Deepening Couples Counseling Through Inner Critic Dialogue: A Case Study

Abstract The psychological construct of the Inner Critic (IC) describes the internal, negative valuations made by individuals within relationships based upon previous faulty thinkin

Quantifying the Origin and Distribution of Intracluster Light in a Fornax-like Cluster

Using a cosmological $N$-body simulation, we investigate the origin and distribution of stars in the intracluster light (ICL) of a Fornax-like cluster. In a dark matter only simulation we identify a halo which, at $z=0$, has $M_200 \simeq 4.1 \times 10^{13}M_{sun}$ and $r_{200} = 700kpc$, and replace infalling subhalos with models that include spheroid and disc components. As they fall into the cluster, the stars in some of these galaxies are stripped from their hosts, and form the ICL. We consider the separate contributions to the ICL from stars which originate in the haloes and the discs of the galaxies. We find that disc ICL stars are more centrally concentrated than halo ICL stars. The majority of the disc ICL stars are associated with one initially disc-dominated galaxy that falls to the centre of the cluster and is heavily disrupted, producing part of the cD galaxy. At radial distances greater than 200kpc, well beyond the stellar envelope of the cD galaxy, stars formerly from the stellar haloes of galaxies dominate the ICL. Therefore at large distances, the ICL population is dominated by older stars.Comment: Paper published as MNRAS , 2017, 467, 4501 This version corrects a small typo in the authors fiel

Messages that increase women\u27s intentions to abstain from alcohol during pregnancy: results from quantitative testing of advertising concepts

BackgroundPublic awareness-raising campaigns targeting alcohol use during pregnancy are an important part of preventing prenatal alcohol exposure and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. Despite this, there is little evidence on what specific elements contribute to campaign message effectiveness. This research evaluated three different advertising concepts addressing alcohol and pregnancy: a threat appeal, a positive appeal promoting a self-efficacy message, and a concept that combined the two appeals. The primary aim was to determine the effectiveness of these concepts in increasing women’s intentions to abstain from alcohol during pregnancy.MethodsWomen of childbearing age and pregnant women residing in Perth, Western Australia participated in a computer-based questionnaire where they viewed either a control or one of the three experimental concepts. Following exposure, participants’ intentions to abstain from and reduce alcohol intake during pregnancy were measured. Other measures assessed included perceived main message, message diagnostics, and potential to promote defensive responses or unintended consequences.ResultsThe concepts containing a threat appeal were significantly more effective at increasing women’s intentions to abstain from alcohol during pregnancy than the self-efficacy message and the control. The concept that combined threat and self-efficacy is recommended for development as part of a mass-media campaign as it has good persuasive potential, provides a balance of positive and negative emotional responses, and is unlikely to result in defensive or unintended consequences.ConclusionsThis study provides important insights into the components that enhance the persuasiveness and effectiveness of messages aimed at preventing prenatal alcohol exposure. The recommended concept has good potential for use in a future campaign aimed at promoting women’s intentions to abstain from alcohol during pregnancy

Messages that increase women\u27s intentions to abstain from alcohol during pregnancy: Results from quantitative testing of advertising concepts

Background: Public awareness-raising campaigns targeting alcohol use during pregnancy are an important part of preventing prenatal alcohol exposure and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. Despite this, there is little evidence on what specific elements contribute to campaign message effectiveness. This research evaluated three different advertising concepts addressing alcohol and pregnancy: a threat appeal, a positive appeal promoting a self-efficacy message, and a concept that combined the two appeals. The primary aim was to determine the effectiveness of these concepts in increasing women\u27s intentions to abstain from alcohol during pregnancy. Methods. Women of childbearing age and pregnant women residing in Perth, Western Australia participated in a computer-based questionnaire where they viewed either a control or one of the three experimental concepts. Following exposure, participants\u27 intentions to abstain from and reduce alcohol intake during pregnancy were measured. Other measures assessed included perceived main message, message diagnostics, and potential to promote defensive responses or unintended consequences. Results: The concepts containing a threat appeal were significantly more effective at increasing women\u27s intentions to abstain from alcohol during pregnancy than the self-efficacy message and the control. The concept that combined threat and self-efficacy is recommended for development as part of a mass-media campaign as it has good persuasive potential, provides a balance of positive and negative emotional responses, and is unlikely to result in defensive or unintended consequences. Conclusions: This study provides important insights into the components that enhance the persuasiveness and effectiveness of messages aimed at preventing prenatal alcohol exposure. The recommended concept has good potential for use in a future campaign aimed at promoting women\u27s intentions to abstain from alcohol during pregnancy

Researchers’ experience with project management in health and medical research: Results from a post-project review

BackgroundProject management is widely used to deliver projects on time, within budget and of defined quality. However, there is little published information describing its use in managing health and medical research projects. We used project management in the Alcohol and Pregnancy Project (2006-2008) http://www.ichr.uwa.edu.au/alcoholandpregnancy and in this paper report researchers\u27 opinions on project management and whether it made a difference to the project.MethodsA national interdisciplinary group of 20 researchers, one of whom was the project manager, formed the Steering Committee for the project. We used project management to ensure project outputs and outcomes were achieved and all aspects of the project were planned, implemented, monitored and controlled. Sixteen of the researchers were asked to complete a self administered questionnaire for a post-project review.ResultsThe project was delivered according to the project protocol within the allocated budget and time frame. Fifteen researchers (93.8%) completed a questionnaire. They reported that project management increased the effectiveness of the project, communication, teamwork, and application of the interdisciplinary group of researchers\u27 expertise. They would recommend this type of project management for future projects.ConclusionsOur post-project review showed that researchers comprehensively endorsed project management in the Alcohol and Pregnancy Project and agreed that project management had contributed substantially to the research. In future, we will project manage new projects and conduct post-project reviews. The results will be used to encourage continuous learning and continuous improvement of project management, and provide greater transparency and accountability of health and medical research. The use of project management can benefit both management and scientific outcomes of health and medical research projects

