Mediation in Intergroup Conflict: The Role of Empathy Between Conflict Parties

Conflict mediation is a structured intervention by an impartial mediator, which aims at the conflict resolution by facilitating communication between two or more conflict parties (e.g., Kressel, 2006; Moore, 2003). Impartiality of the mediator means that she or he is not involved and does not take sides in the conflict. The general aim of mediation usually encompasses a mutually satisfactory solution of the conflict, an improvement (or satisfactory termination) of the relation of conflict parties, and an empowering and satisfactory mediation process (e.g., Bush & Folger, 2004; Herrman, 2006; Wall & Dunne, 2012). Mediation is applied in various fields of intergroup conflict. The fields of labor conflict, environmental conflict, or international conflict are among the most prominent ones (e.g., Bercovitch & Fretter, 2007; Bingham et al., 2002; DeRouen et al., 2011; Hiltrop, 1989; LaPlant Turkiewicz & Allen, 2014). With three experiments in three different contexts, we confirmed the hypothesis that mediation increases positive attitudes between groups in conflict. While most of the prior research on mediation effectiveness lacked either internal or external validity, we evaluated mediation with strong concerns for both. Applying experimental designs under controlled conditions supported the internal validity of our results. Having professional mediators conduct semi-structured mediations in real conflicts supported the external validity of our results (cf. Shadish et al., 2002). By applying other success measures than the common agreement rate, we furthermore increased the construct validity (cf. McGillis, 1997). While in our studies the agreement rate did not differentiate between experimental and control condition, we could detect differences in intergroup relations. Finally, by conducting structural equation modeling, we increased the reliability of our results (cf. Brown, 2006). With the three studies, we used an experimental causal chain design (cf. Spencer et al., 2005), which applies the most rigorous test for causality – the experimental design (cf. Shadish et al., 2002) – in the test of statistical mediation hypotheses. Therewith, we provided strong evidence for the psychological process we assumed: Mediation increases mutual empathy between conflict parties and therewith supports more positive intergroup attitudes and liking. With our third study, we furthermore suggested that not only empathy for the other, but also feeling heard by her or him supports conflict resolution. This finding added to the severely understudied field of perspective giving (cf. Goldstein et al., 2014). Generally, our results shed valuable first light on the psychological processes of effective mediation in intergroup conflict (cf., Pruitt, 2011; Wall et al., 2001). Our research points toward several directions how to further investigate mediation in intergroup conflict: We discussed various possibilities to evaluate mediation with internally valid designs without losing concern for the external validity of results. Moreover, we strongly recommend extending our research by for instance investigating the effects of specific mediation styles or comparing the psychological processes and needs for minority and majority groups in mediation. Considering the divide of researchers investigating mediation in the field and in the laboratory, as well as the divide of mediation research and practice, we hope for a more cooperative and dialogical, shortly, a more mediation-like, approach to mediation in the future. Experience has shows that both sides can learn from each other and that cooperation is a profitable endeavor for all involved

Rehabilitation: The health strategy of the 21st century.

There is strong evidence that population ageing and the epidemiological transition to a higher incidence of chronic, non-communicable diseases will continue to profoundly impact societies worldwide, putting more pressure on healthcare systems to respond to the needs of the people they serve. These trends argue for the need to address what matters to people about their health: limitations in their functioning that affect their day-to-day actions and goals in life. From its inception, rehabilitation, 1 of the 4 health strategies identified in the Declaration of Alma Ata in 1978, has had functioning as its outcome of interest. Its practitioners are from fields that include physical and rehabilitation medicine, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech and language therapy, orthotics and prosthetics, psychology, and evaluators of functioning interventions, including assistive technologies. Demographic and epidemiological trends suggest that the key indicators of the health of populations will be not merely mortality and morbidity, but functioning as well. This, in turn, suggests that the primary focus of healthcare will need to respond to actual healthcare demands generated by the need for long-term management of chronic conditions, including, in particular, the scaling up and strengthening of rehabilitation. This is the case for thinking that rehabilitation will become the key health strategy of the 21st century

EfficientLEAF: A Faster LEarnable Audio Frontend of Questionable Use

In audio classification, differentiable auditory filterbanks with few parameters cover the middle ground between hard-coded spectrograms and raw audio. LEAF (arXiv:2101.08596), a Gabor-based filterbank combined with Per-Channel Energy Normalization (PCEN), has shown promising results, but is computationally expensive. With inhomogeneous convolution kernel sizes and strides, and by replacing PCEN with better parallelizable operations, we can reach similar results more efficiently. In experiments on six audio classification tasks, our frontend matches the accuracy of LEAF at 3% of the cost, but both fail to consistently outperform a fixed mel filterbank. The quest for learnable audio frontends is not solved.Comment: Accepted at EUSIPCO 2022. Code at https://github.com/CPJKU/EfficientLEA

Strengthening health-related rehabilitation services at national levels.

