Word Generation in Boston Public Schools: Natural History of a Literacy Intervention

Describes a program to teach high-frequency academic vocabulary and discourses skills, promote effective teaching strategies for vocabulary, comprehension, and discussion, and facilitate faculty collaboration; its implementation; and evaluation results

Self-Esteem, Spiritual Well-Being, and Intimacy: A Comparison among Couples Using NFP and Oral Contraceptives

The purpose of this study was to compare the intimacy, spiritual well being (SWB), and self-esteem of couples using natural family planning (NFP) with those couples using oral contraceptives (OCs). 22 couples who were using the Creighton Model Ovulation Method of NFP for 1 year to avoid pregnancy were matched with 22 couples who were using OCs for a least a 1-year period and administered a SWB, self-esteem, and intimacy inventory. Student t-tests were calculated to determine differences in the mean scores of the 3 inventories between the 2 groups. The results showed that the NFP couples had statistically higher self-esteem (T=3.15, p0.01), SWB (T=4.25. p0.001), and intellectual intimacy (T=2.53, p0.05) than the OC couples. There were no differences in emotional, social, recreational, and sexual intimacy between the groups. Although the results provide some evidence that NFP can enhance a couple\u27s relationship, other factors such as a sampling bias and educational levels could explain the difference

The impact of chemotherapy for breast cancer on managing daily tasks: a longitudinal study of cognitive, psychosocial and safety outcomes in the home and workplace

BACKGROUND. Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women in the UK and is often treated with chemotherapy. Psychosocial side effects (anxiety, depression and fatigue) and cognitive side effects (memory and concentration difficulties) are frequently reported by breast cancer patients. Following recent advances in screening and treatment technology for the disease, survivorship rates have increased. Therefore, women are able to continue or resume their daily tasks during and following treatment. The impact of chemotherapy-related psychological side effects on quality of life and work ability are documented, however the impact on safety outcomes has currently been overlooked in this patient population. Evidence from other research fields suggests that anxiety, depression, fatigue and cognitive difficulties are associated with increased risk of accidents and injuries. OBJECTIVES. This research provides longitudinal self-report data on psychosocial well-being, cognitive function, quality of life, work ability and accident frequency outcomes. METHOD. A mixed-methods, prospective, longitudinal approach was employed. Breast cancer patients about to undergo chemotherapy treatment (n = 60) completed questionnaires at pre-treatment baseline, and again four months (follow-up time 1), eight months (follow-up time 2), and twelve months (follow-up time 3) later. A treatment control group of breast cancer patients receiving radiotherapy (n = 56), and an age-matched healthy control group (n = 58) were assessed at comparable intervals. In addition, a subsample of participants from the chemotherapy group (n = 11), radiotherapy group (n = 6), and healthy control group (n = 15) kept personal solicited diaries for a four-month period to capture the lived experience of managing daily tasks. The diary data were examined using thematic analysis. The combination of the quantitative and qualitative approaches added breadth and depth to the study with the aim of obtaining a realistic and comprehensive understanding of the impact of chemotherapy for breast cancer on patients daily lives. RESULTS. Chemotherapy patients reported a subtle decline in psychosocial well-being, cognitive function and quality of life, and encountered more accidents, particularly at mid-chemotherapy. CONCLUSION. It is important that healthcare professionals, breast cancer patients, relatives and employers are aware of the temporal fluctuations associated with chemotherapy-related side effects, particularly potential safety outcomes. Interventions could be developed to help patients manage their daily tasks in the home and in the workplace safely

‘What You See is All There is’: The Importance of Heuristics in Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) and Social Return on Investment (SROI) in the Evaluation of Public Health Interventions

Health economists are currently debating, with some suspicion, the relative merits of cost-benefit analysis (CBA), grounded in theoretical welfare economics, and the proliferation of social return on investment (SROI), a pragmatic approach of developing a triple-bottom line (social, environmental and financial), but not grounded in welfare theory. We argue, in rather existential terms, that there is a need to understand the role of heuristics, or prior beliefs, in current ‘best practice’ in CBA and SROI. A taxonomy of CBA and SROI is presented, which summarises the origins of the methods, reporting guidance, publication checklist of quality of reporting, who is wanting these analytical approaches, and policy decision rule present. We argue that a bottom-up SROI is best thought of as localised CBA, building stakeholder involvement right into the framing of SROI, perhaps addressing or mitigating the effects of prior heuristics in top-down CBA. Behavioural CBA and social CBA recognise that people are not rational and that sources of value other than willingness to pay may best reflect social values. Standardisation of SROI and comparison with CBA may illuminate the role of prior heuristics and seek to better reflect social value in weighing up the costs and benefits of public health interventions at both a local and societal level

