Improving Coping Research: Raze the Slum before Any More Building!

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67019/2/10.1177_135910539700200203.pd

Adolescents' and parents' views of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in Ireland

Aim: To explore adolescents’ and parents’ experiences of CAMHS in relation to accessibility, approachability, and appropriateness. Methods: Using a descriptive qualitative design, a combination of focus group and single interviews were conducted with adolescents (n=15) and parents (n=32) from three mental health clinics. Data were transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Accessing mental health services was a challenging experience due to knowledge deficit, lack of information and limited availability of specialist services. Participants desired more information, involvement in decision-making, single and shared consultations, flexible scheduling of appointments, continuity with clinicians, school support and parent support groups. Participants seem to be generally satisfied, however adolescents felt less involved in decision making than they would have liked. Frequent staff changes was problematic as it disrupted continuity of care and hindered the formation of a trusting relationship. Implications for practice: Parents and adolescents expressed similar views of the positive and negative aspects of mental health services. Their need for more information-sharing and involvement in decision-making underline the importance of collaborative practice. Clinician continuity contributed to trusting therapeutic relationships and was valued. These are key principles that with attention, could lead to quality service provision for adolescents and families

Multicolor optical polarimetry of reddened stars in the small Magellanic cloud

First results of an on-going program to determine the wavelength dependence of the interstellar optical polarization of reddened stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) are presented. IUE observations of reddened stars in the SMC (Bouchet et al. 1985) generally show marked differences in the extinction law as compared to both the Galaxy and the Large Megallanic Cloud. The aim here is to determine the wavelength dependence of the optical linear polarization in the direction of several such stars in the SMC in order to further constrain the dust composition and size distribution in that galaxy

Frequency of MUG Negative Escherichia coli in Kentucky Groundwater Samples

MUG negative Escherichia coli are a small fraction (2.5%) of the total E. coli in Kentucky groundwater samples. It is unlikely that they alone will cause a significant potential to underestimate fecal contamination using MUG as the primary criterion for that assessment. An unresolved question is how effectively MUG-based, defined-substrate tests address false negative water samples containing MUG positive E. coli

Are we witnessing the decline effect in the Type D personality literature? What can be learned?

After an unbroken series of positive, but underpowered studies seemed to demonstrate Type D personality predicting mortality in cardiovascular disease patients, initial claims now appear at least exaggerated and probably false. Larger studies with consistently null findings are accumulating. Conceptual, methodological, and statistical issues can be raised concerning the construction of Type D personality as a categorical variable, whether Type D is sufficiently distinct from other negative affect variables, and if it could be plausibly assumed to predict mortality independent of depressive symptoms and known biomedical factors, including disease severity. The existing literature concerning negative affect and health suggests a low likelihood of discovering a new negative affect variable that independently predicts mortality better than its many rivals. The apparent decline effect in the Type D literature is discussed in terms of the need to reduce the persistence of false positive findings in the psychosomatic medicine literature, even while preserving a context allowing risk-taking and discovery. Recommendations include greater transparency concerning research design and analytic strategy; insistence on replication with larger samples before accepting "discoveries" from small samples; reduced confirmatory bias; and availability of all relevant data. Such changes would take time to implement, face practical difficulties, and run counter to established practices. An interim solution is for readers to maintain a sense of pre-discovery probabilities, to be sensitized to the pervasiveness of the decline effect, and to be skeptical of claims based on findings reaching significance in small-scale studies that have not been independently replicated. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved