Cognitive transfer of spatial awareness states from immersive virtual environments to reality.

An individual's prior experience will influence how new visual information in a scene is perceived and remembered. Accuracy of memory performance per se is an imperfect reflection of the cognitive activity (awareness states) that underlies performance in memory tasks. The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of varied visual fidelity of training environments on the transfer of training to the real-world after exposure to immersive simulations representing a real-world scene. A between groups experiment was carried out to explore the effect of rendering quality on measurements of location-based recognition memory for objects and associated states of awareness. The immersive simulation, consisted of one room that was either rendered flat-shaded or using radiosity rendering. The simulation was displayed on a stereo head-tracked Head Mounted Display. Post exposure to the synthetic simulation, participants completed a memory recognition task conducted in a real-world scene by physically arranging objects in their physical form in a real world room. Participants also reported one of four states of awareness following object recognition. They were given several options of awareness states that reflected the level of visual mental imagery involved during retrieval, the familiarity of the recollection and related guesses. The scene incorporated objects that 'fitted' into the specific context of the real-world scene, referred to as consistent objects, and objects which were not related to the specific context of the real-world scene, referred to as inconsistent objects. A follow-up study was conducted a week after the initial test. Interestingly, results revealed a higher proportion of correct object recognition associated with mental imagery when participants were exposed to low fidelity flat-shaded training scenes rather than the radiosity rendered ones. Memory psychology indicates that awareness states based on visual imagery require stronger attentional processing in the first instance than those based on familiarity. A tentative claim would therefore be that those immersive environments that are distinctive because of their variation from 'real', such as flat-shaded environments, recruit stronger attentional resources. This additional attentional processing may bring about a change in participants' subjective experiences of 'remembering' when they later transfer the training from that environment into a real-world situation

National evaluation of the neighbourhood nurseries: integrated report

Report description: The NNI was launched in 2001 to provide high quality childcare in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods of England, to help parents into employment, reduce child poverty and boost children’s development. By 2005 45,000 new childcare places had been created in approximately 1,400 neighbourhood nurseries. This report brings together the findings of the four individual strands of the National Evaluation of Neighbourhood Nurseries Initiative as shown above and makes a number of recommendations. The report shows the rationale for the government’s strategy in targeting disadvantaged neighbourhoods and in focusing on high quality childcare to provide the link between raising parental employment and income and improving children’s life chances

Are diabetes self-management programmes for the general diabetes population effective for people with severe mental illness?: a systematic review.

Background: Diabetes self-management education programmes are effective in improving health outcomes in the general population with diabetes. However, it is not known if these programmes include people who also have a severe mental illness (SMI) and, if so, what their outcomes are. The aim of this review was to examine if evaluations of diabetes self-management education programmes included people with SMI, and if so, whether the interventions were beneficial for this population. Methods: The inclusion criteria for this systematic review, defined by PICOS criteria, were: Population - Adults with type 2 diabetes; Intervention - self-management education programme; Comparator – another active intervention or usual care; Outcomes of interest – inclusion of people with SMI and the clinical, behavioural and psychosocial outcomes in this population; Study design - randomised controlled trials. The following bibliographic databases were searched from January 2004 to April 2018: Cochrane Library, Medline, Embase, PsychINFO, Allied and Complimentary Medicine Database, Health Technology Assessment, NHS Economic Evaluations Database and CINAHL. Data were extracted on study characteristics, inclusion and exclusion criteria, participant and intervention characteristics, number of participants with SMI, and outcomes for people with SMI, if reported. Authors were contacted by email for missing data. Results: A total of 410 trials were included. At least 42% of trials did not recruit any participants with SMI. Only nine confirmed inclusion of participants with SMI, of which six provided data on the number recruited. These six trials recruited a total of 1009 participants, of whom 31 (3.1%) had SMI. It was not possible to assess intervention effectiveness for people with SMI as none of the trials reported outcomes for these participants. Conclusions: This systematic review confirms that people with SMI are often excluded from trials of diabetes self-management education, resulting in a lack of an evidence base on which to base treatment paths for this vulnerable population. It cannot be assumed that programmes developed for the general diabetes population meet the needs of people with SMI. Future research needs to examine if and how these programmes could be adapted for people with SMI or if new programmes are required

Barriers to healthcare for Australian autistic adults

Barriers to healthcare experienced by Australian autistic adults have not been previously explored. We conducted a cross-sectional investigation of barriers to healthcare and associated factors from a subtle realism perspective. Perceived barriers to healthcare were obtained from the Barriers to Healthcare Checklist Short-Form (BHC). A total of 263 autistic and 70 non-autistic individuals completed the BHC. On average, autistic adults reported more barriers to healthcare (4.58) than non-autistic adults (0.76). Gender diversity, higher levels of generalised anxiety, greater global disability and less satisfaction with social support contributed to the experience of barriers to healthcare in autistic participants in regression modelling. Australian autistic adults face substantial barriers to healthcare. Understanding these barriers provides an opportunity to develop approaches to improve access; such as co-designing a healthcare access roadmap for autistic adults, with co-designed policies and practices which advocate for the needs of autistic adults. Lay abstract: This study looked at how Australian autistic and non-autistic adults experience barriers to healthcare. We asked autistic and non-autistic adults to complete the Barriers to Healthcare Checklist Short-Form (BHC). We analysed data from 263 autistic adults and 70 non-autistic adults. We found that autistic adults experienced more barriers to healthcare than non-autistic adults. Gender diversity, feeling more anxious, having greater disability and feeling unsatisfied with social support contributed to barriers to healthcare in autistic participants. We recommend interventions such as developing and implementing a national action plan, similar to the National Roadmap for Improving the Health of People with Intellectual Disability (2021) to reduce barriers and address unmet healthcare needs of Australian autistic adults. We also recommend working with autistic adults to develop new policies and strategies, implementing environmental adaptations to health care facilities, and increasing Autism education opportunities for health professionals to address gaps in knowledge

