Growth of Pseudotypes of Vesicular Stomatitis Virus with N-Tropic Murine Leukemia Virus Coats in Cells Resistant to N-Tropic Viruses

Formation of pseudotypes between murine RNA tumor viruses and vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) has been confirmed. Pseudotypes of VSV genomes coated by the surface envelope from an N-tropic tumor virus grew equally well in cells homozygous for either the Fv-1n or Fv-1b alleles. Therefore, the product of the Fv-1 locus, which restricts growth of murine RNA tumor viruses, must act on an intracellular aspect of tumor virus replication, a step after attachment and penetration

A Scaling Limit With Many Noncommutativity Parameters

We derive the worldsheet propagator for an open string with different magnetic fields at the two ends, and use it to compute two distinct noncommutativity parameters, one at each end of the string. The usual scaling limit that leads to noncommutative Yang-Mills can be generalized to a scaling limit in which both noncommutativity parameters enter. This corresponds to expanding a theory with U(N) Chan-Paton factors around a background U(1)^N gauge field with different magnetic fields in each U(1).Comment: 14 pages, harvma

Predicting Security Incidents in High Secure Male Psychiatric Care

Purpose The contribution of environmental and organisational factors in predicting security incidents within a high secure male psychiatric setting is considered using a series of connected studies; a systematic literature review comprising 41 studies and five inquiries (Study 1) to identify core themes of likely importance; application of these themes to incident data through assessment of the ward culture, as perceived by 73 male psychiatric patients and 157 staff (Study 2); and detailed examination of noted relevant factors in the form of interpersonal style, meaningful activity and physical environmental characteristics in a study comprising 62 patients and 151 staff (Study 3). It was predicted that security incidents would be identified through inclusion of environmental and organisational factors. Results The systematic review demonstrated the importance of accounting for staff characteristics, patient interactions, physical environment and meaningful activity. The subsequent study noted the importance of only specific aspects of the social environment, with the final study demonstrating that incidents were associated with controlling interpersonal styles of staff, lower perceived fairness, and less involvement in off-ward activities. Perception of fair treatment and off-ward activities mediated the staff interpersonal style and security incident relationship. Conclusions The research proposes a preliminary framework - the McKenna Framework for understanding Incidents in Secure Settings (M-FISS) – to explain the occurrence of security incidents in secure psychiatric care

The prevalence of constant supportive observations in a high, medium and low secure service

Aims and Method We explored the prevalence and use of constant supportive observations (CSO) in high, medium and low secure in-patient services in a single NHS mental health trust. From clinical records, we extracted data on the length of time on CSO, the reason for the initiation of CSO and associated adverse incidents for all individuals who were placed on CSO between July 2013 and June 2014. Results A small number of individuals accounted for a disproportionately large amount of CSO hours in each setting. Adverse incident rates were higher on CSO than when not on CSO. There was considerable variation between different settings in terms of CSO use and the reasons for commencing CSO. Clinical Implications The study describes the prevalence and nature of CSO in secure forensic mental health services and the associated organisational costs. The marked variation in CSO use between settings suggests that mental health services continue to face challenges in balancing risk management with minimising restrictive interventions

Predicting hospital aggression in secure psychiatric care

Risk assessment instruments have become a preferred means for predicting future aggression, claiming to predict long-term aggression risk. We investigate the predictive value over 12 months and 4 years of two commonly applied instruments (HCR-20, VRAG) in a secure psychiatric population with personality disorder. Focus was on aggression in hospital. The actuarial risk assessment (VRAG) was generally performing better than the structured risk assessment (HCR-20), although neither approach performed particularly well overall. Any value in their predictive potential appeared focused on the longer time period under study (4 years) and was specific to certain types of aggression. The value of these instruments for assessing aggression in hospital among personality-disordered patients in a high secure psychiatric setting is considered

