3,440 research outputs found
âThey loved gambling more than me.â Womenâs experiences of gambling related harm as an affected other
BACKGROUND
Gambling poses a global threat to public health due to its far-reaching impacts. Research has demonstrated a ripple effect of harmful gambling on social network members and broader communities. While researchers have documented extreme harms associated with an affected other, limited research has qualitatively investigated how women describe their concerns about the gambling of a social network member, and any subsequent negative impacts on their own lives.
METHODS
An online panel survey was conducted with women aged 18âyears and older, who gambled at least once in the last 12âmonths, and resided in the Australian states of Victoria and New South Wales. This paper focused on the open text responses of a subsection of the sample (n = 136) who reported being negatively impacted by someone else's gambling. The study utilised reflexive thematic analysis to interpret the data.
RESULTS
Results indicated that women were concerned about the gambling behaviours of a broad range of social network members. Open text responses regarding the nature of these concerns mostly related to individualised paradigms of gambling behaviour - including whether the participant perceived their network member could afford to gamble, was being responsible with their gambling, or were gambling too frequently. Participants experienced a range of negative impacts including significant financial issues, relationship difficulties, poorer emotional wellbeing as a result of worrying about the gambler, and loss of trust. Some described the negative experiences associated with growing up with a parent who gambled.
CONCLUSION
The research demonstrates the broad impacts of gambling on affected others. This study enhances our understanding of how women are harmed by gambling and considers the complexities of their experiences and relationships with the gambler. This extends knowledge beyond quantitative descriptors of harm among affected others and provides a critical reflection on the nuances of women's experiences with gambling and gambling harm
EEG microstate quantifiers and state space descriptors during anaesthesia in patients with postoperative delirium: a descriptive analysis.
Postoperative delirium is a serious sequela of surgery and surgery-related anaesthesia. One recommended method to prevent postoperative delirium is using bi-frontal EEG recording. The single, processed index of depth of anaesthesia allows the anaesthetist to avoid episodes of suppression EEG and excessively deep anaesthesia. The study data presented here were based on multichannel (19 channels) EEG recordings during anaesthesia. This enabled the analysis of various parameters of global electrical brain activity. These parameters were used to compare microstate topographies under anaesthesia with those in healthy volunteers and to analyse changes in microstate quantifiers and EEG global state space descriptors with increasing exposure to anaesthesia. Seventy-three patients from the Surgery Depth of Anaesthesia and Cognitive Outcome study (SRCTN 36437985) received intraoperative multichannel EEG recordings. Altogether, 720â
min of artefact-free EEG data, including 210â
min (29.2%) of suppression EEG, were analysed. EEG microstate topographies, microstate quantifiers (duration, frequency of occurrence and global field power) and the state space descriptors sigma (overall EEG power), phi (generalized frequency) and omega (number of uncorrelated brain processes) were evaluated as a function of duration of exposure to anaesthesia, suppression EEG and subsequent development of postoperative delirium. The major analyses involved covariate-adjusted linear mixed-effects models. The older (71 ± 7 years), predominantly male (60%) patients received a median exposure of 210 (range: 75-675) min of anaesthesia. During seven postoperative days, 21 patients (29%) developed postoperative delirium. Microstate topographies under anaesthesia resembled topographies from healthy and much younger awake persons. With increasing duration of exposure to anaesthesia, single microstate quantifiers progressed differently in suppression or non-suppression EEG and in patients with or without subsequent postoperative delirium. The most pronounced changes occurred during enduring suppression EEG in patients with subsequent postoperative delirium: duration and frequency of occurrence of microstates C and D progressed in opposite directions, and the state space descriptors showed a pattern of declining uncorrelated brain processes (omega) combined with increasing EEG variance (sigma). With increasing exposure to general anaesthesia, multiple changes in the dynamics of microstates and global EEG parameters occurred. These changes varied partly between suppression and non-suppression EEG and between patients with or without subsequent postoperative delirium. Ongoing suppression EEG in patients with subsequent postoperative delirium was associated with reduced network complexity in combination with increased overall EEG power. Additionally, marked changes in quantifiers in microstate C and in microstate D occurred. These putatively adverse intraoperative trajectories in global electrical brain activity may be seen as preceding and ultimately predicting postoperative delirium
The nature of red dwarf galaxies
Using dark matter halos traced by galaxy groups selected from the Sloan
