Experiences of Newly-Qualified Clinical Psychologists in CAMHS: an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Little research has been completed on the experiences of newly-qualified mental health professionals within children’s services in the NHS. Consequently, there exists a gap in the literature of how such a population may experience their work environments, how they cope with challenges, and what helps them to thrive or survive in their new roles. This study therefore proposed the research question: What are the experiences of newly-qualified Clinical Psychologists (NQCPs) in CAMHS? Specifically, this research aimed to explore three particular aspects of NQCPs’ experiences; their transition and development; the MDT and wider organisational contexts; and support and coping in the role. A qualitative design was utilised to explore these topics, with seven participants engaging in one semi-structured interview each. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was the chosen method of analysis. This analysis of participants’ accounts led to the emergence of three super-ordinate themes; ‘A big jump: the transition from TCP to NQCP’; ‘The support of home comforts, old and new’; and ‘Acknowledging and desiring ongoing development’. These consisted of ten sub-ordinate themes. These themes illustrated the difficulties in NQCPs’ initial transitions, their support-seeking strategies, and their growing confidence and desire to develop further as clinicians. There were wide-ranging implications resulting from the outcomes of the analysis, and recommendations made to both Clinical Psychology training programmes and NQCPs’ employers. These included: increasing caseloads and the opportunity for further exposure to leadership and management processes throughout training; staggering NQCPs’ workloads after joining CAMHS; and improved communication between CAMHS’ management and clinical teams. A critique of this research, and suggestions for further investigation, are also outlined

Acoustoelectric pumping through a ballistic point contact in the presence of magnetic fields

The acoustoelectric current, J, induced in a ballistic point contact (PC) by a surface acoustic wave is calculated in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field, B. It is found that the dependence of the current on the Fermi energy in the terminals is strongly correlated with that of the PC conductance: J is small at the conductance plateaus, and is large at the steps. Like the conductance, the acoustoelectric current has the same functional behavior as in the absence of the field, but with renormalized energy scales, which depend on the strength of the magnetic field, | B|.Comment: 7 page

Jost Functions and Jost Solutions for Jacobi Matrices, I. A Necessary and Sufficient Condition for Szego Asymptotics

We provide necessary and sufficient conditions for a Jacobi matrix to produce orthogonal polynomials with Szeg\H{o} asymptotics off the real axis. A key idea is to prove the equivalence of Szeg\H{o} asymptotics and of Jost asymptotics for the Jost solution. We also prove $L^2$ convergence of Szeg\H{o} asymptotics on the spectrum.Comment: 49 page

Na(V)1.5 sodium channel window currents contribute to spontaneous firing in olfactory sensory neurons

Olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) fire spontaneously as well as in response to odor; both forms of firing are physiologically important. We studied voltage-gated Na+ channels in OSNs to assess their role in spontaneous activity. Whole cell patch-clamp recordings from OSNs demonstrated both tetrodotoxin-sensitive and tetrodotoxin-resistant components of Na+ current. RT-PCR showed mRNAs for five of the nine different Na+ channel α-subunits in olfactory tissue; only one was tetrodotoxin resistant, the so-called cardiac subtype NaV1.5. Immunohistochemical analysis indicated that NaV1.5 is present in the apical knob of OSN dendrites but not in the axon. The NaV1.5 channels in OSNs exhibited two important features: 1) a half-inactivation potential near −100 mV, well below the resting potential, and 2) a window current centered near the resting potential. The negative half-inactivation potential renders most NaV1.5 channels in OSNs inactivated at the resting potential, while the window current indicates that the minor fraction of noninactivated NaV1.5 channels have a small probability of opening spontaneously at the resting potential. When the tetrodotoxin-sensitive Na+ channels were blocked by nanomolar tetrodotoxin at the resting potential, spontaneous firing was suppressed as expected. Furthermore, selectively blocking NaV1.5 channels with Zn2+ in the absence of tetrodotoxin also suppressed spontaneous firing, indicating that NaV1.5 channels are required for spontaneous activity despite resting inactivation. We propose that window currents produced by noninactivated NaV1.5 channels are one source of the generator potentials that trigger spontaneous firing, while the upstroke and propagation of action potentials in OSNs are borne by the tetrodotoxin-sensitive Na+ channel subtypes.This work was aided by support from Boston University, the Rocky Mountain Taste and Smell Center Core for Cellular Visualization and Analysis [National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) P30 DC-04657; D. Restrepo, principal investigator], and NIDCD Grants DC-04863 to V. Dionne and DC-006070 to D. Restrepo and T. E. Finger. (Boston University; P30 DC-04657 - Rocky Mountain Taste and Smell Center Core for Cellular Visualization and Analysis [National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)]; DC-04863 - Rocky Mountain Taste and Smell Center Core for Cellular Visualization and Analysis [National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)]; DC-006070 - Rocky Mountain Taste and Smell Center Core for Cellular Visualization and Analysis [National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)])https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4122723/Accepted manuscrip

