Psychological discourses on gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University

The present study was concerned with how the discourses used in cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), theory and practice construct the identity categories of gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES). This study also focused on whether CBT practitioners view CBT as a psychotherapy that is designed and aimed more toward obtaining individual client change and adaptation to distress than focusing on social causation of client distress and social change awareness. The research aims were executed using both Potter and Wetherell's (1987) approach to discourse analysis and a feminist poststructuralist framework. Ten clinical psychologists, participated. They were interviewed about the identity categories of gender, ethnicity and SES in relation to CBT theory and practice. An open ended unstructured approach to interviewing was undertaken. Transcripts from the interviews were analyzed. Analysis resulted in the identification of three main discourses: the assessment discourse, the individual practitioner discourse and the empowerment advocacy discourse. Overall analysis of the discourses revealed how they acted to construct CBT as a beneficial psychotherapy to use with clients from ethnic minority groups, low socioeconomic groups and for women, despite the overall consensus that CBT is not specifically designed to assess the effect of gender, ethnicity and SES factors. Analysis of transcripts also revealed that participants view CBT as psychotherapy that is designed more toward obtaining individual client change, though participants stated that CBT has the potential to design social change initiatives. The key issues arising from the findings are discussed and some general conclusions are presented. Limitations and future directions for research are also discussed

Older adults' evaluations of the standard and modified pedometer-based Green Prescription

INTRODUCTION: The Green Prescription is a primary care programme designed to increase physical activity in individuals with low activity levels. Older adults tend to engage in insufficient physical activity to obtain health-related gain. AIM: To examine participants’ ratings of the Healthy Steps intervention and to assess how participants rated the use of a pedometer-based Green Prescription in aiding their physical activity. METHODS: In total, 330 community-dwelling older adults who have low levels of activity were randomised to receive either a standard time-based Green Prescription or a modified pedometer-based Green Prescription. Post-intervention, 259 participants completed the participant evaluation questionnaire via postal survey. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and Chi-squared analyses. RESULTS: The standard components of the Green Prescription (general practitioner consultations and telephone counselling) received similar and higher ratings across both allocation groups than the use of print materials. A pedometer-based Green Prescription was rated as being helpful in aiding physical activity. DISCUSSION: This study supports the importance of general practitioners’ initial role in prescribing physical activity for older adults and of ongoing telephone support for longer-term adherence. Incorporating a pedometer can be effective in helping low-active older adults initiate and maintain regular physical activity

Prevalence of diphtheria in a tertiary care hospital of Western part of India – A clinicoepidemiological study

Background: Diphtheria, a very common vaccine-preventable disease, is still persistent in India without much decline in the past decade. Objective: The objective of this study was to study the clinicoepidemiological profile of diphtheria in children up to 12 years of age, their outcome in tertiary care hospital of Western Gujarat. Materials and Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted among 164 children admitted in the tertiary hospital of Western Gujarat, who were diagnosed with during the period of July 2016–August 2018. Results: It was observed that the highest prevalence of diphtheria was seen in the age group of 5–9 years. There was slight male preponderance with 1.5:1. The majority of patients were referred from rural areas. Immunization status was the most determining feature as 68 patients out of the study population were unimmunized at the time of admission. Conclusion: The rise in the prevalence in more advanced age group of 8–12 years might be due to waning immunity and emphasizes on the need for increasing primary immunization coverage along with both booster doses in areas having less adequate health-care facilities or poor access

Cervical ectopic pregnancy presented with massive life threatening haemorrhage: a case report

Here we report a case of a cervical ectopic pregnancy presented with massive life threatening haemorrhage and its subsequent management. After an unsuccessful attempt to stop the bleeding with balloon catheter and vaginal tamponade, a total abdominal hysterectomy was performed, this is the procedure of choice for treatment of cervical pregnancy under conditions of urgency and life-threatening bleeding

Creation and validation of a ligation-independent cloning (LIC) retroviral vector for stable gene transduction in mammalian cells

