Memetic: from meeting memory to virtual ethnography & distributed video analysis

The JISC-funded Memetic2 project was designed as knowledge management and project memory support for teams meeting via the Access Grid environment (Buckingham Shum et al, 2006). This paper describes how these capabilities also enable it to serve as a novel distributed video analysis tool to support interaction analysis. Memetic technologies can be used to record, annotate and discuss sessions recorded within a flexible, visual hypermedia environment called Compendium. We propose that beyond the use originally conceived, the Memetic toolset could find wide ranging applications within social science for virtual ethnography and data analysis

Physical appearance perfectionism explains variance in eating disorder symptoms above general perfectionism

Physical appearance perfectionism is a domain-specific form of perfectionism comprising two components: hope for perfection and worry about imperfection (Yang & Stoeber, 2012). Previous studies found that physical appearance perfectionism is related to eating disorder symptoms, particularly the worry about imperfection component, but did not address the question of whether physical appearance perfectionism explains variance in eating disorder symptoms above general perfectionism. The present study investigated the question examining 559 female university students. Physical appearance perfectionism explained an additional 9-17% of variance in eating disorder symptoms above the 11-20% variance explained by general perfectionism. The findings suggest that physical appearance perfectionism plays an important role in disordered eating beyond general perfectionis

Alternatives for sustained disaster risk reduction

The daily media is filled with images of catastrophic events which seem increasingly frequent and violent In parallel there are a large range of scientific studies debates in the policy arena, and a growing number of international institutions focused on disaster reduction. But a paradox remains that despite advances in technology, disasters continue to increase, affecting many individuals in rich as well as poor countries

The Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale revisited: More perfect with four (instead of six) dimensions

The Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (FMPS; Frost, Marten, Lahart & Rosenblate, 1990) provides six subscales for a multidimensional assessment of perfectionism: Concern over Mistakes (CM), Personal Standards (PS), Parental Expectations (PE), Parental Criticism (PC), Doubts about actions (D), and Organization (O). Despite its increasing popularity in personality and clinical research, the FMPS has also drawn some criticism for its factorial instability across samples. The present article argues that this instability may be due to an overextraction of components. Whereas all previous analyses presented six-factor solutions for the FMPS items, a reanalysis with Horn's parallel analysis suggested only four or five underlying factors. To investigate the nature of these factors, item responses from N = 243 participants were subjected to principal component analysis. Again, parallel analysis retained only four components. Varimax rotation replicated PS and O as separate factors, whereas combining CM with D as well as PE with PC. Consequently, the present article suggests a reduction to four (instead of six) FMPS subscales. Differential correlations with anxiety, depression, parental representations and action tendencies underscore the advantage of this solution

Evolving marine biosecurity in the Galapagos Islands

Some of my co-authors and I have just returned from one of the paradises on earth and a natural history mecca – The Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. We participated in (MLC, CLH) or hosted (IK, TD, KC) the 1st Tropical Island Marine Bioinvasions Workshop convened at the Charles Darwin Research Station. From a terrestrial standpoint, the Ecuadorian government’s biosecurity for the most part is intelligent (but see Gardener et al. 2010), well organised and seems to be effective, with a number of publications detailing introduced terrestrial plant (e.g., Buddenhagen 2006; Jager and Kowarik 2010) and animal (e.g., Cruz et al. 2005; Carrion et al. 2011) eradications and impacts (e.g., Schofield 1989; Itow 2003; Renteria et al. 2012; Kueffer et al. 2010), invasion risks (e.g., Gottdenker et al. 2005), and ecosystem restoration, management and conservation (e.g., Gibbs et al. 1999; Causton et al. 2006). Yet, as with so many other systems, marine biosecurity lags behind (a quick review of the literature shows no marine introduction publications) and is consequently less well managed, but not for a lack of effort

Equine hepatocytes: isolation, cryopreservation, and applications to in vitro drug metabolism studies

Despite reports of the successful isolation of primary equine hepatocytes, thereare no published data regarding the successful cryopreservation of these isolatedcells. In this study, a detailed description of the procedures for isolation, cryop-reservation, and recovery of equine hepatocytes are presented. Furthermore, theintrinsic clearance (Clint) and production of metabolites for three drugs werecompared between freshly isolated and recovered cryopreserved hepatocytes. Pri-mary equine hepatocytes were isolated using a two-step collagenase perfusionmethod, with an average cell yield of 2.47 2.62 9 106cells/g of perfused livertissue and viability of 84.1 2.62%. These cells were cryopreserved with Wil-liam’s medium E containing 10% fetal bovine serum with 10% DMSO. The via-bility of recovered cells, after a 30% Percoll gradient, was 77 11% andestimated recovery rate was approximately 27%. These purified cells were usedto determine the in vitro Clintof three drugs used in equine medicine; omepra-zole, flunixin, and phenylbutazone, via the substrate depletion method. Cryopre-served suspensions gave a comparable estimation of Clintcompared to fresh cellsfor these three drugs as well as producing the same metabolites. This work pavesthe way for establishing a bank of cryopreserved equine hepatocytes that can beused for estimating pharmacokinetic parameters such as the hepatic metabolicin vivo clearance of a drug as well as producing horse-specific drug metabolites

Study protocol for the COPE study: COVID-19 in Older People : the influence of frailty and multimorbidity on survival. A multi-centre, European observational study

Funding: The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The relationship between perfectionism and psychopathology: a meta-analysis

Objective: The clinical significance of 2 main dimensions of perfectionism (perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns) was examined via a meta-analysis of studies investigating perfectionism in the psychopathology literature. Method: We investigated relationships between psychopathology outcomes (clinical diagnoses of depression, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and eating disorders; symptoms of these disorders; and outcomes related to psychopathology, such as deliberate self-harm, suicidal ideation, and general distress) and each perfectionism dimension. The relationships were examined by evaluating (a) differences in the magnitude of association of the 2 perfectionism dimensions with psychopathology outcomes and (b) subscales of 2 common measures of perfectionism. Results: A systematic literature search retrieved 284 relevant studies, resulting in 2,047 effect sizes that were analysed with meta-analysis and meta-regression while accounting for data dependencies. Conclusion: Findings support the notion of perfectionism as a transdiagnostic factor by demonstrating that both dimensions are associated with various forms of psychopathology