Feasibility of Group Schema Therapy for Outpatients with Severe Borderline Personality Disorder in Germany:A Pilot Study with Three Year Follow-Up

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a severe, challenging to treat mental disorder. Schema therapy (ST) as an individual therapy has been proven to be an effective psychological treatment for BPD. A group format of ST (GST) has been developed and evaluated in a randomized controlled trial in the United States and piloted in The Netherlands. These results suggest that GST speeds up and amplifies treatment effects of ST and might reduce delivery costs. However, feasibility in the German health care system and with BPD patients with high BPD severity and comorbidity, and frequent hospitalization, has not been tested to date. We investigated GST in 10 severely impaired, highly comorbid female patients with BPD, that needed frequent hospital admission. Patients received an outpatient ST-treatment program with weekly group and individual sessions for 1 year. Outcome measures including BPD severity, general psychopathology, psychosocial functioning, quality of life, happiness, schemas, and modes, and days of hospitalization were assessed at the start of treatment and 6, 12, and 36 months later with semi-structured interviews and self-report measures. We observed significant decreases in severity of BPD symptoms, general symptom severity, dysfunctional BPD-specific modes and schemas, and days of hospitalization. Functional modes, quality of live and happiness improved. The results of this feasibility study are promising and encourage further implementation of ST outpatient treatment programs even for patients with severe BPD and high hospitalization risk. However, small sample size and the missing of a control group do not allow the generalizability of these findings

Universities and community-based research in developing countries: community voice and educational provision in rural Tanzania

The main focus of recent research on the community engagement role of universities has been in developed countries, generally in towns and cities and usually conducted from the perspectives of universities rather than the communities with which they engage. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the community engagement role of universities in the rural areas of developing countries, and its potential for strengthening the voice of rural communities. The particular focus is on the provision of primary and secondary education. The paper is based on the assumption that in order for community members to have both the capacity and the confidence to engage in political discourse for improving educational capacity and quality, they need the opportunity to become involved and well-versed in the options available, beyond their own experience. Particular attention is given in the paper to community-based research (CBR). CBR is explored from the perspectives of community members and local leaders in the government-community partnerships which have responsibility for the provision of primary and secondary education in rural Tanzania. The historical and policy background of the partnerships, together with findings from two case studies, provide the context for the paper

Imaging findings in craniofacial childhood rhabdomyosarcoma

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is the commonest paediatric soft-tissue sarcoma constituting 3–5% of all malignancies in childhood. RMS has a predilection for the head and neck area and tumours in this location account for 40% of all childhood RMS cases. In this review we address the clinical and imaging presentations of craniofacial RMS, discuss the most appropriate imaging techniques, present characteristic imaging features and offer an overview of differential diagnostic considerations. Post-treatment changes will be briefly addressed

Association of the CHEK2 c.1100delC variant, radiotherapy, and systemic treatment with contralateral breast cancer risk and breast cancer-specific survival

Background: Breast cancer (BC) patients with a germline CHEK2 c.1100delC variant have an increased risk of contralateral BC (CBC) and worse BC-specific survival (BCSS) compared to non-carriers.Aim: To assessed the associations of CHEK2 c.1100delC, radiotherapy, and systemic treatment with CBC risk and BCSS.Methods: Analyses were based on 82,701 women diagnosed with a first primary invasive BC including 963 CHEK2 c.1100delC carriers; median follow-up was 9.1 years. Differential associations with treatment by CHEK2 c.1100delC status were tested by including interaction terms in a multivariable Cox regression model. A multi-state model was used for further insight into the relation between CHEK2 c.1100delC status, treatment, CBC risk and death. Results: There was no evidence for differential associations of therapy with CBC risk by CHEK2 c.1100delC status. The strongest association with reduced CBC risk was observed for the combination of chemotherapy and endocrine therapy [HR (95% CI): 0.66 (0.55-0.78)]. No association was observed with radiotherapy.Results from the multi-state model showed shorter BCSS for CHEK2 c.1100delC carriers versus non-carriers also after accounting for CBC occurrence [HR (95% CI): 1.30 (1.09-1.56)].Conclusion: Systemic therapy was associated with reduced CBC risk irrespective of CHEK2 c.1100delC status. Moreover, CHEK2 c.1100delC carriers had shorter BCSS, which appears not to be fully explained by their CBC risk.Peer reviewe

Search for resonances in the mass spectrum of muon pairs produced in association with b quark jets in proton-proton collisions at root 8 and 13 TeV

A search for resonances in the mass range 12-70 GeV produced in association with a b quark jet and a second jet, and decaying to a muon pair, is reported. The analysis is based on data from proton-proton collisions at center-of-mass energies of 8 and 13 TeV, collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponding to integrated luminosities of 19.7 and 35.9 fb(-1), respectively. The search is carried out in two mutually exclusive event categories. Events in the first category are required to have a b quark jet in the central region (|| 2.4) and at least one jet in the forward region (|| > 2.4). Events in the second category are required to have two jets in the central region, at least one of which is identified as a b quark jet, no jets in the forward region, and low missing transverse momentum. An excess of events above the background near a dimuon mass of 28 GeV is observed in the 8 TeV data, corresponding to local significances of 4.2 and 2.9 standard deviations for the first and second event categories, respectively. A similar analysis conducted with the 13 TeV data results in a mild excess over the background in the first event category corresponding to a local significance of 2.0 standard deviations, while the second category results in a 1.4 standard deviation deficit. The fiducial cross section measurements and 95% confidence level upper limits on those for a resonance consistent with the 8 TeV excess are provided at both collision energies

Characterisation of irradiated thin silicon sensors for the CMS phase II pixel upgrade

The high luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider, foreseen for 2026, necessitates the replacement of the CMS experiment's silicon tracker. The innermost layer of the new pixel detector will be exposed to severe radiation, corresponding to a 1 MeV neutron equivalent fluence of up to Phi(eq) = 2x10(16) cm(-2), and an ionising dose of approximate to 5 MGy after an integrated luminosity of 3000 fb(-1). Thin, planar silicon sensors are good candidates for this application, since the degradation of the signal produced by traversing particles is less severe than for thicker devices. In this paper, the results obtained from the characterisation of 100 and 200 mu m thick p-bulk pad diodes and strip sensors irradiated up to fluences of Phi(eq) = 1.3 x 10(16) cm(-2) are shown.Peer reviewe

The CMS Phase-1 pixel detector upgrade

The CMS detector at the CERN LHC features a silicon pixel detector as its innermost subdetector. The original CMS pixel detector has been replaced with an upgraded pixel system (CMS Phase-1 pixel detector) in the extended year-end technical stop of the LHC in 2016/2017. The upgraded CMS pixel detector is designed to cope with the higher instantaneous luminosities that have been achieved by the LHC after the upgrades to the accelerator during the first long shutdown in 2013–2014. Compared to the original pixel detector, the upgraded detector has a better tracking performance and lower mass with four barrel layers and three endcap disks on each side to provide hit coverage up to an absolute value of pseudorapidity of 2.5. This paper describes the design and construction of the CMS Phase-1 pixel detector as well as its performance from commissioning to early operation in collision data-taking.Peer reviewe