The research and creative implementation of dance therapy practices for female survivors of sexual abuse

Dance Therapy focuses on the body as the medium to the mind (About Dance/Movement Therapy). Dance Therapy has documented benefits in helping victims of sexual abuse, because many of these victims undergo the emotions of body shame and self-hatred as well as the distinct feeling of loss of their physical selves. (Liu 112). The country of Romania has one of the highest numbers of rape victims under the age of 18 than of any other developed country in the world (Liu 121). With this information a Dance Therapy camp was created and implemented in Sibiu, Romania for a group of 28 female survivors of sexual abuse under the age of 18. This camp included the use of performance as a therapeutic tool in order to gain insight on the benefits of performance within the scope of Dance Therapy. Through the observation of behavior and the reading of journals written by the participants it was determined that Dance Therapy has a profound benefit on young victims of sexual abuse as a way to cultivate artistic creativity. The added element of the performance was a source of empowerment for the participants and gave them a platform to express their stories and experiences

The Efficiency of Melatonin in Inhibiting Haemonchus Contortus Development

Haemonchus contortus (HC) is a pathogenic nematode that causes sheep morbidity through anemia, edema, and weight loss. It’s the most economically devastating parasite to sheep industries, with increasing global temperatures and anthelmintic resistance increasing HC residing areas and life spans. HC enter hypobiosis, a state comparable to hibernation during the fall when day length decreases. In this state of arrested development, the sheep are not taxed. Hypobiosis occurs in late fall and early winter. Melatonin, with its release having a direct relationship to length of night, is highest during this period. Combining melatonin’s relationship to the seasons, along with research demonstrating that melatonin can inhibit locomotion in parasites such as Caenorhabditis elegans, it is predicted that melatonin is the cue for HC to enter hypobiosis. Effects of melatonin levels on development of HC were determined by manually de-worming and inoculating 16 adult Icelandic ewes, followed by twice-daily doses of 5mg of melatonin for three weeks. Fecal samples for HC egg counts, body condition scores (BCS), and FAMACHA scores were taken every three to four days during the experiment. Analysis of P-Tests and T-Tests showed no detectable differences in egg counts, BCS, or FAMACHA scores between the control and treatment group. Our ELISA assays showed that oral administration of melatonin did increase melatonin blood concentrations above control levels. Due to inadequate parasite colonization of ewes during inoculation, we could not adequately test the hypothesis that melatonin inhibits development of HC. Future experiments using more effective parasite inoculation procedures are necessary to adequately test this hypothesis

Outdoor Leadership: A Question of Vision and Ethics

Outdoor education increasingly includes programs for youth-at-risk, multi-cultural groups, battered women, and other special populations. The diversity of such groups and their needs and expectations place additional demands upon the outdoor leader. Good judgement on a trip with seniors may not be identical to good judgement on a trip with youth-at-risk; group exercises appropriate for young males of color may be inappropriate for women who have been abused. The diverse populations and situations will require outdoor leaders to become more self-aware, reflective, and sensitive to culture, race, and gender differences (Greenleaf, 1970; Shapiro, 1988; Terry, 1988). Resolving conflicts and ethical differences will also include competencies in critical thinking and ethical decision-making as applied to outdoor recreation/education (Hunt, 1989; Warren, 1989). This exploratory study looked at student journal writings and papers during a course about ethical outdoor leadership that included readings from the areas of outdoor recreation and ethical leadership. The text of 26 students was analy:zed using the Minnesota Contextual Content Analysis computer program (McTavish & Pirro, 1989) and traditional content analysis. Preliminary results indicate a conceptual difference between writings about ethical leadership and outdoor leadership. The students perceived the material about outdoor leadership as practical and actionented. They saw the infonnation about leadership and ethics as being academic and not­very pragmatic. As the course progressed, and in their final papers, the material of both fields begins to be integrated using examples of class exercises and discussions. Students provided more ethical analysis when discussing iri:.Class exercises and student interaction than responding direttly to readings or lecture information. The use of critical thinking skills did not increase, which may reflect the lack of consistent, direct teaching of these skills. Fmally, the students made small changes in applying the principles to their own leadership and ethical frameworks. Future research should address preconceptions about leadership, direct .teaching of critical thinking skills and ability to describe ethical dilemmas, the role of ethical followership, and the integration of readings with class experiences for analysis and transfer of ethical leadership skills

Eye position modulates retinotopic responses in early visual areas: a bias for the straight-ahead direction

