Cyberbullying victimisation and mental distress: testing the moderating role of attachment security, social support, and coping styles

Although it has been well established that cyberbullying leads to mental health problems, less is known about the factors that confer resilience to the adverse effects of cyberbullying among young people. To address this gap, adolescents aged 13–19 years (n = 476) completed a survey measuring cyberbullying victimisation, attachment styles, perceived social support, coping styles, and mental distress. Compared to non-victims, victims of cyberbullying experienced higher levels of depression and anxiety and endorsed more self-statements indicative of attachment anxiety. Peer support, security in attachment relationships, and the endorsement of positive coping strategies attenuated the positive relationship between cyberbullying victimisation and mental health difficulties. Family support did not appear to buffer adolescents from mental distress in this context. However, family support was the strongest bivariate predictor of reduced mental distress. Although peer relations should be the target of intervention programmes within school settings, the findings highlight the importance of including families in cyberbullying prevention programmes. © 2018, © 2018 SEBDA

ELECTROPHORETIC DEPOSITION OF B4C/AL CERMETS IN A 3D GEOMETRY WITH GREATER CURVATURE FOR APPLICATIONS IN ARMOR SYSTEMS

Armor technology in aircraft, vessels, vehicles, and personnel are improved by increasing performance, operational supportability, and survivability. Industrial production of armor is facilitated when coupled with a flexible and affordable manufacturing process (such as EPD). Ceramic/metal composite materials are attractive for armor applications for they combine the hardness of ceramics and the toughness of metals. Armor shaped by ceramic tiles and concave plates are in service. Yet ceramic armor is largely ‘flat’ when compared to the curvature required to provide additional protection of soldier extremities; or enable 3D geometries in air, land, and sea vehicle parts that are both functional and structural. Boron carbide is one of the lightest and hardest ceramics known. Introducing Al into the microstructure of boron carbide creates an ideal low porosity armor that is lightweight, hard, and tough. The conformal nature of the EPD process enables ceramic parts to be made that take the shape of the working electrode. High green body densities of EPD processed parts translate to less reduction in volume during sintering; thus enabling the formation of near net shaped B4C/Al cermet armor parts. These parts can then be incorporated into armor systems for increasing performance, operational supportability, and survivability of both service personnel and vehicles. We report the creation of B4C/Al cermets in simple 3D geometries produced by EPD to demonstrate how it can be used to make shaped parts of greater curvature for armor applications. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. Lawrence Livermore National Security, LL

Patient perceptions and understanding of pressure ulcer risk in the community: Empirical Research Qualitative

Aims To explore patient perceptions and understanding of their pressure ulcer risk and how information is communicated between a nurse and patient in the home setting. Design A pragmatic qualitative research design including community-dwelling patients, who were deemed at risk of developing a pressure ulcer. Methods Observation of routine interactions between nurse and patient regarding their pressure ulcer risk and semi-structured interviews with 15 community patients following the nursing interaction. Results Four key overarching themes emerged from the data analysis that were related to patient perceptions and understanding of pressure ulcer risk. These included Pressure Ulcer Awareness, Importance of Repositioning, Healthy Eating and Risk Interpretation. Conclusion Patient perception and understanding of pressure ulcer risk is different from the scientific, professional view. Patient risk perception was based on heuristics and wider personal factors and social influences. Impact The study provides important new insights into clinical practice in relation to how pressure ulcer advice and information are provided and interpreted in the community setting. Reporting Method Adhered to the Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR) Patient or Public Contribution A small selection of patients within the NHS Trust in which the research was conducted contributed to the design of the study, in particular some of the interview questions and timing

Probability distribution of the maximum of a smooth temporal signal

We present an approximate calculation for the distribution of the maximum of a smooth stationary temporal signal X(t). As an application, we compute the persistence exponent associated to the probability that the process remains below a non-zero level M. When X(t) is a Gaussian process, our results are expressed explicitly in terms of the two-time correlation function, f(t)=.Comment: Final version (1 major typo corrected; better introduction). Accepted in Phys. Rev. Let

Investigation into the behaviour and welfare of indoor-housed cats (Felis catus)

Numbers of indoor-only domestic cats are rising globally, as is literature suggesting that sickness and undesirable behaviours are more prevalent in indoor-only cats. As cats have had freedom to roam throughout most of their evolutionary timeline, understanding how cats cope in indoor-only environments is important to ensure their welfare and strong cat-owner bonds. Using surveys, this thesis explored the rationales that owners have for providing indoor-only or indoor-outdoor lifestyles, and cat or owner demographics which might be predictive of a provided lifestyle. Additionally, levels of owner-reported sickness and undesirable behaviours and hair cortisol concentration (HCC) were investigated to ascertain if differences were present between cats with these different lifestyles. Results provided evidence that problem behaviours exist in a wider variety, and/or higher intensity in indoor-only cats compared to those with unrestricted indoor-outdoor lifestyles, and that HCC levels are higher in indoor-only cats than those with outdoor access. However, this variation cannot be attributed to lifestyle alone, as fundamental differences in levels of enrichment and social intensity were found between the indoor environments of cats across indoor-only, managed indoor-outdoor and unrestricted indoor-outdoor lifestyles. In addition, cat demographic features (e.g. sex, life stage, pedigree status), were found to be significant predictors of lifestyle, and may themselves influence problem behaviours or HCC levels. Modelling highlighted a range of aspects of a cat’s environment that impact problem behaviour scores and HCC, demonstrating that lifestyle is but one aspect that can influence feline behaviour, and potentially wellbeing. Variables showed to significantly impact problem behaviour scores were not consistent between lifestyles, suggesting that owners providing different lifestyles need to take into account different considerations when caring for their cat. These findings are likely to be useful to cat welfare professionals in the production of advice and guidance for cat owners. These results also highlight the importance of lifestyle classification in future studies, given the significant differences in results observed between cats with managed indoor-outdoor lifestyles in comparison to both indoor-only and unrestricted indoor-outdoor lifestyles

Income differences in food consumption in the 1995 Australian national nutrition survey

Objective: To assess the relationships between an index of per capita income and the intake of a variety of individual foods as well as groups of food for men and women in different age groups. Design: Cross-sectional national survey of free-living men and women. Subjects: A sample of 5053 males and 5701 females aged 18 y and over who completed the Australian National Nutrition Survey 1995. Methods: Information about the frequency of consumption of 88 food items was obtained. On the basis of scores on the Food Frequency Questionnaire, regular and irregular consumers of single foods were identified. The relationships between regularity of consumption of individual foods and per capita income were analysed via contingency tables. Food variety scores were derived by assigning individual foods to conventional food group taxonomies, and then summing up the dichotomised intake scores for individual foods within each food group. Two-way ANOVA (income age group) were performed on the food variety scores for males and females, respectively. Results: Per capita income was extensively related to the reported consumption of individual foods and to total and food group variety indices. Generally, both men and women in low income households had less varied diets than those in higher-income households. However, several traditional foods were consumed less often by young high-income respondents, especially young women. Conclusions: Major income differentials in food variety occur in Australia but they are moderated by age and gender. Younger high-income women, in particular, appear to have rejected a number of traditional foods, possibly on the basis of health beliefs. The findings also suggest that data aggregation has marked effects on income and food consumption relationships.<br /

XMM observations of the high-redshift quasar RXJ1028.6-0844 at z=4.276: soft X-ray spectral flattening

We present results from a new XMM-Newton observation of the high-redshift quasar RXJ1028.6-0844 at a redshift of 4.276. The soft X-ray spectral flattening, as reported by a study with ASCA previously (Yuan et al. 2000, ApJ 545, 625), is confirmed to be present, however, with reduced column density when modelled by absorption. The inferred column density for absorption intrinsic to the quasar is 2.1(+0.4-0.3)x10^22 (cm^-2) for cold matter, and higher for ionised gas. The spectral flattening shows remarkable similarity with those of two similar objects, GB1428+4217 (Worsley et al. 2004, MNRAS 350, L67) and PMNJ0525-3343 (Worsley et al. 2004, MNRAS 350, 207). The results improve upon those obtained from a previous short-exposure observation for RXJ1028.6-0844 with XMM-Newton (Grupe et al. 2004, AJ 127, 1). A comparative study of the two XMM-Newton observations reveals a change in the power-law photon index from Gamma ~1.3 to 1.5 on timescales of about one year. A tentative excess emission feature in the rest-frame 5-10keV band is suggested, which is similar to that marginally suggested for GB1428+4217.Comment: 9 pages, accepted for publication in MNRAS; minor changes (added footnote commenting on the use of the F-test, added references

Modeling the effectiveness of One Health interventions against the zoonotic hookworm Ancylostoma ceylanicum

Hookworm disease is a major global public health concern, annually affecting 500-700 million of the world's poorest people. The World Health Organization is targeting the elimination of hookworm as a public health problem by 2030 using a strategy of mass drug administration (MDA) to at-risk human populations. However, in Southeast Asia and the Pacific the zoonotic hookworm species, Ancylostoma ceylanicum, is endemic in dogs and commonly infects people. This presents a potential impediment to the effectiveness of MDA that targets only humans. Here, we develop a novel multi-host (dog and human) transmission model of A. ceylanicum and compare the effectiveness of human-only and "One Health" (human plus dog) MDA strategies under a range of eco-epidemiological assumptions. We show that One Health interventions-targeting both dogs and humans-could suppress prevalence in humans to ≤ 1% by the end of 2030, even with only modest coverage (25-50%) of the animal reservoir. With increasing coverage, One Health interventions may even interrupt transmission. We discuss key unresolved questions on the eco-epidemiology of A. ceylanicum, the challenges of delivering MDA to animal reservoirs, and the growing importance of One Health interventions to human public health

Blazars in the early Universe

We investigate the relative occurrence of radio--loud and radio-quiet quasars in the first billion years of the Universe, powered by black holes heavier than one billion solar masses. We consider the sample of high-redshfit blazars detected in the hard X-ray band in the 3-years all sky survey performed by the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) onboard the Swift satellite. All the black holes powering these blazars exceed a billion solar mass, with accretion luminosities close to the Eddington limit. For each blazar pointing at us, there must be hundreds of similar sources (having black holes of similar masses) pointing elsewhere. This puts constraints on the density of billion solar masses black holes at high redshift (z>4), and on the relative importance of (jetted) radio-loud vs radio-quiet sources. We compare the expected number of high redshift radio--loud sources with the high luminosity radio-loud quasars detected in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), finding agreement up to z~3, but a serious deficit at z>3 of SDSS radio-loud quasars with respect to the expectations. We suggest that the most likely explanations for this disagreement are: i) the ratio of blazar to misaligned radio-sources decreases by an order of magnitude above z=3, possibly as a result of a decrease of the average bulk Lorentz factor; ii) the SDSS misses a large fraction of radio-loud sources at high redshifts, iii) the SDSS misses both radio-loud and radio-quiet quasars at high redshift, possibly because of obscuration or because of collimation of the optical-UV continuum in systems accreting near Eddington. These explanations imply very different number density of heavy black holes at high redshifts, that we discuss in the framework of the current ideas about the relations of dark matter haloes at high redshifts and the black hole they host.Comment: MNRAS, in pres