Violence risk prediction in mental health inpatient settings using the Dynamic Appraisal of Situational Aggression.

Introduction/background: Aggression and violence are common problems in healthcare settings and affects both patients and healthcare staff. The Dynamic Appraisal of Situational Aggression (DASA) is an assessment tool to guide assessment for short term risk in inpatient settings. There have been no large-scale studies examining the performance of the DASA across different clinical settings.

Adaptation of the Clinical Global Impression for Use in Correctional Settings: The CGI-C.

Provision of mental health care in correctional settings presents unique challenges. There is a need for a simple-to-use tool to measure severity of mental illness in correctional settings that can be used by mental health staff from different disciplines. We adapted the severity scale of the Clinical Global Impression for use in correctional settings, which we have called CGI-C, and carried out a reliability study.

Psychosocial Predictors of Cognition in Bariatric Surgery.

Background: Obesity affects individuals worldwide and is currently the 5 leading cause of death according to the WHO. Bariatric surgery is an effective strategy that produces durable long-term weight loss. There is a bidirectional interplay between mental health and obesity; with higher depression and anxiety in the obese population as well as significant effects on weight loss for people with mental health disorders.

The Relationship between Psychosocial Factors and Cognition in Multiple Sclerosis.

Introduction: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a common disorder in some regions of the world, with over 2.3 million people diagnosed worldwide. Cognitive impairment is one of the earliest symptoms to present in the course of the disease and can cause significant morbidity.

Rapid and specific electrochemical detection of prostate cancer cells using an aperture sensor array.

A rapid, simple and specific cancer cell counting sensor would allow for early detection and better disease management. We have developed a novel cell counting device that can specifically count 125 prostate cancer cells in both complex media with serum and a mixed cell population containing non-target cells within 15 min. The microfabricated glass chip with exposed gold apertures utilizes the anti-EpCAM antibody to selectively count prostate cancer cells via differential pulse voltammetry.

Electrical power free, low dead volume, pressure-driven pumping for microfluidic applications.

This paper presents a simple-to-construct, low dead volume pump capable of generating a wide range of positive and negative pressures for microfluidic applications. The pump generates pressure or vacuum by changing the volume of air confined inside a syringe and is able to generate pressures between -95 and +300 kPa with a resolution as high as 1 Pa. Different from syringe pumps and electrokinetic pumping, which are capable of controlling flow rates only, our pump can be used to generate constant flow rates or constant pressures, which are required for certain applications such as the aspiration of biological cells for biophysical characterization.