Crisis intervention as a form of therapy for persons with homosexual concerns : an experimental study

Includes bibliographical references.Thirty male patients who, because they were experiencing homosexual crises, had made contact with a walk-in crisis clinic in Johannesburg, South Africa, were admitted to a series of therapy sessions based on the model of crisis intervention as expounded by Naomi Golan. The Paper reports upon a study which examined the degree of anxiety associated with the crisis, and measured the efficacy of crisis intervention techniques in reducing anxiety and distress. Two basis tests were administered: one before therapy and the other upon completion. The first test was the Kinsey Homosexual-Heterosexual rating scale to gauge the level of the patients' undertaking of their homosexual-heterosexual spectrum and to facilitate therapy. The second test consisted of ten items selected from the Manifest Anxiety Scale (M.A.S.).Using Magoon's validation of the study (which differentiated items in terms of levels of significance) and using Busses' study (which produces a follow-up item analysis of the M.A.S.), the writer selected those items that were significant at the 5% level or better, and also those that could be broken down into the following categories: (a) items which were indicated by physical anxiety or discomfort. (b) items which were indicated in verbal terms. In this way items were identified as correlates of anxiety experienced by persons with homosexual problems (in a crisis state). A rating scale was constructed using a five-point semantic differential for each item

Using a Computer Simulation in the Research, Training, and Evaluation of School Psychologists

A computer program, School Psychologist Simulation, is described. The program presents users with information and events such as might be encountered in a real school setting regarding schoolchildren referred to the school psychologist; users can practice the skills needed by a school psychologist in the assessment of the case. The participant then submits a report detailing assessment, recommendations, and reasoning for the case in either essay or multiple-choice format. An additional program permits the instructor to customize the material presented to the user by modifying the case material of a specific child and/or by altering the forms displayed to the user in all cases

Antimicrobial susceptibility of bacteria isolated from newborns with suspected or confirmed necrotising enterocolitis

Aim. This audit aimed to identify which bacteria were associated with necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) and determine their antibiotic sensitivities. Methods. A retrospective audit of all infants with a diagnosis of suspected NEC or confirmed NEC and a positive culture (blood/faeces/operative specimen or vascular access device) between January 2000 and September 2007 was performed. Results. Ninety nine infants had a diagnosis of suspected (45) or confirmed NEC (54). Seventeen patients had suspected (5) or confirmed (12) NEC and a positive culture result. 12 babies had positive blood cultures associated with their NEC. Only 4 of the 12 cases of NEC with a positive blood culture received adequate first line cover for their subsequently identified infecting organism. Conclusions. Due to the limitations of this study we are unable to make general recommendations on the first line antibiotic choice for babies with suspected or confirmed NEC. Our current regime of Ampicillin, Gentamicin and Metronidazole failed to adequately treat 8 of the 12 organisms subsequently isolated in blood cultures. Only the combination of Vancomycin and Meropenem would have adequately treated all the bacteria identified. The concern with this approach is the possible emergence of multi drug resistant bacteria

On the supranational spell of PISA in policy

Background: PISA results appear to have a large impact upon government policy. The phenomenon is growing, with more countries taking part in PISA testing and politicians pointing to PISA results as reasons for their reforms. Purpose: The aims of this research were to depict the policy reactions to PISA across a number of jurisdictions, to see whether they exhibited similar patterns and whether the same reforms were evident. Sources of evidence: We investigated policy and media reactions to the 2009 and 2012 PISA results in six cases: Canada, China (Shanghai), England, France, Norway and Switzerland. Cases were selected to contrast high-performing jurisdictions (Canada, China) with average performers (England, France, Norway and Switzerland). Countries that had already been well reported on in the literature were excluded (Finland, Germany). Design and methods: Policy documents, media reports and academic articles in English, French, Mandarin and Norwegian relating to each of the cases were critically evaluated. Results: A policy reaction of ‘scandalisation’ was evident in four of the six cases; a technique used to motivate change. Five of the six cases showed ‘standards-based reforms’ and two had reforms in line with the ‘ideal-governance’ model. However, these are categorisations: the actual reforms had significant differences across countries. There are chronological problems with the notion that PISA results were causal with regard to policy in some instances. Countries with similar PISA results responded with different policies, reflecting their differing cultural and historical education system trajectories. Conclusions: The connection between PISA results and policy is not always obvious. The supranational spell of PISA in policy is in the way that PISA results are used as a magic wand in political rhetoric, as though they conjure particular policy choices. This serves as a distraction from the ideological basis for reforms. The same PISA results could motivate a range of different policy solutions