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cloning vectors capable of retroviral transduction have enabled stable gene overexpression in numerous mitotic cell lines. However, the relatively small number of feasible restriction enzyme sequences in their cloning sites can hinder successful generation of overexpression constructs if these sequences are also present in the target cDNA insert.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Utilizing ligation-independent cloning (LIC) technology, we have modified the highly efficient retroviral transduction vector, pBABE, to eliminate reliance on restriction enzymes for cloning. Instead, the modified plasmid, pBLIC, utilizes random 12/13-base overhangs generated by T4 DNA polymerase 3' exonuclease activity. PCR-based introduction of the complementary sequence into any cDNA of interest enables universal cloning into pBLIC. Here we describe creation of the pBLIC plasmid, and demonstrate successful cloning and protein overexpression from three different cDNAs, Bax, catalase, and p53 through transduction into the human prostate cancer cell line, LNCaP or the human lung cancer line, H358.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results show that pBLIC vector retains the high transduction efficiency of the original pBABE while eliminating the requirement for checking individual cDNA inserts for internal restriction sites. Thus it comprises an effective retroviral cloning system for laboratory-scale stable gene overexpression or for high-throughput applications such as creation of retroviral cDNA libraries. To our knowledge, pBLIC is the first LIC vector for retroviral transduction-mediated stable gene expression in mammalian cells.</p

Characterization and assembly of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa aspartate transcarbamoylase-pseudo dihydroorotase complex

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a virulent pathogen that has become more threatening with the emergence of multidrug resistance. The aspartate transcarbamoylase (ATCase) of this organism is a dodecamer comprised of six 37 kDa catalytic chains and six 45 kDa chains homologous to dihydroorotase (pDHO). The pDHO chain is inactive but is necessary for ATCase activity. A stoichiometric mixture of the subunits associates into a dodecamer with full ATCase activity. Unlike other known ATCases, the P. aeruginosa catalytic chain does not spontaneously assemble into a trimer. Chemical-crosslinking and size-exclusion chro- matography showed that P. aeruginosa ATCase is monomeric which accounts for its lack of catalytic activity since the active site is a composite comprised of residues from adjacent monomers in the trimer. Circular dichroism spectroscopy indicated that the ATCase chain adopts a structure that contains secondary structure elements although neither the ATCase nor the pDHO subunits are very stable as determined by a thermal shift assay. Formation of the complex increases the melting temperature by about 30 ̊C. The ATCase is strongly inhibited by all nucleotide di- and triphosphates and exhibits extreme cooperativity. Previous studies suggested that the regulatory site is located in an 11-residue extension of the amino end of the catalytic chain. However, deletion of the extensions did not affect catalytic activity, nucleotide inhibition or the assembly of the dodecamer. Nucleotides destabilized the dode- camer which probably accounts for the inhibition and apparent cooperativity of the substrate saturation curves. Contrary to previous interpretations, these results suggest that P. aerugi- nosa ATCase is not allosterically regulated by nucleotides

The green prescription and older adults:What do general practitioners see as barriers?

Introduction: Limited research exists that has examined the barriers that older adults (those aged 65 years and older) can encounter when given a Green Prescription (GRx)). This study aimed to identify what general practitioners (GPs) perceived their older-aged patients' barriers were with regard to carrying out a GRx. This study also identified the strategies that GPs used to assist their older-aged patients in overcoming barriers to physical activity engagement. Methods: Fifteen GPs from the Auckland region of New Zealand were interviewed individually. An inductive thematic approach was used to analyse data. Findings: GPs identified chronic health conditions, fear of injury, transportation contraints, set routines and lack of confidence as being barriers that some of their older-aged patients have encountered when considering whether to become more physically active and, also, when engaging in actual physical activity. Conclusion: Physical activity interventions, such as the GRx programme, can have an important role in helping confer health-related gain for low-active older adults. To ensure that such interventions are successful on a long-term basis, practitioners need to be aware of the barriers that their older-aged patients can encounter when given a prescription for physical activity

An RFI Detection Algorithm for Microwave Radiometers Using Sparse Component Analysis

Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) is a threat to passive microwave measurements and if undetected, can corrupt science retrievals. The sparse component analysis (SCA) for blind source separation has been investigated to detect RFI in microwave radiometer data. Various techniques using SCA have been simulated to determine detection performance with continuous wave (CW) RFI