Effectiveness of cognitive remediation for female inmates: a pilot study

There is considerable evidence that neurocognitive deficits are frequent among incarcerated offenders. However, current correctional programming does not directly seek to remediate deficits in offenders’ neurocognitive deficits. In this pilot project, we sought to treat neurocognitive deficits in incarcerated Portuguese adult women offenders (n = 28) using cognitive remediation to target cognitive flexibility, memory, and planning. Statistically significant positive changes, with medium to large effect sizes, were discovered across several neurocognitive domains, including attention, speed of processing, verbal learning and memory, cognitive flexibility, and planning. We also found a decrease in the negative emotional states of depression, anxiety, tension/stress, and on disturbed behavior in prison. Cognitive remediation has the potential to enhance the neurocognitive functioning of incarcerated women. Controlled research is needed to establish cognitive remediation fully as an intervention for the treatment of neurocognitive deficits of incarcerated women.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Assessing uncertainties in estimating surface energy fluxes from remote sensing over natural grasslands in Brazil

Evapotranspiration (ET) is one of the main fluxes in the global water cycle. As the Brazilian Pampa biome carries a rich biodiversity, accurate information on the ET dynamics is essential to support its proper monitoring and establish conservation strategies. In this context, we assessed an operational methodology based on the Simplified Surface Energy Balance Index (S-SEBI) model to estimate energy fluxes over the natural grasslands of the Pampa between 2014 and 2019. The S-SEBI is an ET model that requires a minimum of meteorological inputs and has demonstrated reasonable accuracy worldwide. Therefore, we investigated the model performance considering radiation data from both ERA5 reanalysis and Eddy Covariance measurements from a flux tower. Furthermore, comparisons from satellite-based estimates with in situ measurements were performed with and without energy balance closure (EBC). Results indicated that the meteorological inputs have low sensitivity on daily ET estimates from the S-SEBI model. In contrast, the instantaneous energy balance components are more affected. The strong seasonality impacts the evaporative fraction, which is more evident in late summer and autumn and may compromise the performance of the model in the biome. The effects in the daily ET are lower when in situ data without EBC are considered as ground truth. However, they are less correlated with the remote sensing-based estimates. These insights are useful to monitor water and energy fluxes from local to regional scale and provide the opportunity to capture ET trends over the natural grasslands of the Pampa

Mindfulness Training Improves Quality of Life and Reduces Depression and Anxiety Symptoms Among Police Officers: Results From the POLICE Study—A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Police officers'' high-stress levels and its deleterious consequences are raising awareness to an epidemic of mental health problems and quality of life (QoL) impairment. There is a growing evidence that mindfulness-based interventions are efficacious to promote mental health and well-being among high-stress occupations. Methods: The POLICE study is a multicenter randomized controlled trial (RCT) with three assessment points (baseline, post-intervention, and 6-month follow-up) where police officers were randomized to mindfulness-based health promotion (MBHP) (n = 88) or a waiting list (n = 82). This article focuses on QoL, depression and anxiety symptoms, and religiosity outcomes. Mechanisms of change and MBHP feasibility were evaluated. Results: Significant group × time interaction was found for QoL, depression and anxiety symptoms, and non-organizational religiosity. Between-group analysis showed that MBHP group exhibited greater improvements in QoL, and depression and anxiety symptoms at both post-intervention (QoL d = 0.69 to 1.01; depression d = 0.97; anxiety d = 0.73) and 6-month follow-up (QoL d = 0.41 to 0.74; depression d = 0.60; anxiety d = 0.51), in addition to increasing non-organizational religiosity at post-intervention (d = 0.31). Changes on self-compassion mediated the relationship between group and pre-to-post changes for all QoL domains and facets. Group effect on QoL overall health facet at post-intervention was moderated by mindfulness trait and spirituality changes. Conclusion: MBHP is feasible and efficacious to improve QoL, and depression and anxiety symptoms among Brazilian officers. Results were maintained after 6 months. MBHP increased non-organizational religiosity, although the effect was not sustained 6 months later. To our knowledge, this is the first mindfulness-based intervention RCT to empirically demonstrate these effects among police officers. Self-compassion, mindfulness trait, and spirituality mechanisms of change are examined. Clinical Trial Registration: www.ClinicalTrials.gov. identifier: NCT03114605.

