Early adversity, early psychosis and mediating factors

The study aimed to investigate childhood adversity in a sample of clients with first-episode psychosis. The mediating impact of dissociation and early maladaptive schemas and moderating effect of social support were investigated. The study (N = 42) assessed childhood adversity using the Parental Bonding Instrument and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Early Maladaptive Schema were measured using the Young Schema Questionnaire (Short form), the Dissociative Experiences Scale (2nd Edition) measured Dissociation and the Social Support Questionnaire assessed the quality and size of each participant’s social network. Correlational, mediation and moderation analyses were used. There were high levels of childhood adversity within this sample. Dissociation did not mediate the relationship between childhood adversity and psychosis. Some early maladaptive schemas concerned with unrelenting standards and insufficient self-control mediated the relationship between adversity and psychosis, in particular hallucinations. Social support, in terms of both quality and quantity was an important moderator between childhood adversity and psychosis. The study supports the notion that childhood adversity is a risk factor for psychosis and highlights some evidence about specific mediating and moderating mechanisms

Some genus 3 curves with many points

Using an explicit family of plane quartic curves, we prove the existence of a genus 3 curve over any finite field of characteristic 3 whose number of rational points stays within a fixed distance from the Hasse-Weil-Serre upper bound. We also provide an intrinsic characterization of so-called Legendre elliptic curves

A review of water quality issues influencing the habitat quality in dugong protection areas

In August 1997, the Commonwealth and Queensland Governments established 16 coastal Dugong Protection Areas (DPAs) to reduce the threat of mesh nets to dugongs (Dugong dugon). The DPAs are situated in the Central and Mackay/Capricorn Sections of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP) and the Hervey Bay–Great Sandy Strait region (Figure 1), and were enacted by Regulation No. 11 (1997) under the Queensland Fisheries Act 1994 and the Nature Conservation (Dugong) Conservation Plan 1999 under the Nature Conservation Act 1992. The establishment of DPAs was considered the key strategy to address the rapid decline of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) dugong population south of Cooktown

Report on status and trends of water quality and ecosystem health in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area

Contributors: Rob Coles, Steve Delean, Miles Furnas, Len McKenzie, Munro Mortimer, Jochen Muller, Andrew Negri, Hugh Sweatman and Angus Thompson