Student health professionals' attitudes and experience after watching 'Ida's diary', a first-person account of living with borderline personality disorder:mixed methods study

BACKGROUND: There is increasing interest in the use of commercial movies in nursing education, or 'cinenurducation'. There is a need for educational interventions which target mental health nurses' attitudes towards people with borderline personality disorder.OBJECTIVES: To investigate and evaluate the experience and effects of attendance at a screening of the movie Ida’s Diary, a first-person account of living with borderline personality disorder.DESIGN: Mixed methods design comprising a within-subjects AB longitudinal survey, and a qualitative analysis of participant-generated data and researcher field notes from a World Ca-fé discussion group.SETTINGS: One university in Scotland.PARTICIPANTS: N=66 undergraduate and postgraduate mental health nursing and coun-selling students.METHODS: Participants completed measures of cognitive and emotional attitudes towards, and knowledge about, people with borderline personality disorder before and after one of two film screenings. We conducted a World Café discussion group after the second screen-ing. Resulting data were subject to a qualitative thematic analysis.RESULTS: Quantitative analysis revealed a five-factor cognitive and a single-factor emo-tional attitude structure. Cognitive-attitudinal items related to treatment deservingness and value of mixed treatment approaches improved across iterations. Total knowledge score did not change, but one item about borderline personality disorder as a precursor to schizophrenia received considerably more incorrect endorsement post-screening. Qualitative analysis re-vealed five themes: Facilitation and inhibition of learning; promotion but not satiation of appe-tite for knowledge; challenging existing understanding; prompting creativity and anxiety; and initiating thinking about the bigger picture.CONCLUSIONS: Participants found the film thought provoking; it increased their appetite for knowledge. Findings suggest that screening should be delivered in conjunction with more didactic information about borderline personality disorder

The point of maximum curvature as a marker for physiological time series

We present a geometric analysis of the model of Stirling. In particular we analyze the curvature of a heart rate time series in response to a step like increment in the exercise intensity. We present solutions for the point of maximum curvature which can be used as a marker of physiological interest. This marker defines the point after which the heart rate no longer continues to rapidly rise and instead follows either a steady state or slow rise. These methods are then applied to find analytic solutions for a mono exponential model which is commonly used in the literature to model the response to a moderate exercise intensity. Numerical solutions are then found for the full model and parameter values presented in Stirling

Mixed methods evaluation of an educational intervention to change mental health nurses' attitudes to people diagnosed with borderline personality disorder

Aims and objectives: To evaluate and explore mental health nurses’ responses to and experience of an educational intervention to improve attitudes towards people with a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder. Report findings are concordant with relevant EQUATOR guidelines (STROBE and COREQ).Background: Attitudes towards people with a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder are poorer than for people with other diagnoses. There is limited evidence about what might improve this situation. One intervention with reportedly good effect uses an underlying biosocial model of borderline personality disorder. No previous intervention has been co-produced with an expert-by-experience. We developed and delivered a 1-day intervention comprising these elements.Design: A mixed-methods design was used comprising prospective uncontrolled cohort intervention and qualitative elements. Participants were mental health nursing staff working in inpatient and community settings in one NHS Board in Scotland, UK.Methods: Measurement of cognitive and emotional attitudes to people with a borderline personality diagnosis at pre- and post- intervention (N =28) and at 4-month follow-up. Focus groups were used to explore participants’ experiences of the intervention (N =11).Results: Quantitative evaluation revealed some sustained changes consistent with expected attitudinal gains in relation to the perceived treatment characteristics of this group, the perception of their suicidal tendencies, and negative attitudes in general. Qualitative findings revealed some hostility towards the underpinning biosocial model and positive appreciation for the involvement of an expert-by-experience. Conclusions: Sustained benefits of an educational intervention for people working with people diagnosed with BPD in some but not all areas. Participants provided contrasting messages about what they think will be useful.Relevance to clinical practice: The study provides further evidence for incorporation of a biosocial model into staff training as well as the benefits of expert-by-experience co-production. Mental health nurses, however, believe that more well-resourced services are the key to improving care. <br/

Possible Effects of Climate Warming on Selected Populations of Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) in the Canadian Arctic

