Examining Mental Health and Well-being Provision in Schools in Europe: Methodological Approach

Schools are considered an ideal setting for community-based mental health and well-being interventions for young people. However, in spite of extensive literature examining the effectiveness of such interventions, very few studies have investigated existing mental health and well-being provision in schools. The current study aims to extend such previous research by surveying primary and secondary schools to investigate the nature of available provision in nine European countries (Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, the UK and Ukraine). Furthermore, the study aims to investigate potential barriers to mental health and well-being provision and compare provision within and between countries

Weighted-density approximation for general nonuniform fluid mixtures

In order to construct a general density-functional theory for nonuniform fluid mixtures, we propose an extension to multicomponent systems of the weighted-density approximation (WDA) of Curtin and Ashcroft [Phys. Rev. A 32, 2909 (1985)]. This extension corrects a deficiency in a similar extension proposed earlier by Denton and Ashcroft [Phys. Rev. A 42, 7312 (1990)], in that that functional cannot be applied to the multi-component nonuniform fluid systems with spatially varying composition, such as solid-fluid interfaces. As a test of the accuracy of our new functional, we apply it to the calculation of the freezing phase diagram of a binary hard-sphere fluid, and compare the results to simulation and the Denton-Ashcroft extension.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. E as Brief Repor

Failure Probabilities and Tough-Brittle Crossover of Heterogeneous Materials with Continuous Disorder

The failure probabilities or the strength distributions of heterogeneous 1D systems with continuous local strength distribution and local load sharing have been studied using a simple, exact, recursive method. The fracture behavior depends on the local bond-strength distribution, the system size, and the applied stress, and crossovers occur as system size or stress changes. In the brittle region, systems with continuous disorders have a failure probability of the modified-Gumbel form, similar to that for systems with percolation disorder. The modified-Gumbel form is of special significance in weak-stress situations. This new recursive method has also been generalized to calculate exactly the failure probabilities under various boundary conditions, thereby illustrating the important effect of surfaces in the fracture process.Comment: 9 pages, revtex, 7 figure

Bursts in a fiber bundle model with continuous damage

We study the constitutive behaviour, the damage process, and the properties of bursts in the continuous damage fiber bundle model introduced recently. Depending on its two parameters, the model provides various types of constitutive behaviours including also macroscopic plasticity. Analytic results are obtained to characterize the damage process along the plastic plateau under strain controlled loading, furthermore, for stress controlled experiments we develop a simulation technique and explore numerically the distribution of bursts of fiber breaks assuming infinite range of interaction. Simulations revealed that under certain conditions power law distribution of bursts arises with an exponent significantly different from the mean field exponent 5/2. A phase diagram of the model characterizing the possible burst distributions is constructed.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures, APS style, submitted for publicatio

Intoxicated eyewitnesses:the effect of a fully balanced placebo design on event memory and metacognitive control

Few studies have examined the impact of alcohol on metacognition for witnessed events. We used a 2x2 balanced placebo design, where mock-witnesses expected and drank alcohol, did not expect but drank alcohol, did not expect nor drank alcohol, or expected but did not drink alcohol. Participants watched a mock-crime in a bar-lab, followed by free recall and a cued-recall test with or without the option to reply ‘don’t know’ (DK). Intoxicated mock-witnesses’ free recall was less complete but not less accurate. During cued-recall, alcohol led to lower accuracy, and reverse placebo participants gave more erroneous and fewer correct responses. Permitting and clarifying DK responses was associated with fewer errors and more correct responses for sober individuals; and intoxicated witnesses were less likely to opt out of erroneous responding to unanswerable questions. Our findings highlight the practical and theoretical importance of examining pharmacological effects of alcohol and expectancies in real-life settings

Lattice density-functional theory of surface melting: the effect of a square-gradient correction

I use the method of classical density-functional theory in the weighted-density approximation of Tarazona to investigate the phase diagram and the interface structure of a two-dimensional lattice-gas model with three phases -- vapour, liquid, and triangular solid. While a straightforward mean-field treatment of the interparticle attraction is unable to give a stable liquid phase, the correct phase diagram is obtained when including a suitably chosen square-gradient term in the system grand potential. Taken this theory for granted, I further examine the structure of the solid-vapour interface as the triple point is approached from low temperature. Surprisingly, a novel phase (rather than the liquid) is found to grow at the interface, exhibiting an unusually long modulation along the interface normal. The conventional surface-melting behaviour is recovered only by artificially restricting the symmetries being available to the density field.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figure

