Clinical Treatment Provider Attitudes Toward Sexual Offender Management within an Outpatient Treatment Center : Treatment Provider Attitude Survey

The present study\u27s foundation is based on research suggesting that the attitudes of clinicians regarding their clients have profound effects on therapeutic alliances, empathy, and staff burnouts, which may contribute to treatment barriers. Because professionally appropriate behavior often conceals stigma, misconceptions, and negative feelings that clinicians may have toward sexual offenders, an anonymous survey of attitudes, job burnout, and empathy was conducted in an outpatient setting. The survey instruments tap into some latent factors concerning the attitudes of clinicians, their perceptions of burnout, and their abilities to empathize with their clients. This research focused on describing a population of clinicians who work with sexual offenders in an outpatient setting in Pennsylvania. In this study, using anonymous surveys, data was collected from clinical staff who work with sexual offenders. Each packet of surveys contained a demographics questionnaire, a survey developed for this study entitled, Attitudes Regarding Sexual Offenders, the Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Using SPSS statistical software, frequency distributions and item percentages were calculated for each of the survey question as a descriptive measure of this population. The results are descriptive in nature of the staff at this particular agency. Significant finding are presented and treatment implications are discussed

Observations and Applications of Husbandry Methodologies on a Backyard Poultry Farm in Dangriga, Belize

This study explores the husbandry methodologies on a backyard poultry farm in Dangriga, Belize, with the purpose of producing a set of guidelines for backyard poultry growers that have limited resources in similar regions. The majority of data collection occurred through survey questions approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB), which is responsible for protecting the rights and welfare of human research subjects, necropsies approved by IACUC, and general observations. There has been a steady increase in poultry production in developing regions due to its positive effects on income and relative nutrition. However, due to a lack of accessible communication and education regarding effective and safe poultry production, these operators typically see poor productivity and/or profitability in their operations. Data were collected over biosecurity, vaccination protocol, water quality, feed quality, temperature regulation, housing set-up and preparation, and behavior for broilers and layers. Overall, the major factors that appeared to have the greatest impact on the birds were low biosecurity measures, low levels of clean available water, and consistently high temperatures experienced in the broiler pens. The results for each factor are discussed and it was suggested that if small adjustments were made, the birds would experience better health and therefore increased productivity. Additional studies regarding E. coli presence in water sources, trends in broiler weights, nutritional make-up of feed, and observations of trends in post-mortem findings should be conducted

Overfeeding, Autonomic Regulation and Metabolic Consequences

The autonomic nervous system plays an important role in the regulation of body processes in health and disease. Overfeeding and obesity (a disproportional increase of the fat mass of the body) are often accompanied by alterations in both sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic functions. The overfeeding-induced changes in autonomic outflow occur with typical symptoms such as adiposity and hyperinsulinemia. There might be a causal relationship between autonomic disturbances and the consequences of overfeeding and obesity. Therefore studies were designed to investigate autonomic functioning in experimentally and genetically hyperphagic rats. Special emphasis was given to the processes that are involved in the regulation of peripheral energy substrate homeostasis. The data revealed that overfeeding is accompanied by increased parasympathetic outflow. Typical indices of vagal activity (such as the cephalic insulin release during food ingestion) were increased in all our rat models for hyperphagia. Overfeeding was also accompanied by increased sympathetic tone, reflected by enhanced baseline plasma norepinephrine (NE) levels in both VMH-lesioned animals and rats rendered obese by hyperalimentation. Plasma levels of NE during exercise were, however, reduced in these two groups of animals. This diminished increase in the exercise-induced NE outflow could be normalized by prior food deprivation. It was concluded from these experiments that overfeeding is associated with increased parasympathetic and sympathetic tone. In models for hyperphagia that display a continuously elevated nutrient intake such as the VMH-lesioned and the overfed rat, this increased sympathetic tone was accompanied by a diminished NE response to exercise. This attenuated outflow of NE was directly related to the size of the fat reserves, indicating that the feedback mechanism from the periphery to the central nervous system is altered in the overfed state.

The Biology and Economics of Coral Growth

To protect natural coral reefs, it is of utmost importance to understand how the growth of the main reef-building organisms—the zooxanthellate scleractinian corals—is controlled. Understanding coral growth is also relevant for coral aquaculture, which is a rapidly developing business. This review paper provides a comprehensive overview of factors that can influence the growth of zooxanthellate scleractinian corals, with particular emphasis on interactions between these factors. Furthermore, the kinetic principles underlying coral growth are discussed. The reviewed information is put into an economic perspective by making an estimation of the costs of coral aquaculture