OBJECTIVE: One of the aims of the World Health Organization\u27s Global Disability Action Plan is to strengthen rehabilitation services. Some countries have requested support to develop (scale-up) rehabilitation services. This paper describes the measures required and how (advisory) missions can support this purpose, with the aim of developing National Disability, Health and Rehabilitation Plans. RECOMMENDATIONS: It is important to clarify the involvement of governments in the mission, to define clear terms of reference, and to use a systematic pathway for situation assessment. Information must be collected regarding policies, health, disability, rehabilitation, social security systems, the need for rehabilitation, and the existing rehabilitation services and workforce. Site visits and stakeholder dialogues must be done. In order to develop a Rehabilitation Service Implementation Framework, existing rehabilitation services, workforce, and models for service implementation and development of rehabilitation professions are described. Governance, political will and a common understanding of disability and rehabilitation are crucial for implementation of the process. The recommendations of the World Report on Disability are used for reporting purposes. CONCLUSION: This concept is feasible, and leads to concrete recommendations and proposals for projects and a high level of consensus stakeholders

Haemin deprivation renders Bacteroides fragilis hypersusceptible to metronidazole and cancels high-level metronidazole resistance

Background Infections with Bacteroides fragilis are routinely treated with metronidazole, a 5-nitroimidazole antibiotic that is active against most anaerobic microorganisms. Metronidazole has remained a reliable treatment option, but resistance does occur, including in B. fragilis. Objectives In this study we tested whether haemin, a growth supplement for B. fragilis in vivo and in vitro, had an influence on the susceptibility of resistant B. fragilis strains to metronidazole. We further tested whether haemin-deprived B. fragilis would be more susceptible to oxygen and oxidative stress. Metronidazole has been described to cause oxidative stress, which we argued would be exacerbated in haemin-deprived B. fragilis because the bacteria harness haemin, and the iron released from it, in antioxidant enzymes such as catalase and superoxide dismutase. Methods Haemin was omitted from growth media and the effect on metronidazole susceptibility was monitored in susceptible and resistant B. fragilis strains. Further, haemin-deprived B. fragilis were tested for resistance to aeration and hydrogen peroxide and the capacity for the removal of oxygen. Results Omission of haemin from the growth medium rendered metronidazole-resistant B. fragilis strains, including an MDR isolate from the UK, highly susceptible to metronidazole. Haemin deprivation further rendered B. fragilis highly susceptible to oxygen, which was further exacerbated in resistant strains. B. fragilis was incapable of scavenging oxygen when haemin was omitted. Conclusions We propose that haemin deprivation overrules resistance mechanisms by rendering B. fragilis hypersusceptible to metronidazole due to a compromised antioxidant defence. Monitoring of haemin concentrations is imperative when conducting metronidazole susceptibility testing in B. fragilis

Screening of Patient Impairments in an Outpatient Clinic for Suspected Rare Diseases—A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Most rare diseases are chronic conditions with variable impairment of functionality, which can result in a need for rehabilitation. To our knowledge, there are no systematic studies on the rehabilitation needs of patients in centres for rare diseases in the literature. Our hypothesis is that participation of these patients is so limited that there is an increased need for rehabilitation. For this reason, a survey on the need for rehabilitation was carried out in all patients presenting to the centre for rare diseases, in order to assess the need for rehabilitative measures to counteract disturbances in activity and participation. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed to collect data using a written questionnaire from December 2020 to June 2021, including patients presenting personally in the center for rare diseases. Results: Nearly 70% of the participants assessed their own ability to work as critical. Of those surveyed, n = 30 (44.9%) had PDI total ≥ 33 points and, thus, a clear pain-related impairment. Conclusion: The results show functional restrictions in the areas of mental well-being and activity. As expected, the health-related quality of life is reduced as compared to healthy people. Almost half of the participants reported significant pain-related impairments, however, only 9% of all respondents stated that they had received appropriate pain therapy. The results show the need for rehabilitation-specific skills in the care and counseling of patients with rare diseases

Spectrum of topics for world congresses and other activities of the International Society for Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ISPRM) : a first proposal

Background: One of the objectives of the International Society for Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine is to improve the continuity of World Congresses. This requires the development of an abstract topic list for use in congress announcements and abstract submissions. Methods: An abstract topic list was developed on the basis of the definitions of human functioning and rehabilitation research, which define 5 main areas of research (biosciences in rehabilitation, biomedical rehabilitation sciences and engineering, clinical Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (PRM) sciences, integrative rehabilitation sciences, and human functioning sciences). For the abstract topic list, these research areas were grouped according to the proposals of congress streams. In a second step, the first version of the list was systematically compared with the topics of the 2003 ISPRM World Congress. Results: The resulting comprehensive abstract topic list contains 5 chapters according to the definition of human functioning and rehabilitation research. Due to the high significance of clinical research, clinical PRM sciences were placed at the top of the list, comprising all relevant health conditions treated in PRM services. For congress announcements a short topic list was derived. Discussion: The ISPRM topic list is sustainable and covers a full range of topics. It may be useful for congresses and elsewhere in structuring research in PRM