1,980 research outputs found
Long time, no see. Australians with mental illnesses wait too long before independent review of detention
Imagine that you found yourself arrested in a New South Wales country town; Dubbo, for example. The local constabulary tell you that you are guilty of some offence and that you are now looking at several weeks inside. You know you are innocent. If you know the law, you are anxious, certainly, but you are not dismayed. You know that in New South Wales the police must âas soon as is reasonably practicable, take [you] ⊠before an authorised officer to be dealt with according to lawâ.1 This will be a magistrate, or another independent person, who will review your arrest. You also know that in New South Wales âas soon as is reasonably practicableâ is normally interpreted as being within 24 hours, 365 days of the year. All Australians who find themselves detained against their will have a right to be brought before a court or other independent body to ensure that the terms of their detention are lawful. This ancient right is protected in the civil law through the writ of habeas corpus and in the legislative rules requiring prompt review of criminal detention in each state and territory. Timely independent review of restrictions on liberty is also applied in the medico-legal context. For example, while the Guardianship Act 1987 (NSW) allows a person responsible or guardian to consent to medical treatment for a patient who lacks capacity, if that patient objects to the treatment, the Act stipulates that a quasi-judicial body â the Guardianship Tribunal â must authorise this consent, to check that this deprivation of freedom is justified.2 The Tribunal is available to hear urgent matters around the clock and urgent orders are usually made within a week.3 At the time of writing, New South Wales law demands a similar timely independent review of measures that restrict the liberty of people with mental illnesses. The Mental Health Act 2007 (NSW) stipulates that people who are deemed âmentally ill personsâ must be taken before a magistrate âas soon as practicableâ after two doctors decide they warrant detention.4 Currently, and since 1958,5 âas soon as practicableâ is interpreted as meaning within a week or so. Again the short timeframe is intended to protect the civil rights of the person detained.6 If, however, changes proposed to the operation of the Mental Health Act are allowed to proceed, people living with mental illnesses in New South Wales may have lost a substantial degree of this human rights protection by the time this article is published
Protocol for a longitudinal qualitative interview study: maintaining psychological well-being in advanced cancer - what can we learn from patients' and carers' own coping strategies?
IntroductionPeople with advanced cancer and their carers experience stress and uncertainty which affects the quality of life and physical and mental health. This study aims to understand how patients and carers recover or maintain psychological well-being by exploring the strategies employed to self-manage stress and uncertainty.Methods and analysisA longitudinal qualitative interview approach with 30 patients with advanced cancer and 30 associated family or informal carers allows the exploration of contexts, mechanisms and outcomes at an individual level. Two interviews, 4â12?weeks apart, will not only enable the exploration of individualsâ evolving coping strategies in response to changing contexts but also how patientsâ and carersâ strategies inter-relate. Patient and Carer focus groups will then consider how the findings may be used in developing an intervention. Recruiting through two major tertiary cancer centres in the North West and using deliberately broad and inclusive criteria will enable the sample to capture demographic and experiential breadth.Ethics and disseminationThe research team will draw on their considerable experience to ensure that the study is sensitive to a patient and carer group, which may be considered vulnerable but still values being able to contribute its views. Public and patient involvement (PPI) is integral to the design and is evidenced by: a research advisory group incorporating patient and carers, prestudy consultations with the PPI group at one of the study sites and a user as the named applicant. The study team will use multiple methods to disseminate the findings to clinical, policy and academic audiences. A key element will be engaging health professionals in patient and carer ideas for promoting self-management of psychological well-being. The study has ethical approval from the North West Research Ethics Committee and the appropriate NHS governance clearance.RegistrationNational Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Studies Portfolio, UK Clinical Research Network (UKCRN) Study number 11725
SUMSS: A Wide-Field Radio Imaging Survey of the Southern Sky. I. Science goals, survey design and instrumentation
The Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope, operating at 843 MHz with a 5
square degree field of view, is carrying out a radio imaging survey of the sky
south of declination -30 deg. This survey (the Sydney University Molonglo Sky
Survey, or SUMSS) produces images with a resolution of 43" x 43" cosec(Dec.)
