The Effects of Hope, Rumination, Resilience, and Unit Support on Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Severity in Veterans

The current study investigated potential protective resources: hope, rumination, resilience and unit support as they related to PTSD symptom severity among service members who deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan and experienced combat (N = 191). We also investigated each variable for possible interactions with combat exposure. Correlational analyses and hierarchical linear regression were used to analyze the data. Hope, resilience and unit support were all negatively correlated with PTSD symptom severity and combat exposure. Deliberate rumination and intrusive rumination were positively correlated with PTSD symptom severity. In the regression, significant predictors were rank, combat exposure, resilience and intrusive rumination, with enlisted rank, higher combat exposure, and higher intrusive rumination predicting higher levels of PTSD symptom severity and resilience predicting lower levels. Resilience moderated the relationship between combat exposure and PTSD symptom severity, such that participants who had higher levels of resilience had lower levels of PTSD symptom severity at all levels of combat exposure. These findings suggest the importance of increasing resilience in combat veterans, specifically those of enlisted rank and veterans exposed to higher levels of combat. Findings also suggest that teaching veterans how to control or minimize intrusive rumination may help lower the risk that a veteran will develop PTSD

Striding up the ladder: a critical reflection on student-staff partnership through the lens of Ajzen’s theory of planned behaviour

Student-staff partnerships differ in doctoral context compared to other academic levels of study. Normally, postgraduate research students’ rely more on their supervisor team and the graduate school for guidance, support, and research and developmental opportunities. In contrast, taught doctorate programmes offer a broader application of student-staff partnerships as they involve opportunity for greater engagement. This essay provides a student’s reflection on the changing student-staff relationship during the pre-registration, taught, Doctorate of Physiotherapy (DPT) programme at Glasgow Caledonian University, drawing on previous university experience. The piece concludes with a discussion of recommendations for future student-staff partnerships

Measurement of Nanoparticles Release during Drilling of Polymer Nanocomposites

Nanomaterials are one of the promising technologies of this century. The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies [1] reports more than 1600 consumer products based on nanotechnology that are currently on the market and advantages link to the reinforcement of polymeric materials using nano-fillers are not to demonstrate anymore. However, the concerns about safety and its consumer perception can slow down the acceptance of nanocomposites. Indeed, during its life-cycle, a nanotechnology-based product can release nano-sized particles exposing workers, consumers and environment and the risk involved in the use and disposal of such particles is not well known. The current legislation concerning chemicals and environment protection doesn’t explicitly cover nanomaterials and changes undergone by nanoparticles during the products’ life cycle. Also, the possible physio-chemical changes that the nanoparticles may undergo during its life cycle are unknown. Industries need a standard method to evaluate nanoparticles release during products’ life cycle in order to improve the knowledge in nanomaterials risk assessment and the legislation, and to inform customers about the safety of nanomaterials and nanoproducts. This work aims to propose a replicable method in order to assess the release of nanoparticles during the machining of nanocomposites in a controlled environment. For this purpose, a new experimental set-up was implemented and issues observed in previous methods (background noise due to uncontrolled ambient environment and the process itself, unrepeatable machining parameters) were solved. A characterisation and validation of the chamber used is presented in this paper. Also, preliminary testing on drilling of polymer-based nanocomposites (Polyamide-6/Glass Fibre reinforced with nano-SiO2) manufactured by extrusion and injection moulding were achieved

E\u27en As The Flower : Adapted from the poem The Passion Flower

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/5771/thumbnail.jp

A Case Study on Accessible Reading with Deaf Children

The concept of accessible reading for deaf students is new and worthy of exploration. In the face of the reading difficulties often experienced by deaf students, the lack of a specialized reading methodology that works for them must be addressed. Central to the paper is a research case study undertaken with two young deaf students, proficient in American Sign Language (ASL) and learning to read. The students participated in a tutorial with a tutor knowledgeable in a specialized reading methodology called ASL Gloss. The participating students demonstrated progress in reading skills over time. Two reading measures were adapted from English to ASL for use with deaf students. Some important features of ASL Gloss are included in the study report. The manipulated English text that closer resembles ASL and the use of the ASL-phabet, are designed to facilitate deaf students’ needed transition from ASL to English literacy (Supalla, 2017; Supalla & Cripps, 2011; Supalla et al., 2001). These deaf students engage in oral reading (in ASL) and are also given a different task. That is, to identify ASL-phabet letters that represent the phonological structure of signed words. The reading measures under development appear to promote the process of learning to read as informed by the quantitative and qualitative data. These findings support the need and promise of pursuing an alternative theory and applied research for deaf students’ reading that accounts for their ability to become fluent readers

