Cognitive appraisals, emotional reactions, and their associations with three forms of peer-victimization

Victimized students’ cognitive appraisals (perceived threat, control) are related to emotional reactions. Furthermore, psychosocial wellbeing is differentially associated with form of victimization (direct vs. indirect), suggesting that emotional reactions to direct and indirect victimization may also differ. The present study therefore evaluated appraisals and emotional reactions within the context of verbal, physical, and indirect victimization experiences, testing a mediational model which considers appraisals to mediate the effect of victimization upon emotional reaction. Participants were 146 students (44% male) aged 10-13 years attending mainstream schools in Scotland (UK). Self-report measures assessed peer-victimization (physical, verbal, indirect), appraisal (control, threat) and emotional reaction (anger, sadness). All forms of victimization were positively associated with both emotions. Threat appraisals were positively associated with all forms of victimization and control appraisals were negatively associated with physical victimization. The relationships between appraisals and emotions varied according to victimization type. The effects of victimization upon emotions were not mediated via appraisals. These results extend our understanding of the relationships between victimization and affect

Residential child care qualifications audit 2007

In recent years there has been a drive to develop a fully qualified residential child care sector in Scotland. In 2003 the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) announced the baseline qualifications for residential child care staff and set down a target for attaining it. This qualifications framework was subsequently reviewed and expanded in 2004. The Scottish Institute for Residential Child Care (SIRCC), commissioned by the Scottish Executive, has previously undertaken two inquiries into the qualification levels of the residential child care workforce in Scotland. The first Qualifications Audit (Frondigoun, Maclean, Hosie & Kendrick, 2002) was undertaken before the SSSC’s initial qualification framework was known and the second (Hunter, Hosie, Davidson & Kendrick, 2004) was based on it. The previous qualifications audit (Hunter et al., 2004) reported that 18% of residential child care staff were fully qualified in accordance with the SSSC’s qualification criteria (SSSC, 2004). The report forecast that the number of fully qualified staff would rise to 29.1% if all qualifications being undertaken were achieved. The purpose of this current audit is to determine whether levels of qualified staff have risen and to identify qualification trends throughout the residential child care sector in Scotland

Adjusting for Network Size and Composition Effects in Exponential-Family Random Graph Models

Exponential-family random graph models (ERGMs) provide a principled way to model and simulate features common in human social networks, such as propensities for homophily and friend-of-a-friend triad closure. We show that, without adjustment, ERGMs preserve density as network size increases. Density invariance is often not appropriate for social networks. We suggest a simple modification based on an offset which instead preserves the mean degree and accommodates changes in network composition asymptotically. We demonstrate that this approach allows ERGMs to be applied to the important situation of egocentrically sampled data. We analyze data from the National Health and Social Life Survey (NHSLS).Comment: 37 pages, 2 figures, 5 tables; notation revised and clarified, some sections (particularly 4.3 and 5) made more rigorous, some derivations moved into the appendix, typos fixed, some wording change

The Sex and Race Specific Relationship between Anthropometry and Body Fat Composition Determined from Computed Tomography: Evidence from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.

BackgroundFew studies have investigated the relationship of anthropometric measurements with computed tomography (CT) body fat composition, and even fewer determined if these relationships differ by sex and race.MethodsCT scans from 1,851 participants in the population based Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis were assessed for visceral and subcutaneous fat areas by semi-automated segmentation of body compartments. Regression models were used to investigate relationships for anthropometry with visceral and subcutaneous fat separately by sex and race/ethnicity.ResultsParticipants were 50% female, 41% Caucasian, 13% Asian, 21% African American, and 25% Hispanic. For visceral fat, the positive relationship with weight (p = 0.028), waist circumference (p<0.001), waist to hip ratio (p<0.001), and waist to height ratio (p = 0.05) differed by sex, with a steeper slope for men. That is, across the range of these anthropometric measures the rise in visceral fat is faster for men than for women. Additionally, there were differences by race/ethnicity in the relationship with height (p<0.001), weight (p<0.001), waist circumference (p<0.001), hip circumference (p = 0.006), and waist to hip ratio (p = 0.001) with the Hispanic group having shallower slopes. For subcutaneous fat, interaction by sex was found for all anthropometric indices at p<0.05, but not for race/ethnicity.ConclusionThe relationship between anthropometry and underlying adiposity differs by sex and race/ethnicity. When anthropometry is used as a proxy for visceral fat in research, sex-specific models should be used

The effect of changing the built environment on physical activity: a quantitative review of the risk of bias in natural experiments.

BACKGROUND:Evidence regarding the association of the built environment with physical activity is influencing policy recommendations that advocate changing the built environment to increase population-level physical activity. However, to date there has been no rigorous appraisal of the quality of the evidence on the effects of changing the built environment. The aim of this review was to conduct a thorough quantitative appraisal of the risk of bias present in those natural experiments with the strongest experimental designs for assessing the causal effects of the built environment on physical activity.METHODS:Eligible studies had to evaluate the effects of changing the built environment on physical activity, include at least one measurement before and one measurement of physical activity after changes in the environment, and have at least one intervention site and non-intervention comparison site. Given the large number of systematic reviews in this area, studies were identified from three exemplar systematic reviews; these were published in the past five years and were selected to provide a range of different built environment interventions. The risk of bias in these studies was analysed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Assessment Tool: for Non-Randomized Studies of Interventions (ACROBAT-NRSI).RESULTS:Twelve eligible natural experiments were identified. Risk of bias assessments were conducted for each physical activity outcome from all studies, resulting in a total of fifteen outcomes being analysed. Intervention sites included parks, urban greenways/trails, bicycle lanes, paths, vacant lots, and a senior citizen's centre. All outcomes had an overall critical (n = 12) or serious (n = 3) risk of bias. Domains with the highest risk of bias were confounding (due to inadequate control sites and poor control of confounding variables), measurement of outcomes, and selection of the reported result.CONCLUSIONS:The present review focused on the strongest natural experiments conducted to date. Given this, the failure of existing studies to adequately control for potential sources of bias highlights the need for more rigorous research to underpin policy recommendations for changing the built environment to increase physical activity. Suggestions are proposed for how future natural experiments in this area can be improved

