Compassion-based mindfulness training in teacher education: The impact on student teachers at a South African university

This paper presents findings from a teacher education study, exploring the implications of mindfulness training on student teachers in the context of a transitional society, South Africa. Western secular mindfulness has been expanding to new continents, from its origins in the East, and now needs to be contextualised. Recent critiques of the contemporary mindfulness movement identify elements that are missing from much secular mindfulness training, such as ethics, compassion, and social engagement.As part of a mixed methods research study, in-depth interviews were carried out with fourteen student teachers in Gauteng, aiming to understand the level and causes of their stress, and evaluate whether a mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) was beneficial. The study’s findings extended the current literature, highlighting the benefits of including compassion practices in MBIs, particularly in stressful contexts. Compassion-based mindfulness has the potential as a practice that not only improves the resilience of individuals, but also becomes a means of enhancing social engagement. For student teachers in developing world contexts, mindfulness combined with compassion could address some of the current critiques of MBIs

Importance of fundamental movement skills to predict technical skills in youth grassroots soccer:a machine learning approach

This study determined the contributors to soccer technical skill in grassroots youth soccer players using a machine learning approach. One hundred and sixty two boys aged 7-14 (Mean ± SD = 10.5 ± 2.1) years, who were regularly engaged in grassroots soccer undertook assessments of anthropometry and maturity offset (the time from age at peak height velocity (APHV)), Fundamental Movement skills (FMS), perceived physical competence, and physical fitness and technical soccer skill using the university of Ghent (UGent) dribbling test. Coaches rated player’s overall soccer skill for their age. Statistical analysis was undertaken, using machine learning models to predict technical skill from the other variables. A stepwise recursive feature elimination with a 5-fold cross-validation (RFECV) method was used to eliminate the worst performing features and both L1 and L2 regularisation were evaluated during the process. Five models (linear, ridge, lasso, random forest, boosted trees) were then used in a heuristic approach using a small subset of suitable algorithms to achieve a reasonable level of accuracy within a reasonable time frame) to make predictions and compare them to a test set to understand the predictive capabilities of the models. Results from the machine learning analysis indicated that total FMS score (0-50) was the most important feature in predicting technical soccer skill followed by coach rating of child skill for their age, years playing experience and APHV. Using a random forest, technical skill could be predicted with 99% accuracy in boys who play grassroots soccer, with FMS being the most important contributor

The Recent Cholera Outbreak in the South Mrican Gold Mining Industry

A large-scale cholera surveillance programme was introduced in South Africa in November 1973 as a result of the progressive southward spread of cholera in Africa. Moore's technique for the isolation of Salmonella paratyphi was modified for cholera detection. The method proved to be very sensitive and it was possible to detect Vibrio cholerae in main sewer lines after its casual and transient introduction by an unidentified carrier. Transmission occurred in the acc!im<:tisation centre, probably through the drinking of water contaminated after it had been drawn from the tap. Faecal contamination of the environment was demonstrated, and V. cho/erae was isolated from the floor, onto which it had been disseminated from the perianal region by means of profuse perspiration. Perpetuation of cholera was probably aided by a faecally contaminated air-humidifying water reservoir, the water of which experimentally allows survival and multiplication of V. cholerae for a week and longer. Prophylactic treatment of selected high-risk groups of people was administered in the form of doxycycline, which appeared to result in rapid termination of the epidemic. Mass vaccination of all mine personnel (20 000) was carried out to reduce the incidence of clinical cholera and the bacterial load

Generation of Porous Particle Structures using the Void Expansion Method

The newly developed "void expansion method" allows for an efficient generation of porous packings of spherical particles over a wide range of volume fractions using the discrete element method. Particles are randomly placed under addition of much smaller "void-particles". Then, the void-particle radius is increased repeatedly, thereby rearranging the structural particles until formation of a dense particle packing. The structural particles' mean coordination number was used to characterize the evolving microstructures. At some void radius, a transition from an initially low to a higher mean coordination number is found, which was used to characterize the influence of the various simulation parameters. For structural and void-particle stiffnesses of the same order of magnitude, the transition is found at constant total volume fraction slightly below the random close packing limit. For decreasing void-particle stiffness the transition is shifted towards a smaller void-particle radius and becomes smoother.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure

Single and double qubit gates by manipulating degeneracy

A novel mechanism is proposed for single and double qubit state manipulations in quantum computation with four-fold degenerate energy levels. The principle is based on starting with a four fold degeneracy, lifting it stepwise adiabatically by a set of control parameters and performing the quantum gate operations on non-degenerate states. A particular realization of the proposed mechanism is suggested by using inductively coupled rf-squid loops in the macroscopic quantum tunnelling regime where the energy eigen levels are directly connected with the measurable flux states. The one qubit and two qubit controlled operations are demonstrated explicitly. The appearance of the flux states also allows precise read-in and read-out operations by the measurement of flux.Comment: 6 pages + 5 figures (separately included