Even though the eyes constantly change position, the location of a stimulus can be accurately represented by a population of neurons with retinotopic receptive fields modulated by eye position gain fields. Recent electrophysiological studies, however, indicate that eye position gain fields may serve an additional function since they have a non-uniform spatial distribution that increases the neural response to stimuli in the straight-ahead direction. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging and a wide-field stimulus display to determine whether gaze modulations in early human visual cortex enhance the blood-oxygenation-level dependent (BOLD) response to stimuli that are straight-ahead. Subjects viewed rotating polar angle wedge stimuli centered straight-ahead or vertically displaced by ±20° eccentricity. Gaze position did not affect the topography of polar phase-angle maps, confirming that coding was retinotopic, but did affect the amplitude of the BOLD response, consistent with a gain field. In agreement with recent electrophysiological studies, BOLD responses in V1 and V2 to a wedge stimulus at a fixed retinal locus decreased when the wedge location in head-centered coordinates was farther from the straight-ahead direction. We conclude that stimulus-evoked BOLD signals are modulated by a systematic, non-uniform distribution of eye-position gain fields

A retrospective study of cognitive function in doctors and dentists with suspected performance problems: an unsuspected but significant concern.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the performance assessments and cognitive function of practitioners referred to the National Clinical Assessment Service (NCAS). DESIGN: Retrospective observational study. SETTING: Practitioners referred to NCAS for performance assessment due to suspected performance problems. PARTICIPANTS: One hundred and nine practitioners over the age of 45 years referred to NCAS between 1 September 2008 and 30 June 2012. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Reasons for referral of practitioners and their characteristics; details of their assessments including screening for cognition using Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination Revised (ACE-R); outcome of the process. RESULTS: Reasons for referral included 'clinical difficulties' and 'governance or safety issues'. Eighty-seven practitioners scored above 88 on ACE-R. Twenty-two were found to have an ACE-R score of ≤88. On further assessment, 14 of these 22 practitioners were found to have cognitive impairment. The majority of all practitioners were found to be performing below the expected level of practice for someone at their grade and specialty. Of those scoring ≤88 on the screening, only seven continued in clinical practice. CONCLUSIONS: A high proportion of practitioners scoring poorly on ACE-R were found to have cognitive impairment following detailed neuropsychological testing, the youngest aged 46 years. Many were working in isolation. Nearly all practitioners scoring poorly on ACE-R were international medical graduates; reasons for this are unclear. Performance assessment results showed persisting failings in the practitioners' record keeping and in their assessment of patients. Our findings highlight the need for increased vigilance and training of responsible officers to recognise performance problems and emphasise the importance of comprehensive assessment

Trust and Risk Relationship Analysis on a Workflow Basis: A Use Case

Trust and risk are often seen in proportion to each other; as such, high trust may induce low risk and vice versa. However, recent research argues that trust and risk relationship is implicit rather than proportional. Considering that trust and risk are implicit, this paper proposes for the first time a novel approach to view trust and risk on a basis of a W3C PROV provenance data model applied in a healthcare domain. We argue that high trust in healthcare domain can be placed in data despite of its high risk, and low trust data can have low risk depending on data quality attributes and its provenance. This is demonstrated by our trust and risk models applied to the BII case study data. The proposed theoretical approach first calculates risk values at each workflow step considering PROV concepts and second, aggregates the final risk score for the whole provenance chain. Different from risk model, trust of a workflow is derived by applying DS/AHP method. The results prove our assumption that trust and risk relationship is implicit

CARHSP1 Is Required for Effective Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha mRNA Stabilization and Localizes to Processing Bodies and Exosomes

Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) is a critical mediator of inflammation, and its production is tightly regulated, with control points operating at nearly every step of its biosynthesis. We sought to identify uncharacterized TNF-α 3\u27 untranslated region (3\u27UTR)-interacting proteins utilizing a novel screen, termed the RNA capture assay. We identified CARHSP1, a cold-shock domain-containing protein. Knockdown of CARHSP1 inhibits TNF-α protein production in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated cells and reduces the level of TNF-α mRNA in both resting and LPS-stimulated cells. mRNA stability assays demonstrate that CARHSP1 knockdown decreases TNF-α mRNA stability from a half-life (t(1/2)) of 49 min to a t(1/2) of 22 min in LPS-stimulated cells and from a t(1/2) of 29 min to a t(1/2) of 24 min in resting cells. Transfecting CARHSP1 into RAW264.7 cells results in an increase in TNF-α 3\u27UTR luciferase expression in resting cells and CARHSP1 knockdown LPS-stimulated cells. We examined the functional effect of inhibiting Akt, calcineurin, and protein phosphatase 2A and established that inhibition of Akt or calcineurin but not PP2A inhibits CARHSP1 function. Subcellular analysis establishes CARHSP1 as a cytoplasmic protein localizing to processing bodies and exosomes but not on translating mRNAs. We conclude CARHSP1 is a TNF-α mRNA stability enhancer required for effective TNF-α production, demonstrating the importance of both stabilization and destabilization pathways in regulating the TNF-α mRNA half-life