Interacting with Large Distributed Datasets using Sketch

We present Sketch, a distributed software infrastructure for building interactive tools for exploring large datasets, distributed across multiple machines. We have built three sophisticated applications using this framework: a billion-row spreadsheet, a distributed log browser, and a distributed- systems performance debugging tool. Sketch applications allow interactive and responsive exploration of complex distributed datasets, scaling gracefully to large system sizes. The conflicting constraints of large-scale data and small timescales required by human interaction are difficult to satisfy simultaneously. Sketch exploits a sweet spot in this trade-off by exploiting the observation that the precision of a data view is limited by the resolution of the user?s screen. The system pushes data reduction operations to the data sources. The core Sketch abstraction provides a narrow programming interface; Sketch clients construct a distributed application by stacking modular components with identical interfaces, each providing a useful feature: network transparency, concurrency, fault-tolerance, straggler avoidance, round-trip reduction, distributed aggregation

Dimensions of professional competences for interventions towards sustainability

This paper investigates sustainability competences through the eyes of professional practitioners in the field of sustainability and presents empirical data that have been created using an action research approach. The design of the study consists of two workshops, in which professional practitioners in interaction with each other and the facilitators are invited to explore and reflect on the specific knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours necessary to conduct change processes successfully towards sustainability in a variety of business and professional contexts. The research focuses on the competences associated with these change processes to devise, propose and conduct appropriate interventions that address sustainability issues. Labelled ‘intervention competence’, this ability comprises an interlocking set of knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours that include: appreciating the importance of (trying to) reaching decisions or interventions; being able to learn from lived experience of practice and to connect such learning to one’s own scientific knowledge; being able to engage in political-strategic thinking, deliberations and actions, related to different perspectives; the ability for showing goal-oriented, adequate action; adopting and communicating ethical practices during the intervention process; being able to cope with the degree of complexity, and finally being able to translate stakeholder diversity into collectively produced interventions (actions) towards sustainability. Moreover, this competence has to be practised in contexts of competing values, non-technical interests and power relations. The article concludes with recommendations for future research and practice

Early planned removal versus expectant management of peripherally inserted central catheters to prevent infection in newborn infants (Review)

BACKGROUND: Duration of use may be a modifiable risk factor for central venous catheter-associated bloodstream infection in newborn infants. Early planned removal of peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) is recommended as a strategy to reduce the incidence of infection and its associated morbidity and mortality. OBJECTIVES: To determine the effectiveness of early planned removal of PICCs (up to two weeks after insertion) compared to an expectant approach or a longer fixed duration in preventing bloodstream infection and other complications in newborn infants. SEARCH METHODS: We searched of the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL; 2018, Issue 4), Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, Maternity & Infant Care Database, and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) (until April 2018), and conference proceedings and previous reviews. SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomised and quasi-randomised controlled trials that assessed the effect of early planned removal of umbilical venous catheters (up to two weeks after insertion) compared to an expectant management approach or a longer fixed duration in preventing bloodstream infection and other complications in newborn infants. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review authors assessed trial eligibility independently. We planned to analyse any treatment effects in the individual trials and report the risk ratio and risk difference for dichotomous data and mean difference for continuous data, with respective 95% confidence intervals. We planned to use a fixed-effect model in meta-analyses and explore potential causes of heterogeneity in sensitivity analyses. We planned to assess the quality of evidence for the main comparison at the outcome level using "Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation" (GRADE) methods. MAIN RESULTS: We did not identify any eligible randomised controlled trials. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: There are no trial data to guide practice regarding early planned removal versus expectant management of PICCs in newborn infants. A simple and pragmatic randomised controlled trial is needed to resolve the uncertainty about optimal management in this common and important clinical dilemma

Four-gene-combination DNA vaccine protects mice against a lethal vaccinia virus challenge and elicits appropriate antibody responses in nonhuman primates

AbstractTwo major infectious forms of vaccinia virus (VACV) have been described: the intracellular mature virion (IMV), and the extracellular enveloped virion (EEV). Due to their stability in the environment, IMVs play a predominant role in host-to-host transmission, whereas EEVs play an important role in dissemination within the host. In a previous report, we demonstrated that mice vaccinated with VACV L1R (IMV immunogen) and A33R (EEV immunogen) were protected from a lethal poxvirus challenge. Vaccination with a combination of both genes conferred greater protection than either gene alone, suggesting that an immune response against both IMV and EEV is advantageous. Here, we report that in mice individually administered DNA vaccines with two different VACV immunogens, A27L (IMV immunogen) or B5R (EEV immunogen), failed to significantly protect; however, vaccination with a combination of both genes conferred a high level of protection. Mice were completely protected when vaccinated with a combination of four VACV genes (A27L + A33R + L1R + B5R). Rhesus macaques vaccinated with this four-gene-combination developed appropriate antibody responses to each protein. Antibody responses elicited by this vaccine cross-reacted with monkeypox virus orthologous proteins. These data indicate that a gene-based vaccine comprised of the VACV A27L + A33R + L1R + B5R genes may be a useful candidate to protect against other orthopoxviruses, including those that cause monkeypox and smallpox