Intimate partner violence, depression, and sexual behaviour among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men in the PROUD trial.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the prevalence and correlates of intimate partner violence (IPV) among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) in the UK. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of IPV, associations of socio-economic and psychosocial factors with IPV, and the association of IPV with depression and sexual behaviour, among GBMSM in the PROUD trial of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). METHODS: PROUD enrolled 544 HIV-negative participants in England from 2012 to 2014; participants were randomised to immediate or deferred PrEP. This analysis included 436 GBMSM who had IPV data at month-12 and/or 24. Prevalence of IPV victimization and perpetration (lifetime, and in the past year) was assessed at these time-points. Generalized estimating equations were used to investigate associations with IPV, using pooled data from both time-points. RESULTS: At month-12 (N = 410), 44.9% of men reported ever being a victim of IPV, 15.6% in the last year, and 19.5% reported ever perpetrating IPV, 7.8% in the last year. At month-24 (N = 333), the corresponding prevalence was 40.2 and 14.7% for lifetime and past year IPV victimization and 18.0 and 6.9% for lifetime and past year IPV perpetration. IPV prevalence did not differ by randomised arm. Men reporting internalized homophobia and sexualized drug use were more likely to report IPV. Lifetime and last year experience of IPV victimization and perpetration were strongly associated with depressive symptoms (PHQ-9 ≥ 10) (adjusted for socio-demographics: lifetime IPV victimization PR 2.57 [95% CI: 1.71, 3.86]; past year IPV victimization PR 2.93 [95% CI: 1.96, 4.40]; lifetime IPV perpetration PR 2.87 [95% CI: 1.91, 4.32]; past year IPV perpetration PR 3.47 [95% CI: 2.13, 5.64], p < 0.001 for all); IPV was not consistently associated with measures of condomless anal sex or high partner numbers. CONCLUSIONS: GBMSM at high-risk of HIV who are seeking/taking PrEP may experience a high burden of IPV, which may be linked to depression. Training on awareness of and enquiry for IPV among GBMSM in sexual health clinics is recommended. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02065986 . Registered 19 February 2014 (retrospectively registered)

Depletion of Trp53 and Cdkn2a does not promote self-renewal in the mammary gland but amplifies proliferation induced by TNF-α

Dermatology-oncolog

Thermal treatment for radioactive waste minimisation

Safe management of radioactive waste is challenging to waste producers and waste management organisations. Deployment of thermal treatment technologies can provide significant improvements: volume reduction, waste passivation, organics destruction, safety demonstration facilitation, etc. The EC-funded THERAMIN project enables an EU-wide strategic review and assessment of the value of thermal treatment technologies applicable to Low and Intermediate Level waste streams (ion exchange media, soft operational waste, sludges, organic waste, and liquids). THERAMIN compiles an EU-wide database of wastes, which could be treated by thermal technologies and documents available thermal technologies. Applicability and benefits of technologies to the identified waste streams will be evaluated through full-scale demonstration tests by project partners. Safety case implications will also be assessed through the study of the disposability of thermally treated waste products. This paper will communicate the strategic aims of the ongoing project and highlight some key findings and results achieved to date

A lower bound on the local extragalactic magnetic field

Assuming that the hard gamma-ray emission of Cen A is a result of synchrotron radiation of ultra-relativistic electrons, we derive a lower bound on the local extragalactic magnetic field, $B> 10^{-8}$ G. This result is consistent with (and close to) upper bounds on magnetic fields derived from consideration of cosmic microwave background distortions and Faraday rotation measurements.Comment: Includes extensive discussion of particle acceleration above 10^20 eV in the hot spot-like region of Cen

A complete 3D numerical study of the effects of pseudoscalar-photon mixing on quasar polarizations

We present the results of three-dimensional simulations of quasar polarizations in the presence of pseudoscalar-photon mixing in the intergalactic medium. The intergalactic magnetic field is assumed to be uncorrelated in wave vector space but correlated in real space. Such a field may be obtained if its origin is primordial. Furthermore we assume that the quasars, located at cosmological distances, have negligible initial polarization. In the presence of pseudoscalar-photon mixing we show, through a direct comparison with observations, that this may explain the observed large scale alignments in quasar polarizations within the framework of big bang cosmology. We find that the simulation results give a reasonably good fit to the observed data.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, significant changes, to appear in EPJ