Impact Of Tactile-Cued Self-Monitoring On Independent Biology Work For Secondary Students With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Results from a multiple baseline with changing conditions design across high school students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) indicated that the students increased the percentage of independent work they completed in their general education biology class after learning tactile-cued self-monitoring. Students maintained high percentages for completed work when the rate of tactile cues was faded from 1 per minute to 1 every 5 minutes, as well as when all tactile cues were withdrawn during a short-term maintenance phase.  Moreover, the students increased their correctly completed work from percentages substantially lower than the mean of their classmates to percentages that matched and surpassed the mean of their classmates. Qualitative data indicated that the participants and their co-teachers approved of the tactile-cued self-monitoring procedures. Results confirm and extend prior research findings that students improve performance during independent tasks after learning how to use tactile-cued self-monitoring and that students maintain improvements when the tactile cues are systematically faded. Although this research was conducted in a secondary school setting, the method also could be applied to higher education. Postsecondary disability resource center personnel might consider MotivAider use for students with ADHD and other disabilities that affect the capacity to stay on task

Interpersonal discrimination and depressive symptomatology: examination of several personality-related characteristics as potential confounders in a racial/ethnic heterogeneous adult sample

Abstract Background Research suggests that reports of interpersonal discrimination result in poor mental health. Because personality characteristics may either confound or mediate the link between these reports and mental health, there is a need to disentangle its role in order to better understand the nature of discrimination-mental health association. We examined whether hostility, anger repression and expression, pessimism, optimism, and self-esteem served as confounders in the association between perceived interpersonal discrimination and CESD-based depressive symptoms in a race/ethnic heterogeneous probability-based sample of community-dwelling adults. Methods We employed a series of ordinary least squares regression analyses to examine the potential confounding effect of hostility, anger repression and expression, pessimism, optimism, and self-esteem between interpersonal discrimination and depressive symptoms. Results Hostility, anger repression, pessimism and self-esteem were significant as possible confounders of the relationship between interpersonal discrimination and depressive symptoms, together accounting for approximately 38% of the total association (beta: 0.1892, p < 0.001). However, interpersonal discrimination remained a positive predictor of depressive symptoms (beta: 0.1176, p < 0.001). Conclusion As one of the first empirical attempts to examine the potential confounding role of personality characteristics in the association between reports of interpersonal discrimination and mental health, our results suggest that personality-related characteristics may serve as potential confounders. Nevertheless, our results also suggest that, net of these characteristics, reports of interpersonal discrimination are associated with poor mental health.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112604/1/12889_2013_Article_6001.pd

Interpersonal discrimination and depressive symptomatology: examination of several personality-related characteristics as potential confounders in a racial/ethnic heterogeneous adult sample

Background Research suggests that reports of interpersonal discrimination result in poor mental health. Because personality characteristics may either confound or mediate the link between these reports and mental health, there is a need to disentangle its role in order to better understand the nature of discrimination-mental health association. We examined whether hostility, anger repression and expression, pessimism, optimism, and self-esteem served as confounders in the association between perceived interpersonal discrimination and CESD-based depressive symptoms in a race/ethnic heterogeneous probability-based sample of community-dwelling adults. Methods We employed a series of ordinary least squares regression analyses to examine the potential confounding effect of hostility, anger repression and expression, pessimism, optimism, and self-esteem between interpersonal discrimination and depressive symptoms. Results Hostility, anger repression, pessimism and self-esteem were significant as possible confounders of the relationship between interpersonal discrimination and depressive symptoms, together accounting for approximately 38% of the total association (beta: 0.1892, p \u3c 0.001). However, interpersonal discrimination remained a positive predictor of depressive symptoms (beta: 0.1176, p \u3c 0.001). Conclusion As one of the first empirical attempts to examine the potential confounding role of personality characteristics in the association between reports of interpersonal discrimination and mental health, our results suggest that personality-related characteristics may serve as potential confounders. Nevertheless, our results also suggest that, net of these characteristics, reports of interpersonal discrimination are associated with poor mental health

At Home and Abroad: The Use of Denial-of-service Attacks during Elections in Nondemocratic Regimes

In this article, we study the political use of denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, a particular form of cyberattack that disables web services by flooding them with high levels of data traffic. We argue that websites in nondemocratic regimes should be especially prone to this type of attack, particularly around political focal points such as elections. This is due to two mechanisms: governments employ DoS attacks to censor regime-threatening information, while at the same time, activists use DoS attacks as a tool to publicly undermine the government’s authority. We analyze these mechanisms by relying on measurements of DoS attacks based on large-scale Internet traffic data. Our results show that in authoritarian countries, elections indeed increase the number of DoS attacks. However, these attacks do not seem to be directed primarily against the country itself but rather against other states that serve as hosts for news websites from this country.publishe