A multi-factor knuckle and nailbed verification tool for forensic imagery analysis

When engaging in child sexual grooming, offenders often send pornographic selfies to minors. They hide their faces, but their sexts often include hand, knuckle, and nail bed imagery. We present a novel biometric hand verification tool designed to identify offenders and abusers from images or videos based on biometric/forensic features extracted by hand regions. The tool harnesses the unique characteristics of an individual's hand, focusing on the region of interest of the knuckle fingerprint and the nail bed area. By employing advanced image processing and machine learning techniques, the system can match and authenticate hand component imagery against a constrained custody suite reference of a known subject. The proposed biometric hand verification tool works on both static images and videos, in the latter case selecting the best frame (in terms of resolution and orientation of the hand). The tool is embedded with selectable authentication models trained on a variety available datasets (both individually and in combination). To explore the performance and reliability of the biometric verification models, we considered several parameters, including hand orientation, distance from the camera, single or multiple fingers, architecture of the models and performance loss functions. Results showed best performance for pictures sampled from the same database and with the same image capture conditions, which combined with nail and knuckle score fusion reached high levels of reliability with error rates lower than 1%. We highlight the strength of the system and the current limitations. The authors conclude the biometric hand verification tool offers a robust solution that will operationally impact law enforcement by allowing agencies to investigate and identify offenders and abusers online more effectively

Feminae: an international multi-site innovative project for female athletes.

Sufficient high-quality studies in sport science using women as participants are lacking, meaning that our knowledge and understanding of female athletes in relation to their ovarian hormone profiles is limited. Consortia can be used to pool talent, expertise, and data, thus accelerating our learning on a given topic and reducing research waste through collaboration. To this end, we have assembled an international multi-site team, described herein, to investigate the effects of the menstrual cycle and oral contraceptive pill phase on aspects of exercise physiology and sports performance in female athletes. We intend to produce an adequately powered, high-quality dataset which can be used to inform the practices of female athletes. Our approach will also employ research transparency – through the inclusion of a process evaluation - and reproducibility – through a standardised study protocol

Clinical and genotypic analysis in determining dystonia non-motor phenotypic heterogeneity: a UK Biobank study

The spectrum of non-motor symptoms in dystonia remains unclear. Using UK Biobank data, we analysed clinical phenotypic and genetic information in the largest dystonia cohort reported to date. Case–control comparison of dystonia and matched control cohort was undertaken to identify domains (psychiatric, pain, sleep and cognition) of increased symptom burden in dystonia. Whole exome data were used to determine the rate and likely pathogenicity of variants in Mendelian inherited dystonia causing genes and linked to clinical data. Within the dystonia cohort, phenotypic and genetic single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data were combined in a mixed model analysis to derive genetically informed phenotypic axes. A total of 1572 individuals with dystonia were identified, including cervical dystonia (n = 775), blepharospasm (n = 131), tremor (n = 488) and dystonia, unspecified (n = 154) groups. Phenotypic patterns highlighted a predominance of psychiatric symptoms (anxiety and depression), excess pain and sleep disturbance. Cognitive impairment was limited to prospective memory and fluid intelligence. Whole exome sequencing identified 798 loss of function variants in dystonia-linked genes, 67 missense variants (MPC > 3) and 305 other forms of non-synonymous variants (including inframe deletion, inframe insertion, stop loss and start loss variants). A single loss of function variant (ANO3) was identified in the dystonia cohort. Combined SNP and clinical data identified multiple genetically informed phenotypic axes with predominance of psychiatric, pain and sleep non-motor domains. An excess of psychiatric, pain and sleep symptoms were evident across all forms of dystonia. Combination with genetic data highlights phenotypic subgroups consistent with the heterogeneity observed in clinical practice

Effect of Menstrual Cycle Phase and Hormonal Contraceptives on Resting Metabolic Rate and Body Composition

The cyclical changes in sex hormones across the menstrual cycle (MC) are associated with various biological changes that may alter resting metabolic rate (RMR) and body composition estimates. Hormonal contraceptive (HC) use must also be considered given their impact on endogenous sex hormone concentrations and synchronous exogenous profiles. The purpose of this study was to determine if RMR and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry body composition estimates change across the MC and differ compared with HC users. This was accomplished during a 5-week training camp involving naturally cycling athletes (n = 11) and HC users (n = 7 subdermal progestin implant, n = 4 combined monophasic oral contraceptive pill, n = 1 injection) from the National Rugby League Indigenous Women's Academy. MC phase was retrospectively confirmed via serum estradiol and progesterone concentrations and a positive ovulation test. HC users had serum estradiol and progesterone concentrations assessed at the time point of testing. Results were analyzed using general linear mixed model. There was no effect of MC phase on absolute RMR (p = .877), relative RMR (p = .957), or dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry body composition estimates (p > .05). There was no effect of HC use on absolute RMR (p = .069), relative RMR (p = .679), or fat mass estimates (p = .766), but HC users had a greater fat-free mass and lean body mass than naturally cycling athletes (p = .028). Our findings suggest that RMR and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry body composition estimates do not significantly differ due to changes in sex hormones in a group of athletes, and measurements can be compared between MC phases or with HC usage without variations in sex hormones causing additional noise