Communication and trust in the bounded confidence model

The communication process in a situation of emergency is discussed within the Scheff theory of shame and pride. The communication involves messages from media and from other persons. Three strategies are considered: selfish (to contact friends), collective (to join other people) and passive (to do nothing). We show that the pure selfish strategy cannot be evolutionarily stable. The main result is that the community structure is statistically meaningful only if the interpersonal communication is weak.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, RevTeX, for ICCCI-201

BMQ

BMQ: Boston Medical Quarterly was published from 1950-1966 by the Boston University School of Medicine and the Massachusetts Memorial Hospitals. Pages 49-52, v17n2, provided courtesy of Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center

Predictors of internalised HIV-related stigma: a systematic review of studies in sub-Saharan Africa

This systematic review aims to synthesise evidence on predictors of internalised HIV stigma amongst people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines were used. Studies were identified through electronic databases, grey literature, reference harvesting and contacts with key researchers. Quality of findings was assessed through an adapted version of the Cambridge Quality Checklists. A total of 590 potentially relevant titles were identified. Seventeen peer-reviewed articles and one draft book chapter were included. Studies investigated socio-demographic, HIV-related, intra-personal and interpersonal correlates of internalised stigma. Eleven articles used cross-sectional data, six articles used prospective cohort data and one used both prospective cohort and cross-sectional data to assess correlates of internalised stigma. Poor HIV-related health weakly predicted increases in internalised HIV stigma in three longitudinal studies. Lower depression scores and improvements in overall mental health predicted reductions in internalised HIV stigma in two longitudinal studies, with moderate and weak effects, respectively. No other consistent predictors were found. Studies utilising analysis of change and accounting for confounding factors are necessary to guide policy and programming but are scarce. High-risk populations, other stigma markers that might layer upon internalised stigma, and structural drivers of internalised stigma need to be examined

BMQ

BMQ: Boston Medical Quarterly was published from 1950-1966 by the Boston University School of Medicine and the Massachusetts Memorial Hospitals

Human Cerebral Neuropathology of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

The cerebral neuropathology of Type 2 diabetes (CNDM2) has not been positively defined. This review includes a description of CNDM2 research from before the ‘Pubmed Era’. Recent neuroimaging studies have focused on cerebrovascular and white matter pathology. These and prior studies about cerebrovascular histopathology in diabetes are reviewed. Evidence is also described for and against the link between CNDM2 and Alzheimer\u27s disease pathogenesis. To study this matter directly, we evaluated data from University of Kentucky Alzheimer\u27s Disease Center (UK ADC) patients recruited while non-demented and followed longitudinally. Of patients who had come to autopsy (N = 234), 139 met inclusion criteria. These patients provided the basis for comparing the prevalence of pathological and clinical indices between well-characterized cases with (N = 50) or without (N = 89) the premortem diagnosis of diabetes. In diabetics, cerebrovascular pathology was more frequent and Alzheimer-type pathology was less frequent than in non-diabetics. Finally, a series of photomicrographs demonstrates histopathological features (including clinical–radiographical correlation) observed in brains of persons that died after a history of diabetes. These preliminary, correlative, and descriptive studies may help develop new hypotheses about CNDM2. We conclude that more work should be performed on human material in the context of CNDM2

Intimate partner violence in South Asian communities:Exploring the notion of 'shame' to promote understandings of migrant women's experiences

The notion of 'shame' is increasingly being recognized as a tool with some explanatory power to help promote understandings about a range of social problems. Through an exploration of migrant South Asian women's experiences of domestic violence and help-seeking practices, this article considers the relevance of the notion of shame as a unit of analysis to help contribute to the growing theoretical and empirical literature. This article sheds light on the meanings, events, processes and structures in the lives of migrant South Asian women respondents living in Hong Kong. Within the framework of the discussion on shame and intimate partner violence(IPV), the article also identifies the implications for social work practice

Bayesian D-Optimal Choice Designs for Mixtures

__Abstract__ \n \nConsumer products and services can often be described as mixtures of ingredients. Examples are the mixture of ingredients in a cocktail and the mixture of different components of waiting time (e.g., in-vehicle and out-of-vehicle travel time) in a transportation setting. Choice experiments may help to determine how the respondents\' choice of a product or service is affected by the combination of ingredients. In such studies, individuals are confronted with sets of hypothetical products or services and they are asked to choose the most preferred product or service from each set. \n \nHowever, there are no studies on the optimal design of choice experiments involving mixtures. We propose a method for generating an optimal design for such choice experiments. To this end, we first introduce mixture models in the choice context and next present an algorithm to construct optimal experimental designs, assuming the multinomial logit model is used to analyze the choice data. To overcome the problem that the optimal designs depend on the unknown parameter values, we adopt a Bayesian D-optimal design approach. We also consider locally D-optimal designs and compare the performance of the resulting designs to those produced by a utility-neutral (UN) approach in which designs are based on the assumption that individuals are indifferent between all choice alternatives. We demonstrate that our designs are quite different and in general perform better than the UN designs

Der Konflikt in Afghanistan : Historischer und gesellschaftlicher Hintergrund, Evolution und Lageentwicklung – ein Positionspapier

This study is part of a larger project, the aim of which is to elucidate “mental health nurses” attitudes towards their patients'. In this study, nurses' and patients' attitudes are described from the perspective of both parties using a qualitative approach. The informants were selected from a rehabilitation unit for young adults, below 40, suffering from psychosis at a psychiatric clinic that provides acute psychiatric care. The informant group consisted of three dyads: three patients with various diagnoses and three nurses with primary responsibility for the patients' daily care. The aim of this particular study was to extend our preliminary understanding of nurses' attitudes towards psychiatric patients in the context of psychiatric in-patient care, by elucidating the patient's “inner” picture of her/his past, present and future and the nurse's picture of the same patient's past, present and future. Data were collected and analysed using a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach and the narrative picturing technique. For each picture and group, 15 related sub-themes emerged, on the basis of which six themes were formulated. The findings show that the nurses overrate their own importance when it comes to the patient's well-being on the ward. All the nurses emphasize confirmation and safety as the basis of their nursing care, while in the patient's picture the nurses represent a replication of childhood demands, which probably means that nursing care risks becoming a continuation of the patient's childhood estrangement

Stigmatising attitude of medical students towards a psychiatry label

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