The experiences and understanding of the menstrual cycle in women with learning disabilities

Background During the last 30 years there has been a proliferation of research into the menstrual cycle with particular focus on pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS). The research, however, has not specifically addressed the experiences of women with learning disabilities with regards to the menstrual cycle. The extent to which their experiences resemble those of non-disabled women is therefore not known. Aims The research aimed to compare menstrual cycle change in women with learning disabilities with those of a group of non-disabled women. A further aim was to explore the subjective experiences of women with learning disabilities and to relate the findings to the research evidence pertaining to non-disabled women. Design The study was cross sectional and employed both within and between groups comparisons. There were two parts to research and both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. Method Quantitative 34 women with learning disabilities and 50 non-disabled women completed a modified form of the Menstrual Distress Questionnaire (MDQ) regarding changes experienced across the menstrual cycle. Qualitative A semi-structured interview was used to explore the views of eleven women with learning disabilities towards the menstrual cycle in general and menstruation in particular. Results Both groups reported significant changes in mood and behaviour occurring across the menstrual cycle. Between group analysis revealed that control group reported significantly more change in the pre-menstrual phase of the cycle whereas the client group reported more change during menstruation. Analysis of the interviews indicated that women with learning disabilities have little knowledge of the menstrual cycle and experience menstruation as a debilitating condition. Conclusion The focus on PMS in menstrual cycle research does not address the concerns of women with learning disabilities who appear to experience more difficulty with menstruation. The clinical and service implications are discussed and directions for future research suggested

Victims as aggressors: Does victim-bystander status influence eyewitness decision-making in showup procedures?

Police rely on eyewitness identifications to solve crimes, but eyewitnesses can make mistakes. These mistakes in decision-making can have serious consequences for the criminal justice system. Eyewitnesses can erroneously identify an innocent suspect as the culprit, which could result in a wrongful conviction, or fail to identify a guilty suspect as the culprit, which could result in the culprit avoiding punishment. Drawing on Berkowitz’s (1989) frustration-aggression hypothesis, the current study tested whether eyewitnesses\u27 status as either a victim or a bystander influenced their decision-making processes in a showup procedure after eliminating attention and encoding as possible mediators of the victim-bystander status manipulation. Although victims reported significantly higher feelings of anger than bystanders, victims did not significantly differ from bystanders in identification rates, confidence ratings, response latency, or motivation to catch the guilty culprit. In addition, victims did not significantly differ from bystanders in their ability to distinguish between guilty culprits and innocent suspects. However, analysis of post-identification judgments revealed that victims who made identified innocent suspects reported paying significantly more attention to the culprit, recalling significantly more specific facial features of the culprit, and having a significantly clearer image of the culprit’s face than bystanders. In addition, victims reported being significantly more willing to testify in court regarding their identification decision than bystanders. These findings suggest that victims may increase the potency of their positive identifications by bolstering responses to post-identification judgments. Consequently, victims may give the appearance of having a greater ability to accurately identify guilty culprits than bystanders, even in the absence of true differences

Editorial

The first issue of for(e)dialogue is composed of a collection of papers given at the New Directions in Media Research (NDiMR) postgraduate conference in June 2015 at the University of Leicester. NDiMR is a one-day postgraduate focused conference organised by PhD students from the Department of Media and Communication. This conference has a similar aim and purpose of this journal as a whole which is to provide postgraduate students, PhD students and early career researchers with a platform and opportunity to develop and share their research and critically contribute to discussions of theory and methodology on a variety of Media and Communication issues. The NDiMR conference has been held annually since 2012, each year growing in size and attracting more delegates and presenters from across the world. However, this is the first time that some of the events’ presentation papers have been collected for a published conference proceedings

Radiocarbon dates from the Oxford AMS system: archaeometry datelist 35

This is the 35th list of AMS radiocarbon determinations measured at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU). Amongst some of the sites included here are the latest series of determinations from the key sites of Abydos, El Mirón, Ban Chiang, Grotte de Pigeons (Taforalt), Alepotrypa and Oberkassel, as well as others dating to the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and later periods. Comments on the significance of the results are provided by the submitters of the material

Observation of Buried Phosphorus Dopants near Clean Si(100)-(2x1) with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy

