1,622 research outputs found
Racial Identity Attitudes, Africentrism, Self-Esteem and Psychological Wellbeing in Black Men: A Mixed Methods Study
This study adopted a mixed methods approach to provide an understanding of the role
and impact of racial identity attitudes, following the Cross (1971) model of
Nigrescence, on self-esteem and psychological distress in a black men in the UK.
In the quantitative phase, 100 black men from a community sample completed
questionnaires measuring their racial identity attitudes, African self-consciousness
(ASC), self-esteem, and psychological distress. The four participants with the highest
scores on the low racial identity attitudes (preencounter and postencounter) and the four
with the highest scores on the high racial identity attitudes (immersion-emersion and
internalisation) also participated in the qualitative phase. Interpretative
phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to gain a deeper insight into how racial
identity attitudes impact upon an individual’s subjective lived experience of being
black.
The quantitative findings showed that black men who were less racially developed and
thus endorsed low racial identity attitudes experienced more psychological distress,
lower self-esteem and low levels of ASC. Black males who were more racially
developed and endorsed higher racial identity attitudes reported greater self-esteem.
These findings were differentially related to the four master themes revealed using IPA:
racial identity attitudes, psychological effects of racial identity, internalised racism, and
presentations of self to others.
The combined findings suggest that black males with low racial identity are likely to
hold more negative internalised racist beliefs, devalue and are disconnected from their
own racial group and cultural identity, and experience more psychological problems
such as anger, anxiety and depression. They are also more likely to adopt maladaptive
coping strategies to manage psychosocial stressors and an inability to acculturate. In
contrast, black males with high racial identity were more likely to value their racial-self
and culture and experience greater self-esteem and less psychological distress due to
adopting adaptive coping strategies to manage psychosocial distress, with a better
ability to acculturate.
The relevance of the findings to clinical and counselling practitioners who work with
black men is discussed. Racial identity attitudes play a vital role in their overall
psychological wellbeing and can aid healing when adopted within a clinical framework
In operando XAS investigation of reduction and oxidation processes in cobalt and iron mixed spinels during the chemical loop reforming of ethanol
FeCo2O4 and CoFe2O4 nanoparticles have been studied as oxygen carriers for the Chemical Loop Reforming (CLR) of ethanol. By using in operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy we have followed in real time the chemical and structural changes that take place on the materials as a function of temperature and reactive atmosphere (i.e. ethanol/water streams). During the first step of CLR for both oxides the most active chemical species are the cations in the tetrahedral sites, irrespective of their chemical nature. Quite rapidly the spinel structure is transformed into a mix of wustite-type oxide and metal alloys, but the formation of a metal phase is easier in the case of cobalt, while iron shows a marked preference to form wustite type oxide. Despite the good reducibility of FeCo2O4 imparted by the high amount of cobalt, its performance in the production of hydrogen is quite poor due to an inefficient oxidation by water steam, which is able to oxidize only the outer shell of the nanoparticles. In contrast, CoFe2O4 due to the residual presence of a reducible wustite phase shows a higher hydrogen yield. Moreover, by combining the structural information provided by X-ray absorption spectroscopy with the analysis of the byproducts of ethanol decomposition we could infer that FeCo2O4 is more selective than CoFe2O4 for the selective dehydrogenation of ethanol to acetaldehyde because of the higher amount of Fe(III) ions in tetrahedral sites
Parental Perceptions of Oral Health and School-Based Dental Sealant Programs
Introduction:
Community Health Needs Assessment (University of Vermont Medical Center, 2013)
Identified oral health in pediatric population as a primary concern
Barriers to dental care cited: access, affordability, education School-Based Sealant Program (SBSP)
Dental sealants are an evidence-based method of cavity prevention
CDC strongly recommends delivery via SBSPs
Few Vermont schools have such a program
Vermont Medicaid State Plan amendment allows dental hygienists to bill without on-site dentist (2015)4
Unique opportunity to pilot an SBSP
Pilot program implemented by the University of Vermont Medical Center Community Health Improvement
Goal: sustainable model able to be replicated in Vermont schools Pilot School Selection – Milton Elementary-Middle School (MEMS)
Demographics representative of Vermont schools (46% free & reduced lunch program); school administration supportive of an SBSP; no existing dental education (“Tooth Tutor”) program per Vermont Office of Oral Healthhttps://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1232/thumbnail.jp
Indeterminacy in process type classification
Clausal analysis within Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) is generally based upon a classification of the clause into one of six process types. Although this allocation is often portrayed as clear-cut, in practice process distinction can be unclear, and a single verb may meet the coding criteria of a number of categories. The aim of this paper is to examine the nature of indeterminacy within a transitive SFL analysis, by surveying experienced SFL users for their classification of 20 clauses. Our main findings are threefold: 1) inconsistency of analysis was very prevalent - we find only one of the critical clauses to be unanimously categorised for process type; 2) the main area of disagreement between analysts was the selection of Material vs. Verbal processes; 3) clauses with low consistency ratings appeared to include performative main verbs. These findings are discussed in the light of the semantic properties of performativity, which may contribute to the difficulty in process type identification; further, possible alleviations to these issues are discussed in order to allow for a full consideration of both the syntactic and semantic realisation of the clause, in situations where these streams of information may diverge
