Ambivalence Over Emotional Expression, Social Constraints, And Trauma As Moderators Of Emotional Awareness And Expression Training And Relaxation Training For Individuals With Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a central sensitization gastrointestinal disorder that affects 10-15% of the population. Psychosocial factors, including stress, social support, emotional processes, and trauma, have been shown to play a role in the development of IBS and the severity of symptoms. Effect sizes for psychological treatments are modest, indicating individual differences in effectiveness. A subset of patients with IBS may benefit from Emotional Awareness and Expression Training (EAET), a novel intervention that encourages the awareness and expression of emotions. In this study, 106 participants with IBS were randomized into one of two interventions—Relaxation Training or EAET—or a Waitlist Control group. Participants completed measures of IBS symptom severity and quality of life, emotional processes, and trauma. Moderator analyses were used to test whether individuals with more ambivalence over emotional expression, greater perceived social constraints, and more traumatic experiences are more likely to benefit from EAET than those with lower scores on these constructs. Results indicated that overall, the hypothesized and exploratory moderators moderate the effects of treatment group on health outcomes for RT compared to WLC, but not EAET compared to RT or WLC as hypothesized. Specifically, although both interventions (EAET and RT) appeared to result in improved health outcomes at 1- and 12-week follow-up (Thakur et al., 2016), it seems that RT was especially helpful for certain individuals, which may indicate that EAET is more helpful to a greater number of patients with IBS while RT is differentially helpful for certain groups

Arab American Women\u27s Health Study: Correlational And Experimental Examination Of A Sexual Health Interview

Arab Americans are a diverse group of Americans of Arab heritage or identity. Given the underrepresentation of Arab Americans in research and a taboo surrounding sexuality in Arab culture, it is not surprising that Arab American sexual health is understudied, even though sexuality is an important aspect of health. Arab American women face the challenging task of negotiating both their heritage and American culture, which may have implications for sexual health due to the two cultures’ disparate views on sexuality. Given the conflict and taboo likely to surround the topic of sexuality among Arab American women, confidential discussion of these sensitive topics with a knowledgeable and empathic interviewer may yield beneficial effects. This correlational and experimental study aimed to fill the gap in the literature on Arab American sexual health by examining: a) how sexual health is associated with physical and psychological health and b) whether engaging in an interview about sexuality improves participants’ sexual health. In this study, 134 Arab American women ages 18-35 (M = 20.6) were recruited from the university and community. Participants completed measures assessing sexual health and attitudes, somatic and psychological symptoms, and cultural identity, and then were randomized to an interview or control (delayed interview) condition. The 60-minute interviews, conducted by female clinical psychology graduate students, inquired about sexual health, particularly relatively private attitudes and experiences. Five weeks later, all participants completed follow-up measures, and the control participants then completed the interview. Multiple regression analyses indicated that sexual self-esteem and unwanted sexual experiences were positively associated with somatic, depressive, and anxious symptoms, even after accounting for sociocultural variables and sexual experiences. Additionally, sexual satisfaction was inversely associated with psychological symptoms, and sexual self-schema was positively associated with somatic symptoms, also after accounting for those covariates. Bicultural identity integration moderated some of these relationships. These correlational findings suggest that sexual health is a key aspect of health and well-being and should be assessed among Arab American women. Analysis of covariance indicated that the interview condition led to significantly greater sexual satisfaction and marginally less discomfort with sexual self-disclosure at follow-up (adjusting for baseline), compared to controls. Moderation analyses revealed that these benefits extended to women with varying degrees of discomfort with sexual self-disclosure and extent of past sexual self-disclosure. These experimental findings suggest the value – rather than the risk – of openly discussing sexuality-related topics in a confidential, empathic setting with Arab American women

How Not to Get Famous on YouTube

The story of a shy girl and her desire to be known. As the story is told she explains many different routes and plans she had to help her become the famous actress or star that she believed she could be. The people she meets along the way help her come to the conclusion that everybody wants recognition

Spaces of demarginalisation: Processes, policy and politics in addressing territorial stigma in Middlehaven, Middlesbrough