4mu spectra of AGB stars I: Observations

We present times series of high resolution spectra of AGB variables at 4mu. Line profiles from the major contributors to the spectra of oxygen rich stars at 4mu, OH, H$_2$O, HCl and SiO, are examined. The velocity as well as shape variations of these profiles with time are discussed. The line profiles investigated frequently have emission and multiple absorption components. The changes with time of the 4mu region lines do not always follow the cyclic variability seen in NIR spectra and in the photometric light curve. We interpret and discuss the results qualitatively considering comparing the spectral variability with that of the well behaved 1.6mu region and of dynamical model atmospheres. Miras and semiregular variables are compared. The origins of non-periodic behavior are discussed, including the role of spatial inhomogeneities in the stellar atmosphere.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Parametrization of the Hybrid Potential for Pairs of Neutral Atoms

The hybrid form is a combination of the Rydberg potential and the London inverse-sixth-power energy. It is accurate at all relevant distance scales and simple enough for use in all-atom simulations of biomolecules. One may compute the parameters of the hybrid potential for the ground state of a pair of neutral atoms from their internuclear separation, the depth and curvature of their potential at its minimum, and from their van der Waals coefficient of dispersion.Comment: 7 pages, 11 figures, includes lithium, sodium, & potassium dimers, minor correction

A phase II study of capecitabine and oxalplatin combination chemotherapy in patients with inoperable adenocarcinoma of the gall bladder or biliary tract

Background: Advanced biliary tract carcinomas are associated with a poor prognosis, and palliative chemotherapy has only modest benefit. This multi-centre phase II study was conducted to determine the efficacy of capecitabine in combination with oxaliplatin in patients with inoperable gall bladder or biliary tract cancer. Methods: This was a Phase II, non-randomised, two-stage Simon design, multi-centre study. Ethics approval was sought and obtained by the North West MREC, and then locally by the West Glasgow Hospitals Research Ethics Com mittee. Eligible patients with inoperable locally advanced or metastatic adenocarcinoma of the gall bladder or biliary tract and with adequate performance status, haematologic, renal, and hepatic function were treated with capecit abine (1000 mg/m2 po, twice daily, days 1–14) and oxaliplatin (130 mg/m2 i.v., day 1) every 3 weeks for up to six cycles. The primary objective of the study was to determine the objective tumour response rates (complete and partial). The secondary objectives included assessment of toxicity, progression-free survival, and overall survival. Results: Forty-three patients were recruited between July 2003 and December 2005. The regimen was well tolerated with no grade 3/4 neutropenia or thrombocytopenia. Grade 3/4 sensory neuropathy was observed in six patients. Two-thirds of patients received their chemotherapy without any dose delays. Overall response rate was 23.8 % (95 % CI 12.05–39.5 %). Stable disease was observed in a further 13 patients (31 %) and progressive disease observed in 12 (28.6 %) of patients. The median progression-free survival was 4.6 months (95 % CI 2.8–6.4 months; Fig. 1) and the median overall survival 7.9 months (95 % CI 5.3–10.4 months; Fig. 2). Conclusion: Capecitabine combined with oxaliplatin has a lower disease control and shorter overall survival than the combination of cisplatin with gemcitabine which has subsequently become the standard of care in this disease. How ever, capecitabine in combination with oxaliplatin does have modest activity in this disease, and can be considered as an alternative treatment option for patients in whom cisplatin and/or gemcitabine are contra-indicated

Rotational Feshbach Resonances in Ultracold Molecular Collisions

In collisions at ultralow temperatures, molecules will possess Feshbach resonances, foreign to ultracold atoms, whose virtual excited states consist of rotations of the molecules. We estimate the mean spacing and mean widths of these resonant states, exploiting the fact the molecular collisions at low energy display chaotic motion. As examples, we consider the experimentally relevant molecules O_2, OH, and PbO. The density of s-wave resonant states for these species is quite high, implying that a large number of narrow resonant states will exist.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Naturalistic rapid deceleration data: Drivers aged 75 years and older.

The data presented in this article are related to the research manuscript "Predictors of older drivers' involvement in rapid deceleration events", which investigates potential predictors of older drivers' involvement in rapid deceleration events including measures of vision, cognitive function and driving confidence (A. Chevalier et al., 2016) [1]. In naturalistic driving studies such as this, when sample size is not large enough to allow crashes to be used to investigate driver safety, rapid deceleration events may be used as a surrogate safety measure. Naturalistic driving data were collected for up to 52 weeks from 182 volunteer drivers aged 75-94 years (median 80 years, 52% male) living in the suburban outskirts of Sydney. Driving data were collected using an in-vehicle monitoring device. Accelerometer data were recorded 32 times per second and Global Positioning System (GPS) data each second. To measure rapid deceleration behavior, rapid deceleration events (RDEs) were defined as having at least one data point at or above the deceleration threshold of 750 milli-g (7.35 m/s2). All events were constrained to a maximum 5 s duration. The dataset provided with this article contains 473 events, with a row per RDE. This article also contains information about data processing, treatment and quality control. The methods and data presented here may assist with planning and analysis of future studies into rapid deceleration behaviour using in-vehicle monitoring