An evaluation of specialist mentoring for university students with autism spectrum disorders and mental health conditions

Mentoring is often recommended to universities as a way of supporting students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and/or mental health conditions (MHC), but there is little literature on optimising this support. We used mixed-methods to evaluate mentees’ and mentors’ experiences of a specialist mentoring programme. Mentees experienced academic, social and emotional support, although subtle group differences emerged between students with ASD and MHC. The quality of the mentee-mentor relationship was especially important. Mentors also reported benefits. Thematic analysis identified that effective mentoring requires a tailored partnership, which involves a personal relationship, empowerment, and building bridges into the university experience. Mentoring can effectively support students with ASD and/or MHC, but this is highly dependent on the development of tailored mentee-mentor partnerships

Cross-age mentoring to support A-level pupils’ transition into Higher Education and undergraduate students’ employability

Two challenges identified for psychology higher education are supporting entry students’ transition, and supporting graduates’ transition into employment. The evaluation of the first phase of a cross-age mentoring action research project targeting these issues is presented; eight psychology undergraduates mentored 20 A-level psychology pupils in two schools. Mentors showed significant increases in two of nine psychological literacies, in self-efficacy but not self-esteem, were highly satisfied with the experience, and reported benefits including enhanced communication skills. Mentees did not improve relative to controls on attitudes towards higher education, self-efficacy or self-esteem, though reported benefits included enhanced insight into going to university, greater knowledge of psychology, and gains in academic skills. Mentees in one school were highly satisfied, with greater variation for the second school. Adaptations identified for the next project iteration include greater focus upon the psychology A-level curriculum, and increased communication between mentors and school staff

Embedding Writing Support Within a Psychology Academic Skills Module: A Case Study

A Psychology academic skills module and challenges in its delivery are outlined. Adaptations described include embedding specialist support for the teaching of academic writing and linking content to assessments and careers. Increased student satisfaction and qualitative feedback indicated that changes were beneficial. The need for further evaluation is discussed

Expectations of the university to post-graduation transition of students with mental health conditions

The number and percentage of students with mental health conditions (MHC) attending university is increasing. Students with MHC can be well supported during their time at university, but receive less support with the transition from university to post-graduation. This time is characterised by great change and can be accompanied by mixed feelings. This paper presents preliminary data on the transition expectations and perceptions of 35 students with MHC. High levels of fear and low levels of preparedness regarding the transition were reported. Only 55-60% of students had accessed transition-related or careers-related support, but those who had found it productive. Students suggested that more condition-specific support, and support in the form of workshops, lectures and 1:1 meetings would be beneficial. This knowledge can be used to better support students with MHC with the university to post-graduation transition

Expectations of the university to post-graduation transition of students with mental health conditions

The number and percentage of students with mental health conditions (MHC) attending university is increasing. Students with MHC can be well supported during their time at university, but receive less support with the transition from university to post-graduation. This time is characterised by great change and can be accompanied by mixed feelings. This paper presents preliminary data on the transition expectations and perceptions of 35 students with MHC. High levels of fear and low levels of preparedness regarding the transition were reported. Only 55-60% of students had accessed transition-related or careers-related support, but those who had found it productive. Students suggested that more condition-specific support, and support in the form of workshops, lectures and 1:1 meetings would be beneficial. This knowledge can be used to better support students with MHC with the university to post-graduation transition

Cyber risk : an analysis of self-protection and the prediction of claims

For a set of Brazilian companies, we study the occurrence of cyber risk claims by analyzing the impact of self protection and the prediction of their occurrence. We bring a new perspective to the study of cyber risk analyzing the probabilities of acquiring protection against this type of risk by using propensity scores. We consider the problem of whether acquiring cyber protection improves network security using a matching method that allows a fair comparison among companies with similar characteristics. Our analysis, assisted with Brazilian data, shows that despite informal arguments that favor self-protection against cyber risks as a tool to improve network security, we observed that in the presence of self-protection against cyber risks, the incidence of claims is higher than if there were no protection. Regarding the prediction of the occurrence of a claim, a system considering a feedforward multilayer perceptron neural network was created, and its performance was measured. Our results show that, when applied to the relevant information of the companies under study, it presents a very good performance, reaching an eciency in general classication above 85%. The fact is that the use of neural networks can be quite opportune to help in solving the problem presented.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Has the phasing out of stavudine in accordance with changes in WHO guidelines led to a decrease in single-drug substitutions in first-line antiretroviral therapy for HIV in sub-Saharan Africa?

