Secure attachments and how they promote resilience in children of alcoholics

Children of alcoholics (COAs) experience risk factors including difficulties in school, behavioral issues, psychological distress, and the potential to become a substance abuser themselves. However, there is also research to support that not all COAs experience negative outcomes as a result of their alcoholic parent\u27s influence. This qualitative study sought to explore whether positive attachments promote resilience in COAs from the perspective of COAs themselves. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine participants who were COAs and could identify a positive attachment relationship from the time period when they lived with their alcoholic parent(s). The major finding of this study was that, while having a positive, secure attachment was beneficial in promoting resilience, it was not enough to mitigate all potential negative consequences COAs experience. Implications of this finding for future research and social work practice are discussed

COMEDY, CAMARADERIE, AND CONFLICT: USING HUMOR TO DEFUSE DISPUTES AMONG FRIENDS

This study sought to examine the role humor plays in defusing conflict between friends from an evolutionary perspective. Although a vast amount of research exists on humor, friendship, and conflict, no single study connects all three of these concepts together. This study attempted to fill this gap by examining how different humor styles used between friends in times of conflict relate to friendship satisfaction and life satisfaction. Specifically, the hypotheses predicted that friends who use affiliative humor to deescalate conflict are more inclined to report higher relational satisfaction and improved individual well-being than friends who use maladaptive humor to deescalate conflict. Seventy-four participants completed this study. The responses were collected in a cross-sectional questionnaire data with Qualtrics. The hypotheses were tested with a multiple regression model. The first hypothesis was supported, as the results indicated that adaptive humor led to higher levels of relational satisfaction and maladaptive humor, on the other hand, led to lower levels of relational satisfaction. H2 and H3 were not supported. H2 found zero correlation between adaptive humor and life satisfaction and a weak negative correlation between maladaptive humor and life satisfaction. H3 was unsupported because there was no statistical significance between adaptive humor or maladaptive humor on life satisfaction as a function of relational satisfaction. Implications and future directions are discussed as well, with the results of this study contributing both practical and theoretical knowledge to the fields of friendship, conflict, and humor

Not Simply Women\u27s Bodybuilding: Gender and the Female Competition Categories

Once known only as Bodybuilding and Women’s Bodybuilding, the sport has grown to include multiple competition categories that both limit and expand opportunities for female bodybuilders. While the creation of additional categories, such as Fitness, Figure, Bikini, and Physique, appears to make the sport more inclusive to more variations and interpretation of the feminine, muscular physique, it also creates more in-between spaces. This auto ethnographic research explores the ways that multiple female competition categories within the sport of Bodybuilding define, reinforce, and complicate the gendered experiences of female physique athletes, by bringing freak theory into conversation with body categories

An exploration of the reasons violent crimes are not reported to the police

This paper explores the differences why violent crime victimizations are not being reported to the police. Using 2006 National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) data compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, I develop and test cross-tabulation models which explain the influence age, sex, and victim/offender relationship has on the reporting of violent victimizations to the police. Previous research shows that victimizations involving males and juveniles are less likely to come to the attention of the police Results of my analysis support this research and show that older victims ages 26 and older are significantly more likely to report violent victimizations than younger victims ages 25 and under. Sex of the victim had no impact on whether or not crimes were reported to the police. Also, the relationship the victim has with the offender is significantly associated with the reason why these victims chose not to report the violent crime to the police. Males were more likely than females to state the reason for not reporting a violent crime is because it was minor, while females are more likely to state that the reasons they did not report a violent victimization was because of fear of reprisal. These findings are important to help address the reasons why victims may seek help from the police

Ontario’s Registered Nurses Knowledge, Comfort, and Self-Efficacy Surrounding Patient Health Literacy (HL) Assessments: An Observational Mixed Method, Cross-Sectional Study

Health literacy (HL) is the ability to access and act on health-related information, as well as the ability to navigate through healthcare systems in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Health literacy assessments (HLA) are a direct measure of an individual’s ability to understand health related information using valid and reliable health literacy assessment tools. Objective: to explore the current state of HLA frequency use within the nursing profession in Ontario, as well as nurse’s perception of knowledge, skills, self-efficacy, and environmental influences surrounding their HLA practices. Methods: convergent mixed-method cross-sectional study utilizing an exploratory descriptive design. Results: Seventy-one Registered Nurses (RNs) from across Ontario from a variety of backgrounds and work settings participated in the study. Nurses in this sample performed HLA some of the time, lacked knowledge about the Canadian populations risk factors for limited HL, and felt they had the proper skills, some of the time, to do HLA. Environment had a significant impact along with leadership support, on the frequency in which participants informally assessed patients HL. Nurses also reported a higher level of self-efficacy for their perceived ability to perform HLA, yet they only performed them some of the time. Universal precautions use was the greatest predictor (p = 0.001) to increase the frequency of HLA performances. Conclusion: this is the first study of its kind in Canada, recommending that practicing nurses receive education and training in their work environments on HL and HLA. Adjustments should also be made to healthcare working environments in order to promote universal precaution use, leadership support, and develop policies and procedures to support nurses in HLA practice

