1,476 research outputs found
Exploring suicidal behaviours by probation clients—a qualitative near-lethal study
Background
Existing research emphasizes that offenders serving community based sentences are at an increased risk of suicide compared with the general population, however, there is little understanding about the causes of this risk. The aim of the current research was to understand how to support probation clients and prevent suicide, by exploring the experiences of probation clients who carried out near-lethal suicide attempts whilst under probation supervision.
Methods
In-depth interviews were carried out with seven probation clients who made near-lethal suicide attempts whilst serving a probation sentence. Data were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.
Results
Participants recounted negative experiences which they perceived to be linked to their suicidal feelings and behaviours, such as experiencing bereavements, perceived loss of control over their mental state or situation, and difficulties relating to stages of their probation sentence. Participants expressed severe difficulties with trusting authorities, making disclosure of suicidal feelings problematic. However, participants emphasized the role that purposeful and meaningful activity can play in suicide prevention.
Conclusions
Suicide prevention strategies must be tailored to the needs of probation clients across the UK. Mandatory training for probation staff is recommended to help reduce suicides, and support from external agencies should be sought where possible
Beyond the Small-Angle Approximation For MBR Anisotropy from Seeds
In this paper we give a general expression for the energy shift of massless
particles travelling through the gravitational field of an arbitrary matter
distribution as calculated in the weak field limit in an asymptotically flat
space-time. It is {\it not} assumed that matter is non-relativistic. We
demonstrate the surprising result that if the matter is illuminated by a
uniform brightness background that the brightness pattern observed at a given
point in space-time (modulo a term dependent on the oberver's velocity) depends
only on the matter distribution on the observer's past light-cone. These
results apply directly to the cosmological MBR anisotropy pattern generated in
the immediate vicinity of of an object like a cosmic string or global texture.
We apply these results to cosmic strings, finding a correction to previously
published results for in the small-angle approximation. We also derive the
full-sky anisotropy pattern of a collapsing texture knot.Comment: 23 pages, FERMILAB-Pub-94/047-
Power Spectrum Estimators For Large CMB Datasets
Forthcoming high-resolution observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background
(CMB) radiation will generate datasets many orders of magnitude larger than
have been obtained to date. The size and complexity of such datasets presents a
very serious challenge to analysing them with existing or anticipated
computers. Here we present an investigation of the currently favored algorithm
for obtaining the power spectrum from a sky-temperature map --- the quadratic
estimator. We show that, whilst improving on direct evaluation of the
likelihood function, current implementations still inherently scale as the
equivalent of the cube of the number of pixels or worse, and demonstrate the
critical importance of choosing the right implementation for a particular
dataset.Comment: 8 pages LATEX, no figures, corrected misaligned columns in table
Factors deterring and prompting the decision to attempt suicide on the railway networks: findings from 353 online surveys and 34 semi-structured interviews
Background
There is a suicide on the British railways every 36 hours. However, the reasons why people choose to die by train are not well understood.
Aims
To explore factors influencing and discouraging the decision to attempt suicide on the railway networks.
Method
We conducted an online survey and qualitative interviews with individuals who had contemplated or attempted suicide by train.
Results
A total of 353 survey responders had considered and 23 had attempted suicide at rail locations (including railways and metro/underground); a third of these cases were impulsive. The most frequently reported motivations for contemplating or attempting suicide were perceptions of quick and certain lethality (54 and 37%, respectively) and easy access to rail settings (33 and 38%, respectively). The main factor discouraging people from rail suicide was its wider impact, especially on train drivers (19%). In qualitative interviews (N = 34) the desire to avoid intervention from others was also a common motivating factor for attempting suicide on the railway networks.
Conclusions
People attempt suicide by train because railway settings are easy to access and because of an inaccurate perception of certain and quick lethality. Tackling exaggerated perceptions of lethality may help reduce suicides by train
On The Absence Of Open Strings In A Lattice-Free Simulation Of Cosmic String Formation
Lattice-based string formation algorithms can, at least in principle, be
reduced to the study of the statistics of the corresponding aperiodic random
walk. Since in three or more dimensions such walks are transient this approach
necessarily generates a population of open strings. To investigate whether open
strings are an artefact of the lattice we develop an alternative lattice-free
simulation of string formation. Replacing the lattice with a graph generated by
a minimal dynamical model of a first order phase transition we obtain results
consistent with the hypothesis that the energy density in string is due to a
scale-invariant Brownian distribution of closed loops alone.Comment: 9 pages ReVTeX, 1 Postscript figure, minor changes for publicatio
Behaviours preceding suicides at railway and underground locations: a multimethodological qualitative approach
Background: Suicides by train have devastating consequences for families, the rail industry, staff dealing with the aftermath of such incidents, and potential witnesses. To reduce suicides and suicide attempts by rail it is important to learn how safe interventions can be made. However, very little is known about how to identify someone who may be about to make a suicide attempt at a railway location (including underground/subways). The current research employed a novel way of understanding what behaviours might immediately precede a suicide or suicide attempt at these locations.
