The role of peer communication in the socialization of adolescents' pain experiences: a qualitative investigation.

BACKGROUND: Recurrent pain is a common complaint among adolescents. Children learn to resolve or cope with pain largely through family dynamics, particularly maternal influences. By adolescence, young people possess an array of pain behaviors, the culmination of multiple opportunities for modeling and reinforcement of attitudes and beliefs about pain. Adolescence is a time of increased autonomy characterized by, among other complex factors, significant increases in peer influence. Although peers are influential in health-risk behavior, little is known how peers impact adolescents' pain experience. The present study explored the role of peers in adolescents' attitudes toward pain, pain behaviors and over-the-counter analgesics. METHODS: Sixty-minute focus groups were conducted with a sample 24 junior high school students from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada (11 male: mean age = 13.45 years, range = 12-15 years; 13 female: mean age = 13.31 years, range = 12-15 years). Participants were randomly assigned to one of five same-gender focus groups designed to explore a wide breadth and depth of information. Sessions were run until theoretical data saturation. Textual data, from transcribed audiotapes, were analyzed with the constant comparative method. RESULTS: Peer influences were apparent in how adolescents communicate about pain and how those communications effect pain expression. Overt pain responses to injury were primarily contextual and depended on perceived threats to peer-time and pain severity. Adolescents were intolerant of peers' pain behaviors when the cause was perceived as not severe. These attitudes impacted how adolescents responded to their own pain; males were careful not to express embarrassing pain in front of peers, females felt no restrictions on pain talk or pain expression. Evidence for peer influence on attitudes toward OTC analgesics was apparent in perceptions of over-use and ease of access. Findings are discussed within the context of social information-processing and gender role expectations. CONCLUSION: Little research has addressed how young people experience pain within the context of the psychosocial influences that dominate during adolescence. The findings provide some insight into the role of peer influences via verbal and non-verbal communication, in adolescents' pain experience. This exploratory study is a necessary first step in understanding the socialization of adolescents' pain experiences

Virtuality in human supervisory control: Assessing the effects of psychological and social remoteness

Virtuality would seem to offer certain advantages for human supervisory control. First, it could provide a physical analogue of the 'real world' environment. Second, it does not require control room engineers to be in the same place as each other. In order to investigate these issues, a low-fidelity simulation of an energy distribution network was developed. The main aims of the research were to assess some of the psychological concerns associated with virtual environments. First, it may result in the social isolation of the people, and it may have dramatic effects upon the nature of the work. Second, a direct physical correspondence with the 'real world' may not best support human supervisory control activities. Experimental teams were asked to control an energy distribution network. Measures of team performance, group identity and core job characteristics were taken. In general terms, the results showed that teams working in the same location performed better than team who were remote from one another

The impact of annotation on students learning

The University of Salford School of Nursing’s policy on provision of feedback on assessed work was written to communicate the processes involved in complying with the institutional policy (School of Nursing, 2005). This is a change to the marking practices of School staff and it is expected that this change will make a difference and enhance the quality of student learning. It is necessary to compare the effect of annotation on student outcomes with other types of feedback. It is anticipated this comparison will serve to highlight the strengths and weaknesses in the marking and feedback process The provision of feedback to students on their performance within assessment is seen by the School of Nursing as good practice and an important part of learning development. The Quality Assurance Agency’s Code of Practice for “Assessment of Students,” Precept 12 (2001) on “feedback to students on performance” states that institutions should “ensure that appropriate feedback is provided to students on assessed work in a way that promotes learning and facilitates improvement.” Providing appropriate feedback to students on assessed work aims to promote learning, assist development, and extend student critical evaluation skills

Selenium uptake, translocation and speciation in wheat supplied with selenate or selenite

