Assessing cultural competence in a mental health outpatient facility.

Cultural competence is a concept that has been thoroughly investigated in healthcare, but there is a dearth of literature and research on this topic as it pertains to mental health services. In healthcare, research has shown that a lack of cultural competence is directly linked to high levels of misdiagnoses, mistrust of healthcare and professionals, and overall poor health in minority populations. Using the Campinha-Bacote model for cultural competence in health care, I explore how cultural competence is defined and operationalized in an outpatient mental health facility. I hypothesize that, similar to research addressing cultural competency in healthcare systems, cultural competence within this mental health facility is not adequately defined and carried out in its daily operations. In order to assess the potential institutional knowledge and awareness of cultural competence, I initially analyzed all policies, procedures, and training documents of the organization. Next, I conducted 15 semi-structured qualitative interviews of various mental health professionals that worked in the outpatient facility in order to ascertain how each individual defined and employed cultural competence, if at all, throughout their work. In my findings, I discovered that there was no clear definition of cultural competence in any of the organizations handbooks or policies. Furthermore, I found that mental health professionals did not have a clear understanding of cultural competence or that cultural competence is an ongoing process. Lastly, I found that the facility offered no trainings or professional development courses on cultural competence. The information gathered from the study can be beneficial to the facility’s work with diverse populations and aid in future research directions on this subject

Polo like kinase 2 tumour suppressor and cancer biomarker: new perspectives on drug sensitivity/resistance in ovarian cancer

The polo-like kinase PLK2 has recently been identified as a potential theranostic marker in the management of chemotherapy sensitive cancers. The methylation status of the PLK2 CpG island varies with sensitivity to paclitaxel and platinum in ovarian cancer cell lines. Importantly, extrapolation of these in vitro data to the clinical setting confirms that the methylation status of the PLK2 CpG island predicts outcomes in patients treated with carboplatin and paclitaxel chemotherapy. A second cell cycle regulator, p57Kip2, is also subject to epigenetic silencing in carboplatin resistance in vitro and in vivo, emphasising that cell cycle regulators are important determinants of sensitivity to chemotherapeutic agents and providing insights into the phenomenon of collateral drug sensitivity in oncology. Understanding the mechanistic basis and identification of robust biomarkers to predict collateral sensitivity may inform optimal use of chemotherapy in patients receiving multiple lines of treatment

A Schottky Barrier Device on Steel for use in Photovoltaics

On bringing a metal and a semiconductor into contact, a diodic interface can be created, the Schottky barrier. Photovoltaic devices based on the sensitization of a Schottky barrier have been reported. In these devices, the proposed mechanism is electron harvesting of electrons injected over a Schottky barrier interface into a semi-conductor film. This mechanism exploits the relatively long mean free path of hot electrons through a noble metal film

Flow over Heated Terrain. Part II: Generation of Convective Precipitation

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/MWR2965.1.Previous studies have shown that thunderstorms in the Rocky Mountain region have preferred areas in which to form. There has been some indication that these areas depend on the midtropospheric wind direction. A nonhydrostatic model with a terrain-following horizontal grid is employed to investigate the initiation of precipitating convection over heated topography. Horizontally homogeneous meteorological conditions with no directional shear in the vertical wind profile are used. The numerical simulations indicate that precipitating convection was more likely to be generated downwind of ridges than upwind of them. Initiation of these storms was more likely downwind of ridges with their long axis parallel to the wind direction than downwind of ridges with their long axis perpendicular to the wind direction. In Part I of this study it was shown that heating-induced convergence is larger downwind of a ridge with its longer axis parallel to the wind direction. For the orographic configuration of the Rocky Mountains, total precipitation is maximized for southerly and northwesterly winds. Slower wind speeds are more likely and faster wind speeds are less likely to produce convective storms. Soundings with larger instability are more likely to produce convection. The soundings with a greater temperature lapse rate produce more initiation locations, and soundings with greater moisture produce greater amounts of precipitation. Even though a number of assumptions were made for this study, the authors believe the results explain a significant amount of the observed variability in the initiation locations of precipitating convection in the Rocky Mountains during the summer. Because of the theoretical basis for this work, detailed in Part I of this study, the authors believe it should explain convective initiation in other mountainous areas that are subject to strong solar heating

Flow over Heated Terrain. Part I: Linear Theory and Idealized Numerical Simulations

