The effect of brief digital interventions on attitudes to intellectual disability: Results from a pilot study

BACKGROUND: Evidence on the effects of contact and education based interventions on attitudes is limited in the intellectual disability field. This study compared the effects of brief interventions with different education, indirect and imagined contact components on lay people's attitudes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 401 adult participants were randomised to six digital brief interventions consisting of different combinations of education, indirect and imagined contact. Their attitudes, intergroup anxiety and social distance were assessed post-intervention and at four to six-week follow-up. RESULTS: An intervention combining film-based education about intellectual disability and indirect contact had small positive effects on all three outcomes. Social distance was further reduced with the addition of a positively toned imagined contact task. These effects were maintained at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: A brief film-based digital intervention can have small positive effects on attitudes to people with intellectual disabilities. These may be enhanced by adding positive imagined contact

Risk and protective factors for meningococcal disease in adolescents: matched cohort study

Objective: To examine biological and social risk factors for meningococcal disease in adolescents. Design: Prospective, population based, matched cohort study with controls matched for age and sex in 1:1 matching. Controls were sought from the general practitioner. Setting: Six contiguous regions of England, which represent some 65% of the country’s population. Participants: 15-19 year olds with meningococcal disease recruited at hospital admission in six regions (representing 65% of the population of England) from January 1999 to June 2000, and their matched controls. Methods: Blood samples and pernasal and throat swabs were taken from case patients at admission to hospital and from cases and matched controls at interview. Data on potential risk factors were gathered by confidential interview. Data were analysed by using univariate and multivariate conditional logistic regression. Results: 144 case control pairs were recruited (74 male (51%); median age 17.6). 114 cases (79%) were confirmed microbiologically. Significant independent risk factors for meningococcal disease were history of preceding illness (matched odds ratio 2.9, 95% confidence interval 1.4 to 5.9), intimate kissing with multiple partners (3.7, 1.7 to 8.1), being a university student (3.4, 1.2 to 10) and preterm birth (3.7, 1.0 to 13.5). Religious observance (0.09, 0.02 to 0.6) and meningococcal vaccination (0.12, 0.04 to 0.4) were associated with protection. Conclusions: Activities and events increasing risk for meningococcal disease in adolescence are different from in childhood. Students are at higher risk. Altering personal behaviours could moderate the risk. However, the development of further effective meningococcal vaccines remains a key public health priority

Learning Aligned-Spatial Graph Convolutional Networks for Graph Classification

In this paper, we develop a novel Aligned-Spatial Graph Convolutional Network (ASGCN) model to learn effective features for graph classification. Our idea is to transform arbitrary-sized graphs into fixed-sized aligned grid structures, and define a new spatial graph convolution operation associated with the grid structures. We show that the proposed ASGCN model not only reduces the problems of information loss and imprecise information representation arising in existing spatially-based Graph Convolutional Network (GCN) models, but also bridges the theoretical gap between traditional Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models and spatially-based GCN models. Moreover, the proposed ASGCN model can adaptively discriminate the importance between specified vertices during the process of spatial graph convolution, explaining the effectiveness of the proposed model. Experiments on standard graph datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model

Spatial and temporal characterization of a Bessel beam produced using a conical mirror

We experimentally analyze a Bessel beam produced with a conical mirror, paying particular attention to its superluminal and diffraction-free properties. We spatially characterized the beam in the radial and on-axis dimensions, and verified that the central peak does not spread over a propagation distance of 73 cm. In addition, we measured the superluminal phase and group velocities of the beam in free space. Both spatial and temporal measurements show good agreement with the theoretical predictions.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure

Performance indicators for roadway bridges

Publicado em "Maintenance, monitoring, safety, risk and resilience of bridges and bridge networks". ISBN 978-1-138-02851-7The performance indicators should, by its definition, allow capturing the life-cycle degradation processes affecting maintenance plans or the remaining lifetime. The qualitative or quantitative performance indicators are obtained through visual inspections, non-destructive tests or monitoring systems. After their quantification and the comparison with the respective performance goals and thresholds, a Quality Control plan should be accomplished. The COST TU1406 Action aims to uniform the European performance indicators, systemize the knowledge on the Quality Control plans for bridges, establish quality specifications and finally to develop the guideline and recommendations for the assessment of performance indicators. This contribution focuses on the current work of the first Working Group, WG1, where the first step is a collection of the key performance indicators at a European level. First those key performance indicators which capture mechanical and technical properties and its degradation behavior are assessed, while the further consideration reflect on the natural aging, quality of the material, service life design methods, and sustainable, environmental, economic and social based indicators.COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology)Project “LeCIE – Life-cycle assessment for railway construction – strategies and methods

Induction of resistance and enhancing agronomic performance in grapevines under greenhouse and in open fields by applications of plasma activated water

