Debate:The pressing need for research and services for gender desisters/detransitioners

The number of people presenting at gender clinics is increasing worldwide. Many people undergo a gender transition with subsequent improved psychological well-being (Paediatrics, 2014, 134, 696). However, some people choose to stop this journey, ‘desisters’, or to reverse their transition, ‘detransitioners’. It has been suggested that some professionals and activists are reluctant to acknowledge the existence of desisters and detransitioners, possibly fearing that they may delegitimize persisters’ experiences (International Journal of Transgenderism, 2018, 19, 231). Certainly, despite their presence in all follow-up studies of young people who have experienced gender dysphoria (GD), little thought has been given to how we might support this cohort. Levine (Archives of Sexual Behaviour, 2017, 47, 1295) reports that the 8th edition of the WPATH Standards of Care will include a section on detransitioning – confirming that this is an increasingly witnessed phenomenon worldwide. It also highlights that compared to the extensive protocols for working with children, adolescents and adults who wish to transition, nothing exists for those working with desisters or detransitioners. With very little research and no clear guidance on how to work with this population, and with numbers of referrals to gender services increasing, this is a timely juncture to consider factors that should be taken into account within clinical settings and areas for future research.</p

Big Gifts for Little Learners: Making the Case for Philanthropic Investment From Pregnancy Through Preschool

The San Francisco Bay Area is home to some of the wealthiest counties and most generous donors in the country. But how do those individuals choose where to spend their philanthropic dollars?In our 2021 survey of Bay Area donors, which included both affluent individuals and foundations, 40% of respondents said that when considering causes or groups to give to, demonstrated impact would lead them to choose one cause or group over others.In some ways it is surprising, then, that only 15% of donors said they give to early care and learning -- an area with robust research demonstrating positive impact on the children supported (including permanent increases in children's IQ and better health outcomes) as well as on their families and the broader community (e.g., gains in maternal workforce participation)

The role of the Doctrine of Scripture upon Evangelical Anglican reading and interpretation of the Bible

This thesis explores the relationship between the espoused doctrine of Scripture and the practice of biblical interpretation in an Evangelical context, focusing particularly on British Anglicanism, albeit with wider application and implications. The project investigates the extent to which the beliefs that Evangelical readers hold about the Bible influence their interpretative practices and conclusions. Chapter 1 begins with an overview of relevant empirical research on the dynamics of evangelical Bible-reading to identify the ‘research gap’ that this thesis seeks to address in focusing on the doctrinal underpinnings of interpretation. Chapter 2 then offers a theoretical foundation for the research, providing background to the development of biblical beliefs within Evangelicalism and Anglicanism respectively, and together. This leads to the identification of beliefs about the Bible and interpretative practices that evangelicals might reasonably be expected to demonstrate, by drawing upon the writings of key popular evangelical Anglicans, concluding that this group believe that the Bible is authoritative, inspired, sufficient, clear, consistent and historical. I then connect these beliefs to their hermeneutical counterparts and show how British Evangelicals are taught to read with doctrinal commitments in mind, to adopt the historical-grammatical approach, and to read canonically, for application and with and through the Holy Spirit. Chapter 3 turns to introduce the fieldwork, which comprised six UK-based focus groups reading and discussing three biblical texts. Three of these groups consisted of participants who had undertaken at least a year of formal theological education; the other three had no such training. The methodology of the research is provided and the focus group participants introduced. Chapter 4 then continues with a focus upon the texts which were selected for participants to read. The rationale for their inclusion is described, followed by an overview of relevant scholarship and descriptions of each focus group’s discussion. Chapter 5 then focuses on the influence of the doctrine of Scripture. This is assessed according to participants’ responses to the text challenges, the explicit comments that participants make about the nature of the Bible and the hermeneutical practices they employ. These insights into the influence of a person’s beliefs about Scripture upon reading are then placed in the context of other interpretative influences in chapter 6, that became evident from participants’ discussion. These included their doctrine of God, the text’s genre and the reader’s unique context. The thesis thus explores how these influences impact approaches to the text, but also views on the doctrine of Scripture itself. Chapter 7 reflects on the emerging view of the doctrine of Scripture’s role in interpretation in relation to the transformation of text, by putting participants’ view of Scripture in conversation with hermeneutical theory that posits the text is able to affect the reader. Finally, chapter 8 compares the responses of theologically-educated and non-educated participants on the dynamics of approaching the text, illustrating how theological education produces more diversity in thought and stronger views on both the liberal and conservative ends of the evangelical spectrum and increases the likelihood of certain hermeneutical practices

Leveraging auxiliary data from arbitrary distributions to boost GWAS discovery with Flexible cFDR.