The centrality of cognition and coping styles in driving aggressive responses

Objective: Despite the presence of theoretical frameworks explaining aggression, they still require refinement in the form of a specification of mechanisms that facilitate such behaviour. Method: Study 1 recruited participants (N=31) from the general population (N=20) and from a forensic hospital (N=11). It was expected that aggression supportive cognitions and stress would be positively associated with aggressive behaviour. An experimental paradigm was used to induce stress and participants were subsequently given the opportunity to aggress. Study 2 was based on self-report questionnaires in community sample (N=462). It was expected that aggressive behaviour and traits would be associated with experienced stress, hostile attributions, coping styles, and attitudes to violence. Specifically, that criminal attitudes to violence will mediate the effect of hostile attribution on aggression, while coping styles will mediate the effect of perceived stress. Results: An Implicit Theory “I am the law” was found to be associated with aggression. Furthermore, elevated skin conductance, but not changes in the heart rate, during the stress task was positively associated with aggression, and only among patients. Structural Equation Model confirmed the mediating role of criminal attitudes to violence and of maladaptive coping style for aggressive behaviour. Conclusion: Aggression-supportive cognitions and maladaptive coping style are specific mechanisms through which external demands or subjective perception of a situation can result in aggressive behaviour

Understanding the sleep-aggression relationship in a forensic mental health sample

The contribution of cognition to the sleep-aggression relationship is explored via three connected studies, involving adult male forensic patients detained in a high secure hospital. Study 1 included 31 patients, interviewed to examine their experiences of specific sleep problems. In Study 2, 42 patients completed a series of measures examining sleep dysfunction, aggression, and cognition, while Study 3 was designed to impact on sleep via a cognitive approach. In the latter, 48 patients were randomly assigned as part of a feasibility trial to one of three conditions: mindfulness (cognitive approach), sleep education, and treatment as usual. Collectively, the studies demonstrated the multifaceted nature of cognition in the sleep-aggression relationship, with a need to account fully for cognitive factors. A preliminary conceptual model is outlined - the Cognitive Sleep Model for Aggression and Self Harm (CoSMASH), as a direction for future research to consider

Understanding Factors Relevant to Self-Injurious Behavior in a High-Risk Secure Psychiatric Sample Developing the Theory-Driven Measure of Self-Injurious Behavior Engagement

A measure for the assessment of self-injurious behaviour is developed. Commencing with a Delphi comprised of 33 experts; detached experts (academics), experts by exposure (staff) and experts by experience (patients), the Theory-driven Measure of Self-Injurious Behaviour Engagement (TM-SIBE) is outlined. This is then examined in two samples; high secure psychiatric male patients (n = 76) and high secure psychiatric nursing staff (n = 100; 50 men, 50 women). We predicted that all components of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and the capacity, belongness and burdensomeness elements of the Interpersonal Psychological Theory of Suicidal Behaviour (IPTSB) would be confirmed as important inclusions. Results initially demonstrated the importance of including intention, perceived behavioural control, affect, capacity, burdensomeness. The role of environmental and individual factors, such as coping, were captured as additional variables of value. However, the structure of items differed between patients and staff. Being valued consistently represented a core consideration, as did capacity and affect. Directions for future research are indicated

Mixed cumulative probit : a multivariate generalization of transition analysis that accommodates variation in the shape, spread and structure of data

DATA AVAILABITY STATEMENT: The data and analyses are all freely available. The data used in the current study are available in the Zenodo Subadult Virtual Anthropology Database Community: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5193208 [71]. The vignette is freely available here: https://rpubs.com/elainechu/mcp_vignette. The relevant code for this work is stored in GitHub: https://github.com/michaelholtonprice/rsos_mcp_intro and has been archived within the Zenodo repository: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7603754 [72].SUPPORTING INFORMATION: FILE S1: Supplemental material is hosted by figshare.Biological data are frequently nonlinear, heteroscedastic and conditionally dependent, and often researchers deal with missing data. To account for characteristics common in biological data in one algorithm, we developed the mixed cumulative probit (MCP), a novel latent trait model that is a formal generalization of the cumulative probit model usually used in transition analysis. Specifically, the MCP accommodates heteroscedasticity, mixtures of ordinal and continuous variables, missing values, conditional dependence and alternative specifications of the mean response and noise response. Cross-validation selects the best model parameters (mean response and the noise response for simple models, as well as conditional dependence for multivariate models), and the Kullback–Leibler divergence evaluates information gain during posterior inference to quantify mis-specified models (conditionally dependent versus conditionally independent). Two continuous and four ordinal skeletal and dental variables collected from 1296 individuals (aged birth to 22 years) from the Subadult Virtual Anthropology Database are used to introduce and demonstrate the algorithm. In addition to describing the features of the MCP, we provide material to help fit novel datasets using the MCP. The flexible, general formulation with model selection provides a process to robustly identify the modelling assumptions that are best suited for the data at hand.The National Institute of Justice and the National Science Foundation.https://royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsosAnatomySDG-03:Good heatlh and well-bein