The metacognitions about self-critical rumination questionnaire

BACKGROUND: Self-criticism refers to a series of persistent and negative self-judgements, often involuntary, that an individual makes about themselves. Recent research has explored the possibility that self-criticism can lead to a more perseverative style of thinking called self-critical rumination. There is evidence that self-critical rumination may be a separate construct from other forms of rumination, such as depressive rumination and post-event processing. Research has indicated that metacognitions, beliefs that individuals have about their internal experiences and how to control them, may play a role in self-critical rumination. The aim of our work was to develop a measure to assess metacognitions related to self-critical rumination. METHOD: In Study 1, a community sample of 178 participants completed the newly developed Metacognitions about Self-Critical Rumination Questionnaire (MSCRQ) and results were subjected to a Principal Components Analysis. In Study 2, a community sample of 247 participants completed a battery of questionnaires including the MSCRQ. A Confirmatory Factors Analysis was performed on the MSCRQ and validity was ascertained by correlating with other measures. RESULTS: In Study 1, a 15-item two-factor structure was identified. A 10-item two-factor structure was confirmed in Study 2. Results also indicated that the MSCRQ has acceptable levels of reliability, and good concurrent and incremental validity. CONCLUSIONS: The MSCRQ appears to be a reliable and valid measure of metacognitions about self-critical rumination whilst the MCQ-30 is a better predictor of general emotional distress

Researching unheard voices : parents caring for their adult children who have learning disabilities

The intention of this article is to convey the importance of research with ‘hard to reach’ populations and utilise the outcomes from a qualitative (Doctor of Philosophy) study completed in 2017. Important issues, which involved both social workers located within an adults’ multi-disciplinary team (MDT) and parents who supported their (adult) children with learning disabilities, are discussed throughout. The White Paper Valuing People (Department of Health, 2001) is briefly discussed in relation to the impetus towards supporting parents and informal carers. Furthermore, the notion of health and social care integration and its progress is also highlighted, with a focus upon how progress (or not) has had an effect upon parents supporting an (adult) child with learning disabilities. Creative methods of parental engagement are revealed, which highlight the complexities of supporting a son or a daughter with learning disabilities. Stanfield’s (2000) Four-level Framework has been utilised as the basis for data generation and the analysis of the findings. The ‘lived experiences’ of parents who received statutory services are presented as five individual case studies, which discuss their sons’ and daughters’ support arrangements. The Mental Capacity Act, 2005 has been referred to in this article as the underpinning legislation which brought about changes for the parents and the circumstances of their children. Consequently, the parents discussed their changing relationships with social workers as a result of using this legislation. All the parents (n=5) illustrated the significance of social workers’ support and how their input had made a positive difference to their lives. The findings from this research study were shared with social workers and allied health professionals located within the learning disabilities service. The purpose was to present ‘new knowledge’ about the lives of parents receiving multi-disciplinary services. Keywords: social workers, multi-disciplinary team, learning disabilities, adults, parents, Mental Capacity Act, 200

Modeling the Arctic Freshwater System and its integration in the global system: Lessons learned and future challenges

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Numerous components of the Arctic freshwater system (atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and terrestrial hydrology) have experienced large changes over the past few decades, and these changes are projected to amplify further in the future. Observations are particularly sparse, in both time and space, in the polar regions. Hence, modeling systems have been widely used and are a powerful tool to gain understanding on the functioning of the Arctic freshwater system and its integration within the global Earth system and climate. Here we present a review of modeling studies addressing some aspect of the Arctic freshwater system. Through illustrative examples, we point out the value of using a hierarchy of models with increasing complexity and component interactions, in order to dismantle the important processes at play for the variability and changes of the different components of the Arctic freshwater system and the interplay between them. We discuss past and projected changes for the Arctic freshwater system and explore the sources of uncertainty associated with these model results. We further elaborate on some missing processes that should be included in future generations of Earth system models and highlight the importance of better quantification and understanding of natural variability, among other factors, for improved predictions of Arctic freshwater system change.The first two authors have contributed equally to the publication. The Arctic Freshwater Synthesis has been sponsored by the World Climate Research Programme’s Climate and the Cryosphere project (WCRP-CliC), the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), and the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP). C.L. acknowledges support from the UK Natural Environment Research Council. M.M.H. acknowledges support from NSF PLR-1417642. D.M.L. is supported by funding from the U.S. Department of Energy BER, as part of its Climate Change Prediction Program, Cooperative Agreement DE-FC03-97ER62402/A010, and NSF grants AGS-1048996, PLS-1048987, and PLS-1304220. J.A.S. is supported by Natural Environment Research Council grant NE/J019585/1. Y.D. is supported by Environment Canada’s Northern Hydrology program. We acknowledge the World Climate Research Programme’s Working Group on Coupled Modelling, which is responsible for CMIP, and we thank the climate modeling groups for producing and making available their model output. For CMIP, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison provides coordinating support and led development of software infrastructure in partnership with the Global Organization for Earth System Science Portals. The CMIP data and CESM-LE data are available through the relevant Web data portal

Understanding independent living customers at Trafford Housing Trust : an evaluation

This report provides the findings of the evaluation of TrustCare, an independent arm of Trafford Housing Trust which offers independent living services. The report offers the findings of the evaluation reporting on each stage of the process and drawing on both quantitative (descriptive statistics) and qualitative data (semi-structured interviews) collected during July and August 2017

