People with learning disabilities and mental health problems: the impact of ethnicity

There is increasing awareness of the needs of people with learning disabilities from different ethnic communities. This paper focuses on the impact of ethnicity on the presentation of mental health problems. The main aim of the paper is to inform those planning and delivering mental health services for people with learning disabilities of the current evidence, in order to enable their practice to improve health outcomes for people from minority ethnic communitie

A survey on the possibility of utilizing γH2AX as a biodosimeter in radiation workers

Introduction DNA damage is among the main consequences of radiation. Of many different classes of DNA damage, double-strand breaks are the most deleterious. Development of a sensitive biodosimetry method, which utilizes a detection material with a similar construction to the body, seems essential for monitoring radiation workers. In this study, histone H2AX protein was examined as a potential biodosimeter in radiation workers. Moreover, the presence of this protein after in vitro irradiation of blood samples was assessed simultaneously. Materials and Methods Blood samples from 46 radiation workers were analyzed in Golestan province, Iran. Meanwhile, two groups of blood samples (five blood samples in each group) were irradiated in vitro by doses of 1 to 0.2 Gy and 0.09 to 0.01 Gy from a 60Co source, respectively. γH2AX level in lymphocytes was measured, using Western blot technique. ANOVA and Tukey's tests were performed, using SPSS version 16. The significance level was considered to be 0.05. Results The results of Western blotting for the identification of γH2AX protein in radiation workers were negative. However, γH2AX level in lymphocytes of two in vitro irradiated groups showed a significant correlation with the radiation dose (P<0.0001). Conclusion The results showed that γH2AX was a good indicator for acute or local exposure to ionizing radiation, while in chronically exposed individuals, including radiation workers, this protein was useless at least in autoradiography detection method. Regarding the presence of γH2AX protein in blood samples, which were irradiated in vitro at low doses, it can be concluded that this protein has powerful repair mechanisms

K\"ahlerian Effective Potentials for Chern-Simons-Matter Theories

In this paper, we will calculate the effective potential for a theory of multiple M2-branes. As the theory of multiple M2-branes can be described by a Chern-Simons-matter theory, this will be done by calculating the K\"ahlerian effective potential for a Chern-Simons-matter theory. This calculation will be performed in $\mathcal{N} = 1$ superspace formalism. We will initially study an Abelian Chern-Simons-matter theory, and then generalize those results to the full non-Abelian Chern-Simons-matter theory. We will obtain explicit expressions for the superpropagators for this theory. These superpropagators will be used to calculate the one-loop effective potential.Comment: 15 page

Evaluation of The Forgiveness project within prisons

The Forgiveness Project (TFP) is a UK based charity that uses real stories to explore how ideas around forgiveness, reconciliation and conflict resolution can have a positive impact on people’s lives. One aspect of the charity’s work is a programme run within prisons, targeted at the early stages of a sentence. TFP describe their prison programme as an intensive, group based intervention that encourages prisoners to explore concepts of forgiveness and reparation in a framework that fosters greater accountability and responsibility. Every course is co-facilitated by at least one ex-offender and a victim/survivor of serious crime. The intervention can be seen as being restorative and preparatory; those who take part in the programme will tend to be relatively early on in their sentence. TFP centres on the personal testimonies of both victims and perpetrators of crime and violence. TFP is unlike many other restorative initiatives in that it has no political or religious affiliation and TFP’s prison programme is similarly secular in its approach. TFP aims to facilitate changes in attitude and thinking styles of offenders. That is, to encourage prisoners and young offenders in finding their own pathways to change. In finding those pathways, they may draw on many different resources and insights. These could include personal, communal, spiritual or religious beliefs that they may have, whether or not they have previously seen those beliefs as relevant to their offending behaviours. TFP run programmes via both education and psychology units. The emphasis on individual change is also intended to differentiate TFP from prison or National Offenders Management Service interventions. This person centred, facilitative but non prescriptive approach was adopted with the intention that prisoners and young offenders would be more responsive to the intervention than they may be to other, more standardised, manual based programmes. This report of a research study by Dr Joanna Adler and Mansoor Mir of Forensic Psychological Services at Middlesex University into the effectiveness of TFP presents quantitative and qualitative findings, and concludes overall that TFP is well received by prisoners and staff, potentially has an impact on recidivism and does well to stimulate insight and bring about change. The report ends with some recommendations to increase capacity and sustainability

On the existence of chaotic circumferential waves in spinning disks

We use a third-order perturbation theory and Melnikov's method to prove the existence of chaos in spinning circular disks subject to a lateral point load. We show that the emergence of transverse homoclinic and heteroclinic points respectively lead to a random reversal in the traveling direction of circumferential waves and a random phase shift of magnitude $\pi$ for both forward and backward wave components. These long-term phenomena occur in imperfect low-speed disks sufficiently far from fundamental resonances.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, to appear in CHAOS (Volume 17, Issue 2, June 2007

The CAG trinucleotide repeat length in the androgen receptor does not predict the early onset of prostate cancer

Objective To relate the repeat length of the androgen-receptor CAG trinucleotide to the age of onset of prostate cancer, stage and grade of disease. Patients and methods After obtaining ethical approval, 265 patients with locally confined or locally advanced/metastatic prostate cancer were identified and evaluated for age at diagnosis (less than 65 years and greater than 75 years). DNA was extracted from peripheral blood lymphocytes and 1 mug aliquots subjected to polymerase chain reaction using fluorescently labelled primers. Samples were then run on an ABI 377 gene scan analysis gel with an internal molecular weight marker. The length of the CAG repeat was determined by comparing the gene scan product size to samples where the CAG repeat length had been quantified using direct sequencing. The Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon two sample tests were used to analyse the data. Results The mean (range) length of the CAG repeat in the androgen receptor was 22.2 (10-31) in the younger and 22.5 (16-32) in the older group, and was not statistically different. There was no significant association between the CAG repeat length and the age of onset of prostate cancer (P = 0.568) or with stage (P = 0.577) and grade (P = 0.891) of prostate cancer. Conclusion These results suggest that there is no correlation between the androgen receptor CAG repeat length and the age of onset, stage and grade of prostate cancer, confirming recent doubts from other similar studies of a suggested correlation between shorter androgen receptor CAG repeat and early onset and aggressiveness of prostate cancer