297 research outputs found
Potential of using visual imagery to revolutionise measurement of emotional health
Appropriate measurement of emotional health by all those working with children and young people is an increasing focus for professional practice. Most of the tools used for assessment or self-assessment of emotional health were designed in the mid-20th century using language and technology derived from pen and paper written texts. But, are they fit for purpose in an age of pervasive computing with increasingly rich audio-visual media devices being in the hands of young people? This thought piece explores how the increased use of visual imagery, especially forms that can be viewed or created on digital devices might provide a way forward for more effective measuring of emotional health; including smiley faces, other emojis and other potential forms of visual imagery. The authors bring together perspectives from healthcare, counselling, youth advocacy, academic research, primary care and school based mental health support to explore these issues
Statistical Physics in Meteorology
Various aspects of modern statistical physics and meteorology can be tied
together. The historical importance of the University of Wroclaw in the field
of meteorology is first pointed out. Next, some basic difference about time and
space scales between meteorology and climatology is outlined. The nature and
role of clouds both from a geometric and thermal point of view are recalled.
Recent studies of scaling laws for atmospheric variables are mentioned, like
studies on cirrus ice content, brightness temperature, liquid water path
fluctuations, cloud base height fluctuations, .... Technical time series
analysis approaches based on modern statistical physics considerations are
outlined.Comment: Short version of an invited paper at the XXIth Max Born
symposium,Ladek Zdroj, Poland; Sept. 200
Power up: patient and public involvement in developing a shared decision-making app for mental health
Background
The importance of patient and public involvement (PPI) in designing interventions to support young people’s mental health is becoming a central tenet of the research process. Existing research has indicated that co-design with service users may help to engender multiple improvements in research projects, from design through to applications of study findings.
Aims
The aim of this study is to examine our experience of making the involvement of young people an ongoing part of the research process. We report on PPI in relation to a feasibility trial of the development of an app called Power Up, which is designed to support shared decision-making in mental health.
Method
Young people, carers, and clinicians were involved in each aspect of the project from governance, needs and environment analysis, to development and revisions of the Power Up smartphone app intended for use within child and adolescent mental health services. Involvement was achieved through ongoing contributions to steering groups, co-design workshops, and interviews. The project model was approached as a cyclical multidirectional process of ideas, PPI input, reflection, and alterations.
Conclusion
PPI was embedded into the project model from the outset, to be iterative and cyclical informing the development and direction of the digital tool at each stage. Involving service users resulted in the identification and implementation of multiple changes to the app, both conceptual and tangible. Several challenges associated with PPI were also encountered, warranting future research and discussion
Suppression of small baryonic structures due to a primordial magnetic field
We investigate the impact of the existence of a primordial magnetic field on
the filter mass, characterizing the minimum baryonic mass that can form in dark
matter (DM) haloes. For masses below the filter mass, the baryon content of DM
haloes are severely depressed. The filter mass is the mass when the baryon to
DM mass ratio in a halo is equal to half the baryon to DM ratio of the
Universe. The filter mass has previously been used in semianalytic calculations
of galaxy formation, without taking into account the possible existence of a
primordial magnetic field. We examine here its effect on the filter mass. For
homogeneous comoving primordial magnetic fields of or 2 nG and a
reionization epoch that starts at a redshift and is completed at
, the filter mass is increased at redshift 8, for example, by factors
4.1 and 19.8, respectively. The dependence of the filter mass on the parameters
describing the reionization epoch is investigated. Our results are particularly
important for the formation of low mass galaxies in the presence of a
homogeneous primordial magnetic field. For example, for B_0\sim 1\nG and a
reionization epoch of and , our results indicate that
galaxies of total mass M\sim5 \times 10^8\msun need to form at redshifts
, and galaxies of total mass M\sim10^8\msun at redshifts
.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Observational evidence of dissipative photospheres in gamma-ray bursts
The emission from a gamma-ray burst (GRB) photosphere can give rise to a