Design and Methods: A qualitative thematic approach was used for three parallel studies. Data were gathered from several sources including: interviews with individuals who survived a suicide attempt at a railway or underground location (N=9); CCTV footage of individuals who died by suicide at a rail or underground location (N=16); and qualitative survey data providing views from rail staff (N=79).
Results: Our research suggests there are several behaviours that people may carry out before a suicide or suicide attempt at a rail location including: station hopping and platform switching; limiting contact with others; positioning themselves at the end of the track where the train/tube approaches; allowing trains to pass by; and carrying out repetitive behaviours.
Interpretation: There are several behaviours that may be identifiable in the moments leading up to a suicide or suicide attempt on the railways, which may present opportunities for intervention. These findings have implications for several stakeholders including rail providers, transport police and other organisations focused on suicide prevention
On Random Bubble Lattices
We study random bubble lattices which can be produced by processes such as
first order phase transitions, and derive characteristics that are important
for understanding the percolation of distinct varieties of bubbles. The results
are relevant to the formation of topological defects as they show that infinite
domain walls and strings will be produced during appropriate first order
transitions, and that the most suitable regular lattice to study defect
formation in three dimensions is a face centered cubic lattice. Another
application of our work is to the distribution of voids in the large-scale
structure of the universe. We argue that the present universe is more akin to a
system undergoing a first-order phase transition than to one that is
crystallizing, as is implicit in the Voronoi foam description. Based on the
picture of a bubbly universe, we predict a mean coordination number for the
voids of 13.4. The mean coordination number may also be used as a tool to
distinguish between different scenarios for structure formation.Comment: several modifications including new abstract, comparison with froth
models, asymptotics of coordination number distribution, further discussion
of biased defects, and relevance to large-scale structur
Nonequilibrium Precursor Model for the Onset of Percolation in a Two-Phase System
Using a Boltzmann equation, we investigate the nonequilibrium dynamics of
nonperturbative fluctuations within the context of Ginzburg-Landau models. As
an illustration, we examine how a two-phase system initially prepared in a
homogeneous, low-temperature phase becomes populated by precursors of the
opposite phase as the temperature is increased. We compute the critical value
of the order parameter for the onset of percolation, which signals the
breakdown of the conventional dilute gas approximation.Comment: 4 pages, 4 eps figures (uses epsf), Revtex. Replaced with version in
press Physical Review
CMB Polarization Data and Galactic Foregrounds: Estimation of Cosmological Parameters
We estimate the accuracy with which various cosmological parameters can be
determined from the CMB temperature and polarization data when various galactic
unpolarized and polarized foregrounds are included and marginalized using the
multi-frequency Wiener filtering technique. We use the specifications of the
future CMB missions MAP and PLANCK for our study. Our results are in
qualitative agreement with earlier results obtained without foregrounds, though
the errors in most parameters are higher because of degradation of the
extraction of polarization signal in the presence of foregrounds.Comment: 6 pages, submitted to MNRA
Analytical modeling of large-angle CMBR anisotropies from textures
We propose an analytic method for predicting the large angle CMBR temperature
fluctuations induced by model textures. The model makes use of only a small
number of phenomenological parameters which ought to be measured from simple
simulations. We derive semi-analytically the -spectrum for together with its associated non-Gaussian cosmic variance error bars. A
slightly tilted spectrum with an extra suppression at low is found, and we
investigate the dependence of the tilt on the parameters of the model. We also
produce a prediction for the two point correlation function. We find a high
level of cosmic confusion between texture scenarios and standard inflationary
theories in any of these quantities. However, we discover that a distinctive
non-Gaussian signal ought to be expected at low , reflecting the prominent
effect of the last texture in these multipoles
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