Digital Sky Survey Data Release 4, we find that about 1/4 of the faint galaxies
(\rmag >-17.05, hereafter dwarfs) that are the central galaxies in their own
halo are not blue and star forming, as expected in standard models of galaxy
formation, but are red. In contrast, this fraction is about 1/2 for dwarf
satellite galaxies. Many red dwarf galaxies are physically associated with more
massive halos. In total, about % of red dwarf galaxies reside in
massive halos as satellites, while another % have a spatial
distribution that is much more concentrated towards their nearest massive
haloes than other dwarf galaxies. We use mock catalogs to show that the reddest
population of non-satellite dwarf galaxies are distributed within about 3 times
the virial radii of their nearest massive halos. We suggest that this
population of dwarf galaxies are hosted by low-mass halos that have passed
through their massive neighbors, and that the same environmental effects that
cause satellite galaxies to become red are also responsible for the red colors
of this population of galaxies. We do not find any significant radial
dependence of the population of dwarf galaxies with the highest concentrations,
suggesting that the mechanisms operating on these galaxies affect color more
than structure. However, over 30% of dwarf galaxies are red and isolated and
their origin remains unknown.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for publication in Ap
The Importance of Satellite Quenching for the Build-Up of the Red Sequence of Present Day Galaxies
In the current paradigm, red sequence galaxies are believed to have formed as
blue disk galaxies that subsequently had their star formation quenched. Since
red-sequence galaxies typically have an early-type morphology, the transition
from the blue to the red sequence also involves a morphological transformation.
In this paper we study the impact of transformation mechanisms that operate
only on satellite galaxies, such as strangulation, ram-pressure stripping and
galaxy harassment. Using a large galaxy group catalogue constructed from the
SDSS, we compare the colors and concentrations of satellites galaxies to those
of central galaxies of the same stellar mass, adopting the hypothesis that the
latter are the progenitors of the former. On average, satellites are redder and
more concentrated than central galaxies of the same stellar mass.
Central-satellite pairs that are matched in both stellar mass and color,
however, show no average concentration difference, indicating that the
transformation mechanisms affect color more than morphology. The color and
concentration differences of matched central-satellite pairs are completely
independent of the halo mass of the satellite galaxy, indicating that
satellite-specific transformation mechanisms are equally efficient in haloes of
all masses. This strongly favors strangulation as the main quenching mechanism
for satellite galaxies. Finally, we determine the relative importance of
satellite quenching for the build-up of the red sequence. We find that roughly
70 percent of red sequence satellite galaxies with a stellar mass of 10^9 Msun
had their star formation quenched as satellites. This drops rapidly to zero
with increasing stellar mass, indicating that a significant fraction of red
satellites were already quenched before they became a satellite.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures. Submitted for publication in MNRA
Women and gambling-related harm: a narrative literature review and implications for research, policy, and practice
Background
While the prevalence of womenâs participation in gambling is steadily increasing, there is a well-recognised male bias in gambling research and policy. Few papers have sought to synthesise the literature relating to women and gambling-related harm and provide practical suggestions to guide future research, policy, and practice which take into account the specific nuances associated with womenâs gambling.
Methods
A narrative literature review was conducted to review the evidence base on womenâs gambling behaviours and experiences of harm. Drawing from strategies used effectively in other areas of public health, key elements for a gendered approach to harm prevention were identified and adapted into practical public health research, policy and practice strategies.
Results
Results indicated a lack of research that explores womenâs gambling. Few studies have examined the impact of gambling on the lives of women, with limited understanding of the factors that influence womenâs engagement with gambling products, and the impact of industry tactics. A gendered approach was identified as a strategy used successfully in other areas of public health to shift the focus onto women and to ensure they are considered in research. In tobacco control, increasing trends in womenâs smoking behaviour were combatted with targeted research, policy and practical initiatives. These key elements were adapted to create a conceptual framework for reducing and preventing gambling harm in women. The framework provides regulatory direction and a research agenda to minimise gambling-related harm for women both in Australia and internationally. Evidence-based policies should be implemented to focus on the influence of gender and associated factors to address gambling-related harm. Practical interventions must take into account how women conceptualise and respond to gambling risk in order to develop specific harm prevention programs which respond to their needs.
