Experiences of friendships of young people with first-episode psychosis: A qualitative study

BACKGROUND: First episode psychosis and reduced social networks have been found to go hand in hand, but specific mechanisms are unclear. The manifestation of symptoms and the effect of stigma are two possibilities discussed in the literature but the experiences and views of young people with psychosis have been neglected. AIMS: To explore experiences of friendships of young people with first-episode psychosis, focusing especially on any perceived changes in their friendships or approach to peer relationships as a result of the illness. METHODS: Fourteen participants were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide, which explored participants' views and experiences of their friendships during the acute phase of illness and in the path to recovery, the impact of friendships on illness experience and of illness on patterns of social contact, and the potential role of services in supporting people with their friendships. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically. RESULTS: Identified themes included the loss of social contacts because both young people developing psychosis withdrew and because friends withdrew as illness developed. Regarding recovery, a unique role was identified for friends and participants were often making conscious efforts to rebuild social networks. Mental health services were viewed as having a limited direct role in this. CONCLUSIONS: Supporting the development of opportunities and skills needed for social relationships following an episode of psychosis may be a useful focus

Learning from sustainable development: education in the light of public issues

Education for sustainable development (ESD) is increasingly affecting environmental education policy and practice. In this article we show how sustainable development is mainly seen as a problem that can be tackled by applying the proper learning processes and how this perspective translates sustainability issues into learning problems of individuals. We present a different perspective on education in the context of sustainable development based on novel ways of thinking about citizenship education and emphasizing the importance of presenting issues of sustainable development as ‘public issues’, as matters of public concern. From this point of view, the focus is no longer on the competences that citizens must achieve, but on the democratic nature of the spaces and practices in which participation and citizenship can develop

Tackling climate change with blockchain

Concern about the carbon footprint of Bitcoin is not holding back blockchain developers from leveraging the technology for action on climate change. Although blockchain technology is enabling individuals and businesses to manage their carbon emissions, the social and environmental costs and benefits of doing so remain unclear

Prophylactic antibiotic use in COPD and the potential anti-inflammatory activities of antibiotics

Antibiotics have previously demonstrated anti-inflammatory properties, and they have been linked to therapeutic benefit in several pulmonary conditions that feature inflammation. Previous research suggests that these anti-inflammatory properties may be beneficial in the treatment of COPD. This review assesses the potential benefit of prophylactic, long-term, and low-dose antibiotic therapy in COPD, and whether any effects seen are anti-inflammatory in nature. Randomized, controlled trials comparing antibiotic therapy with placebo in subjects with stable COPD were evaluated. Twelve trials involving 3,784 participants and a range of antibiotics were included: azithromycin (6 studies, 1,972 participants), clarithromycin (1 study, 67 participants), erythromycin (3 studies, 254 participants), roxithromycin (1 study, 191 participants), and moxifloxacin (2 studies, 1,198 participants). In vitro, in vivo, and ex vivo experimental study designs exploring the mechanisms via which antibiotics may act in subjects with stable COPD were evaluated. Azithromycin and erythromycin showed the greatest effect in subjects with COPD, with evidence suggesting improvement in exacerbation-related outcomes and health status, as measured by the St George Respiratory Questionnaire. An increase in antibiotic resistance was reported in 2 studies. The macrolide class of antibiotics exhibited convincing anti-inflammatory properties with relevance to COPD, implicating several pathways as potential mechanisms of action. In conclusion, the therapeutic benefit of macrolide antibiotics in subjects with stable COPD is consistent with anti-inflammatory properties, and macrolides should be considered as a potential therapy in COPD. Safety concerns regarding antibiotic resistance need to be addressed before widespread use in clinical practice

Calcium-dependent increase in tyrosine kinase activity stimulated by angiotensin II.

