The Maristán stigma scale: a standardized international measure of the stigma of schizophrenia and other psychoses

Background: People with schizophrenia face prejudice and discrimination from a number of sources including professionals and families. The degree of stigma perceived and experienced varies across cultures and communities. We aimed to develop a cross-cultural measure of the stigma perceived by people with schizophrenia.Method: Items for the scale were developed from qualitative group interviews with people with schizophrenia in six countries. The scale was then applied in face-to-face interviews with 164 participants, 103 of which were repeated after 30 days. Principal Axis Factoring and Promax rotation evaluated the structure of the scale; Horn’s parallel combined with bootstrapping determined the number of factors; and intra-class correlation assessed test-retest reliability.Results: The final scale has 31 items and four factors: informal social networks, socio-institutional, health professionals and self-stigma. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.84 for the Factor 1; 0.81 for Factor 2; 0.74 for Factor 3, and 0.75 for Factor 4. Correlation matrix among factors revealed that most were in the moderate range [0.31-0.49], with the strongest occurring between perception of stigma in the informal network and self-stigma and there was also a weaker correlation between stigma from health professionals and self-stigma. Test-retest reliability was highest for informal networks [ICC 0.76 [0.67 -0.83]] and self-stigma [ICC 0.74 [0.64-0.81]]. There were no significant differences in the scoring due to sex or age. Service users in Argentina had the highest scores in almost all dimensions.Conclusions: The MARISTAN stigma scale is a reliable measure of the stigma of schizophrenia and related psychoses across several cultures. A confirmatory factor analysis is needed to assess the stability of its factor structure.We are also grateful for support from the Pan-American Health Office (PAHO), Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust and University College London (UCL)

Response of macrofauna to drifting tidal sediments

The effect of hydrodynamically-mobilized sediment on abundance and vertical distribution of macrobenthic fauna was studied in Königshafen, a sheltered tidal bay at the northern end of the Island of Sylt (North Sea). Sediment drift tended to increase from high towards low tide level, while abundance of nearly all species decreased (with the polychaeteSpio filicornis as a notable exception). To test whether this decrease could be attributed to water currents affecting sediment stability, experimental flumes with funnels at both ends were set up to enhance sediment mobility by increasing tidal current velocities. Abundance and vertical distribution of fauna inside and outside the flumes were compared. Responses of individual species depended on their vertical position in the sediment, and resembled those observed along the gradient of sediment drift between high and low tide levels. Mainly juveniles ofPygospio elegans, Scoloplos armiger, Hydrobia ulvae andMacoma balthica, and the small polychaeteMicrophthalmus sczelkowii were washed out of the sediment. No effect of increased erosion inside the flume was found on the numbers ofCapitella capitata and the oligochaetesTubificoides benedii andT. pseudogaster. These oligochaetes probably migrated downwards with increasing erosion in the flumes. Numbers decreased in the upper cm and tended to increase below. A storm had a similar effect on oligochaete vertical distribution, while under conditions of permanently high sediment mobility near low tide level, these species were rare or absent. It is concluded that even under sheltered conditions, differential degrees of sediment mobility may have effects on the zonation of the tidal flat macrofauna

Synthesis and characterization of a series of bis(oxo/thiophosphinic)diamido yttrium complexes and their application as initiators for lactide ring-opening polymerization

The syntheses, structures, and lactide polymerization initiation are reported for a series of novel [{N,N'-1,3-bis(P,P'-di-isopropyloxophosphinic)-2,2-dimethylpropylenediamido}(amido)yttrium] complexes and contrasted with [{N,N'-1,3-bis(P,P'-di-isopropylthiophosphinic)-2,2-dimethylamido}{bis(trimethylsilyl)-amido}yttrium]. The syntheses of the novel [{N,N'-1,3-bis(P,P'-di-isopropyloxo/thiophosphinic)-2,2-dimethylpropylenediamido}(amido)yttrium] complexes were achieved in excellent yields by reaction of the N,N'-1,3-bis(P,P'-di-isopropyloxo/thiophosphinic)-2,2-dimethylpropylenediamine ligands with [Y(NR(2))(3)center dot xTHF] (R = SiMe(3), SiMe(2)H, i-Pr, x = 0, 2). The new complexes were characterized by NMR and IR spectroscopies, elemental analyses, and for R = SiMe(2)H X-ray crystallography. The solution and solid-state structures were compared using 21) NMR techniques and in particular using pulsed gradient spin echo spectroscopy (PGSE) to derive the solution hydrodynamic radius and compare it to that calculated from the X-ray crystal structure: the [{N,N'-bis(P,P'-di-isopropyloxophosphinic)-2,2-dimethylpropylenediamido}(amido)yttrium] complexes were all dimeric in both the solid state and solution. They showed unusual structures where each ligand has one oxophosphinic group bonded to a single yttrium center and one oxophosphinic group bonded to two yttrium centers. The new complexes were tested as lactide polymerization initiators; they all showed very high activities. The degree of polymerization control exerted by the novel initiators was related to the size of the initiating amide group and the structure of the complex

H 2

Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) show that deposition of water molecules onto epitaxial graphene on Ir(111) leads to the formation of an extended and well ordered array of amorphous water clusters. We trace the evolution of this cluster phase as dependent on water exposure and deposition temperature. The formation of separated clusters is due to binding energy differences within the moire superstructure