Conclusion
A gendered approach to gambling harm prevention shifts the focus onto the unique factors associated with womenâs gambling and specific ways to prevent harm. As seen in other areas of public health, such a framework enables harm measures, policies, and interventions to be developed that are salient to girls and womenâs lives, experiences and circumstances
myomiR-dependent switching of BAF60 variant incorporation into Brg1 chromatin remodeling complexes during embryo myogenesis
Myogenesis involves the stable commitment of progenitor cells followed by the execution of myogenic differentiation, processes that are coordinated by myogenic regulatory factors, microRNAs and BAF chromatin remodeling complexes. BAF60a, BAF60b and BAF60c are structural subunits of the BAF complex that bind to the core ATPase Brg1 to provide functional specificity. BAF60c is essential for myogenesis; however, the mechanisms regulating the subunit composition of BAF/Brg1 complexes, in particular the incorporation of different BAF60 variants, are not understood. Here we reveal their dynamic expression during embryo myogenesis and uncover the concerted negative regulation of BAF60a and BAF60b by the muscle-specific microRNAs (myomiRs) miR-133 and miR-1/206 during somite differentiation. MicroRNA inhibition in chick embryos leads to increased BAF60a or BAF60b levels, a concomitant switch in BAF/Brg1 subunit composition and delayed myogenesis. The phenotypes are mimicked by sustained BAF60a or BAF60b expression and are rescued by morpholino knockdown of BAF60a or BAF60b. This suggests that myomiRs contribute to select BAF60c for incorporation into the Brg1 complex by specifically targeting the alternative variants BAF60a and BAF60b during embryo myogenesis, and reveals that interactions between tissue-specific non-coding RNAs and chromatin remodeling factors confer robustness to mesodermal lineage determination
Linking haloes to galaxies: how many halo properties are needed?
Recent studies emphasize that an empirical relation between the stellar mass
of galaxies and the mass of their host dark matter subhaloes can predict the
clustering of galaxies and its evolution with cosmic time. In this paper we
study the assumptions made by this methodology using a semi-analytical model
(SAM). To this end, we randomly swap between the locations of model galaxies
within a narrow range of subhalo mass (M_infall). We find that shuffled samples
of galaxies have different auto-correlation functions in comparison with the
original model galaxies. This difference is significant even if central and
satellite galaxies are allowed to follow a different relation between M_infall
and stellar mass, and can reach a factor of 2 for massive galaxies at redshift
zero. We analyze three features within SAMs that contribute to this effect: a)
The relation between stellar mass and subhalo mass evolves with redshift for
central galaxies, affecting satellite galaxies at the time of infall. b) The
stellar mass of galaxies falling into groups and clusters at high redshift is
different from the mass of central galaxies at the same time. c) The stellar
mass growth for satellite galaxies after infall can be significant and depends
on the infall redshift and the group mass. We show that the above is true for
differing SAMs, and that the effect is sensitive to the treatment of dynamical
friction and stripping of gas in satellite galaxies. We find that by using the
FoF group mass at redshift zero in addition to M_infall, an empirical model is
able to accurately reproduce the clustering properties of galaxies. On the
other hand, using the infall redshift as a second parameter does not yield as
good results because it is less correlated with stellar mass. Our analysis
indicates that environmental processes are important for modeling the
clustering and abundance of galaxies. (Abridged)Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, minor changes from version
Prescribing Cascades with Recommendations to Prevent or Reverse Them:A Systematic Review
BACKGROUND: To reduce prescribing cascades occurring in clinical practice, healthcare providers require information on the prescribing cascades they can recognize and prevent.OBJECTIVE: This systematic review aims to provide an overview of prescribing cascades, including dose-dependency information and recommendations that healthcare providers can use to prevent or reverse them.METHODS: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) was followed. Relevant literature was identified through searches in OVID MEDLINE, OVID Embase, OVID CINAHL, and Cochrane. Additionally, Web of Science and Scopus were consulted to analyze reference lists and citations. Publications in English were included if they analyzed the occurrence of prescribing cascades. Prescribing cascades were included if at least one study demonstrated a significant association and were excluded when