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Self-harm is a global public health concern presenting increasing rates in recent years, especially among young people. This population seldom access formal help, and typically rely on informal sources of support, mainly friends. The role, importance and meaning of friendships in the context of self-harm remains poorly understood, highlighting the need to explore young people’s lived experiences. In the present study we conducted semi-structured retrospective qualitative interviews, prompted by the Card-sort Task for Self-Harm About Friends (CaTS-AF), to explore the experiences of 11 young adults (M=19.09; SD=0.70; M=2, F=9) who self-harmed during adolescence. Data were analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA). Three themes were developed which consider 1) the role of friendships in self-harm progression; 2) the role of self-harm in friendship evolution; and 3) the meaning of friendships in the context of adolescents’ self-harm. The first two themes highlight the interdependent nature of friendships and self-harm, where these two experiences influence one another. Furthermore, not only are friendships shaped by self-harm, but they acquire specific meanings, dynamics and expectations within the context of the behaviour. Overall, friends are a key part of adolescents’ self-harm, as sources of both risk and protection. It is essential to further integrate friendships, a developmentally significant aspect of adolescents’ social experiences, into self-harm research and clinical practice.

Students with vision impairment experience multiple social emotional challenges at school which stem from communication difficulties in the social relationships they develop with teachers and classmates. This study took a multi-method, multi-informant participatory approach to develop “Vi-Connect: A Social School Journey”, a digital intervention in the form of an educational game aimed at promoting school social inclusion of students with vision impairment by scaffolding advocacy and social communication skills. The study consisted of three phases: Co-production before developing Vi-Connect (Phase 1), development of the prototype (Phase 2) and assessment of Vi-Connect (Phase 3). Four and five adolescents with vision impairment participated in Phases 1 and 3 of the study respectively. A second group of young people from Eye-YPAG (N = 8), a youth advisory group for eye and vision research, participated in Phase 1. Six professionals in the field of vision impairment participated in Phases 1 and 3. Reflexive Thematic Analysis was used to analyse the findings of Phases 1 and 3. A prototype of Vi-Connect including three school-based scenarios was developed based on the Curriculum Framework for Children and Young People with Vision Impairment and the experiences and suggestions of all participants. The findings of this study indicated that digital interventions can be an additional supportive educational tool to support the social inclusion of students with vision impairment, as they can facilitate coping with challenging social situations and promote self-advocacy. This is one of the first studies to involve students with vision impairment in intervention development, prioritising the lived experiences of this student population. Additionally, acknowledging the key role of professionals in the school inclusion of students with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, this study involved professionals in the field of vision impairment. This research opens the field for the development of more accessible educational interventions for students with sensory impairments.

Dahlias ( Dahlia × hybrida ) are a popular cut flower for local production in the northeastern United States. However, there are more than 20,000 cultivars to choose from, and the suitability of these cultivars as cut flowers varies regionally. Fourteen dahlia cultivars were grown in Orono, ME, USA: Blizzard, Burlesca, Café au Lait, Café au Lait Rose, Clearview Daniel, Cornel, Cornel Bronze, Ivanetti, Lollipop, Neon Splendor, Rock Run Ashley, Sunspot, Tanjoh, and Tempest. These cultivars were selected after interviews with local dahlia growers. These cultivars all produced similar numbers of flowers, but they differed in the time to form flowers, stem length, and stem diameter. ‘Rock Run Ashley’ was the earliest to begin flowering, at 35 days earlier than ‘Tempest’ and ‘Café au Lait’, which flowered last. ‘Blizzard’ and ‘Tempest’ had the longest stems and ‘Lollipop’ had the shortest stems. Growers may want to choose ‘Rock Run Ashley’ if they need flowers earlier in the season, or ‘Blizzard’ or ‘Tempest’ if a longer stem length is desired. During a second study, we harvested field-grown flowers of ‘Burlesca’, ‘Cornel’, and ‘Ivanetti’ and treated them with deionized water or one of two commercial holding solutions. Holding solutions did not extend the vase life of ‘Burlesca’ or ‘Ivanetti’, but they increased the vase life of ‘Cornel’ by 4 or 5 days.

