I JUST WANT TO DO MY JOB: THE EXPERIENCE OF FEMALE FIGHTER PILOTS IN THE UNITED STATES AIR FORCE

Little is known about the female fighter pilot experience. As the Department of Defense recognizes the increased warfighting capability of a diverse force, it is important to understand the unique experiences of this rare group. This study uses a qualitative Phenomenology to investigate and describe the experiences of female fighter pilots in the United States Air Force. Several important findings emerged from the study including: the impact of the population’s minority status on their experience; the pervasiveness and impact of systemic sexism, institutional betrayal, sexual assault, ambivalent sexism, and pregnancy discrimination; details of utilized resiliency skills; the prevalence of burnout; descriptions of moral injury; and the impact of family on career progression and decision-making. The current study concluded that the previously mentioned findings were the most challenging aspects of the female fighter pilot experience, and that the easiest aspects of their experience was the safe and effective performance of the mission and their job. Recommendations include the achievement of critical mass through continued diversity efforts; resolution of sexism at the systemic level including altering the engineering standards of future fighter aircraft to accommodate the anthropometric specifications of the general recruitment population instead of the current military pilot population, the engineering and purchase of safe and effective flight and combat gear to fit all members of the recruitment population, and the implementation of policies that limit the inevitable career consequences of pregnancy

Handbook for managers of social housing

Report : vii, 126 p. : ill. ; 18 cm

Threshold Concepts in Radiation Physics Underpinning Professional Practice in Radiation Therapy

This article identifies potential threshold concepts in radiation physics, and explains their relationship to professional practice in radiation therapy (that is,. the practice of radiation treatment and care of cancer patients). Concepts such as how the radiation beam spreads out (beam divergence), and how the distance from the ionising source affects the beam (inverse-square law), can be challenging for students entering higher education and experiencing their first clinical placements. Through observations of radiation therapy students in practice, mastery of these (and other concepts) appears essential for them to progress in their professional practice learning. The study used ‘transactional curriculum inquiry’ (Cousin 2009) in order to understand why particular concepts might be troublesome to students, and how mastery of these concepts could potentially lead to safe and accurate practice. While the study was conducted in a particular Bachelor of Science in Radiation Therapy programme, it has implications for how academic and clinical educators in other contexts might facilitate students’ acquisition of the threshold concepts that underpin professional practice. The findings suggest that the typical progression in professional education that assumes the application of theoretical concepts to practice, might not be the best way to acquire the threshold concepts that lead to transformed practice

Umwertung à la Nietzsche

The paper deals with the revaluation of values in Ol’ga Slavnikova’s novel Pryžok v dlinu. The novels of this author are regularly awarded high-ranking literary prizes even though (or because) they fit into the broad stream of Russian fiction that openly interpret the present as a time when evil powers prevail and plunge humanity, especially Russia, into disaster. Most of these works, including Slavnikova’s, can be classified in their ideological orientation as belonging to the so-called ‘conservative turn’ and make use of a narrative that Russia is being robbed of its genuine core by external threats, be it capitalism, globalization, or postmodernism. In her novel Pryžok v dlinu, Slavnikova frames the concept of compassion as the cause of all evil. She follows the line of reasoning, familiar since Nietzsche, that compassion benefits the wrong people: thus untalented, criminally inclined egoists prevail in society, whereas the gifted suffer physical and psychological harm. But Slavnikova’s argument is even taken one step further: should not ‘unworthy’ lives be killed in time? The reaction of literary critics to such a proposition was strikingly restrained since they did not even subject such a provocative question to discussion

Aging and categorization: using generalized equivalence classes and their characteristics to compare older and younger adults

