Emotional and Adrenocortical Responses of Infants to the Strange Situation: The Differential Function of Emotional Expression

The aim of the study was to investigate biobehavioural organisation in infants with different qualities of attachment. Quality of attachment (security and disorganisation), emotional expression, and adrenocortical stress reactivity were investigated in a sample of 106 infants observed during Ainsworth’s Strange Situation at the age of 12 months. In addition, behavioural inhibition was assessed from maternal reports. As expected, securely attached infants did not show an adrenocortical response. Regarding the traditionally defined insecurely attached groups, adrenocortical activation during the strange situation was found for the ambivalent group, but not for the avoidant one. Previous ndings of increased adrenocortical activity in disorganised infants could not be replicated. In line with previous ndings, adrenocortical activation was most prominent in insecure infants with high behavioural inhibition indicating the function of a secure attachment relationship as a social buffer against less adaptive temperamental dispositions. Additional analyses indicated that adrenocortical reactivity and behavioural distress were not based on common activation processes. Biobehavioural associations within the different attachment groups suggest that biobehavioural processes in securely attached infants may be different from those in insecurely attached and disorganised groups. Whereas a coping model may be applied to describe the biobehavioural organisation of secure infants, an arousal model explanation may be more appropriate for the other groups

Hematological response in sheep given protracted exposures to Co 60 gamma radiation

Leukocyte count changes in sheep after prolonged exposure to gamma irradiation at rate of 1.9 R/h

Sub-arcsecond high sensitivity measurements of the DG~Tau jet with e-MERLIN

We present very high spatial resolution deep radio continuum observations at 5 GHz (6 cm) made with e-MERLIN of the young stars DG Tau A and B. Assuming it is launched very close (~=1 au) from the star, our results suggest that the DG Tau A outflow initially starts as a poorly focused wind and undergoes significant collimation further along the jet (~=50 au). We derive jet parameters for DG Tau A and find an initial jet opening angle of 86 degrees within 2 au of the source, a mass-loss rate of 1.5x10^-8 solar masses/yr for the ionised component of the jet, and the total ejection/accretion ratio to range from 0.06-0.3. These results are in line with predictions from MHD jet-launching theories.Comment: Accepted MNRAS Letter

"Willing Women: Wills as Constructs of Female Self-Identity in the Seventeenth-Century South-West (1625-1660)

This study investigates the wills of women from the south-west of England, written between 1625 and 1660. On consideration of 600 examples, the idea that women did not write wills because they did not have property is challenged, building on the work conducted by Susan James in her monograph Women’s Voices in Tudor wills, 1485-1603: Authority, Influence and Material Culture. However, this study departs from the treatment of legal documents merely as historical sources and instead re-casts wills as instances of women’s writing and autobiography. Whilst the increased focus on women’s writing has meant a rethinking of what constitutes the ‘canon’ and has led to a consideration of texts such as diaries and letters as forms of women’s literary production, the notion of ‘women’s writing’ has not previously been extended to wills. Here, it is argued that the acts of instituting a will and providing its content render women ‘intentional’ authors and therefore situate wills as literary artefacts. They are read in relation to other texts and material objects, including the representation of the act of will-writing in drama, funeral sermons, monuments, accounts of women’s deaths and mothers’ legacy texts. In exercising authorial intent over their wills, women used the document as an instrument of autobiography, in which they not only reflected but also actively fashioned the self which they recorded. The property descriptions, the relationships which were recorded between testatrix and beneficiary, and the control ventured and presumed by the composer of the will in the distribution of their worldly goods demonstrate the active engagement of these women with the way they would be presented and preserved after their death. The desire to be remembered and memorialised through the bequests made is discussed, and it is argued that women manipulated timescales as a vehicle for repeated or continued opportunities to be remembered. Whilst, for most of the women studied, the will is the only existing document they wrote, the dissertation concludes with a case study of Lucy Reynell of Newton Abbot, Devon, which provides evidence to demonstrate in detail how the will could cooperate, in conjunction with other texts and artefacts, in a concerted campaign of self-fashioning and memorialising for posterity

Patient and public involvement in a study of multimedia clinical trial information for children, young people and families

There is increasing recognition of the need to involve the public in health research, but accounts of how best to achieve this are scarce. This article describes public involvement in the TRials Engagement in Children and Adolescents (TRECA) study, which is developing and evaluating multimedia information resources to inform children, young people and their familes about clinical trials. A dedicated group of young people with long-term health conditions and their parents met regularly throughout the study; further involvement was sought when specific input was required. Review of formal impact records and informal discussions highlighted how public involvement can positively influence research practice and the people involved. By detailing the methods of involvement used, this work also provides guidance for successfully implementing public involvement in research, and highlights challenges that should be considered in future research projects

Meeting the Expectations of Your Heritage Culture: Links between Attachment Style, Intragroup Marginalisation, and Psychological Adjustment

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Do insecurely-attached individuals perceive greater rejection from their heritage culture? Few studies have examined the antecedents and outcomes of this perceived rejection – termed intragroup marginalisation – in spite of its implications for the adjustment of cultural migrants to the mainstream culture. The present study investigated whether anxious and avoidant attachment orientations among cultural migrants were associated with greater intragroup marginalisation and, in turn, with lower subjective well-being and flourishing, and higher acculturative stress. Anxious attachment was associated with heightened intragroup marginalisation from friends and, in turn, with increased acculturative stress; anxious attachment was also associated with increased intragroup marginalisation from family. Avoidant attachment was linked with increased intragroup marginalisation from family and, in turn, with decreased subjective well-being