‘passing’ and ‘passing through’ are some of the key themes in the film and will be the focal point of my analysis. My claim is that Go West’s emphasis on a ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Europe lacks an intersectional understanding of power relations and directly influences the scope of (im)possible identities and sexualities that are presented in the film. Moreover, looking at how identity and sexuality are constructed and mediated in the film through the lens of ‘nesting orientalisms’ and ‘Balkanism,’ my aim is to bring to light an ideological duality that is created between the idea of a peaceful, liberated Europe and another Europe that always lags behind the West