Construction Industry Training Fund Act, 1993, No. 17

This study examined ‘Theory of Mind’ (ToM) functioning, its association with psychometric schizotypy and with self-reported psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) and depressive symptoms, in a community sample of adolescents. Seventy-two adolescents (mean age 14.51 years) from Barcelona, Spain, completed questionnaires assessing PLEs, depressive symptoms, and schizotypy. A verbal ToM task and a vocabulary test were administered. The effect of symptomatology, vocabulary ability, age, and gender on task performance was explored. Neither total score on schizotypy nor PLEs were associated with ToM performance. A significant effect of vocabulary on adolescent's performance of both ToM and control stories was found. ToM showed significant negative associations with positive schizotypy, and with one cluster of positive PLEs: first-rank experiences. Positive significant associations between ToM and persecutory delusions and the impulsive aspects of schizotypy were found. Depressive symptoms did not affect ToM performance. Positive schizotypal traits and first-rank symptoms are associated with ToM deficits in adolescents. Results support the trait-(versus state-) dependent notion of ToM impairments in schizophrenia. ToM may be a developmental impairment associated with positive schizotypy and PLEs

Perceived needs and health-related quality of life in people with schizophrenia and metabolic syndrome : a "real-world" study

The complexity of schizophrenia lies in the combination of psychiatric, somatic and social needs requiring care. The aim of the study was to compare perceived needs between groups with absence/presence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and to analyze the relationship between needs, health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and MetS in people with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. A "real-world" cross-sectional study was set up with a comprehensive framework including the following, needs for care (Camberwell Assessment of Need Interview [CAN]), HRQoL (Euro Qol-5D Questionnaire), sociodemographic data, lifestyle habits, psychopathology (Positive And Negative Syndrome Scale [PANSS]), global functioning (Global Assessment of Functioning Scale [GAF]), anthropometric measurements and blood test results were assessed for an outpatient sample (n = 60). The mean number of needs (given by CAN) was identified for both groups. Patients with MetS rated a higher number of needs compared to the group without this condition. Mobility problems (given by EQ-5D) were negatively associated with the number of total and unmet needs. For participants with MetS, HRQoL was related to the number of needs and unmet needs. For people with MetS, positive symptomatology score (given by PANSS) was related to the number of needs and met needs and general symptomatology was associated with total, met and unmet needs. For individuals without MetS, the global functioning score (given by GAF) was significantly inversely related with total, met and unmet needs. Needs and HRQoL, as well as general symptomatology, were related only in patients with MetS. This has implications for treatment planning at the individual and organizational levels. An analysis of both physical and mental needs could provide a starting point for the extension of facilities in the health care system in order to reach the goal of improving quality of life

Pedagogies Of Agonistic Democracy And Global Citizenship Education

The aim of this paper is to explore the possibilities of agonistic educational practices as a way to educate a critical global citizenry. This paper is based on empirical work conducted in the UK involving primary, undergraduate and postgraduate students, educators, and researchers. We invited these groups to an interactive workshop to discuss global citizenship. In devising the workshop, we drew on the work of Ruitenberg (2009) and her application of Mouffe (1999) in attempting to promote an agonistic approach to democratic education. Activities aimed at foregrounding conflict and destabilising consensus. In this paper, we critically reflect on the workshops and consider pedagogical contributions to a critical approach to global citizenship

Agonistic Controversial’ Issues As A Pedagogy For Global Citizenship Education

The aim of this paper is to explore the possibilities of using ‘agonistic’ engagement with controversial issues as a pedagogy for global citizenship education. Educating for Global Citizenship (EfGC) has been on the educational agenda since the turn of the 21st century. Internationally, global citizenship education is specifically targeted in the new United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNESCO, 2015). Some countries have been relatively resistant to this global orientated approach to citizenship education. In USA, for instance, the dominant nationalist approach has not yet been replaced for a model that consider the changing nature of citizenship in the context of globalization (Myers, 2006). But other territories (e.g. Colombia, Hong Kong) have explicitly included EfGC in the national curriculum (see Davies et al., 2017. In England, where this research took place, EfGC is not explicitly mentioned in the national curriculum, but it has driven policy and practice (Marshall, 2009, 2011). Two key agendas are emphasized: a) preparing students with knowledge and skills to be competitive in the global market, and b) fostering students’ values, particularly empathy and an orientation towards social justice. However, these two approaches are likely to undermine the roots underlying ‘global’ inequalities (Marshall, 2011). To overcome this challenge, a significant amount of scholarship has promoted a “critical” approach to EfGC which explicitly aims to expose and challenge power relations (e.g., Andreotti, 2006; Lapayese, 2003; al. et au., 2016). Within this later framework, this project aims to engage (rather than ignore) with discussions of power and conflict. Our question is, is ‘agonistic’ controversial issues a potential pedagogical approach for critical EfGC? The paper draws upon empirical data collected during and after a workshop conducted in an English university. The workshop involved undergraduate and postgraduate education students, primary students, researchers and practitioners interested in global citizenship (44 participants). In the workshop, participants were presented with controversial questions related to global citizenship. Participants were required to debate (but not to reach consensus) on these controversies. Data was collected during the workshop activity via field notes and afterwards via diaries and comments written by the participants. The objective was to examine the possibilities of this approach for democratic citizenship in education. In this paper, we first examine the theoretical and pedagogical grounds of our ‘agonistic’ approach to controversial issues. We then present the pedagogical and research method, followed by some preliminary findings and a discussion in scholarly significance

Correlations between psychometric schizotypy, scan path length, fixations on the eyes and face recognition.