Funder: GlaxoSmithKlineGenome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified thousands of genetic variants that are associated with complex traits. However, a stringent significance threshold is required to identify robust genetic associations. Leveraging relevant auxiliary covariates has the potential to boost statistical power to exceed the significance threshold. Particularly, abundant pleiotropy and the non-random distribution of SNPs across various functional categories suggests that leveraging GWAS test statistics from related traits and/or functional genomic data may boost GWAS discovery. While type 1 error rate control has become standard in GWAS, control of the false discovery rate can be a more powerful approach. The conditional false discovery rate (cFDR) extends the standard FDR framework by conditioning on auxiliary data to call significant associations, but current implementations are restricted to auxiliary data satisfying specific parametric distributions, typically GWAS p-values for related traits. We relax these distributional assumptions, enabling an extension of the cFDR framework that supports auxiliary covariates from arbitrary continuous distributions ("Flexible cFDR"). Our method can be applied iteratively, thereby supporting multi-dimensional covariate data. Through simulations we show that Flexible cFDR increases sensitivity whilst controlling FDR after one or several iterations. We further demonstrate its practical potential through application to an asthma GWAS, leveraging various functional genomic data to find additional genetic associations for asthma, which we validate in the larger, independent, UK Biobank data resource

Midway Consulting: Bridging the Gap between Producer and Consumer

A poster presented by Troy Hutchinson, Hannah Jones, Devan Neely and Anna Smith for the class Business, Accounting and Entrepreneurship: Proposed Business Plans.https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/gsp_projects_2019/1004/thumbnail.jp

The Geometric Role of Precisely Engineered Imperfections on the Critical Buckling Load of Spherical Elastic Shells

We study the effect of a dimplelike geometric imperfection on the critical buckling load of spherical elastic shells under pressure loading. This investigation combines precision experiments, finite element modeling, and numerical solutions of a reduced shell theory, all of which are found to be in excellent quantitative agreement. In the experiments, the geometry and magnitude of the defect can be designed and precisely fabricated through a customizable rapid prototyping technique. Our primary focus is on predictively describing the imperfection sensitivity of the shell to provide a quantitative relation between its knockdown factor and the amplitude of the defect. In addition, we find that the buckling pressure becomes independent of the amplitude of the defect beyond a critical value. The level and onset of this plateau are quantified systematically and found to be affected by a single geometric parameter that depends on both the radius-to-thickness ratio of the shell and the angular width of the defect. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that experimental results on the knockdown factors of imperfect spherical shells have been accurately predicted, through both finite element modeling and shell theory solutions.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (CMMI-1351449

Use of an audit with feedback implementation strategy to promote medication error reporting by nurses

Aims and objectivesTo outline the development and effect of an audit with feedback implementation strategy that intended to increase the rate of voluntary medication error reporting by nurses.BackgroundMedication errors are a serious global health issue. Audit with feedback is a widely used implementation strategy that has potential to modify nurses’ reporting behaviour and improve medication error reporting rates.DesignQuasi‐experimental implementation study (fulfilling the TIDieR checklist) with two pairs of matched wards at a private hospital in Australia was conducted from March 2015–September 2016. One ward from each pair was randomised to either the intervention or control group.MethodNurses within intervention wards received audit with feedback on a quarterly basis over a 12‐month implementation period. Control wards underwent quarterly audits only (without feedback). Feedback consisted of a one‐page infographic poster, with content based on medication error data obtained from audits and the hospitals’ risk management system (RiskMan). The primary outcome—rate of medication errors reported per month—was determined in both groups at pre‐implementation, implementation and postimplementation phases. Differences between groups were compared using generalised linear mixed models with Poisson distribution and log link.ResultsA nonsignificant intervention effect was found for rate of medication errors reported per month. Interestingly, when combining data from both groups, a significant increasing time trend was observed for medication errors reported per month across pre‐implementation and implementation phases (80% increase).ConclusionsThe audit with feedback strategy developed in the present study did not effectively influence the voluntary reporting of medication errors by nurses.Relevance to clinical practiceDespite the lack of intervention effects, the use of a published checklist to optimise the reporting quality of this study will contribute to the field by furthering the understanding of how to enhance audit with feedback implementation strategies for nurses.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163422/2/jocn15447.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163422/1/jocn15447_am.pd