Theory of mind and attentional bias to facial emotional expressions: A preliminary study

Theory of mind ability has been associated with performance in interpersonal interactions and has been found to influence aspects such as emotion recognition, social competence, and social anxiety. Being able to attribute mental states to others requires attention to subtle communication cues such as facial emotional expressions. Decoding and interpreting emotions expressed by the face, especially those with negative valence, are essential skills to successful social interaction. The current study explored the association between theory of mind skills and attentional bias to facial emotional expressions. According to the study hypothesis, individuals with poor theory of mind skills showed preferential attention to negative faces over both non-negative faces and neutral objects. Tentative explanations for the findings are offered emphasizing the potential adaptive role of vigilance for threat as a way of allocating a limited capacity to interpret others’ mental states to obtain as much information as possible about potential danger in the social environment

The risk-taking and self-harm inventory for adolescents: Development and psychometric evaluation

In this study, we report on the development and psychometric evaluation of the Risk-Taking (RT) and Self-Harm (SH) Inventory for Adolescents (RTSHIA), a self-report measure designed to assess adolescent RT and SH in community and clinical settings. 651 young people from secondary schools in England ranging in age from 11.6 years to 18.7 years and 71 young people referred to mental health services for SH behavior in London between the ages of 11.9 years and 17.5 years completed the RTSHIA along with standardized measures of adolescent psychopathology. Two factors emerged from the principal axis factoring, and RT and SH were further validated by a confirmatory factor analysis as related, but different, constructs, rather than elements of a single continuum. Inter-item and test–retest reliabilities were high for both components (Cronbach's α = .85, rtt = .90; Cronbach's α .93, rtt = .87), and considerable evidence emerged in support of the measure's convergent, concurrent, and divergent validity. The findings are discussed with regard to potential usefulness of the RTSHIA for research and clinical purposes with adolescents

Numerical and experimental studies of multi-ply woven carbon fibre prepreg forming process

Woven carbon fibre prepreg is being increasingly used in high-performance aerospace and automotive applications, primarily because of its superior mechanical properties and formability. A wide range of forming simulation options are available for predicting material deformation during the prepreg forming process, particularly change in fibre orientation. Development of a robust validated simulation model requires comprehensive material characterisation and reliable experimental validation techniques. This paper presents experimental and numerical methods for studying the fibre orientation in multi-ply woven carbon fibre prepreg forming process, using a double-dome geometry. The numerical study is performed using the commercial forming simulation software PAM-FORM and the material input data are generated from a comprehensive experimental material characterisation. Two experimental validation methods are adopted for fibre shear angle measurement: an optical method for measuring only the surface plies, and a novel CT scan method for measuring both the surface plies and the internal plies. The simulation results are compared against the experimental results in terms of fibre shear angle and the formation of wrinkles to assess the validity of the model

The Modified-Classroom Observation Schedule to Measure Intentional Communication (M-COSMIC): Evaluation of reliability and validity

The Modified – Classroom Observation Schedule to Measure Intentional Communication (M-COSMIC) was developed as an ecologically valid measure of social-communication behaviour, delineating forms, functions, and intended partners of children’s spontaneous communication acts. Forty one children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) aged 48 to 73 months were filmed within small-group settings at school. Communication behaviours during a five-minute teacher-led activity and a 10-minute free play session were coded from video-tape. Inter-rater reliability was high. Many M-COSMIC codes were significantly associated as predicted with Social and Communication domain scores on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) and with scores on standardised language assessments. Agreement was more variable, however, at the level of individual M-COSMIC codes and ADOS items. Higher rates of responding, compliance behaviours and following pointing gestures and gaze occurred during the more structured teacher-led activity, compared to the free play. Results demonstrate preliminary construct validity of the M-COSMIC, showing its potential to describe and evaluate spontaneous social-communication skills in young children with ASD for research and applied purposes

High-Impact Mechanical Loading Increases Bone Material Strength in Postmenopausal Women-A 3-Month Intervention Study.

Bone adapts to loading in several ways, including redistributing bone mass and altered geometry and microarchitecture. Because of previous methodological limitations, it is not known how the bone material strength is affected by mechanical loading in humans. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a 3-month unilateral high-impact exercise program on bone material properties and microarchitecture in healthy postmenopausal women. A total of 20 healthy and inactive postmenopausal women (aged 55.6 ± 2.3 years [mean ± SD]) were included and asked to perform an exercise program of daily one-legged jumps (with incremental number, from 3×10 to 4×20 jumps/d) during 3 months. All participants were asked to register their performed jumps in a structured daily diary. The participants chose one leg as the intervention leg and the other leg was used as control. The operators were blinded to the participant's choice of leg for intervention. The predefined primary outcome was change in bone material strength index (BMSi), measured at the mid tibia with a handheld reference probe indentation instrument (OsteoProbe). Bone microstructure, geometry, and density were measured with high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (XtremeCT) at the ultradistal and at 14% of the tibia bone length (distal). Differences were analyzed by related samples Wilcoxon signed rank test. The overall compliance to the jumping program was 93.6%. Relative to the control leg, BMSi of the intervention leg increased 7% or 0.89 SD (p = 0.046), but no differences were found for any of the XtremeCT-derived bone parameters. In conclusion, a unilateral high-impact loading program increased BMSi in postmenopausal women rapidly without affecting bone microstructure, geometry, or density, indicating that intense mechanical loading has the ability to rapidly improve bone material properties before changes in bone mass or structure. © 2018 The Authors. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research Published by Wiley Periodicals Inc