Adolescence is characterized as a period of social reorientation toward peer relationships, entailing the emergence of sophisticated social abilities. Two studies (Study 1: N = 42, ages 13–17; Study 2: N = 81, ages 13–16) investigated age group differences in the impact of relationship reciprocation within school-based social networks on an experimental measure of cooperation behavior. Results suggest development between mid- and late adolescence in the extent to which reciprocation of social ties predicted resource allocation. With increasing age group, investment decisions increasingly reflected the degree to which peers reciprocated feelings of friendship. This result may reflect social-cognitive development, which could facilitate the ability to navigate an increasingly complex social world in adolescence and promote positive and enduring relationships into adulthood.

Positive mood amplification is a hallmark of the bipolar disorder spectrum (BPDS). We need better understanding of cognitive mechanisms contributing to such elevated mood. Generation of vivid, emotionally compelling mental imagery is proposed to act as an ‘emotional amplifier’ in BPDS. We used a positive mental imagery generation paradigm to manipulate affect in a subclinical BPDS-relevant sample reporting high ( n  = 31) vs. low ( n  = 30) hypomanic-like experiences on the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ). Participants were randomized to an ‘elated’ or ‘calm’ mental imagery condition, rating their momentary affect four times across the experimental session. We hypothesized greater affect increase in the high (vs. low) MDQ group assigned to the elated (vs. calm) imagery generation condition. We further hypothesized that affect increase in the high MDQ group would be particularly apparent in the types of affect typically associated with (hypo)mania, i.e., suggestive of high activity levels. Mixed model and time-series analysis showed that for the high MDQ group, affect increased steeply and in a sustained manner over time in the ‘elated’ imagery condition, and more shallowly in ‘calm’. The low-MDQ group did not show this amplification effect. Analysis of affect clusters showed high-MDQ mood amplification in the ‘elated’ imagery condition was most pronounced for active affective states. This experimental model of BPDS-relevant mood amplification shows evidence that positive mental imagery drives changes in affect in the high MDQ group in a targeted manner. Findings inform cognitive mechanisms of mood amplification, and spotlight prevention strategies targeting elated imagery, while potentially retaining calm imagery to preserve adaptive positive emotionality.

BackgroundWe investigated the first-line activity of vinflunine in patients with penis cancer. Cisplatin-based combinations are commonly used, but survival is not prolonged; many patients are unfit for such treatment or experience toxicity that outweighs clinical benefit.MethodsTwenty-five patients with inoperable squamous carcinoma of the penis were recruited to a single-arm, Fleming–A’Hern exact phase II trial. Treatment comprised 4 cycles of vinflunine 320 mg/m2, given every 21 days. Primary endpoint was clinical benefit rate (CBR: objective responses plus stable disease) assessed after 4 cycles. Seven or more objective responses or disease stabilisations observed in 22 evaluable participants would exclude a CBR of <15%, with a true CBR of >40% being probable.ResultsTwenty-two participants were evaluable. Ten objective responses or disease stabilisations were confirmed. CBR was 45.5%, meeting the primary endpoint; partial response rate was 27.3%. Seven patients received >4 cycles of vinflunine. Dose reduction or treatment delay was required for 20% of cycles. In all, 68% of patients experienced at least one grade 3 adverse event. Two deaths on treatment were not caused by disease progression.ConclusionsPre-specified clinical activity threshold was exceeded. Toxicity was in keeping with experience in other tumours. Vinflunine merits further study in this disease.Trial registrationNCT02057913.

The novel propagation system submist, which applies water to the bases of cuttings rather than overhead, is a promising alternative. We developed and tested a commercial-scale submist system to make this propagation system more accessible to commercial propagators. Five species, including blue star flower ( Amsonia tabernaemontana ), faassen nepeta ( Nepeta × faassenii ‘Six Hills Giant’), panicle hydrangea ( Hydrangea paniculata ‘Grandiflora’), sweetgale ( Myrica gale ), and sweetfern ( Comptonia peregrina ), were propagated from cuttings in commercial-scale submist and overhead mist systems. Blue star flower and faassen nepeta cuttings had greater root length, root rating, and root number with the submist system. Panicle hydrangea cuttings had more roots in submist, but longer roots in overhead mist. There were no differences in rooting between the systems for sweetgale and sweetfern cuttings. The comparable or superior rooting of these five species in a submist system compared with traditional overhead mist systems is evidence that submist is a viable alternative propagation system. Water use in submist systems was 98% less than that for overhead mist systems.