Previous literature has done little to bring together accounts of stimulus equivalence, the transfer of function among stimulus classes, and age-related changes associated with the creation of stimulus classes. This experiment explores these ideas using two participant groups, one consisting of younger adults and one consisting of adult volunteers over the age of 65. Participants were given training using nonsense syllables and eight sets of abstract stimuli. The stimuli differed on a number of features, four of which were class-consistent. Each stimulus contained a combination of one, two, three, or four of the class-consistent features, and the number of class-consistent features was used to identify the typicality of the stimulus within each class. Upon completion of the equivalence training and testing procedure, each participant was told that one of the stimuli from training carried a disease that infects 50% of the animals or plants with which it comes into contact. Participants were then shown a series of stimuli from the testing phase of the equivalence procedure and asked to rate how likely each of these stimuli were to also infect plants or animals. Ratings from this phase determined the transfer of function within the stimulus classes created during the equivalence training procedure. Results showed that older adults need more training trials to master baseline criterion levels than younger adults did, but both groups demonstrated the formation of equivalence classes and typicality effects within those classes. Further, both groups also demonstrated transfer of function within the equivalence classes that was related to the typicality rating of each stimulus within a class

Utilizing a Community-University Partnership to Meet Grandfamilies’ Needs: Development and Evaluation of a Grandchildren-mentoring Program

In response to the increasing rate of grandparent-headed homes and the needs of grandparents and grandchildren, we engaged in a community-university partnership to develop, implement, and evaluate a grandchildren-mentoring program. Prior to developing the grandchildren-mentoring program, a county needs assessment was conducted. The needs assessment revealed that grandparents wanted opportunities for mentorship of their grandchildren. As a result, we partnered with an undergraduate practicum course to create a new option of college students engaging with grandchildren. During our inaugural grandchildren-mentoring program, we conducted focus groups/interviews with grandparents (n = 5) and grandchildren (n = 7) at the end of the nine-month program. Data analysis of the focus group transcripts revealed that grandparents believed the two-hour weekly meetings (between the grandchildren and the student mentor) provided respite and grandparents would enjoy having a student again. Grandchildren commented they trusted their student mentors and did not like that they could not see them after the program ended. The grandchild-mentoring program was well received by grandparents and grandchildren and, although it was designed to support grandchildren, the program met a stated need of grandfamilies in our community. As a result, this program may be beneficial to both grandparents and grandchildren and other university-community partnerships should consider working with students to implement similar programming to support grandfamilies

Cortisol response to traumatic stress to predict PTSD symptom development – a systematic review and meta-analysis of experimental studies

Background: Pre-and post-traumatic hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis markers have been studied to predict posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) risk, but its acute reactivity cannot be measured in real-life settings. Experimental paradigms can depict the cortisol response to stimuli that simulate traumatic events. Objective: To review experimental studies on the cortisol response to traumatic stimuli and the correlation between cortisol and PTSD symptoms. Method: Experimental, (un-)published studies in German or English from any year were eligible if they confronted non-traumatized humans with traumatic stimuli, assessed cortisol before, during or after stimulus presentation and subsequent PTSD symptoms. The literature was searched via PubMed, PubPsych, PsychINFO, PsycArticle, Web of Science, EMBASE, ProQuest and ClinicalTrials.gov up to 16th February 2021. Risk of bias was assessed with the Cortisol Assessment List. Multilevel-meta-analyses were conducted under the random effects model. The standardized mean change (dSMC) indicated the cortisol response. Coefficient r indicated the correlations between cortisol and PTSD symptoms. Results: 14 studies, investigating 1004 individuals, were included. A cortisol response was successfully induced between 21 and 40 min post-presentation onset (kobservations = 25, dSMC = 0.15 [.03; .26]). Cortisol was not associated with overall or cluster-level PTSD symptoms. On a symptom-level, higher pre-presentation onset cortisol was correlated with lower state tension (k = 8, r = −.18 [−.35; −.01]), higher state happiness (k = 8, r = −.34 [−.59; −.03], variable inverted) and lower state anger (k = 9, r = −.14 [−.26; −.01]). Higher post-presentation onset cortisol was correlated with higher state happiness (k = 16, r = −.20 [−.33; −.06]) and lower state sadness (k = 17, r = −.16 [−.25; −.05]), whereas cortisol response was positively correlated with state anxiety (k = 9, r = .16 [0.04; 0.27]). Conclusions: Experimental paradigms effectively induce a cortisol response. Higher basal cortisol, higher cortisol, as measured after traumatic stimulus presentation, and a lower cortisol response were associated with more adaptive emotional reactions. These markers did not predict longer-term PTSD symptoms