Performed and preferred participation in science and technology across Europe: Exploring an alternative idea of "democratic deficit"

Republican ideals of active scientific citizenship and extensive use of deliberative, democratic decision making have come to dominate the public participation agenda, and academic analyses have focused on the deficit of public involvement vis-à-vis these normative ideals. In this paper we use latent class models to explore what Eurobarometer survey data can tell us about the ways in which people participate in tacit or in policy-active ways with developments in science and technology, but instead of focusing on the distance between observed participation and the dominant, normative ideal of participation, we examine the distance between what people do, and what they themselves think is appropriate in terms of involvement. The typology of citizens emerging from the analyses entails an entirely different diagnosis of democratic deficit, one that stresses imbalance between performed and preferred participation

Attachment styles and personal growth following romantic breakups: The mediating roles of distress, rumination, and tendency to rebound

© 2013 Marshall et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.The purpose of this research was to examine the associations of attachment anxiety and avoidance with personal growth following relationship dissolution, and to test breakup distress, rumination, and tendency to rebound with new partners as mediators of these associations. Study 1 (N = 411) and Study 2 (N = 465) measured attachment style, breakup distress, and personal growth; Study 2 additionally measured ruminative reflection, brooding, and proclivity to rebound with new partners. Structural equation modelling revealed in both studies that anxiety was indirectly associated with greater personal growth through heightened breakup distress, whereas avoidance was indirectly associated with lower personal growth through inhibited breakup distress. Study 2 further showed that the positive association of breakup distress with personal growth was accounted for by enhanced reflection and brooding, and that anxious individuals’ greater personal growth was also explained by their proclivity to rebound. These findings suggest that anxious individuals’ hyperactivated breakup distress may act as a catalyst for personal growth by promoting the cognitive processing of breakup-related thoughts and emotions, whereas avoidant individuals’ deactivated distress may inhibit personal growth by suppressing this cognitive work

Measuring Energy Expenditure in Sub-Adult and Hatchling Sea Turtles via Accelerometry

Measuring the metabolic of sea turtles is fundamental to understanding their ecology yet the presently available methods are limited. Accelerometry is a relatively new technique for estimating metabolic rate that has shown promise with a number of species but its utility with air-breathing divers is not yet established. The present study undertakes laboratory experiments to investigate whether rate of oxygen uptake (o2) at the surface in active sub-adult green turtles Chelonia mydas and hatchling loggerhead turtles Caretta caretta correlates with overall dynamic body acceleration (ODBA), a derivative of acceleration used as a proxy for metabolic rate. Six green turtles (25–44 kg) and two loggerhead turtles (20 g) were instrumented with tri-axial acceleration logging devices and placed singly into a respirometry chamber. The green turtles were able to submerge freely within a 1.5 m deep tank and the loggerhead turtles were tethered in water 16 cm deep so that they swam at the surface. A significant prediction equation for mean o2 over an hour in a green turtle from measures of ODBA and mean flipper length (R2 = 0.56) returned a mean estimate error across turtles of 8.0%. The range of temperatures used in the green turtle experiments (22–30°C) had only a small effect on o2. A o2-ODBA equation for the loggerhead hatchling data was also significant (R2 = 0.67). Together these data indicate the potential of the accelerometry technique for estimating energy expenditure in sea turtles, which may have important applications in sea turtle diving ecology, and also in conservation such as assessing turtle survival times when trapped underwater in fishing nets

Perceptions of Teachers’ Interpersonal Styles and Well-Being and Ill-Being in Secondary School Physical Education Students: The Role of Need Satisfaction and Need Frustration

This study examined the associations among physical education students’ perceptions of their teachers’ autonomy-supportive and controlling interpersonal styles, need satisfaction and need frustration, and indices of psychological well-being (subjective vitality) and ill-being (negative affect). The results from 591 Chinese secondary school students in Hong Kong indicated that the relationship between students’ perceptions of autonomy-supportive teaching behaviors and subjective vitality was primarily mediated by need satisfaction, whereas the relationship between perceived controlling teaching behaviors and negative affect was primarily mediated by need frustration. The results obtained from the multi-group structural equation model also suggested that these relationships were invariant across sex

Findings from the Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome Registry of Uruguay

Background: Peutz-Jeghers syndrome (PJS) is characterized by intestinal polyposis, mucocutaneous pigmentation and an increased cancer risk, usually caused by mutations of the STK11 gene. This study collected epidemiological, clinical and genetic data from all Uruguayan PJS patients. Methods: Clinical data were obtained from public and private medical centers and updated annually. Sequencing of the STK11 gene in one member of each family was performed. Results and discussion: 25 cases in 11 unrelated families were registered (15 males, 10 females). The average age of diagnosis and death was 18 and 41 years respectively. All patients had characteristic PJS pigmentation and gastrointestinal polyps. 72% required urgent surgery due to intestinal obstruction. 3 families had multiple cases of seizure disorder, representing 20% of cases. 28% developed cancer and two patients had more than one cancer. An STK11 mutation was found in 8 of the 9 families analyzed. A unique M136K missense mutation was noted in one family. Comparing annual live births and PJS birth records from 1970 to 2009 yielded an incidence of 1 in 155,000. Conclusion: The Uruguayan Registry for Peutz-Jeghers patients showed a high chance of emergent surgery, epilepsy, cancer and shortened life expectancy. The M136K missense mutation is a newly reported STK 11 mutation

