I felt that I deserved it - experiences and implications of disability hate crime

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to summarise key findings and recommendations from the “Living in Fear” research project focusing on the experiences of people with learning disabilities and autism related to disability hate crime and the experience of the police in dealing with such incidents. Design/methodology/approach – Methods included: first, a postal survey with 255 people with learning disabilities or autism (or their carers for people with more severe disabilities), of whom 24 also took part in semi-structured interviews; and second, an electronic survey of the knowledge and experience of 459 police officers or support staff. Findings – Just under half of participants had experienced some form of victimisation. The Police reported problems with the definition of disability hate crime and challenges to responding effectively. Social implications – A case study from the research highlights some of the key findings and is linked to implications for people with learning disabilities and autism, carers, police and other agencies. Originality/value – Previous research has highlighted that victimisation is an issue for this group of people, but has never explored the prevalence and nature of such experiences in a representative sample. Neither has previous research brought together the perspectives of so many different agencies to offer recommendations that go across many sectors. The paper will be of interest to people with disabilities and their carers, professionals in health, social care and the Criminal Justice system

Generalized DPW method and an application to isometric immersions of space forms

Let $G$ be a complex Lie group and $\Lambda G$ denote the group of maps from the unit circle ${\mathbb S}^1$ into $G$, of a suitable class. A differentiable map $F$ from a manifold $M$ into $\Lambda G$, is said to be of \emph{connection order $(_a^b)$} if the Fourier expansion in the loop parameter $\lambda$ of the ${\mathbb S}^1$-family of Maurer-Cartan forms for $F$, namely F_\lambda^{-1} \dd F_\lambda, is of the form $\sum_{i=a}^b \alpha_i \lambda^i$. Most integrable systems in geometry are associated to such a map. Roughly speaking, the DPW method used a Birkhoff type splitting to reduce a harmonic map into a symmetric space, which can be represented by a certain order $(_{-1}^1)$ map, into a pair of simpler maps of order $(_{-1}^{-1})$ and $(_1^1)$ respectively. Conversely, one could construct such a harmonic map from any pair of $(_{-1}^{-1})$ and $(_1^1)$ maps. This allowed a Weierstrass type description of harmonic maps into symmetric spaces. We extend this method to show that, for a large class of loop groups, a connection order $(_a^b)$ map, for $a<0<b$, splits uniquely into a pair of $(_a^{-1})$ and $(_1^b)$ maps. As an application, we show that constant non-zero curvature submanifolds with flat normal bundle of a sphere or hyperbolic space split into pairs of flat submanifolds, reducing the problem (at least locally) to the flat case. To extend the DPW method sufficiently to handle this problem requires a more general Iwasawa type splitting of the loop group, which we prove always holds at least locally.Comment: Some typographical correction

Effects of starch/polycaprolactone-based blends for spinal cord injury regeneration in neurons/glial cells viability and proliferation

Spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to drastic alterations on the quality of life of afflicted individuals. With the advent of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine where approaches combining biomaterials, cells and growth factors are used, one can envisage novel strategies that can adequately tackle this problem. The objective of this study was to evaluate a blend of starch with poly(ε-caprolactone) (SPCL) aimed to be used for the development of scaffolds spinal cord injury (SCI) repair. SPCL linear parallel filaments were deposited on polystyrene coverslips and assays were carried out using primary cultures of hippocampal neurons and glial cells. Light and fluorescence microscopy observations revealed that both cell populations were not negatively affected by the SPCL-based biomaterial. MTS and total protein quantification indicated that both cell viability and proliferation rates were similar to controls. Both neurons and astrocytes occasionally contacted the surface of SPCL filaments through their dendrites and cytoplasmatic processes, respectively, while microglial cells were unable to do so. Using single cell [Ca2+ ]i imaging, hippocampal neurons were observed growing within the patterned channels and were functional as assessed by the response to a 30 mM KCl stimulus. The present data demonstrated that SPCL-based blends are potentially suitable for the development of scaffolds in SCI regenerative medicine.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology through funds from POCTI and/or FEDER programs (Funding to ICVS, 3B's Research Group and post doctoral fellowship to A.J. Salgado-SFRH/BPD/17595/2004)

Proteomic changes in serum of first onset, antidepressant drug-naïve major depression patients