ÍNDICES PROLIFERATIVOS DO TUMOR VENÉREO CANINO TRANSMISSÍVEL PELAS TÉCNICAS DO CEC E KI-67 NA CITOLOGIA ASPIRATIVA COM AGULHA FINA

A citologia aspirativa com agulha fina (CAAF) foi usada como método de colheita de quinze amostras de tumor venéreo transmissível (TVT)em cães, oriundos do atendimento do Hospital Veterinário-FMVZ-UNESP de Botucatu, antes e após o início da quimioterapia. As amostras citológicas foram submetidas ao cálculo do índice mitótico e à avaliação de índices de proliferação por métodos citoquímico (concentração eletrolítica crítica CEC) e imunocitoquímico (Ki-67, clone MIB-1). Todas as técnicas mostraram-se adequadas para avaliar a taxa proliferativa em amostras citológicas. O CEC permitiu observar que a aplicação do quimioterápico levou a uma redução significativa da proliferação celular. Em vista disso, conclui-se que essa metodologia pode ser aplicada para diagnosticar e monitorar o TVT. Proliferation indexes determination by CEC and Ki-67 in fine needle aspiration cytology of transmissible venereal tumor Abstract Fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) was used to collect fifteen transmissible venereal tumor (TVT) samples from dogs at the Veterinary Hospital - FMVZ - UNESP Botucatu, São Paulo, Brazil, before and after beginning of chemotherapy. The cytological samples were submitted to determination of mitotic and proliferation indexes by means of cytochemical (critical electrolyte concentration CEC) and immunocytochemical (Ki-67, MIB-1 clone) methods. All the techniques were adequate for the evaluation of proliferation rates displayed by the cytological samples. The CEC allowed the observation that chemotherapy induces to significant reduction in cellular proliferation. Thus, was concluded that this methodology is suitable to perform TVT diagnosis and monitoration

Green function techniques in the treatment of quantum transport at the molecular scale

The theoretical investigation of charge (and spin) transport at nanometer length scales requires the use of advanced and powerful techniques able to deal with the dynamical properties of the relevant physical systems, to explicitly include out-of-equilibrium situations typical for electrical/heat transport as well as to take into account interaction effects in a systematic way. Equilibrium Green function techniques and their extension to non-equilibrium situations via the Keldysh formalism build one of the pillars of current state-of-the-art approaches to quantum transport which have been implemented in both model Hamiltonian formulations and first-principle methodologies. We offer a tutorial overview of the applications of Green functions to deal with some fundamental aspects of charge transport at the nanoscale, mainly focusing on applications to model Hamiltonian formulations.Comment: Tutorial review, LaTeX, 129 pages, 41 figures, 300 references, submitted to Springer series "Lecture Notes in Physics

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters

Measurement of the inclusive isolated prompt photon cross-section in pp collisions at sqrt(s)= 7 TeV using 35 pb-1 of ATLAS data

A measurement of the differential cross-section for the inclusive production of isolated prompt photons in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV is presented. The measurement covers the pseudorapidity ranges |eta|<1.37 and 1.52<=|eta|<2.37 in the transverse energy range 45<=E_T<400GeV. The results are based on an integrated luminosity of 35 pb-1, collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The yields of the signal photons are measured using a data-driven technique, based on the observed distribution of the hadronic energy in a narrow cone around the photon candidate and the photon selection criteria. The results are compared with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations and found to be in good agreement over four orders of magnitude in cross-section.Comment: 7 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 4 tables, final version published in Physics Letters