The Role of Cognitve Distortions in Adaptation to Disability and Perceived Quality of Life in Spinal Cord Injury Survivors

Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) is a sudden, dramatic insult to the central nervous system that results in instant loss of sensory and/or motor function. In addition to physiological changes, survivors also endure both cognitive and emotional changes that increase susceptibility to depression, anxiety, and suicidality, all of which have been associated with cognitive distortions. This study sought to investigate the influence of cognitive distortions in relation to the ability to adapt to disability and establish a high quality of life among spinal cord injury survivors. Participants were 116 men and women living with spinal cord injury recruited via the Internet through various SCI websites and discussion forums and current patients at a respected rehabilitation facility in a northeastern state. Results indicate a negative relationship between the frequency of cognitive distortions and adjustment following SCI. Individuals who reported a higher frequency of cognitive distortions also endorsed depression or a loss of pleasure or interest. SCI survivors who scored higher on the quality of life measure tended to report being married or living with a significant other, reported better health, and reported a lower frequency of cognitive distortions. It is hoped that the results of this study will be useful in developing treatment protocols, improving rehabilitation effectiveness, and enhancing the lives of SCI survivors

Martha Farah: Integration of Psychology, Neurology, and Neuroethics

Martha Farah, a pioneer neuroscientist born in 1955 has taken a special interest in the ethical concerns related to neuroscience (1). Her post-graduate work prompted her to excel throughout various topics in neuroscience and thoroughly incorporate high ethical regards into her own research. This essay examines Farah’s research on visual perception and socioeconomic status, as well as her contributions towards neuroethics

A Descriptive Study of Nosocomial Infections in an Adult Intensive Care Unit in Fiji: 2011-12

Copyright © 2014 Keshni Naidu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Nosocomial infections in an intensive care unit (ICU) are common and associated with a high mortality but there are no published data from the Oceania region. A retrospective study in Fiji’s largest ICU (2011-12) reported that 114 of a total 663 adult ICU admissions had bacteriological culture-confirmed nosocomial infection. The commonest sites of infection were respiratory and bloodstream. Gram negative bacteria were the commonest pathogens isolated, especially Klebsiella pneumoniae (extended-spectru

Comfort in Labor and Midwifery Art

To examine the phenomenon of comfort in the context of childbirth. Enhancement of comfort for laboring women is a valued outcome of nursing and midwifery care. Interventions that increase comfort during labor support a woman's effort to participate more fully in the birth thereby keeping her more aware of her body, emotions, and experience. Organizing construct : The concept of comfort is analyzed and defined in the context of laboring women. Comfort studied from a feminist perspective is suggested. Sources : A literature review of nursing, midwifery, and medical texts from the 1920s to 1998 provides information about labor, pain in labor, and goals of providers caring for laboring women. Research articles focusing on comfort are identified as they relate to the concept of comfort in labor. Writings of contemporary feminist authors provided the ideas for designing the study of comfort from a feminist perspective. Methods : To develop a theory of comfort during labor, early nursing and midwifery texts were searched to identify goals of care. The meaning of comfort was analyzed from the early 1920s to the present by concept analysis. Validation of findings was sought from publications on comfort research. Findings : Comfort can exist in spite of great pain and nurses and midwives may be able to assist laboring women to achieve a level of comfort during labor. Intervening to promote the comfort of laboring women can empower these women during birthing. Conclusions : For clinicians caring for birthing women, particularly midwives, promotion of comfort is a high priority. Increasing comfort can redefine the meaning of pain in childbirth. Increasing comfort may create a decreased need for medical interventions and lower costs.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73658/1/j.1547-5069.1999.tb00425.x.pd

Cooperative-Experiential Learning: Using Student-Developed Games to Increase Knowledge Retention

Previous literature has discussed the use of cooperative and experiential learning as a means of augmenting the student involvement in the learning process. Teamwork has been one method of employing cooperative learning and having students play games has been used extensively in experiential learning approaches. Often the two pedagogies are employed simultaneously by having students teams participate in games. This research combines the cooperative and experiential learning approaches by involving student teams in designing the games that other students will play with the goal of increasing student retention of knowledge. The sample included consumer behavior and integrated marketing communications students in two subsequent semesters. The pedagogy employed in the first two semesters included PowerPoint-based lectures, whereas the students in the second semester identified important concepts from the previous week\u27s lectures and integrated that content into a review game. A comprehensive examination and student survey at the end of the semester indicated that knowledge retention increased in the courses that utilized student-developed games

Changing Attitudes and Facilitating Understanding in the Undergraduate Statistics Classroom: A Collaborative Learning Approach

Collaborative and problem-based learning strategies are theorized to be effective methods for strengthening undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) is a collaborative learning technique that engages students in problem solving and discussion under the guidance of a trained peer facilitator. This comparative study investigates the impact of a PLTL-based learning community program on both content mastery and dispositions of undergraduate students taking an introductory course in applied statistics. Results suggest that students participating in the learning community program acquired significantly greater content mastery in statistics when compared to non-participating peers. Moreover, the learning community experience may provide students with a buffer against developing the negative attitudes and perceptions that often pervade the undergraduate applied statistics classroom

A Swiss paradox? Higher income inequality of municipalities is associated with lower mortality in Switzerland.

It has long been surmised that income inequality within a society negatively affects public health. However, more recent studies suggest there is no association, especially when analyzing small areas. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of income inequality on mortality in Switzerland using the Gini index on municipality level. The study population included all individuals >30 years at the 2000 Swiss census (N = 4,689,545) living in 2,740 municipalities with 35.5 million person-years of follow-up and 456,211 deaths over follow-up. Cox proportional hazard regression models were adjusted for age, gender, marital status, nationality, urbanization, and language region. Results were reported as hazard ratios (HR) with 95 % confidence intervals. The mean Gini index across all municipalities was 0.377 (standard deviation 0.062, range 0.202-0.785). Larger cities, high-income municipalities and tourist areas had higher Gini indices. Higher income inequality was consistently associated with lower mortality risk, except for death from external causes. Adjusting for sex, marital status, nationality, urbanization and language region only slightly attenuated effects. In fully adjusted models, hazards of all-cause mortality by increasing Gini index quintile were HR = 0.99 (0.98-1.00), HR = 0.98 (0.97-0.99), HR = 0.95 (0.94-0.96), HR = 0.91 (0.90-0.92) compared to the lowest quintile. The relationship of income inequality with mortality in Switzerland is contradictory to what has been found in other developed high-income countries. Our results challenge current beliefs about the effect of income inequality on mortality on small area level. Further investigation is required to expose the underlying relationship between income inequality and population health