Aspects of cognitive activity in schizophrenia

The application of Piaget's genetic psychology tests to schizophrenic patients yielded the following findings. The intelligence quotient of schizophrenics, although within the normal range, is slightly lower than that of a control population of similar age. This is due not to a loss of the operations of the intellect, but to a difficulty experienced by the patients in actualizing the operations. The difficulty is seen particularly in operations dealing with specific objects which require a constant maintenance of the equilibrium between assimilation and accommodation. The thought processes of hebephrenic patients oscillate between excessive assimilation, resulting in a distortion of observable data, and excessive accommodation which by adhering to the observable data distorts the reasoning process. The thought processes of paranoid schizophrenics are dominated by excessive assimilation. This predominance explains their tendency to distort observable data and their difficulty in the generalization of reasoning; it also has an impact on the assimilation/accommodation equilibrium of their logical operations, leading to (a) difficulties in delimiting reflecting abstractions, and therefore the comprehension and extension of concepts, and (b) loss of proof based on logico-mathematical reasoning and, as a result, a propensity to resort to magical thinking and subjective explanation

Rickettsia mongolotimonae: a rare pathogen in France.

We report a second case of laboratory-confirmed infection caused by Rickettsia mongolotimonae in Marseille, France. This rickettsiosis may represent a new clinical entity; moreover, its geographic distribution may be broader than previously documented. This pathogen should be systematically considered in the differential diagnosis of atypical rickettsioses, especially rashless fevers with lymphangitis and lymphadenopathy, in southern France and perhaps elsewhere

A general moment NRIXS approach to the determination of equilibrium Fe isotopic fractionation factors: application to goethite and jarosite

We measured the reduced partition function ratios for iron isotopes in goethite FeO(OH), potassium-jarosite KFe3(SO4)2(OH)6, and hydronium-jarosite (H3O)Fe3(SO4)2(OH)6, by Nuclear Resonant Inelastic X-Ray Scattering (NRIXS, also known as Nuclear Resonance Vibrational Spectroscopy -NRVS- or Nuclear Inelastic Scattering -NIS) at the Advanced Photon Source. These measurements were made on synthetic minerals enriched in 57Fe. A new method (i.e., the general moment approach) is presented to calculate {\beta}-factors from the moments of the NRIXS spectrum S(E). The first term in the moment expansion controls iron isotopic fractionation at high temperature and corresponds to the mean force constant of the iron bonds, a quantity that is readily measured and often reported in NRIXS studies.Comment: 38 pages, 2 tables, 8 figures. In press at Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. Appendix C contains new derivations relating the moments of the iron PDOS to the moments of the excitation probability function measured in Nuclear Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scatterin

Investigation into factors associated with the provision of effective education for children with autistic spectrum disorders

This thesis investigates the factors associated with provision of education for children with autism spectrum disorders. The child is at the centre of this investigation, as the issues and constraints clearly impact on the quality of the provision delivered. Educational provision for children with autism also affects families and social agencies. The family is usually first to recognise that their child is not developing as he or she should. Typically, a diagnosis of autism or autistic spectrum disorder leads the family to the LEA in an effort to get the child's educational needs met within a school setting. Improvement in educational provision for children can only be obtained when it is based on research in this area. This is especially true for the case of children diagnosed with autism, as research is limited. What research does exist focuses on specific methodologies or proposed causes, and does not explore the effects that appropriate provision has on a child. To aid this thesis, systems theory has been employed to explore the tensions and dilemmas that exist. This ecosystemic approach is useful when teasing apart the influences both proximal and distal that benefit the child's educational experience. These influences can come from the school, home, LEA or the interactions between and among these partners. This study will examine these influences. Through the use of a case study, the researcher observed a school during its day-to-day implementation of educational provision. In addition, the views of an LEA and parents were sought through the use of interviews and a survey. The main research findings showed several factors as having influence on the child in regards to educational provision. Investigation into a school showed the difficulties associated with putting provision into practice. When faced with severe staffing shortages, absence of active leadership,, and extreme behavioural problems of the children, teaching activity was thwarted. Survey results revealed the difficulties faced by parents in securing provision. Parents reported high levels of stress that this research correlated to longer waiting times, late diagnosis, type of provision, and guidance from specialists. Significant also, was the finding that survey parents reported a statistically significant decrease in the age of diagnosis of the children. Significant findings revealed through LEA interviews found that although striving to work with families, efforts were frustrated by increasing numbers of children, limitations on the number of children accepted into favoured placements, and parental self imposed restrictions on placement choice. Lastly, this research proposed several key suggestions based on the literature review and the research undertaken to improve and promote best practice in the agreement, allocation and enactment of educational provision.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Developments in PF-HPLC (pneumatic-fluoropolymer high performance liquid chromatography)

Return missions are providing unique opportunities to deepen our knowledge of the formation and evolution of the solar system. The six Apollo missions have been critical in shaping our understanding of the Earth-Moon history [1], and the recent Genesis (solar wind; e.g., [2]), Stardust (cometary dust from Wild 2; e.g., [3,4]) and Hayabusa (dust from S-type asteroid from Itokawa; e.g., [5]) missions brought in a wealth of data

The REE isotopic compositions of the Earth

Lanthanides are a group of 14 naturally occurring elements with atomic numbers ranging from 57 (La) to 74 (Lu), which are also known as rare earth elements (REE). REEs are ubiquitous in minerals and rocks. The chemical properties of REEs vary as smooth functions of their atomic numbers, a phenomenon known as the contraction of the lanthanides. This is the main control behind REE fractionation in minerals and rocks. The relative abundance of REEs is usually presented as the REE pattern by normalizing the concentrations in the sample to those in reference materials such as chondrites and shales

Natural language processing for mimicking clinical trial recruitment in critical care: a semi-automated simulation based on the LeoPARDS trial

Clinical trials often fail to recruit an adequate number of appropriate patients. Identifying eligible trial participants is resource-intensive when relying on manual review of clinical notes, particularly in critical care settings where the time window is short. Automated review of electronic health records (EHR) may help, but much of the information is in free text rather than a computable form. We applied natural language processing (NLP) to free text EHR data using the CogStack platform to simulate recruitment into the LeoPARDS study, a clinical trial aiming to reduce organ dysfunction in septic shock. We applied an algorithm to identify eligible patients using a moving 1-hour time window, and compared patients identified by our approach with those actually screened and recruited for the trial, for the time period that data were available. We manually reviewed records of a random sample of patients identified by the algorithm but not screened in the original trial. Our method identified 376 patients, including 34 patients with EHR data available who were actually recruited to LeoPARDS in our centre. The sensitivity of CogStack for identifying patients screened was 90% (95% CI 85%, 93%). Of the 203 patients identified by both manual screening and CogStack, the index date matched in 95 (47%) and CogStack was earlier in 94 (47%). In conclusion, analysis of EHR data using NLP could effectively replicate recruitment in a critical care trial, and identify some eligible patients at an earlier stage, potentially improving trial recruitment if implemented in real time