variety of spectral shapes. The spectrum can retain the shape of a Planck
function or it can be broadened and have the shape of a Band function. This
fact is best illustrated by studying GRB090902B: The main gamma-ray spectral
component is initially close to a Planck function, which can only be explained
by emission from the jet photosphere. Later, the same component evolves into a
broader Band function. This burst thus provides observational evidence that the
photosphere can give rise to a non-thermal spectrum. We show that such a
broadening is most naturally explained by subphotospheric dissipation in the
jet. The broadening mainly depends on the strength and location of the
dissipation, on the magnetic field strength, and on the relation between the
energy densities of thermal photons and of the electrons. We suggest that the
evolution in spectral shape observed in GRB090902B is due to a decrease of the
bulk Lorentz factor of the flow, leading to the main dissipation becoming
subphotospheric. Such a change in the flow parameters can also explain the
correlation observed between the peak energy of the spectrum and low-energy
power law slope, alpha, a correlation commonly observed in GRBs. We conclude
that photospheric emission could indeed be a ubiquitous feature during the
prompt phase in GRBs and play a decisive role in creating the diverse spectral
shapes and spectral evolutions that are observed.Comment: Submitted to MNRAS, 14 pages, 7 figure
The Origin of Primordial Magnetic Fields
(abridged) We suggest here that the large scale fields G, observed
in galaxies at both high and low redshifts by Faraday Rotation Measurements
(FRMs), have their origin in the electromagnetic fluctuations that naturally
occurred in the dense hot plasma that existed just after the QHPT. We evolve
the predicted fields to the present time. The size of the region containing a
coherent magnetic field increased due to the fusion (polymerization) of smaller
regions. Magnetic fields (MFs) over a comoving pc
region are predicted at redshift z . These fields are orders of
magnitude greater than those predicted in previous scenarios for creating
primordial magnetic fields. Line-of-sight average magnetic fields (MFs)
G, valid for FRMs, are obtained over a 1 Mpc comoving region at
the redshift z 10.
In the collapse to a galaxy (comoving size 30 kpc) at z 10, the
fields are amplified to G. This indicates that the MFs created
immediately after the QHPT, predicted by the Fluctuation-Dissipation Theorem,
could be the origin of the fields observed by FRMs in galaxies at
both high and low redshifts.Comment: 34 pages, 8 figure
Psychological, social and welfare interventions for psychological health and well-being of torture survivors
Background:
Torture is widespread, with potentially broad and long-lasting impact across physical, psychological, social and other areas of life. Its complex and diverse effects interact with ethnicity, gender, and refugee experience. Health and welfare agencies offer varied rehabilitation services, from conventional mental health treatment to eclectic or needs-based interventions. This review is needed because relatively little outcome research has been done in this field, and no previous systematic review has been conducted. Resources are scarce, and the challenges of providing services can be considerable.
Objectives:
To assess beneficial and adverse effects of psychological, social and welfare interventions for torture survivors, and to comp are these effects with those reported by active and inactive controls.
Search methods:
Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) were identified through a search of PsycINFO, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINA HL), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTR AL) and the Cochrane Depression, Anxiety and Neurosis Specialise d Register (CCDANCTR), the Latin American and Caribbean Health Science Information Database (LILACS), the Open System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe (OpenSIGLE), the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (WHO ICTRP) and Published International Literature On Traumatic Stress (PILOTS) all years to 11 April 2013; searches of Cochrane resources, international trial registries and the main biomedical databases were updated on 20 June 2014. We also searched the On line Library of Dignity (Danish Institute against Torture), reference lists of reviews and included studies and the most frequently cited journals, up to April 2013 but not repeated for 2014. Investigators were contacted to provide updates or details as necessary.
Selection criteria:
Full publications of RCTs or quasi-RCTs of psychological, social or welfare interventions for survivors of torture against any active or inactive comparison condition.
Data collection and analysis:
We included all major sources of grey literature in our search and used standard methodological procedures as expected by The Cochrane Collaboration for collecting data, evaluating risk of bias and using GRADE (Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development and Evaluation) methods to assess the quality of evidence.