Reverse-engineering censorship in China: Randomized experimentation and participant observation

Existing research on the extensive Chinese censorship organization uses observational methods with well-known limitations. We conducted the first large-scale experimental study of censorship by creating accounts on numerous social media sites, randomly submitting different texts, and observing from a worldwide network of computers which texts were censored and which were not. We also supplemented interviews with confidential sources by creating our own social media site, contracting with Chinese firms to install the same censoring technologies as existing sites, and—with their software, documentation, and even customer support—reverse-engineering how it all works. Our results offer rigorous support for the recent hypothesis that criticisms of the state, its leaders, and their policies are published, whereas posts about real-world events with collective action potential are censored.Governmen

Menstrual Justice: A Human Rights Vision for Australia

In the past year alone, news reports have shown how menstrual injustice is linked to gender inequality, a lack of economic opportunity, poor health outcomes, and human rights violations. Here is a small sampling of the unjust treatment of women and other people who menstruate: locked bathrooms at schools, inadequate supply of free period products, harmful menstruation-avoidance options for athletes, the human and economic costs of the lack of menstruation and menopause employment leave policies, and the mistreatment of people imprisoned who menstruate. To improve women’s equality, we need menstrual justice. Menstrual justice is the achievement of dignity, liberty and equality for people who menstruate, primarily cis women and girls but also transgender men and boys, genderqueer/nonbinary and intersex persons. On the other hand, menstrual injustice is the oppression of people who menstruate simply because they menstruate, and our society does not yet accept and accommodate menstruation as normal. Menstrual injustices can compound the marginalization of persons already subject to other injustices, including young students, low-income persons, persons with disability, Indigenous persons, persons who are imprisoned, and remote and low-wage workers. We need laws that clearly outlaw workplace discrimination and harassment against menstruators, so no one is fired for bleeding on the job or being late to work due to period pain. We need public awareness campaigns and curricular expansion focused on health information and the eradication of menstrual stigma to curb poor menstrual health. We need access to resources and healthcare for residents in institutional settings that supports their autonomy over menstruation and menopause. We need provision of Indigenous intergenerational teaching about menstruation and menopause. Governments have addressed some of these menstrual injustices. For example, all States and Territories provide free product access in schools. Victoria will be providing free product access in public places. Such initiatives are critical and helpful. But they are isolated and do not tackle important pieces of the equality puzzle. The authors are a group of researchers, activists, and policy makers who have created this set of evidence-based recommendations for governments relating to menstruation and menopause. Our concrete recommendations, entitled “Menstrual Justice: A Human Rights Vision for Australia,” call upon Government to do more to fully address menstrual injustices. Our recommendations include the areas of public awareness, curriculum, schools, workplaces, public buildings and housing, institutional settings and discrimination and coercion. Many of these recommendations are no cost or low cost but could have a large impact on gender equality and would improve human rights for women and other people who menstruate

Current and future costs of cancer, heart disease and stroke attributable to obesity in Australia - a comparison of two birth cohorts

The obesity epidemic appears set to worsen the morbidity and mortality from leading causes of death in Australia -ischaemic heart disease, stroke and obesity-related cancers. The aim of this study was to compare hospital separations, deaths and direct health costs for middle-aged adults (45 to 54 years) in 2004/05 with those attaining age 45 to 54 years in 2024/25 who were born into an obesogenic environment. Using data from National Health Surveys, prevalence of obesity in 2004/05 was calculated for those born in 1950/51-59/60 and four scenarios were considered to project rates in 2024/25 for those born in 1970/71-79/80: an age-cohort model; a linear trend model; a steady state where rates increase to equal those of the older birth cohort at the same age; and a best case where rates remain at 2004/05 levels. Population attributable fractions were calculated by gender and disease using relative risks of disease from the literature, and applied to hospital separations, deaths, and direct health system costs data to estimate the proportion of each attributable to obesity. In 2024/25 the projected number of hospitalizations of 45 to 54 year olds due to the diseases of interest could be more than halved, over 200 lives rescued and $51.5 million (in 2004/05 dollars) saved if further gains in obesity in the younger birth cohort are halted. Instead, if the worst case scenario is realized there will be a more than doubling in costs (in 2004/05 dollars) compared with those born in 1950/51-59/60

What are the effects that two author-fee subsidy programs have on researchers’ work practices and publishing behaviors?

Emerging alternatives or complements to ‘traditional’ publication practices include publishing in open access journals; self-archiving manuscripts; submitting pre- and post-prints to institutional- and disciplinary-repositories; and complying with funding agency mandates for sharing results from federally-funded research. Each of these alternatives bears an associated set of economic, temporal, technological, and procedural challenges for authors. This in-progress pilot study elicits perspectives of UNC authors—particularly regarding the ways in which these individuals utilize support services provided by campus administration, University Libraries, and agencies that fund their research