the adverse drug reaction could not be confirmed in the Summary of Product Characteristics. Two reviewers independently extracted and grouped similar prescribing cascades. Descriptive summaries were provided regarding dose-dependency analyses and recommendations to prevent or reverse these prescribing cascades.RESULTS: A total of 95 publications were included, resulting in 115 prescribing cascades with confirmed adverse drug reactions for which at least one significant association was found. For 52 of these prescribing cascades, information regarding dose dependency or recommendations to prevent or reverse prescribing cascades was found. Dose dependency was analyzed and confirmed for 12 prescribing cascades. For example, antipsychotics that may cause extrapyramidal syndrome followed by anti-parkinson drugs. Recommendations focused on dosage lowering, discontinuing medication, and medication switching. Explicit recommendations regarding alternative options were given for three prescribing cascades. One example was switching to ondansetron or granisetron when extrapyramidal syndrome is experienced using metoclopramide.CONCLUSIONS: In total, 115 prescribing cascades were identified and an overview of 52 of them was generated for which recommendations to prevent or reverse them were provided. Nonetheless, information regarding alternative options for managing prescribing cascades was scarce.</p
Structural Properties of Central Galaxies in Groups and Clusters
Using a representative sample of 911 central galaxies (CENs) from the SDSS
DR4 group catalogue, we study how the structure of the most massive members in
groups and clusters depend on (1) galaxy stellar mass (Mstar), (2) dark matter
halo mass of the host group (Mhalo), and (3) their halo-centric position. We
establish and thoroughly test a GALFIT-based pipeline to fit 2D Sersic models
to SDSS data. We find that the fitting results are most sensitive to the
background sky level determination and strongly recommend using the SDSS global
value. We find that uncertainties in the background translate into a strong
covariance between the total magnitude, half-light size (r50), and Sersic index
(n), especially for bright/massive galaxies. We find that n depends strongly on
Mstar for CENs, but only weakly or not at all on Mhalo. Less (more) massive
CENs tend to be disk (spheroid)-like over the full Mhalo range. Likewise, there
is a clear r50-Mstar relation for CENs, with separate slopes for disks and
spheroids. When comparing CENs with satellite galaxies (SATs), we find that low
mass (<10e10.75 Msun/h^2) SATs have larger median n than CENs of similar Mstar.
Low mass, late-type SATs have moderately smaller r50 than late-type CENs of the
same Mstar. However, we find no size differences between spheroid-like CENs and
SATs, and no structural differences between CENs and SATs matched in both mass
and colour. The similarity of massive SATs and CENs shows that this distinction
has no significant impact on the structure of spheroids. We conclude that Mstar
is the most fundamental property determining the basic structure of a galaxy.
The lack of a clear n-Mhalo relation rules out a distinct group mass for
producing spheroids, and the responsible morphological transformation processes
must occur at the centres of groups spanning a wide range of masses. (abridged)Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures, submitted to MNRA
âIt's a tradition to go down to the pokies on your 18th birthdayâ â the normalisation of gambling for young women in Australia
Objective: To understand the range of factors that may influence the normalisation of gambling for young women in Victoria, Australia.
Methods: In-depth qualitative telephone interviews with 45 women aged 18â34 years.
Results: Young women were exposed to gambling environments and some were gambling from an early age. Family members were the key facilitators of these activities. Once reaching the legal age of gambling, peers and boyfriends were instrumental in young womenâs
gambling practices. Women attributed the normalisation of gambling to excessive marketing, feminised gambling environments, and the widespread availability of gambling in the community.
Conclusions: This study found several factors that influenced and encouraged young women to gamble, such as the feminisation of gambling products and environments, and determined that gambling is becoming a socio-culturally accepted activity for young women.
Implications for public health: Researchers and policymakers should be increasingly focused on how different forms of gambling may be normalised for young women. Attention should be given to how young women may become a target market for the gambling industry, and how to implement strategies aimed at preventing any future potential harm posed by these industries and their marketing tactics and products
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