The protease inhibitor JO146 demonstrates a critical role for CtHtrA for Chlamydia trachomatis reversion from penicillin persistence

The Chlamydia trachomatis serine protease HtrA (CtHtrA) has recently been demonstrated to be essential during the replicative phase of the chlamydial developmental cycle. A chemical inhibition strategy (serine protease inhibitor JO146) was used to demonstrate this essential role and it was found that the chlamydial inclusions diminish in size and are lost from the cell after CtHtrA inhibition without formation of viable elementary bodies. The inhibitor (JO146) was used in this study to investigate the role of CtHtrA for penicillin persistence and heat stress conditions for Chlamydia trachomatis. JO146 addition during penicillin persistence resulted in only minor reductions (~1 log) in the final viable infectious yield after persistent Chlamydia were reverted from persistence. However, JO146 treatment during the reversion and recovery from penicillin persistence was completely lethal for Chlamydia trachomatis. JO146 was completely lethal when added either during heat stress conditions, or during the recovery from heat stress conditions. These data together indicate that CtHtrA has essential roles during some stress environments (heat shock), recovery from stress environments (heat shock and penicillin persistence), as well as the previously characterized essential role during the replicative phase of the chlamydial developmental cycle. Thus, CtHtrA is an essential protease with both replicative phase and stress condition functions for Chlamydia trachomatis. © 2013 Ong, Marsh, Lawrence, Allan, Timms and Huston

Help through crisis : final evaluation report for Salford Citizens Advice

This final evaluation report is based upon the progress and outcomes of the HtC project over a five year period (2017-2021). The final evaluation report presents the overall findings based upon five years of data collection and analysis. Inclusive of service users/citizens (beneficiaries), local third sector partner agencies & cost benefit analysis(s) undertaken about the ‘value for money’ component of the project, overall. The evaluation will also build upon the initial conclusions from the previous annual Interim Reports produced in 2017-2018, 2018-2019, 2020-2020 by the evaluation team, associated with SHUSU. It will focus upon achievements and, also, recommendations for future sustainabilit

In vitro susceptibility of recent Chlamydia trachomatis clinical isolates to the CtHtrA inhibitor JO146

© 2015 Institut Pasteur. The present study aimed to establish if a previously identified Chlamydia trachomatis HtrA (CtHtrA) inhibitor, JO146, is effective against currently circulating clinical isolates to validate if CtHtrA is a clinically relevant target for future therapeutic development. Inhibition of CtHtrA during the middle of the chlamydial replicative cycle until the completion of the cycle resulted in loss of infectious progeny for six unique clinical isolates representing different serovars. This supports the potential for CtHtrA to be a clinically relevant target for development of new therapeutics and suggests the importance of further investigation of JO146 as a lead compound

A systematic review and meta-analysis of CBT interventions based on the Fennell model of low self-esteem

Low self-esteem is a feature of several mental health disorders that has been directly treated with Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT). The aim of our study was to determine the efficacy of interventions for improving low self-esteem in adults by utilizing the model outlined in Fennell (1997; 1998; 1999). A literature search identified 8 studies that met the inclusion criteria of CBT-based interventions for low self-esteem using this model, 7 of which were used in a quantitative synthesis. These studies included weekly group and individual sessions and one-day workshop formats. Summary effect sizes of 1.12 and 0.34 at post-treatment with low levels of heterogeneity were observed for weekly sessions and one-day workshops, respectively. Comparable results were found for the reduction of depressive symptoms. Results suggest that CBT-based interventions may be efficacious for treating individuals with low self-esteem, according to changes in self-report measures; however, it is unclear whether these interventions are dissimilar to those aimed at reducing depression

Size constancy in bat biosonar?

Perception and encoding of object size is an important feature of sensory systems. In the visual system object size is encoded by the visual angle (visual aperture) on the retina, but the aperture depends on the distance of the object. As object distance is not unambiguously encoded in the visual system, higher computational mechanisms are needed. This phenomenon is termed "size constancy". It is assumed to reflect an automatic re-scaling of visual aperture with perceived object distance. Recently, it was found that in echolocating bats, the 'sonar aperture', i.e., the range of angles from which sound is reflected from an object back to the bat, is unambiguously perceived and neurally encoded. Moreover, it is well known that object distance is accurately perceived and explicitly encoded in bat sonar. Here, we addressed size constancy in bat biosonar, recruiting virtual-object techniques. Bats of the species Phyllostomus discolor learned to discriminate two simple virtual objects that only differed in sonar aperture. Upon successful discrimination, test trials were randomly interspersed using virtual objects that differed in both aperture and distance. It was tested whether the bats spontaneously assigned absolute width information to these objects by combining distance and aperture. The results showed that while the isolated perceptual cues encoding object width, aperture, and distance were all perceptually well resolved by the bats, the animals did not assign absolute width information to the test objects. This lack of sonar size constancy may result from the bats relying on different modalities to extract size information at different distances. Alternatively, it is conceivable that familiarity with a behaviorally relevant, conspicuous object is required for sonar size constancy, as it has been argued for visual size constancy. Based on the current data, it appears that size constancy is not necessarily an essential feature of sonar perception in bats