Middlehaven, Middlesbrough, is the site of a major regeneration project led by the local authority. The regeneration project involves attempts to transform the site from a territorially stigmatised space – known locally as ‘Over the Border’ – into a digital and creative hub. Drawing upon current understandings of marginality and the mobilisation of territorial stigma in the justification of regeneration projects, this thesis sets out to consider how demarginalisation is manifested in process and policy in Middlesbrough. Using a mixed-methods approach, this research illustrates how Middlehaven has been stigmatised as 'Over the Border', and how this stigma is maintained through use of the label in local media, documents, and everyday conversation. This thesis argues that the 'Over the Border' stigma has a dual role in the regeneration: The territorial stigma is framed as an obstacle to growth, and thereby used as a justification for demolition of a stigmatised estate in the Middlehaven area via a discourse of necessity and security, while the stigma simultaneously plays a key role in the positioning of the site as a space ripe for urban pioneering owing to the construction of the space as a 'wilderness'. The governance of Middlesbrough in the context of urban regeneration is examined, and it is argued that an entrepreneurial approach which attempts to minimise risk for investors while encouraging calculated risk-taking within the council is central to the regeneration strategy. It is argued that creativity is an important factor in the regeneration of Middlehaven, both in that the project aims foster a hub of creative and digital industry in the area, and also in the approaches to governance of the site. By focusing on the space affected by territorial stigma in Middlehaven, this thesis provides a detailed analysis of the tactics employed to remove the constraints of stigma from space

The response of ostracod faunal assemblages to hydrology, lake level, and carbon cycling in a Jamaican marl lake: a palaeolimnological investigation

Ostracod taxa from shallow freshwater lakes are sensitive to a range of limnological factors including temperature, hydrological habitat, lake level, and the distribution of aquatic plants. Ostracod assemblages preserved in Quaternary lake sediments can be used to reconstruct limnological change and are therefore potentially valuable palaeoenvironmental proxies. However, lack of autecological information about some taxa may limit the validity of such reconstructions. We use fossil ostracod assemblages recovered from radiocarbon-dated late Holocene sediments from Wallywash Great Pond, a small, shallow freshwater lake in southwestern Jamaica, to reconstruct limnological change over the past ∼ 1800 years. We circumvent ongoing taxonomic and ecological uncertainties associated with the identification of fossil ostracod taxa by drawing on observations of the ecology of ostracods found living in Jamaican water bodies. By combining this information with limnological data from the extant lake, and with sedimentological and isotopic data from the lake sediments, we show that a published interpretation of ostracod assemblages for the late Quaternary of Wallywash Great Pond is simplistic, at least for the late Holocene section of the sediment record. We conclude that changes in ostracod assemblages are linked to variations in the input of undersaturated groundwater to the northern part of the lake from which the core was recovered. These variations, which were driven by changes in the precipitation / evaporation ratio (effective moisture), also controlled sedimentation, with reduced effective moisture and a decline in undersaturated groundwater input favouring marl precipitation, whereas organic sediments are linked to increased effective moisture and enhanced groundwater input. Our findings suggest that the dramatic shifts in ostracod assemblages at this site are a complex response to changes in hydrology, sedimentology, and carbonate saturation rather than being a simple indicator of lake-level change. Combining ostracod assemblage data with the results of other palaeolimnological analyses also allows more detailed reconstructions to be made for this lake, and such a multiproxy approach is recommended for similar lakes elsewhere.</p

An analysis of the impact of fair trade: a case study of tea producers in the central province of Sri Lanka

This thesis investigates the impact of fair trade on tea producers in the Central Province of Sri Lanka. A comparison study is undertaken between fair and conventional trade farmers to investigate the monetary and non-monetary benefits of fair trade involvement. The study of 7 villages in the Central Province, incorporates 40 fair trade tea producers, who are members of a cooperative, and 40 conventional trade tea producers selling to a local buyer. Undertaken in July 2009, the research analyses quantitative and qualitative data gathered by means of questionnaires and interviews, to examine the different experiences of the two types of producers in terms of monetary and non-monetary benefits. Monetary benefits examined include factors such as improved income, income sufficiency, secondary income activities, pre-finance measures and excess money. Non-monetary benefits examined include education gains, household development and labour hours on tea production. The results are compared with other impact studies with similarities and differences analysed. The empirical results presented suggest that there are no significant differences in tea income between the two groups. However, fair trade producers work fewer hours in tea production and are more likely to report both an improved and excess income. Furthermore, the fair trade producers report improved spending on food and savings and have a more diversified crop. The results are due to the increased productivity, the provision of loans and saving schemes and the increased time available to work on secondary income generating activities either on or off the farm resulting in an overall improvement in living standards. This study contributes to the existing literature on whether and how fair trade is able to improve the well-being of small producers by offering new insights into the importance of cooperative management, working hours, productivity improvement, effective savings schemes and pre-finance arrangements. These findings are considered important to the success of the cooperative and hence to fair trade producers extracting the full benefits of fair trade and as such they are recommended as focus areas for fair trade. New data is included from tea producers in the Central Province of Sri Lanka, a new region for in-depth study and a new context, as the majority of existing studies focus on coffee and banana production