The cellular effects of numerous hormones and neurotransmitters, including the vasoactive agents angiotensin II (AngII) and [Arg8]vasopressin, are mediated in part by protein-serine threonine kinases activated by increase of cytosolic Ca2+ concentration. In this study, we have tested the ability of Ca(2+)-mobilizing agents to activate cellular tyrosine kinases. Treatment of intact GN4 liver epithelial cells with AngII rapidly (less than or equal to 15 sec) increased tyrosine kinase activity measured either in unfractionated cell lysates or in anti-phosphotyrosine immune complexes from detergent-solubilized cells. Increased phosphorylation of the exogenous substrate poly(Glu80Tyr20) (3- to 4-fold over control) by immunoprecipitated kinases closely paralleled the time- and dose-dependence of the appearance of tyrosine phosphoproteins in intact cells. This effect of AngII was mimicked by thapsigargin, a Ca(2+)-elevating tumor promoter. The ability of AngII, but not epidermal growth factor, to increase tyrosine kinase activity was blocked in cells loaded with the Ca2+ chelator bis-(O-aminophenoxy)-ethane-N,N,N',N'-tetraacetic acid. Dephosphorylation of immunoprecipitated proteins by tyrosine phosphatase treatment was accompanied by a 60-70% loss in in vitro kinase activity, suggesting that the AngII-sensitive kinase(s) are activated by phosphorylation in intact cells. These findings demonstrate a link between two widely occurring signaling pathways, the tyrosine kinases and the Ca2+ second-messenger system, and suggest the possible involvement of Ca(2+)-activated tyrosine kinases in the endocrine actions of AngII and [Arg8]vasopressin

Economies of space and the school geography curriculum

This paper is about the images of economic space that are found in school curricula. It suggests the importance for educators of evaluating these representations in terms of the messages they contain about how social processes operate. The paper uses school geography texts in Britain since the 1970s to illustrate the different ways in which economic space has been represented to students, before exploring some alternative resources that could be used to provide a wider range of representations of economic space. The paper highlights the continued importance of understanding the politics of school knowledge

ELPA: A parallel solver for the generalized eigenvalue problem

For symmetric (hermitian) (dense or banded) matrices the computation of eigenvalues and eigenvectors Ax = λBx is an important task, e.g. in electronic structure calculations. If a larger number of eigenvectors are needed, often direct solvers are applied. On parallel architectures the ELPA implementation has proven to be very efficient, also compared to other parallel solvers like EigenExa or MAGMA. The main improvement that allows better parallel efficiency in ELPA is the two-step transformation of dense to band to tridiagonal form. This was the achievement of the ELPA project. The continuation of this project has been targeting at additional improvements like allowing monitoring and autotuning of the ELPA code, optimizing the code for different architectures, developing curtailed algorithms for banded A and B, and applying the improved code to solve typical examples in electronic structure calculations. In this paper we will present the outcome of this project

Robust Dropping Criteria for F-norm Minimization Based Sparse Approximate Inverse Preconditioning

Dropping tolerance criteria play a central role in Sparse Approximate Inverse preconditioning. Such criteria have received, however, little attention and have been treated heuristically in the following manner: If the size of an entry is below some empirically small positive quantity, then it is set to zero. The meaning of "small" is vague and has not been considered rigorously. It has not been clear how dropping tolerances affect the quality and effectiveness of a preconditioner $M$. In this paper, we focus on the adaptive Power Sparse Approximate Inverse algorithm and establish a mathematical theory on robust selection criteria for dropping tolerances. Using the theory, we derive an adaptive dropping criterion that is used to drop entries of small magnitude dynamically during the setup process of $M$. The proposed criterion enables us to make $M$ both as sparse as possible as well as to be of comparable quality to the potentially denser matrix which is obtained without dropping. As a byproduct, the theory applies to static F-norm minimization based preconditioning procedures, and a similar dropping criterion is given that can be used to sparsify a matrix after it has been computed by a static sparse approximate inverse procedure. In contrast to the adaptive procedure, dropping in the static procedure does not reduce the setup time of the matrix but makes the application of the sparser $M$ for Krylov iterations cheaper. Numerical experiments reported confirm the theory and illustrate the robustness and effectiveness of the dropping criteria.Comment: 27 pages, 2 figure

Please mind the gap: students’ perspectives of the transition in academic skills between A-level and degree level geography

This paper explores first-year undergraduates’ perceptions of the transition from studying geography at pre-university level to studying for a degree. This move is the largest step students make in their education, and the debate about it in the UK has been reignited due to the government’s planned changes to A-level geography. However, missing from most of this debate is an appreciation of the way in which geography students themselves perceive their transition to university. This paper begins to rectify this absence. Using student insights, we show that their main concern is acquiring the higher level skills required for university learning

The XMM-Newton Optical/UV Monitor Telescope

The XMM-OM instrument extends the spectral coverage of the XMM-Newton observatory into the ultraviolet and optical range. It provides imaging and time-resolved data on targets simultaneously with observations in the EPIC and RGS. It also has the ability to track stars in its field of view, thus providing an improved post-facto aspect solution for the spacecraft. An overview of the XMM-OM and its operation is given, together with current information on the performance of the instrument