Light particle spectra from 35 MeV/nucleon 12C-induced reactions on 197Au

Energy spectra for p, d, t, 3He, 4He, and 6He from the reaction 12C+197Au at 35 MeV/nucleon are presented. A common intermediate rapidity source is identified using a moving source fit to the spectra that yields cross sections which are compared to analogous data at other bombarding energies and to several different models. The excitation function of the composite to proton ratios is compared with quantum statistical, hydrodynamic, and thermal models

The validity and reliability of the exposure index as a metric for estimating the radiation dose to the patient

Introduction With the introduction of digital radiography, the feedback between image quality and over-exposure has been partly lost which in some cases has led to a steady increase in dose. Over the years the introduction of exposure index (EI) has been used to resolve this phenomenon referred to as ‘dose creep’. Even though EI is often vendor specific it is always a related of the radiation exposure to the detector. Due to the nature of this relationship EI can also be used as a patient dose indicator, however this is not widely investigated in literature. Methods A total of 420 dose-area-product (DAP) and EI measurements were taken whilst varying kVp, mAs and body habitus on two different anthropomorphic phantoms (pelvis and chest). Using linear regression, the correlation between EI and DAP were examined. Additionally, two separate region of interest (ROI) placements/per phantom where examined in order to research any effect on EI. Results When dividing the data into subsets, a strong correlation between EI and DAP was shown with all R-squared values > 0.987. Comparison between the ROI placements showed a significant difference between EIs for both placements. Conclusion This research shows a clear relationship between EI and radiation dose which is dependent on a wide variety of factors such as ROI placement, body habitus. In addition, pathology and manufacturer specific EI’s are likely to be of influence as well. Implications for practice The combination of DAP and EI might be used as a patient dose indicator. However, the influencing factors as mentioned in the conclusion should be considered and examined before implementation

Direct calculation of the hard-sphere crystal/melt interfacial free energy

We present a direct calculation by molecular-dynamics computer simulation of the crystal/melt interfacial free energy, $\gamma$, for a system of hard spheres of diameter $\sigma$. The calculation is performed by thermodynamic integration along a reversible path defined by cleaving, using specially constructed movable hard-sphere walls, separate bulk crystal and fluid systems, which are then merged to form an interface. We find the interfacial free energy to be slightly anisotropic with $\gamma$ = 0.62$\pm 0.01$, 0.64$\pm 0.01$ and 0.58$\pm 0.01 k_BT/\sigma^2$ for the (100), (110) and (111) fcc crystal/fluid interfaces, respectively. These values are consistent with earlier density functional calculations and recent experiments measuring the crystal nucleation rates from colloidal fluids of polystyrene spheres that have been interpreted [Marr and Gast, Langmuir {\bf 10}, 1348 (1994)] to give an estimate of $\gamma$ for the hard-sphere system of $0.55 \pm 0.02 k_BT/\sigma^2$, slightly lower than the directly determined value reported here.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Biomechanics of predator–prey arms race in lion, zebra, cheetah and impala

The fastest and most manoeuvrable terrestrial animals are found in savannah habitats, where predators chase and capture running prey. Hunt outcome and success rate are critical to survival, so both predator and prey should evolve to be faster and/or more manoeuvrable. Here we compare locomotor characteristics in two pursuit predator–prey pairs, lion–zebra and cheetah–impala, in their natural savannah habitat in Botswana. We show that although cheetahs and impalas were universally more athletic than lions and zebras in terms of speed, acceleration and turning, within each predator–prey pair, the predators had 20% higher muscle fibre power than prey, 37% greater acceleration and 72% greater deceleration capacity than their prey. We simulated hunt dynamics with these data and showed that hunts at lower speeds enable prey to use their maximum manoeuvring capacity and favour prey survival, and that the predator needs to be more athletic than its prey to sustain a viable success rate