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a complex and multi-factorial disorder. Although genetic factors and other molecular aspects of MDD have been widely studied, the underlying pathological mechanisms are still mostly unknown. We sought to investigate the pathophysiology of MDD by identifying and characterising serum molecular differences and their correlation to symptom severity in first onset, antidepressant drug-naïve MDD patients. We performed an exploratory molecular profiling study on serum samples of MDD patients and controls using multiplex immunoassay and label-free liquid chromatography mass spectrometry in data independent mode (LC-MSE). We included two independent cohorts of first onset, antidepressant drug-naïve MDD patients (n = 23 and 15) and matched controls (n = 42 and 21) in our study in order to validate the results. The main outcome included the following list of circulatory molecules changing and/or correlating to symptom severity: angiotensin-converting enzyme, acute phase proteins (e.g. ferritin and serotransferrin), brain-derived neurotrophic factor, complement component C4-B, cortisol, cytokines (e.g. macrophage migration inhibitory factor and interleukin-16), extracellular newly identified receptor for advanced glycosylation end products-binding protein, growth hormone and superoxide dismutase-1. This study provides evidence of an increased pro-inflammatory and oxidative stress response, followed by a hyperactivation of the HPA-axis in the acute stages of first onset MDD, as well as a dysregulation in growth factor pathways. These findings help to elucidate MDD related pathways in more detail and further studies may lead to identification of novel drug targets, inc

Development of a blood-based molecular biomarker test for identification of schizophrenia before disease onset

Recent research efforts have progressively shifted towards preventative psychiatry and prognostic identification of individuals before disease onset. We describe the development of a serum biomarker test for the identification of individuals at risk of developing schizophrenia based on multiplex immunoassay profiling analysis of 957 serum samples. First, we conducted a meta-analysis of five independent cohorts of 127 first-onset drug-naive schizophrenia patients and 204 controls. Using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression, we identified an optimal panel of 26 biomarkers that best discriminated patients and controls. Next, we successfully validated this biomarker panel using two independent validation cohorts of 93 patients and 88 controls, which yielded an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.97 (0.95-1.00) for schizophrenia detection. Finally, we tested its predictive performance for identifying patients before onset of psychosis using two cohorts of 445 pre-onset or at-risk individuals. The predictive performance achieved by the panel was excellent for identifying USA military personnel (AUC: 0.90 (0.86-0.95)) and help-seeking prodromal individuals (AUC: 0.82 (0.71-0.93)) who developed schizophrenia up to 2 years after baseline sampling. The performance increased further using the latter cohort following the incorporation of CAARMS (Comprehensive Assessment of At-Risk Mental State) positive subscale symptom scores into the model (AUC: 0.90 (0.82-0.98)). The current findings may represent the first successful step towards a test that could address the clinical need for early intervention in psychiatry. Further developments of a combined molecular/symptom-based test will aid clinicians in the identification of vulnerable patients early in the disease process, allowing more effective therapeutic intervention before overt disease onset

Indicators of Quality of Care in Individuals With Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury: A Scoping Review

Study Design: Scoping review. Objectives: To identify a practical and reproducible approach to organize Quality of Care Indicators (QoCI) in individuals with traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI). Methods: A comprehensive literature review was conducted in the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (Date: May 2018), MEDLINE (1946 to May 2018), and EMBASE (1974 to May 2018). Two independent reviewers screened 6092 records and included 262 full texts, among which 60 studies were included for qualitative analysis. We included studies, with no language restriction, containing at least 1 quality of care indicator for individuals with traumatic spinal cord injury. Each potential indicator was evaluated in an online, focused group discussion to define its categorization (healthcare system structure, medical process, and individuals with Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury related outcomes), definition, survey options, and scale. Results: A total of 87 indicators were identified from 60 studies screened using our eligibility criteria. We defined each indicator. Out of 87 indicators, 37 appraised the healthcare system structure, 30 evaluated medical processes, and 20 included individuals with TSCI related outcomes. The healthcare system structure included the impact of the cost of hospitalization and rehabilitation, as well as staff and patient perception of treatment. The medical processes included targeting physical activities for improvement of health-related outcomes and complications. Changes in motor score, functional independence, and readmission rates were reported as individuals with TSCI-related outcomes indicators. Conclusion: Indicators of quality of care in the management of individuals with TSCI are important for health policy strategists to standardize healthcare assessment, for clinicians to improve care, and for data collection efforts including registries. © The Author(s) 2021

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02

Measurement of the cross section for isolated-photon plus jet production in pp collisions at √s=13 TeV using the ATLAS detector

The dynamics of isolated-photon production in association with a jet in proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV are studied with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using a dataset with an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb−1. Photons are required to have transverse energies above 125 GeV. Jets are identified using the anti- algorithm with radius parameter and required to have transverse momenta above 100 GeV. Measurements of isolated-photon plus jet cross sections are presented as functions of the leading-photon transverse energy, the leading-jet transverse momentum, the azimuthal angular separation between the photon and the jet, the photon–jet invariant mass and the scattering angle in the photon–jet centre-of-mass system. Tree-level plus parton-shower predictions from Sherpa and Pythia as well as next-to-leading-order QCD predictions from Jetphox and Sherpa are compared to the measurements