Main results:
Nine RCTs were included in this review. All were of psychological interventions; none provided social or welfare interventions. The nine trials provided data for 507 adults; none involved children or adolescents. Eight of the nine studies described individual treatment, and one discussed group treatment. Six trials were conducted in Europe, and three in different African countries. Most people were refugees in their thirties and forties; most met the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at the outset. Four trials used narrative exposure therapy (NET), one cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT ) and the other four used mixed methods for trauma symptoms, one of which included reconciliation methods. Five interventions were compared with active controls, such as psychoeducation; four used treatment as usual or waiting list/no treatment; we analysed all control conditions together. Duration of therapy varied from one hour to longer than 20 hours with a median of around 12 to 15 hours. All trials reported effects on distress and on PTSD, and two reported on quality of life. Five studies followed up participants for at least six months.
No immediate benefits of psychological therapy were noted in comparison with controls in terms of our primary outcome of distress (usually depression), nor for PTSD symptoms, PTSD caseness, or quality of life. At six-month follow-up, three NET and one CBT study (86 participants) showed moderate effect sizes for intervention over control in reduction of distress (standardised me an difference (SMD) -0.63, 95% confidence interval (CI) -1.07 to -0.19) and of PTSD symptoms (SMD -0.52, 95% CI -0.97 to -0.07). However, the quality of evidence was very low, and risk of bias resulted from researcher/therapist allegiance to treatment methods, effects of uncertain asylum status of some people and real-time non-standardised translation of assessment measures. No measures of adverse events were described, nor of participation, social functioning, quantity of social or family relationships, proxy measures by third parties or satisfaction with treatment. Too few studies were identified for review authors to attempt sensitivity analyses.
Authors’ conclusions:
Very low-quality evidence suggests no differences between psychological therapies and controls in terms of immediate effects on post- traumatic symptoms, distress or quality of life; however, NET and CBT were found to confer moderate benefits in reducing dis tress and PTSD symptoms over the medium term (six months after treatment). Evidence was of very low quality, mainly because non- standardised assessment methods using interpreters were applied, and sample sizes were very small. Most eligible trials also revealed medium to high risk of bias. Further, attention to the cultural appropriateness of interventions or to their psychometric qualities was inadequate, and assessment measures used were unsuitable. As such, these findings should be interpreted with caution. No data were available on whether symptom reduction enabled improvements in quality of life, participation in community life, or in social and family relationships in the medium term. Details of adverse events and treatment satisfaction were not available immediately after treatment nor in the medium term. Future research should aim to address these gaps in the evidence and should include larger sample sizes when possible. Problems of torture survivors need to be defined far more broadly than by PTSD symptoms, and re cognition given to the contextual influences of being a torture survivor, including as an asylum seeker or refugee, on psychological and social health
Smooth muscle hyperplasia due to loss of smooth muscle α-actin is driven by activation of focal adhesion kinase, altered p53 localization and increased levels of platelet-derived growth factor receptor-β
Mutations in ACTA2, encoding the smooth muscle cell (SMC)-specific isoform of α-actin (α-SMA), cause thoracic aortic aneurysms and dissections and occlusive vascular diseases, including early onset coronary artery disease and stroke. We have shown that occlusive arterial lesions in patients with heterozygous ACTA2 missense mutations show increased numbers of medial or neointimal SMCs. The contribution of SMC hyperplasia to these vascular diseases and the pathways responsible for linking disruption of α-SMA filaments to hyperplasia are unknown. Here, we show that the loss of Acta2 in mice recapitulates the SMC hyperplasia observed in ACTA2 mutant SMCs and determine the cellular pathways responsible for SMC hyperplasia. Acta2−/− mice showed increased neointimal formation following vascular injury in vivo, and SMCs explanted from these mice demonstrated increased proliferation and migration. Loss of α-SMA induced hyperplasia through focal adhesion (FA) rearrangement, FA kinase activation, re-localization of p53 from the nucleus to the cytoplasm and increased expression and ligand-independent activation of platelet-derived growth factor receptor beta (Pdgfr-β). Disruption of α-SMA in wild-type SMCs also induced similar cellular changes. Imatinib mesylate inhibited Pdgfr-β activation and Acta2−/− SMC proliferation in vitro and neointimal formation with vascular injury in vivo. Loss of α-SMA leads to SMC hyperplasia in vivo and in vitro through a mechanism involving FAK, p53 and Pdgfr-β, supporting the hypothesis that SMC hyperplasia contributes to occlusive lesions in patients with ACTA2 missense mutation
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