Polar bears depend on sea ice for survival. Climate warming in the Arctic has caused significant declines in total cover and thickness of sea ice in the polar basin and progressively earlier breakup in some areas. Inuit hunters in the areas of four polar bear populations in the eastern Canadian Arctic (including Western Hudson Bay) have reported seeing more bears near settlements during the open-water period in recent years. In a fifth ecologically similar population, no changes have yet been reported by Inuit hunters. These observations, interpreted as evidence of increasing population size, have resulted in increases in hunting quotas. However, long-term data on the population size and body condition of polar bears in Western Hudson Bay, as well as population and harvest data from Baffin Bay, make it clear that those two populations at least are more likely to be declining, not increasing. While the ecological details vary in the regions occupied by the five different populations discussed in this paper, analysis of passive-microwave satellite imagery beginning in the late 1970s indicates that the sea ice is breaking up at progressively earlier dates, so that bears must fast for longer periods during the open-water season. Thus, at least part of the explanation for the appearance of more bears near coastal communities and hunting camps is likely that they are searching for alternative food sources in years when their stored body fat depots may be depleted before freeze-up, when they can return to the sea ice to hunt seals again. We hypothesize that, if the climate continues to warm as projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), then polar bears in all five populations discussed in this paper will be increasingly food-stressed, and their numbers are likely to decline eventually, probably significantly so. As these populations decline, problem interactions between bears and humans will likely continue, and possibly increase, as the bears seek alternative food sources. Taken together, the data reported in this paper suggest that a precautionary approach be taken to the harvesting of polar bears and that the potential effects of climate warming be incorporated into planning for the management and conservation of this species throughout the Arctic.La survie des ours polaires dépend de la glace. Dans l’Arctique, le réchauffement climatique fait diminuer considérablement l’étendue et l’épaisseur de la glace de mer du bassin polaire et engendre une débâcle qui se produit progressivement plus tôt dans certaines régions. Ces dernières années, les chasseurs inuits des régions habitées par quatre populations d’ours polaire dans l’est de l’Arctique canadien (ce qui comprend l’ouest de la baie d’Hudson) ont signalé avoir aperçu une plus grande quantité d’ours près des agglomérations pendant la période des eaux libres. Au sein d’une cinquième population écologiquement semblable, les chasseurs inuits n’ont signalé aucun changement. Ces observations, interprétées comme des preuves de l’accroissement des populations, ont entraîné l’augmentation des quotas de chasse. Cependant, selon les données à long terme concernant l’effectif des populations et la condition physique des ours polaires de l’ouest de la baie d’Hudson, de même que les données concernant les populations et les captures de la baie de Baffin, il est clair que ces deux populations sont, à tout le moins, plus susceptibles de décliner et non pas d’augmenter. Bien que les conditions écologiques des régions visées par les cinq populations dont il est question dans cet article diffèrent, l’analyse de l’imagerie satellite à hyperfréquences passives de la fin des années 1970 laisse croire que la débâcle de la glace de mer se produit progressivement plus tôt, ce qui signifie que les ours doivent jeûner pendant plus longtemps au cours de la période des eaux libres. Par conséquent, la présence d’un plus grand nombre d’ours près des agglomérations de la côte et des camps de chasse s’explique donc en partie par le fait que les ours seraient à la recherche de sources de nourriture de rechange au cours des années où leurs dépôts de graisse s’épuisent avant la prise de la glace, moment auquel ils peuvent regagner la glace de mer pour recommencer à chasser les phoques. Notre hypothèse est la suivante : si le climat continue de se réchauffer, tel que projeté par le Groupe d’experts intergouvernemental sur l’évolution du climat (GIEC), les ours polaires des cinq populations dont il est question dans ce document ressentiront de plus en plus les effets de la privation d’aliments, ce qui engendrera leur déclin, probablement de manière considérable. Au fur et à mesure que ces populations chuteront, les interactions entre les ours et les êtres humains continueront vraisemblablement d’être problématiques, au point même de s’intensifier car les ours seront à la recherche de nouvelles sources de nourriture. Prises ensemble, les données précisées dans ce document laissent supposer qu’il y a lieu d’adopter des mesures de précaution en matière de capture des ours polaires et que les effets éventuels du réchauffement du climat devraient être intégrés à la planification de la gestion et de la conservation de cette espèce à la grandeur de l’Arctique

Anomalous quartic WWgamma gamma, ZZgamma gamma, and trilinear WWgamma couplings in two-photon processes at high luminosity at the LHC

We study the W/Z pair production via two-photon exchange at the LHC and give the sensitivities on trilinear and quartic gauge anomalous couplings between photons and W/Z bosons for an integrated luminosity of 30 and 200 fb^{-1}. For simplicity and to obtain lower backgrounds, only the leptonic decays of the electroweak bosons are considered.Comment: 22 pages, 17 figures, sumitted to Phys. Rev.