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/MWR2964.1.The flow past heated topography is examined with both linear and nonlinear models. It is first shown that the forcing of an obstacle with horizontally homogenous surface heating can be approximated by the forcing of an obstacle with surface heating isolated over the obstacle. The small-amplitude flow past an obstacle with isolated heating is then examined with a linear model. Under the linear approximation, the flow response to heated topography is simply the addition of the separate responses to thermal and orographic forcing. These separate responses are first considered individually and then the combined response is examined. Nondimensional parameters are developed that measure the relative importance of thermal and orographic forcing. Nonaxisymmetric forcing is then considered by examining the flow along and across a heated elliptically shaped obstacle. It is shown that the low-level lifting is maximized when the flow is along the major axis of the obstacle. The linear solutions are then tested in a nonlinear anelastic model. The response to a heat source and orography are first examined separately. Good agreement is found between nonlinear and linear models for the individual responses to thermal and orographic forcing. The case of uniformly heated flow past an obstacle is then examined. In these simulations, the thermal response is isolated by subtracting the orographic-only response from the full thermal–orographic response. The numerical simulations are able to capture the main features of the thermal response. Finally, numerical simulations of the flow along and across an elliptically shaped heated obstacle are examined, where it is verified that the lifting is maximized when the flow is along the major axis of the obstacle. These results are extended in Part II of this study to examine the moist convective response to flow over both idealized terrain and the complex terrain of the Rocky Mountains of the United States

Folk and Popular Music of Brazil

Both general interest in Brazilian popular music in North America and pertinent research agendas in Brazil and abroad have led to varied new publications. In the musical arena itself, vital new phenomena have appeared, and international attention to Brazil\u27s popular music has significantly increased. As far as sound recording is concerned, the past decade has witnessed the consolidation of the digital age, and the CD has become the preferred vehicle, though the limited buying power of the bulk of the Brazilian population has determined the continued mass manufacture of cassette tapes as well as vinyl LPs in Brazil. In sum, changing conditions of production and consumption, fresh ideas and styles in music-making, and on-going efforts in scholarship, all validate the present revised and expanded edition of the specialized bibliography

Single electron charging of impurity sites visualized by scanning gate experiments on a quantum point contact

A quantum point contact (QPC) patterned on a two-dimensional electron gas is investigated with a scanning gate setup operated at a temperature of 300 mK. The conductance of the point contact is recorded while the local potential is modified by scanning the tip. Single electron charging of impurities induced by the local potential is observed as a stepwise conductance change of the constriction. By selectively changing the state of some of these impurities, it is possible to observe changes in transmission resonances of the QPC. The location of such impurities is determined, and their density is estimated to be below 50 per \mu m^2, corresponding to less than 1 % of the doping concentration

Protection of mice against cancer by immunization with membranes but not purified virions from virus infected cancer cells.

The life span of C57/Bl mice inoculated with Lewis lung carcinoma cells was prolonged if the mice were pre-immunized with membranes from these cells infected in vitro with influenza virus. Likewise, BALB/c mice were protected against the malignant tumour WEHI-11 by prior immunization with extracts of cultured WEHI-11 cells which had been infected with influenza virus or Semiliki Forest virus (SFV). Partially purified SFV grown in WEHI-11 cells also protected mice from cancer grafts but neither highly purified SFV nor the glycoprotein from the envelope of this virus protected the mice. It is concluded that SFV-induced immunopotentiation against cancer is not due to covalent linkage of tumour specific transplantation antigen (TSTA) to viral envelope protein but more probably is due to the apposition of viral glycoprotein and cellular TSTA in the plasma membrane of the cancer cell

Manipulating Anger Does Not Affect Risky Decision Making

To date, multiple studies have examined the influence of negative mood on per­formance on behavioral decision-making tasks. Self-reported negative mood was inconsis­tently associated with subsequent decision making, and a similar inconsistent pattern was seen when negative mood was manipulated in the study session. The present study sought to examine how deliberately inducing a particular negative mood, anger, would affect risky decision making. College student participants reported their political beliefs, then were randomly assigned to one of several mood manipulation conditions (political anger, anger, sadness, fear, control) prior to completion of standard behavioral risky decision-making tasks including the Iowa Gambling Task, Game of Dice Task, Balloon Analogue Risk Task, and Columbia Card Task. Results indicated an increase in negative mood in the anger condition following the study manipulation, but only minimal effects of negative mood on risky decision making across tasks. Future assessments of mood and decision making should address multiple negative mood affects in addition to manipulation tech­niques in order to determine if a specific mood and/or manipulation is contributing to an individuals’ risky decision making