Chancellors and Change: Conversations About the Campus Climate

UNO’s Chancellor’s Commission for the Status of Women (CCSW) has been at the forefront of inclusion of all genders since the 1970’s. Recently, CCSW has extensively re-evaluated UNO’s campus climate and has submitted an action plan to the Chancellor to improve the status of women students, faculty, and staff. This presentation will focus on CCSW’s renewed and energetic efforts in the last several years to make UNO more gender-inclusive in our physical spaces, work environments, leadership roles, and campus policies

Trends in survival of children with severe congenital heart defects by gestational age at birth: A population‐based study using administrative hospital data for England

BACKGROUND: Children with congenital heart defects (CHD) are twice as likely as their peers to be born preterm (<37 weeks' gestation), yet descriptions of recent trends in long-term survival by gestational age at birth (GA) are lacking. OBJECTIVES: To quantify changes in survival to age 5 years of children in England with severe CHD by GA. METHODS: We estimated changes in survival to age five of children with severe CHD and all other children born in England between April 2004 and March 2016, overall and by GA-group using linked hospital and mortality records. RESULTS: Of 5,953,598 livebirths, 5.7% (339,080 of 5,953,598) were born preterm, 0.35% (20,648 of 5,953,598) died before age five and 3.6 per 1000 (21,291 of 5,953,598) had severe CHD. Adjusting for GA, under-five mortality rates fell at a similar rate between 2004-2008 and 2012-2016 for children with severe CHD (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 0.79, 95% CI 0.71, 0.88) and all other children (HR 0.78, 95% CI 0.76, 0.81). For children with severe CHD, overall survival to age five increased from 87.5% (95% CI 86.6, 88.4) in 2004-2008 to 89.6% (95% CI 88.9, 90.3) in 2012-2016. There was strong evidence for better survival in the ≥39-week group (90.2%, 95% CI 89.1, 91.2 to 93%, 95% CI 92.4, 93.9), weaker evidence at 24-31 and 37-38 weeks and no evidence at 32-36 weeks. We estimate that 51 deaths (95% CI 24, 77) per year in children with severe CHD were averted in 2012-2016 compared to what would have been the case had 2004-2008 mortality rates persisted. CONCLUSIONS: Nine out of 10 children with severe CHD in 2012-2016 survived to age five. The small improvement in survival over the study period was driven by increased survival in term children. Most children with severe CHD are reaching school age and may require additional support by schools and healthcare services

Development of CNC prototype for the characterization of the nanoparticle release during physical manipulation of nanocomposites

This work focuses on the release of nanoparticles from commercially used nanocomposites during machining operations. A reliable and repeatable method was developed to assess the intentionally exposure to nanoparticles, in particular during drilling. This article presents the description and validation of results obtained from a new prototype used for the measurement and monitoring of nanoparticles in a controlled environment. This methodology was compared with the methodologies applied in other studies. Also, some preliminary experiments on drilling nanocomposites are included. Size, shape and chemical composition of the released nanoparticles were investigated in order to understand their hazard potential. No significant differences were found in the amount of nanoparticles released between samples with and without nanoadditives. Also, no chemical alteration was observed between the dust generated and the bulk material. Finally, further developments of the prototype are proposed

Spatiotemporal Variability in Allee Effects of Invading Gypsy Moth Populations

The Allee threshold, the critical population density separating growth from decline in populations experiencing strong Allee effects, can vary over space and time but few empirical studies have examined this variation. A lack of geographically extensive, long-term studies on low density population dynamics makes studying variability in Allee effects difficult. We used North American gypsy moth population data from 1996-2016 to quantify Allee thresholds in 11 regions of the invasion front. Allee thresholds spanned a continuum from being undetectable due to strong population growth at all densities, to being unmeasurable because populations declined across all densities. The lag-1 temporal autocorrelation in Allee thresholds tended to be negative and spatial synchrony in Allee thresholds extended no further than adjacent regions. This work furthers understanding of spatiotemporal variation in Allee effects using extensive empirical data at the range edge of an invasive insect