Difficulties in fine-mapping quantitative trait loci (QTLs) are a major impediment to progress in the molecular dissection of complex traits in mice. Here we show that genome-wide high-resolution mapping of multiple phenotypes can be achieved using a stock of genetically heterogeneous mice. We developed a conservative and robust bootstrap analysis to map 843 QTLs with an average 95% confidence interval of 2.8 Mb. The QTLs contribute to variation in 97 traits, including models of human disease (asthma, type 2 diabetes mellitus, obesity and anxiety) as well as immunological, biochemical and hematological phenotypes. The genetic architecture of almost all phenotypes was complex, with many loci each contributing a small proportion to the total variance. Our data set, freely available at http://gscan.well.ox.ac.uk , provides an entry point to the functional characterization of genes involved in many complex traits.

Although overhead mist revolutionized the propagation industry, it does suffer from potential drawbacks that include the application of large volumes of water, potentially unsanitary conditions, irregular misting coverage, and leaching of foliar nutrients. We explored the feasibility of submist as an alternative as it might avoid these problems by applying water exclusively from below the cutting, which is inserted basally into an enclosed rooting chamber. We propagated cuttings of korean lilac ( Syringa pubescens ssp. patula ) and inkberry ( Ilex glabra ) using both overhead mist and submist to compare effectiveness of the systems. Cuttings of korean lilac were wounded and dipped basally into 8000 mg·L −1 of the potassium salt of indole-3-butyric acid (K-IBA), and those in the overhead mist systems were inserted into coarse perlite. Cuttings of inkberry were wounded and treated with 5000 mg·L −1 K-IBA, and those in the overhead mist systems were inserted into 50:50 peat:perlite (by vol). Cuttings of korean lilac in the submist systems produced more than twice as many roots as cuttings in the overhead mist systems, with roots more than 2.6 times the length. Similarly, cuttings of inkberry in the submist systems produced more than three times the root counts and root lengths as cuttings in the overhead mist systems. For korean lilac, root dry weights averaged 58 mg for cuttings in the submist system, compared with only 18 mg among cuttings receiving overhead mist. Likewise, root dry weights averaged 70 and 7 mg for cuttings of inkberry propagated by submist and overhead mist, respectively. Rooted cuttings of korean lilac transplanted well into a soilless substrate, where they more than tripled their root biomass to 218 mg (vs. 59 mg for cuttings transplanted from overhead mist). We did not evaluate transplant performance of inkberry. Our results show that submist systems might merit consideration for the propagation of woody plants by leafy stem cuttings.

Overhead mist (OM) facilitates the propagation of stem cuttings by preventing transpirational water loss. However, drawbacks to OM include the application of large volumes of water, potentially unsanitary conditions, irregular misting coverage, and leaching of foliar nutrients. We explored three alternatives to OM that might avoid these problems by applying moisture below, rather than overhead. These included 1) a submist (SM) aeroponic system configured to provide intermittent mist only to the rooting zone, 2) a subirrigation (SI) system that provided water via capillary action through perlite from a reservoir maintained below the base of each cutting, and 3) a subfog (SF) aeroponic system that was configured to provide constant fog only to the rooting zone. To initiate each system, we wetted perlite or filled reservoirs using either water or quarter-strength Hoagland solution. Stem cuttings of ‘Wizard Mix’ coleus ( Plectranthus scutellarioides ) were propagated in the systems for 21 days. Cuttings in the SM system produced more than three times as many roots as cuttings in the OM system, with roots more than six times the length. Root dry weights averaged 28 mg for cuttings in the SM system, compared with only 3.5 mg among cuttings receiving OM. The SF and SI systems produced results broadly comparable to the OM. Fertilizer did not consistently improve rooting measures across the systems. Although we observed few fine roots on cuttings rooted using SM, they transplanted well into a soilless substrate and quickly produced new root growth. The SM system used less than 1/5 the water used by the SI system, and less than 1/50 the water used by the SF system. In comparison, a single OM nozzle operating for 10 seconds released about one-third of the total water lost through transpiration from each SM system over the entire experiment. Our results show that SM systems merit further evaluation for propagation of plants by stem cuttings.