The mannose receptor is expressed by subsets of APC in non-lymphoid organs

BACKGROUND: The mannose receptor (MR) is an endocytic receptor of Mφ and endothelial cell subsets whose natural ligands include both self glycoproteins and microbial glycans. It is also expressed by immature cultured dendritic cells (DC), where it mediates high efficiency uptake of glycosylated antigens, yet its role in antigen handling in vivo is unknown. Knowledge of which APC subsets express MR will assist the design of experiments to address its immunological functions. Here the expression of MR by MHC class II positive APC in non-lymphoid organs of the mouse is described. RESULTS: MR positive APC were identified in several peripheral organs: skin, liver, cardiac and skeletal muscle and tongue. MR positive cells in salivary gland, thyroid and pancreas coexpressed MHC class II and the myeloid markers macrosialin and sialoadhesin, but not the dendritic cell markers CD11c or DEC-205. MR and MHC class II colocalised in confocal microscope images, implying that antigen capture may be the primary role of MR in these cells. Distinct ligands of MR were found in salivary gland and pancreas tissue lysates that are candidate physiological ligands of MR positive APC in these organs. CONCLUSIONS: The tissue and subcellular distribution of MR suggest it is appropriately located to serve as a high efficiency antigen uptake receptor of APC

Exploring practical approaches to maximising data quality in electronic healthcare records in the primary care setting and associated benefits

Exploiting the information contained within electronic healthcare records (EHR) data will be key to addressing major challenges to public health both nationally and globally, ultimately offering a means of maximising efficiency and equality in care. There are, however, significant challenges in using EHRs effectively and particularly in ensuring the quality of data recorded. Incorrect or missing data could render records as useless or indeed misleading such that conclusions drawn from the data could have a negative impact. Amongst other difficulties, recording data can be time consuming to the extent of conflicting with the GP’s primary focus of patient consultation in an already time-constrained environment. Understanding the requirements of and the demands upon GPs must be central to addressing the issue of data quality (DQ) within EHRs. As part of on-going work into DQ at the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) and in collaboration with the University of Sussex (UoS), a workshop session was held at the SAPC (Society for Academic Primary Care) conference in 2014 with the aim of exploring issues of DQ in primary care EHRs from the perspective of different users of GP data and with particular focus on how and why data is recorded in the first instance. The intended outcome was a furthered understanding of both the challenges and the direct benefits to GPs of ensuring high quality data with a view to establishing a workable approach to recording data and maximising benefits to all users of EHRs

A pragmatic approach for measuring data quality in primary care databases

There is currently no widely recognised methodology for undertaking data quality assessment in electronic health records used for research. In an attempt to address this, we have developed a protocol for measuring and monitoring data quality in primary care research databases, whereby practice-based data quality measures are tailored to the intended use of the data. Our approach was informed by an in-depth investigation of aspects of data quality in the Clinical Practice Research Datalink Gold database and presentations of the results to data users. Although based on a primary care database, much of our proposed approach would be equally applicable to other health care databases

Digitalizing Crime Prevention Theories: How Technology Affects Victim and Offender Behavior

In the last thirty years, two main theoretical traditions in crime prevention literature have emerged: 1) the victimization perspective, which considers the victim, offender, and environment, and 2) the social control perspective, an alternative view that considers the role that community and family members play in informally influencing the moral values of potential offenders. Both of these theories have been used to inform crime prevention techniques by focusing on modifying the behavior of potential victims and the motivations of potential offenders. While both the social control and victimization perspectives have been used to discuss criminal behavior and crime prevention, neither acknowledge the role that technology plays in the lives of those that may commit crimes or be victimized. In this paper, we attempt to “digitalize” theories of crime prevention. By digitalize, we mean to understand how technology use influences the lives of both potential offenders and victims. We explore the theoretical foundations of both the victimization and social control perspectives and discuss their limitations as a result of not considering how technology influences information-seeking practices and communication routines. We argue that examining technology use is essential to crime theories that are used to help understand and predict criminal behavior, and we propose modifications to each framework to increase their effectiveness in predicting criminal behavior and practical application

About time for news

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1996.Includes bibliographical references (p. 43-44).by Jonathan A. Sheena.M.Eng