TNF-α and neuropathic pain - a review

Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) was discovered more than a century ago, and its known roles have extended from within the immune system to include a neuro-inflammatory domain in the nervous system. Neuropathic pain is a recognized type of pathological pain where nociceptive responses persist beyond the resolution of damage to the nerve or its surrounding tissue. Very often, neuropathic pain is disproportionately enhanced in intensity (hyperalgesia) or altered in modality (hyperpathia or allodynia) in relation to the stimuli. At time of this writing, there is as yet no common consensus about the etiology of neuropathic pain - possible mechanisms can be categorized into peripheral sensitization and central sensitization of the nervous system in response to the nociceptive stimuli. Animal models of neuropathic pain based on various types of nerve injuries (peripheral versus spinal nerve, ligation versus chronic constrictive injury) have persistently implicated a pivotal role for TNF-α at both peripheral and central levels of sensitization. Despite a lack of success in clinical trials of anti-TNF-α therapy in alleviating the sciatic type of neuropathic pain, the intricate link of TNF-α with other neuro-inflammatory signaling systems (e.g., chemokines and p38 MAPK) has indeed inspired a systems approach perspective for future drug development in treating neuropathic pain

Acting out our dam future: science-based role-play simulations as mechanisms for learning and natural resource planning

Science often does not make its way into decisions, leading to a problematic gap between scientific and societal progress. To tackle this issue, our research tests a novel science-based negotiation simulation that integrates a role-play simulation (RPS) with a system dynamics model (SDM). In RPSs, stakeholders engage in a mock decision-making process (reflecting real-life institutional arrangements and scientific knowledge) for a set period. System dynamics models (SDMs) are visual tools used to simulate the interactions and feedback within a complex system. We test the integration of the two approaches with stakeholders in New England via a series of two consecutive workshops across two states. The workshops engage stakeholders from diverse groups to foster dialogue, learning, and creativity. Participants discuss a hypothetical (yet realistic) decision scenario to consider scientific information and explore dam management options that meet one another\u27s interests. In the first workshop, participants contributed to the design of the fictionalized dam decision scenario and the SDM. In the second workshop, participants assumed another representative\u27s role and discussed dam management options for the fictionalized scenario. This presentation will briefly report on the practical design of this science-based role-play, and particularly emphasize preliminary results of workshop outcomes, which were evaluated using debriefing sessions, surveys, concept mapping exercises, and interviews. Results will determine the extent to which this new knowledge production process leads to learning, use of science, and more collaborative decision-making about dams in New England and beyond

Changes in the spatial spread of attention with ageing

Spatial attention is a necessary cognitive process, allowing for the direction of limited capacity resources to varying locations in the visual field for improved visual processing. Thus, understanding how ageing influences these processes is vital. The current study explored the relationship between the spatial spread of attention and healthy ageing using an inhibition of return task to tap visual attention processing. This task allowed us to measure the spatial distribution of inhibition, and thus acted as a marker for attentional spread. Past research has indicated minimal age differences in inhibitory spread. However, these studies used placeholder stimuli, which may have restricted the range over which age differences could be reliably measured. To address this, in Experiment One, we measured the relationship between the spatial spread of inhibition and healthy ageing using a method which did not employ placeholders. In contrast to past research, an age difference in inhibitory spread was observed, where in comparison to younger adults, older adults exhibited a relatively restricted spread of attention. Experiment Two then confirmed these findings, by directly comparing inhibitory spread for placeholder present and placeholder absent conditions, across younger and older adults. Again, it was found that age differences in inhibitory spread emerged, but only in the placeholder absent condition. Possible reasons for the observed age differences in attention are discussed.This research is supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship awarded to R.K.L. This research was supported by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE140101734), and a Future Fellowship (FT170100021) awarded to S.C.G

What do we know about preventing school violence? A systematic review of systematic reviews

Many children across the world are exposed to school violence, which undermines their right to education and adversely affects their development. Studies of interventions for school violence suggest that it can be prevented. However, this evidence base is challenging to navigate. We completed a systematic review of interventions to reduce four types of school violence: (a) peer violence; (b) corporal punishment; (c) student-on-teacher violence and (d) teacher-on-student violence. Reviewers independently searched databases and journals. Included studies were published between 2005 and 2015; in English; considered school-based interventions for children and measured violence as an outcome. Many systematic reviews were found, thus we completed a systematic review of systematic reviews. Only systematic reviews on interventions for intimate partner violence (IPV) and peer aggression were found. These reviews were generally of moderate quality. Research on both types of violence was largely completed in North America. Only a handful of programmes demonstrate promise in preventing IPV. Cognitive behavioral, social-emotional and peer mentoring/mediation programmes showed promise in reducing the levels of perpetration of peer aggression. Further research needs to determine the long-term effects of interventions, potential moderators and mediators of program effects, program effects across different contexts and key intervention components