Psychometric schizotypy in the general population correlates negatively with face recognition accuracy, potentially due to deficits in inhibition, social withdrawal, or eye-movement abnormalities. We report an eye-tracking face recognition study in which participants were required to match one of two faces (target and distractor) to a cue face presented immediately before. All faces could be presented with or without paraphernalia (e.g., hats, glasses, facial hair). Results showed that paraphernalia distracted participants, and that the most distracting condition was when the cue and the distractor face had paraphernalia but the target face did not, while there was no correlation between distractibility and participants' scores on the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ). Schizotypy was negatively correlated with proportion of time fixating on the eyes and positively correlated with not fixating on a feature. It was negatively correlated with scan path length and this variable correlated with face recognition accuracy. These results are interpreted as schizotypal traits being associated with a restricted scan path leading to face recognition deficits

A novel physics informed deep learning method for simulation-based modelling

In this paper, we present a brief review of the state of the art physics informed deep learning methodology and examine its applicability, limits, advantages, and disadvantages via several applications. The main advantage of this method is that it can predict the solution of the partial differential equations by using only boundary and initial conditions without the need for any training data or pre-process phase. Using physics informed neural network algorithms, it is possible to solve partial differential equations in many different problems encountered in engineering studies with a low cost and time instead of traditional numerical methodologies. A direct comparison between the initial results of the current model, analytical solutions, and computational fluid dynamics methods shows very good agreement. The proposed methodology provides a crucial basis for solution of more advance partial differential equation systems and offers a new analysis and mathematical modelling tool for aerospace application

COVAD survey 2 long-term outcomes: unmet need and protocol

Vaccine hesitancy is considered a major barrier to achieving herd immunity against COVID-19. While multiple alternative and synergistic approaches including heterologous vaccination, booster doses, and antiviral drugs have been developed, equitable vaccine uptake remains the foremost strategy to manage pandemic. Although none of the currently approved vaccines are live-attenuated, several reports of disease flares, waning protection, and acute-onset syndromes have emerged as short-term adverse events after vaccination. Hence, scientific literature falls short when discussing potential long-term effects in vulnerable cohorts. The COVAD-2 survey follows on from the baseline COVAD-1 survey with the aim to collect patient-reported data on the long-term safety and tolerability of COVID-19 vaccines in immune modulation. The e-survey has been extensively pilot-tested and validated with translations into multiple languages. Anticipated results will help improve vaccination efforts and reduce the imminent risks of COVID-19 infection, especially in understudied vulnerable groups

New Method of Simulation to Evaluate the Sensitivity to Oxidation of Lubricating Oils: An Aging Cell Coupled with Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy

International audienceThis study presents a new method for evaluating the oxidation of lubricating oils. An aging cell adapted to a Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrometer allows the continuous and direct study of the oxidative aging of base oils. During the test, oxidation bands appeared in the spectra (carbonyl bands around 1730 cm −1 ). The graphic representation of the carbonyl band modification—using a spectroscopic index—makes it possible to monitor the evolution of the lubricant composition. Comparing the oxidation constants, determined from the kinetic plots of several base oils, makes it possible to evaluate their relative sensitivity

Psychotic-like experiences and depressive symptoms in a community sample of adolescents

Purpose Studies of psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) within community samples of adolescents have explored predominantly positive experiences. There is a paucity of research examining the prevalence and correlates of negative PLEs, and whether particular subtypes of negative PLEs can be identified among the general population of adolescents. This study examined the association of both positive and negative PLEs with depressive symptoms, including detailed analysis of subtypes of positive and negative psychosis dimensions. Method A community sample of 777 adolescents (50.9% girls: mean age 14.4 years) completed a questionnaire assessing positive and negative PLEs and depressive symptoms. Results Principal component factor analysis identified four factors of positive symptoms (persecutory ideation, grandiose thinking, first-rank/hallucinatory experiences and self-referential thinking), and three factors of negative symptoms (social withdrawal, affective flattening, and avolition). Depressive symptoms were associated positively with persecutory ideation, first-rank/hallucinatory experiences, social withdrawal, and avolition, whereas grandiose thinking related negatively with depressive symptoms. Neither self-referential thinking nor affective flattening related to self-reported depression. Conclusions These findings support the view that not all types of positive and negative PLEs in adolescence are associated with depression and, therefore, they may not confer the same vulnerability for psychotic disorders