1,099 research outputs found
Pilot evaluation of a brief training video aimed at reducing mental health stigma amongst emergency first responders (the ENHANcE II study)
Background
First responders (i.e. police and ambulance staff) have increasingly become part of the mental health care system, often being the first port of call for those experiencing a crisis. Despite their frequent involvement in supporting those with mental health problems, there is evidence that mental health stigma is high amongst first responders.
Aims
The aim of the present study was to evaluate a brief training video aimed at reducing mental health stigma amongst first responders.
Methods
First responders watched a training video based on the cognitive behavioural model of mental health stigma, and involved contributions from people with lived experience, and first responders. Measures of mental health stigma were collected before and after viewing the training.
Results
The training video produced small but significant improvements in mental health stigma, and these effects did not differ between police and ambulance staff. We were unable to determine what psychological constructs mediated this change in stigma. The feedback on the training video was generally positive, but also indicated some key areas for future development.
Conclusions
The present study provides encouraging evidence that levels of mental health stigma can be improved using a resource-light training intervention
Enhancing mental health awareness in emergency services (the ENHANcE I project): cross-sectional survey on mental health stigma among emergency services staff
Background
The number of mental health-related 999 calls to emergency services has increased in recent years. However, emergency services staff have an unfavourable reputation when it comes to supporting people experiencing mental health problems.
Aims
To assess the levels of explicit and implicit mental health stigma among accident and emergency, ambulance and police staff, and draw comparisons with the general population. Additional analyses sought to identify which variables predict mental health stigma among emergency services staff.
Method
A cross-sectional survey of 1837 participants, comprising four independent groups (accident and emergency, ambulance and police staff, and the general population).
Results
Levels of mental health stigma across all four groups were lower than those reported in recent surveys of the general population by the ‘Time to Change’ campaign. Within this study, explicit levels of mental health stigma were lower among the general population compared with emergency services staff. There was no difference between emergency service professions, nor were there any between-group differences in terms of implicit mental health stigma. The only consistent predictors of mental health stigma were attitudes and future behavioural intentions, whereby increased stigma was predicted by increased fear, reduced sympathy and greater intended discrimination.
Conclusions
Our findings suggest that levels of mental health stigma have improved over time, but there is room for improvement in emergency services staff. Interventions to improve mental health stigma may be most effective if, in line with the cognitive–behavioural model of stigma, they target attitudes and behavioural intentions
iObjectify: self- and other-objectification on Grindr, a geosocial networking application designed for men who have sex with men
Grindr is a smartphone application for men who have sex with men (MSM). Despite its reputation as a ‘hook-up app’, little is known about its users’ self-presentation strategies and how this relates to objectification - this paper explores objectification on Grindr. The results of Study 1 showed that Grindr users objectified other men more than non-Grindr users. A content analysis of 1400 Grindr profiles in Study 2 showed that profile pictures with objectifying content were related to searching for sexual encounters. Finally, a survey of Grindr users in Study 3 revealed that objectification processes and sexualized profile pictures were related to some objectification-relevant online behaviors (e.g., increased use of Grindr, discussion of HIV status). Interestingly, the presence of body focused profile content was more related to sexual orientation disclosure (not being ‘out’) than to objectification. This paper presents evidence that Grindr usage and online presentation are related to objectification processes
Binary Feature Mask Optimization for Feature Selection
We investigate feature selection problem for generic machine learning (ML)
models. We introduce a novel framework that selects features considering the
predictions of the model. Our framework innovates by using a novel feature
masking approach to eliminate the features during the selection process,
instead of completely removing them from the dataset. This allows us to use the
same ML model during feature selection, unlike other feature selection methods
where we need to train the ML model again as the dataset has different
dimensions on each iteration. We obtain the mask operator using the predictions
of the ML model, which offers a comprehensive view on the subsets of the
features essential for the predictive performance of the model. A variety of
approaches exist in the feature selection literature. However, no study has
introduced a training-free framework for a generic ML model to select features
while considering the importance of the feature subsets as a whole, instead of
focusing on the individual features. We demonstrate significant performance
improvements on the real-life datasets under different settings using LightGBM
and Multi-Layer Perceptron as our ML models. Additionally, we openly share the
implementation code for our methods to encourage the research and the
contributions in this area
Phase III trial of valacyclovir for the prevention of shingles after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
Detection of the of effects of hexavalent chromium by histopathological and electrophoretic methods on capoeta capoeta (guldenstaedt 1773) and squalius cephalus(linnaeus 1758)
256: Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for hematological diseases at Yeditepe University Hospital
A new exactly solvable quantum model in N dimensions
An N-dimensional position-dependent mass Hamiltonian (depending on a
parameter \lambda) formed by a curved kinetic term and an intrinsic oscillator
potential is considered. It is shown that such a Hamiltonian is exactly
solvable for any real positive value of the parameter \lambda. Algebraically,
this Hamiltonian can be thought of as a new maximally superintegrable
\lambda-deformation of the N-dimensional isotropic oscillator and, from a
geometric viewpoint, this system is just the intrinsic oscillator potential on
an N-dimensional hyperbolic space with nonconstant curvature. The spectrum of
this model is shown to be hydrogenlike, and their eigenvalues and
eigenfunctions are explicitly obtained by deforming appropriately the symmetry
properties of the N-dimensional harmonic oscillator. A further generalization
of this construction giving rise to new exactly solvable models is envisaged.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures; comments added and typos correcte
Nano-scale superhydrophobicity: suppression of protein adsorption and promotion of flow-induced detachment
Wall adsorption is a common problem in microfluidic devices, particularly when proteins are used. Here we show how superhydrophobic surfaces can be used to reduce protein adsorption and to promote desorption. Hydrophobic surfaces, both smooth and having high surface roughness of varying length scales (to generate superhydrophobicity), were incubated in protein solution. The samples were then exposed to flow shear in a device designed to simulate a microfluidic environment. Results show that a similar amount of protein adsorbed onto smooth and nanometer-scale rough surfaces, although a greater amount was found to adsorb onto superhydrophobic surfaces with micrometer scale roughness. Exposure to flow shear removed a considerably larger proportion of adsorbed protein from the superhydrophobic surfaces than from the smooth ones, with almost all of the protein being removed from some nanoscale surfaces. This type of surface may therefore be useful in environments, such as microfluidics, where protein sticking is a problem and fluid flow is present. Possible mechanisms that explain the behaviour are discussed, including decreased contact between protein and surface and greater shear stress due to interfacial slip between the superhydrophobic surface and the liquid
A generalized quantum nonlinear oscillator
We examine various generalizations, e.g. exactly solvable, quasi-exactly
solvable and non-Hermitian variants, of a quantum nonlinear oscillator. For all
these cases, the same mass function has been used and it has also been shown
that the new exactly solvable potentials possess shape invariance symmetry. The
solutions are obtained in terms of classical orthogonal polynomials
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