Selenite can be a dominant form of selenium (Se) in aerobic soils; however, unlike selenate, the mechanism of selenite uptake by plants remains unclear. Uptake, translocation and Se speciation in wheat (Triticum aestivum) supplied with selenate or selenite, or both, were investigated in hydroponic experiments. The kinetics of selenite influx was determined in short-term (30 min) experiments. Selenium speciation in the water-extractable fraction of roots and shoots was determined by HPLC-ICPMS. Plants absorbed similar amounts of Se within 1 d when supplied with selenite or selenate. Selenate and selenite uptake were enhanced in sulphur-starved and phosphorus-starved plants, respectively. Phosphate markedly increased K-m of the selenite influx. Selenate and selenite uptake were both metabolically dependent. Selenite was rapidly converted to organic forms in roots, with limited translocation to shoots. Selenomethionine, selenomethionine Se-oxide, Se-methyl-selenocysteine and several other unidentified Se species were detected in the root extracts and xylem sap from selenite-treated plants. Selenate was highly mobile in xylem transport, but little was assimilated to organic forms in 1 d. The presence of selenite decreased selenate uptake and xylem transport. Selenite uptake is an active process likely mediated, at least partly, by phosphate transporters. Selenite and selenate differ greatly in the ease of assimilation and xylem transport

Insulators and imprinting from flies to mammals

The nuclear factor CTCF has been shown to be necessary for the maintenance of genetic imprinting at the mammalian H19/Igf2 locus. MacDonald and colleagues now report in BMC Biology that the mechanisms responsible for maintaining the imprinted state in Drosophila may be evolutionarily conserved and that CTCF may also play a critical role in this process

Does Practice Make Perfect?

Extensive literature supports the correlation between surgical volume and improved clinical outcome in the management of various cancers. It is this evidence that has catalysed the creation of centres of excellence. However, on closer inspection, many of these studies are poor quality, low weight and use vastly heterogenous end points in assessment of both volume and outcome. We critically appraise the English language literature published over the last ten years pertaining to the volume outcome relationship in the context of cancer care. Future balanced unbiased studies may enable equipoise in planning international cancer management strategies

Validation of World Health Organisation HIV/AIDS Clinical Staging in Predicting Initiation of Antiretroviral Therapy and Clinical Predictors of Low CD4 Cell Count in Uganda

IntroductionThe WHO clinical guidelines for HIV/AIDS are widely used in resource limited settings to represent the gold standard of CD4 counts for antiviral therapy initiation. The utility of the WHO-defined stage 1 and 2 clinical factors used in WHO HIV/AIDS clinical staging in predicting low CD4 cell count has not been established in Uganda. Although the WHO staging has shown low sensitivity for predicting CD4<200 cells/mm(3), it has not been evaluated at for CD4 cut-offs of <250 cells/mm(3) or <350 cells/mm(3).ObjectiveTo validate the World Health Organisation HIV/AIDS clinical staging in predicting initiation of antiretroviral therapy in a low-resource setting and to determine the clinical predictors of low CD4 cell count in Uganda.ResultsData was collected on 395 participants from the Joint Clinical Research Centre, of whom 242 (61.3%) were classified as in stages 1 and 2 and 262 (68%) were females. Participants had a mean age of 36.8 years (SD 8.5). We found a significant inverse correlation between the CD4 lymphocyte count and WHO clinical stages. The sensitivity the WHO clinical staging at CD4 cell count of 250 cells/mm(3) and 350 cells/mm(3) was 53.5% and 49.1% respectively. Angular cheilitis, papular pruritic eruptions and recurrent upper respiratory tract infections were found to be significant predictors of low CD4 cell count among participants in WHO stage 1 and 2.ConclusionThe WHO HIV/AIDS clinical staging guidelines have a low sensitivity and about half of the participants in stages 1 and 2 would be eligible for ART initiation if they had been tested for CD4 count. Angular cheilitis and papular pruritic eruptions and recurrent upper respiratory tract infections may be used, in addition to the WHO staging, to improve sensitivity in the interim, as access to CD4 machines increases in Uganda

Feedback as intervention for team learning in virtual teams: the role of team cohesion and personality

Scholars and practitioners agree that virtual teams (VTs) have become commonplace in today's digital workplace. Relevant literature argues that learning constitutes a significant contributor to team member satisfaction and performance, and that, at least in face-to-face teams, team cohesion fosters team learning. Given the additional challenges VTs face, e.g. geographical dispersion, which are likely have a negative influence on cohesion, in this paper we shed light on the relationship between team cohesion and team learning. We adopted a quantitative approach and studied 54 VTs in our quest to understand the role of feedback in mediating this relationship and, more specifically, the role of personality traits in moderating the indirect effect of team feedback and guided reflection intervention on TL through team cohesion within the VT context. Our findings highlight the importance of considering aspects related to the team composition when devising intervention strategies for VTs, and provide empirical support for an interactionist model between personality and emergent states such as cohesion. Implications for theory and practice are also discussed