We have used scanning tunneling microscopy to identify individual phosphorus dopant atoms near the clean silicon (100)-(2x1) reconstructed surface. The charge-induced band bending signature associated with the dopants shows up as an enhancement in both filled and empty states and is consistent with the appearance of n-type dopants on compound semiconductor surfaces and passivated Si(100)-(2x1). We observe dopants at different depths and see a strong dependence of the signature on the magnitude of the sample voltage. Our results suggest that, on this clean surface, the antibonding surface state band acts as an extension of the bulk conduction band into the gap. The positively charged dimer vacancies that have been observed previously appear as depressions in the filled states, as opposed to enhancements, because they disrupt these surface bands.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. TeX for OSX from Wierde

Bygone Berkshire

Glosario. -- Berkshire. -- Pertenece a la colección Varia 1800-1950 del Salamanca Corpus. -- Peter Hempson Ditchfield, 1854-1930. -- Bygone Berkshire. -- 1896.[ES]Colección de artículos sobre Berkshire alguno de los cuales contiene dialecto de Berkshire. Uno de ellos, del Reverendo M. J. Bacon, es "Berkshire Words and Phrases". [EN]Collection of papers about Berkshire some of which contain Berkshire dialect. One of them, by Rev. M. J. Bacon, is "Berkshire Words and Phrases"

Investigating the impact of inoculum source on anaerobic digestion of various species of marine macroalgae

This study investigated the intrinsic biodegradation potential of marine organic sediment for effective biogas production from various species of marine macroalgae and non-marine biomass. Biogas production potential tests were carried out on three species of seaweed harvested from the west coasts of Scotland, Laminaria digitata, Fucus serratus, and Saccharina latissima, and on a non-marine cellulose biomass seeded with uncultivated and unadapted anoxic marine sediments. As a comparison, the same experiments were repeated using the same substrates but seeded with active mesophilic anaerobically digested sewage sludge. For the cultures seeded with anoxic marine sediments, the highest methane yield was observed in both L. digitata and S. latissima cultures while F. serratus and cellulose, cultures performed relatively poorly. For those seeded with digested sludge, all cultures performed relatively well, except F. serratus. These results show that marine sediments can be effective inoculum for seaweeds digestion. Phylogenetic analyses of the methanogenic community in both sources of inoculum showed that the methanogen community within the sediment and sludge seeded cultures were different. Each culture was dominated by methanogenic populations suitable for the utilisation of the specific biomass derivatives and environmental conditions. For instance, members of the genus Methanosaeta which, dominated sludge seeded cultures were not detected in the sediment seeded cultures. A similar occurrence was observed for the genus Methanofollis which was only detected in the sediment seeded cultures. Hence, in areas where seaweed forms part of a co-digestion with non-marine biomass, start-up using a mixture of anoxic marine sediments and digested wastewater sludge has the potential to provide greater process stability and robustness than using either as sole inoculum

Productivity and Resource Use Efficiency in Tomato and Watermelon Farms: Evidence from Ghana

This study examines productivity and resource use efficiency in tomato and watermelon farms in the Dangme East District of Ghana. Cross-sectional data of 200 farmers (100 tomato farmers and 100 watermelon farmers) were obtained from a field survey using structured questionnaires. The empirical results of this study show that, the value of output of watermelon is higher than that of tomato. The difference could be attributed to differences in output prices as well as labour and material input costs incurred in the production of each of these crops. Since prices of inputs are more or less stable over the season, output price difference could be said to be the main cause of this difference. For instance, it costs GH ¢704.59 to produce a hectare of tomato whereas the average cost of producing a hectare of watermelon is GH¢509.03. Conversely, a hectare of tomato yields GH¢480.37 whereas a hectare of watermelon yields GH¢1738.68. Analysis of the factors affecting the value of output of tomato and watermelon shows that, land, labour and experience exert significant influence on the value of output of tomato; whereas land, non-agricultural activity and training significantly influence the level of output of watermelon in the study area. Marginal value products computed for land and labour for each crop were found to be higher than the market prices of  these factors indicating that land and labour are inefficiently used in both tomato and watermelon production though labour did not significantly influence watermelon production. Also, neither did the amount of fertilizer used in tomato production nor the amount of capital used in watermelon production exert significant influence on their value of outputs; these inputs were found to be underutilized in each case. These results have implications for Agricultural policy in Ghana. Key Words: Productivity, Resource Use Efficiency, Tomato, Watermelon, Farms, Ghan