IL-6 Mediated Transcriptional Programming of Naïve CD4+ T Cells in Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Drives Dysregulated Effector Function.

Objective: We have previously shown that increased circulating interleukin-6 (IL-6) results in enhanced CD4+ T cell signaling via signal transduction and activator of transcription-3 (STAT3) in early rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We tested the hypothesis that transcriptional "imprinting" of T-cells by this mechanism skews downstream effector responses, reinforcing immune dysregulation at a critical, but targetable, disease phase. Methods: We modeled naïve CD4+ T cell exposure to pathophysiological concentrations of IL-6 in vitro, assessing the dynamic transcriptional and functional consequences for downstream effector cells utilizing microarray and flow cytometry. Fresh blood from treatment-naïve early arthritis patients was phenotyped in parallel for comparison. Results: T cell sensitivity to IL-6 was most marked in the naïve subset, and related to gp130 rather than IL-6R expression. Exposure of healthy naïve CD4+ T cells to IL-6 induced the same STAT3 target genes as previously seen to discriminate RA patients from disease controls. After TCR stimulation IL-6 pre-exposed cells exhibited enhanced proliferative capacity, activation, and a propensity toward Th1 differentiation, compared to non-exposed cells. An entirely analogous phenotype was observed in early RA compared to control CD4+ T cells. Conclusions: Sustained IL-6 exposure at a critical point in the natural history of RA "primes" the adaptive immune system to respond aberrantly to TCR stimulation, potentiating disease induction with implications for the optimal timing of targeted therapy

The Men’s Safer Sex Trial: a feasibility randomised controlled trial of an interactive digital intervention to increase condom use in men

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to determine the feasibility of an online randomised controlled trial (RCT) of the Men’s Safer Sex website, measuring condom use and sexually transmitted infection (STI). METHODS: For this study 159 men aged ≥16 with female sexual partners and recent condomless sex or suspected STI were recruited from three UK sexual health clinics. Participants were randomised to the intervention website plus usual clinic care (n = 84), or usual clinic care only (n = 75). Online outcome data were solicited at 3, 6, and 12 months. RESULTS: Men were enrolled via tablet computers in clinic waiting rooms. Software errors and clinic Wi-Fi access presented significant challenges, and online questionnaire response rates were poor (36% at 3 months with a £10 voucher; 50% at 12 months with £30). Clinical records (for STI diagnoses) were located for 94% of participants. Some 37% of the intervention group did not see the intervention website (n = 31/84), and (as expected) there was no detectable difference in condomless sex with female partners (IRR = 1.01, 95% CI 0.52 to 1.96). New acute STI diagnoses were recorded for 8.8% (7/80) of the intervention group, and 13.0% (9/69) of the control group over 12 months (IRR = 0.75, 95% CI 0.29 to 1.90). CONCLUSIONS: It is likely to be feasible to conduct a future large-scale RCT to assess the impact of an online intervention using clinic STI diagnoses as a primary outcome. However, practical and technical challenges need to be addressed before the potential of digital media interventions can be realised in sexual health settings

Patterns in hydraulic ripples with binary granular mixtures

An experimental study of a binary granular mixture submitted to a transient shear flow in a cylindrical container is reported. The formation of ripples with a spiral shape is observed. The appearance of phase segregation in those spiral patterns is shown. The relative grain size bewteen sand species is found to be a relevant parameter leading to phase segregation. However, the relative repose angle is an irrelevant parameter. The formation of sedimentary structures is also presented. They result from a ripple climbing process. The ``sub-critical'' or ``super-critical'' character of the lamination patterns is shown to depend on the rotation speed of the container.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, LateX (using elsart package), submitted to Phys.

Chapter 3 : Japanese literature and “Homeland/Hometown”

Accompanying guidance document used to help assessors judge the risk of bias in each bias domain and overall risk of bias. (DOCX 29 kb

Fermi-LAT Sensitivity to Dark Matter Annihilation in Via Lactea II Substructure

We present a study of the ability of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope to detect dark-matter annihilation signals from the Galactic subhalos predicted by the Via Lactea II N-body simulation. We implement an improved formalism for estimating the boost factor needed to account for the effect of dark-matter clumping on scales below the resolution of the simulation, and we incorporate a detailed Monte Carlo simulation of the response of the Fermi-LAT telescope, including a simulation of its all-sky observing mode integrated over a ten year mission. We find that for WIMP masses up to about 150 GeV in standard supersymmetric models with velocity-averaged cross section 3*10^-26 cm^3 s^-1, a few subhalos could be detectable with >5 standard deviations significance and would likely deviate significantly from the appearance of a point source.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figure