This version is the Accepted Manuscript and is published in final edited form as: AIDS. 2017 January 02; 31(1): 147–157. doi:10.1097/QAD.0000000000001307OBJECTIVE: We assessed the relationship between phasing out stavudine in first-line antiretroviral therapy (ART) in accordance with WHO 2010 policy and single-drug substitutions (SDS) (substituting the nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor in first-line ART) in sub-Saharan Africa. DESIGN: Prospective cohort analysis (International epidemiological Databases to Evaluate AIDS-Multiregional) including ART-naive, HIV-infected patients aged at least 16 years, initiating ART between January 2005 and December 2012. Before April 2010 (July 2007 in Zambia) national guidelines called for patients to initiate stavudine-based or zidovudine-based regimen, whereas thereafter tenofovir or zidovudine replaced stavudine in first-line ART. METHODS: We evaluated the frequency of stavudine use and SDS by calendar year 2004-2014. Competing risk regression was used to assess the association between nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor use and SDS in the first 24 months on ART. RESULTS: In all, 33 441 (8.9%; 95% confience interval 8.7-8.9%) SDS occurred among 377 656 patients in the first 24 months on ART, close to 40% of which were amongst patients on stavudine. The decrease in SDS corresponded with the phasing out of stavudine. Competing risks regression models showed that patients on tenofovir were 20-95% less likely to require a SDS than patients on stavudine, whereas patients on zidovudine had a 75-85% decrease in the hazards of SDS when compared to stavudine. CONCLUSION: The decline in SDS in the first 24 months on treatment appears to be associated with phasing out stavudine for zidovudine or tenofovir in first-line ART in our study. Further efforts to decrease the cost of tenofovir and zidovudine for use in this setting is warranted to substitute all patients still receiving stavudine

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on persistence in the European stock markets

Data availability statement: Data will be made available on request.Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). This paper analyses the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the degree of persistence of European stock markets. Specifically, it uses fractional integration methods to estimate persistence at the daily, weekly and monthly frequencies in the case of ten major European stock market indices; the effects of the pandemic are assessed by comparing the pre-pandemic estimates (over the period 2005–2019) to those from a sample extended until July 2021 which includes the pandemic period. The approach used is more general than the standard one based on the stationarity versus non-stationarity dichotomy and allows for a wider range of dynamic processes. Three different model specifications are considered, and these are estimated under two alternative assumptions for the disturbances (white noise and autocorrelation). The findings indicate that there has not been any significant impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the degree of persistence of the European stock market indices, though their volatility persistence has decreased.This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors

A taxonomy and cultural analysis of intra‐hospital patient transfers

Existing research on intra‐hospital patient transitions focuses chiefly on handoffs, or exchanges of information, between clinicians. Less is known about patient transfers within hospitals, which include but extend beyond the exchange of information. Using participant observations and interviews at a 1,541‐bed, academic, tertiary medical center, we explored the ways in which staff define and understand patient transfers between units. We conducted observations of staff (n = 16) working in four hospital departments and interviewed staff (n = 29) involved in transfers to general medicine floors from either the Emergency Department or the Medical Intensive Care Unit between February and September 2015. The collected data allowed us to understand transfers in the context of several hospital cultural microsystems. Decisions were made through the lens of the specific unit identity to which staff felt they belonged; staff actively strategized to manage workload; and empty beds were treated as a scarce commodity. Staff concepts informed the development of a taxonomy of intra‐hospital transfers that includes five categories of activity: disposition, or determining the right floor and bed for the patient; notification to sending and receiving staff of patient assignment, departure and arrival; preparation to send and receive the patient; communication between sending and receiving units; and coordination to ensure that transfer components occur in a timely and seamless manner. This taxonomy widens the study of intra‐hospital patient transfers from a communication activity to a complex cultural phenomenon with several categories of activity and views them as part of multidimensional hospital culture, as constructed and understood by staff.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145512/1/nur21875.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145512/2/nur21875_am.pd