and an rms noise level of about 1 mJy/beam. SUMSS is therefore similar in
sensitivity and resolution to the northern NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS; Condon et
al. 1998). The survey is progressing at a rate of about 1000 square degrees per
year, yielding individual and statistical data for many thousands of weak radio
sources. This paper describes the main characteristics of the survey, and
presents sample images from the first year of observation.Comment: 27 pages, 12 figures (figures 2, 8, 10 in jpg format); AJ, in pres
Identification of floodwater source areas in Nepal using SCIMAPâFlood
Practical approaches for managing flooding from fluvial sources are moving away from mitigation solely at the point of impact and towards integrated catchment management. This considers the source areas, flow pathways of floodwaters and the locations and exposure to the risk of communities. For a field site in southern Nepal, we analyse catchment response to a range of simulated rainfall events, which when evaluated collectively can help guide potential flood management solutions. This is achieved through the adoption of SCIMAP-Flood, a decision support framework that works at the catchment-scale to identify critical source areas for floodwaters. The SCIMAP-Flood Fitted inverse modelling approach has been applied to the East Rapti catchment, Nepal. For multiple flood impact locations throughout the catchment, SCIMAP-Flood effectively identifies locations where flood management measures would have the most positive effects on risk reduction. The results show that the spatial targeting of mitigation measures in areas of irrigated and rainfed agriculture and the prevention of deforestation or removal of shrubland would be the most effective approaches. If these actions were in the upper catchment above Hetauda or upstream of Manahari they would have the most effective reduction in the flood peak
PKS 1018-42: A Powerful Kinetically Dominated Quasar
We have identified PKS 1018-42 as a radio galaxy with extraordinarily
powerful jets, over twice as powerful as any 3CR source of equal or lesser
redshift except for one (3C196). It is perhaps the most intrinsically powerful
extragalactic radio source in the, still poorly explored, Southern Hemisphere.
PKS 1018-42 belongs to the class of FR II objects that are kinetically
dominated, the jet kinetic luminosity, (calculated at 151 MHz), is 3.4 times larger than the
total thermal luminosity (IR to X-ray) of the accretion flow, . It is the fourth most kinetically dominated
quasar that we could verify from existing radio data. From a review of the
literature, we find that kinetically dominated sources such as PKS 1018-42 are
rare, and list the 5 most kinetically dominated sources found from our review.
Our results for PKS 1018-42 are based on new observations from the Australia
Telescope Compact Array.Comment: To appear in ApJ Letter
Gas and Dust Emission from the Nuclear Region of the Circinus Galaxy
Simultaneous modeling of the line and continuum emission from the nuclear
region of the Circinus galaxy is presented. Composite models which include the
combined effect of shocks and photoionization from the active center and from
the circumnuclear star forming region are considered. The effects of dust
reradiation, bremsstrahlung from the gas and synchrotron radiation are treated
consistently. The proposed model accounts for two important observational
features. First, the high obscuration of Circinus central source is produced by
high velocity and dense clouds with characteristic high dust-to-gas ratios.
Their large velocities, up to 1500 km\s, place them very close to the active
center. Second, the derived size of the line emitting region is well in
agreement with the observed limits for the coronal and narrow line region of
Circinus.Comment: 36 pages, LaTex (including 4 Tables and 9 figures), removed from
Abstract To appear in "The Astrophysical Journal
Violent behaviour in early psychosis patients: Can we identify clinical risk profiles?
The objective of this study is to explore, within a sample of early psychosis patients (EPP), if subgroups regarding rate of violent behaviour (VB) against others can be identified on the basis of dynamic risk factors (treatment modifiable characteristics).
In a sample of 265 EPP, treated at the Treatment and Early Intervention in Psychosis Program in Lausanne, we conducted a latent-class analysis on the basis of the main dynamic VB risk factors (substance use disorder [SUD], positive symptoms, insight, and impulsivity). VB were restricted to "serious violence" and were assessed through patients self-report, interview with relatives or forensic services and with a standardized instrument.
The analysis confirmed the heterogeneity of the sample regarding rate of VB. Patients could be stratified within 4 subgroups, 3 of which were at increased risk of VB. The two groups with the highest rates of VB displayed specific clinical profiles. The first one was characterized by high levels of impulsivity, hostility, positive symptoms and SUD, and the second, by low level of insight and low social functioning. These patterns suggest that significant difficulties in social interaction may contribute to the emergence of aggressive reactions against others.
Identification of EPP at increased risk of VB seems possible on the basis of dynamic risk factors. If confirmed prospectively, this could pave the way to the development of preventive strategies and specific interventions
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