The exposure of water to a cold atmospheric pressure plasma (CAP) enables the production of plasma activated water (PAW), having high content of reactive species, whose applications were tested on grapevine plants, both in greenhouse and in vineyard conditions. Two different CAPs were used for PAW production, evaluating their effectiveness as a possible mean to control plant diseases. Grapevines infected with yellows associated with the presence of phytoplasmas were treated evaluating qualitative and quantitative yield parameters, phytoplasma presence, and gene expression. The results show the capability of PAW to enhance plant defence mechanisms and, as demonstrated in the field trials, confirmed its ability to improve the health status of the treated plants. Quantitative (q)RT-PCR analyses allowed to determine the transcription level of genes involved in the plant defence response (phenylalanine ammonia-lyase, pal) and in the plant phytoalexin metabolism of PAW-treated materials. The number of symptomatic grapevine plants in vineyards was significantly reduced by the treatments. Transcriptional and post-transcriptional molecular analyses highlighted the PAW ability to enhance the expression of genes encoding the main enzymes involved in the phytoalexin biosynthetic pathway (flavonoids and stilbenes). The PAW ability to enhance some of the plant defence mechanisms also improving the health status of the treated plants was therefore experimentally demonstrated. After three years of trials the overall results demonstrated the possible use of PAW to reduce the disease severity, induce plant resistance both in open field and greenhouse, improving plant healthy status and grapevine yield production

Transcriptional profiling of phytoplasma infected plants treated with plasma activated water (PAW).

Background. Phytoplasmas are insect-transmitted plant pathogenic prokaryotes, associated with severe diseases in agronomic important crops. Management of these diseases has mainly focused on insect vector chemical control and on infected plant rouging. There is therefore a strong need for effective and friendly control strategies for phytoplasma-associated diseases and the possibility to use plasma activated water (PAW) as sustainable and effective method to them was therefore evaluated. PAW is produced by treating distilled water with atmospheric pressure plasmas, inducing the production of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) and pH reduction. PAW has good potential for bacterial decontamination, degradation of organic compounds and was shown to positively affect plant growth. Methods. Sterile deionized water (SDW) was exposed to a nanosecond pulsed dielectric barrier discharge, operating in ambient air for 10 min treatment with a peak voltage of 19 kV and a pulse repetition frequency of 1 kHz, which induced production of nitrates, nitrites and peroxides, and a pH decrease. Phytoplasma infected and healthy periwinkles micropropagated shoots were exposed to PAW for about 25 minutes and gene expression studies were then performed. The theses used were: shoots treated with PAW, Fosetyl aluminum (as positive control) and SDW (as negative control), with an exposition of about 25 minutes. Nine shoots for each thesis were then collected at 6 different times after treatment and stored at -80\ub0C. Quantitative RT-PCR analyses were carried out to determine the expression level of genes involved in the plant defense response. Parallel experiments were carried out treating grapevine plants in vineyards previously tested for the phytoplasma presence. Treatments were performed for three years injecting into the plant vascular tissues 10-20 ml of PAW or sterile distilled water (as control) on each selected plant for a total of 60 plants (40 with phytoplasmas and 20 without phytoplasmas). Results. Overexpression of selected genes involved in the phytoalexin metabolism was detected in the periwinkles micropropagated shoots treated with PAW in comparison with the shoots treated with Fosetyl-Al and distilled water. In the field trials, in a relevant number of cases, the PAW-treated symptomatic plants showed reduction of symptoms, while the SDW-treated and untreated plants did not show symptom reduction. No phytotoxicity was observed in the PAW treated grapevine and periwinkle plants. Conclusion. The results obtained showed the capability of PAW to enhance plant defence mechanisms and, as demonstrated in the field trials, confirmed its ability to improve the health status of the treated plant

Age-specific vaccine effectiveness of seasonal 2010/2011 and pandemic influenza A(H1N1) 2009 vaccines in preventing influenza in the United Kingdom

An analysis was undertaken to measure age-specific vaccine effectiveness (VE) of 2010/11 trivalent seasonal influenza vaccine (TIV) and monovalent 2009 pandemic influenza vaccine (PIV) administered in 2009/2010. The test-negative case-control study design was employed based on patients consulting primary care. Overall TIV effectiveness, adjusted for age and month, against confirmed influenza A(H1N1)pdm 2009 infection was 56% (95% CI 42–66); age-specific adjusted VE was 87% (95% CI 45–97) in <5-year-olds and 84% (95% CI 27–97) in 5- to 14-year-olds. Adjusted VE for PIV was only 28% (95% CI x6 to 51) overall and 72% (95% CI 15–91) in <5-year-olds. For confirmed influenza B infection, TIV effectiveness was 57% (95% CI 42–68) and in 5- to 14-year-olds 75% (95% CI 32–91). TIV provided moderate protection against the main circulating strains in 2010/2011, with higher protection in children. PIV administered during the previous season provided residual protection after 1 year, particularly in the <5 years age group