Bupivacaine myotoxicity is mediated by mitochondria
Abstract We have investigated the effects of the myotoxic local anesthetic bupivacaine on rat skeletal muscle mitochondria and isolated myofibers from flexor digitorum brevis, extensor digitorum longus, soleus, and from the proximal, striated portion of the esophagus. In isolated mitochondria, bupivacaine caused a concentration-dependent mitochondrial depolarization and pyridine nucleotide oxidation, which were matched by an increased oxygen consumption at bupivacaine concentrations of 1.5 mm or less at pH 7.4, whereas respiration was inhibited at higher concentrations. As a consequence of depolarization, bupivacaine caused the opening of the permeability transition pore (PTP), a cyclosporin A-sensitive inner membrane channel that plays a key role in many forms of cell death. In intact flexor digitorum brevis fibers bupivacaine caused mitochondrial depolarization and pyridine nucleotides oxidation that were matched by increased concentrations of cytosolic free Ca2+, release of cytochrome c, and eventually, hypercontracture. Both mitochondrial depolarization and cytochrome c release were inhibited by cyclosporin A, indicating that PTP opening rather than bupivacaine as such was responsible for these events. Similar responses to bupivacaine were observed in the soleus, which is highly oxidative. In contrast, fibers from the esophagus (which we show to be more fatigable than flexor digitorum brevis fibers) and from the highly glycolytic extensor digitorum longus didn't undergo pyridine nucleotide oxidation upon the addition of bupivacaine and were resistant to bupivacaine toxicity. These results suggest that active oxidative metabolism is a key determinant in bupivacaine toxicity, that bupivacaine myotoxicity is a relevant model of mitochondrial dysfunction involving the PTP and Ca2+ dysregulation, and that it represents a promising system to test new PTP inhibitors that may prove relevant in spontaneous myopathies where mitochondria have long been suspected to play a role
Acute phase protein response in an experimental model of ovine caseous lymphadenitis
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Caseous lymphadenitis (CLA) is a disease of small ruminants caused by <it>Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis</it>. The pathogenesis of CLA is a slow process, and produces a chronic rather than an acute disease state. Acute phase proteins (APP) such as haptoglobin (Hp) serum amyloid A (SAA) and α<sub>1 </sub>acid glycoprotein (AGP) are produced by the liver and released into the circulation in response to pro-inflammatory cytokines. The concentration of Hp in serum increases in experimental CLA but it is not known if SAA and AGP respond in parallel or have differing response profiles.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The concentration in serum of Hp, SAA and AGP in 6 sheep challenged with 2 × 10<sup>5 </sup>cells of <it>C. pseudotuberculosis </it>showed significant increases (P < 0.05) compared to 3 unchallenged control sheep. By day 7 post infection. (p.i.) the Hp and SAA concentrations reached mean (± SEM) values of 1.65 ± 0.21 g/L and 18.1 ± 5.2 mg/L respectively. Thereafter, their concentrations fell with no significant difference to those of the control sheep by day 18 p.i.. In contrast, the serum AGP concentration in infected sheep continued to rise to a peak of 0.38 ± 0.05 g/L on day 13 p.i., after which a slow decline occurred, although the mean concentration remained significantly higher (P < 0.05) than the control group up to 29 days p.i.. Specific IgG to phospholidase D of <it>C. pseudotuberculosis </it>became detectable at 11 days p.i. and continued to rise throughout the experiment.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The serum concentrations of Hp, SAA and AGP were raised in sheep in an experimental model of CLA. An extended response was found for AGP which occurred at a point when the infection was likely to have been transforming from an acute to a chronic phase. The results suggest that AGP could have a role as a marker for chronic conditions in sheep.</p
In planta Activity of Novel Copper(II)-Based Formulations to Inhibit the Esca-Associated Fungus Phaeoacremonium minimum in Grapevine Propagation Material
Detection and diversity of a putative novel heterogeneous polymorphic proline-glycine repeat (Pgr) protein in the footrot pathogen Dichelobacter nodosus
Dichelobacter nodosus, a Gram-negative anaerobic bacterium, is the essential causative agent of footrot in sheep. Currently, depending on the clinical presentation in the field, footrot is described as benign or virulent; D. nodosus strains have also been classified as benign or virulent, but this designation is not always consistent with clinical disease. The aim of this study was to determine the diversity of the pgr gene, which encodes a putative proline-glycine repeat protein (Pgr). The pgr gene was present in all 100 isolates of D. nodosus that were examined and, based on sequence analysis had two variants, pgrA and pgrB. In pgrA, there were two coding tandem repeat regions, R1 and R2: different strains had variable numbers of repeats within these regions. The R1 and R2 were absent from pgrB. Both variants were present in strains from Australia, Sweden and the UK, however, only pgrB was detected in isolates from Western Australia. The pgrA gene was detected in D. nodosus from tissue samples from two flocks in the UK with virulent footrot and only pgrB from a flock with no virulent or benign footrot for >10 years. Bioinformatic analysis of the putative PgrA protein indicated that it contained a collagen-like cell surface anchor motif. These results suggest that the pgr gene may be a useful molecular marker for epidemiological studies
- …