Effectiveness of an intervention at construction worksites on work engagement, social support, physical workload, and need for recovery: results from a cluster randomized controlled trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To prolong sustainable healthy working lives of construction workers, a worksite prevention program was developed which aimed to improve the health and work ability of construction workers. The aim of the current study was to investigate the effectiveness of this program on social support at work, work engagement, physical workload and need for recovery.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Fifteen departments from six construction companies participated in this cluster randomized controlled trial; 8 departments (n=171 workers) were randomized to an intervention group and 7 departments (n=122 workers) to a control group. The intervention consisted of two individual training sessions of a physical therapist to lower the physical workload, a Rest-Break tool to improve the balance between work and recovery, and two empowerment training sessions to increase the influence of the construction workers at the worksite. Data on work engagement, social support at work, physical workload, and need for recovery were collected at baseline, and at three, six and 12 months after the start of the intervention using questionnaires.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>No differences between the intervention and control group were found for work engagement, social support at work, and need for recovery. At 6 months follow-up, the control group reported a small but statistically significant reduction of physical workload.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The intervention neither improved social support nor work engagement, nor was it effective in reducing the physical workload and need for recovery among construction workers.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>NTR1278</p

The rise of consumer health wearables: promises and barriers

Will consumer wearable technology ever be adopted or accepted by the medical community? Patients and practitioners regularly use digital technology (e.g., thermometers and glucose monitors) to identify and discuss symptoms. In addition, a third of general practitioners in the United Kingdom report that patients arrive with suggestions for treatment based on online search results. However, consumer health wearables are predicted to become the next “Dr Google.” One in six (15%) consumers in the United States currently uses wearable technology, including smartwatches or fitness bands. While 19 million fitness devices are likely to be sold this year, that number is predicted to grow to 110 million in 2018. As the line between consumer health wearables and medical devices begins to blur, it is now possible for a single wearable device to monitor a range of medical risk factors. Potentially, these devices could give patients direct access to personal analytics that can contribute to their health, facilitate preventive care, and aid in the management of ongoing illness. However, how this new wearable technology might best serve medicine remains unclea

Reproductive risk factors for endometrial cancer among Polish women

We conducted a population-based case–control study of reproductive factors in Warsaw and Ló∂ź, Poland, in 551 incident endometrial cancer cases and 1925 controls. The reproductive variable most strongly related to risk was multiparity, with subjects with three or more births having a 70% lower risk than the nulliparous women. The reduced risk was particularly strong below 55 years of age. Subjects with older ages at a first birth were also at reduced risk even after adjustment for number of births. Ages at last birth or intervals since last birth were not strongly related to risk. Spontaneous abortions were unrelated to risk, but induced abortions were associated with slight risk increases (odds ratios=1.28, 95% confidence intervals 0.8–2.1 for 3+ vs no abortions). The absence of effects on risk of later ages at, or short intervals since, a last birth fails to support the view that endometrial cancer is influenced by mechanical clearance of initiated cells. Alternative explanations for reproductive effects should be sought, including alterations in endogenous hormones

Effects of typical and atypical antipsychotic drugs on gene expression profiles in the liver of schizophrenia subjects

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although much progress has been made on antipsychotic drug development, precise mechanisms behind the action of typical and atypical antipsychotics are poorly understood.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We performed genome-wide expression profiling to study effects of typical antipsychotics and atypical antipsychotics in the postmortem liver of schizophrenia patients using microarrays (Affymetrix U133 plus2.0). We classified the subjects into typical antipsychotics (n = 24) or atypical antipsychotics (n = 26) based on their medication history, and compared gene expression profiles with unaffected controls (n = 34). We further analyzed individual antipsychotic effects on gene expression by sub-classifying the subjects into four major antipsychotic groups including haloperidol, phenothiazines, olanzapine and risperidone.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Typical antipsychotics affected genes associated with nuclear protein, stress responses and phosphorylation, whereas atypical antipsychotics affected genes associated with golgi/endoplasmic reticulum and cytoplasm transport. Comparison between typical antipsychotics and atypical antipsychotics further identified genes associated with lipid metabolism and mitochondrial function. Analyses on individual antipsychotics revealed a set of genes (151 transcripts, FDR adjusted p < 0.05) that are differentially regulated by four antipsychotics, particularly by phenothiazines, in the liver of schizophrenia patients.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Typical antipsychotics and atypical antipsychotics affect different genes and biological function in the liver. Typical antipsychotic phenothiazines exert robust effects on gene expression in the liver that may lead to liver toxicity. The genes found in the current study may benefit antipsychotic drug development with better therapeutic and side effect profiles.</p