Cellular antiseizure mechanisms of everolimus in pediatric tuberous sclerosis complex, cortical dysplasia, and non-mTOR-mediated etiologies.

The present study was designed to examine the potential cellular antiseizure mechanisms of everolimus, a mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway blocker, in pediatric epilepsy cases. Cortical tissue samples obtained from pediatric patients (n = 11, ages 0.67-6.75 years) undergoing surgical resections for the treatment of their pharmacoresistant epilepsy were examined electrophysiologically in ex vivo slices. The cohort included mTOR-mediated pathologies (tuberous sclerosis complex [TSC] and severe cortical dysplasia [CD]) as well as non-mTOR-mediated pathologies (tumor and perinatal infarct). Bath application of everolimus (2 μm) had practically no effect on spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic activity. In contrast, long-term application of everolimus reduced spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic activity, burst discharges induced by blockade of γ-aminobutyric acid A (GABAA) receptors, and epileptiform activity generated by 4-aminopyridine, a K+ channel blocker. The antiseizure effects were more pronounced in TSC and CD cases, whereas in non-mTOR-mediated pathologies, the effects were subtle at best. These results support further clinical trials of everolimus in mTOR pathway-mediated pathologies and emphasize that the effects require sustained exposure over time

Adiabatic transport in nanostructures

A confined system of non-interacting electrons, subject to the combined effect of a time-dependent potential and different external chemical-potentials, is considered. The current flowing through such a system is obtained for arbitrary strengths of the modulating potential, using the adiabatic approximation in an iterative manner. A new formula is derived for the charge pumped through an un-biased system (all external chemical potentials are kept at the same value); It reproduces the Brouwer formula for a two-terminal nanostructure. The formalism presented yields the effect of the chemical potential bias on the pumped charge on one hand, and the modification of the Landauer formula (which gives the current in response to a constant chemical-potential difference) brought about by the modulating potential on the other. Corrections to the adiabatic approximation are derived and discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

Zipf's Law and Avoidance of Excessive Synonymy

Zipf's law states that if words of language are ranked in the order of decreasing frequency in texts, the frequency of a word is inversely proportional to its rank. It is very robust as an experimental observation, but to date it escaped satisfactory theoretical explanation. We suggest that Zipf's law may arise from the evolution of word semantics dominated by expansion of meanings and competition of synonyms.Comment: 47 pages; fixed reference list missing in v.

Prospect relativity: how choice options influence decision under risk.

In many theories of decision under risk (e.g., expected utility theory, rank-dependent utility theory, and prospect theory), the utility of a prospect is independent of other options in the choice set. The experiments presented here show a large effect of the available options, suggesting instead that prospects are valued relative to one another. The judged certainty equivalent for a prospect is strongly influenced by the options available. Similarly, the selection of a preferred prospect is strongly influenced by the prospects available. Alternative theories of decision under risk (e.g., the stochastic difference model, multialternative decision field theory, and range frequency theory), where prospects are valued relative to one another, can provide an account of these context effects

AR and MA representation of partial autocorrelation functions, with applications

We prove a representation of the partial autocorrelation function (PACF), or the Verblunsky coefficients, of a stationary process in terms of the AR and MA coefficients. We apply it to show the asymptotic behaviour of the PACF. We also propose a new definition of short and long memory in terms of the PACF.Comment: Published in Probability Theory and Related Field