What if they think I\u27m crazy : clinical interventions to help adolescents manage stigma following a psychiatric hospitalization

This qualitative empirical study explores how mental health professionals intervene to help adolescents manage stigma following a psychiatric hospitalization. Twelve clinicians from Northeast public school, state department of mental health, and psychiatric hospital settings were interviewed and asked a series of questions about how they support teens in combating social stigma as they return to their communities. Interview questions addressed a variety of issues pertaining to stigma, including exploring how mental health professionals support adolescents in managing the disclosure process, assessing what resources are particularly helpful for teens in this position, and addressing differences in marginalization based on the visibility or invisibility of a young person\u27s psychiatric condition. The major findings were descriptions, amongst participants, of common individual, family, group, and community-based interventions utilized with recently hospitalized teens. Research participants discussed a number of individual interventions, including supporting the use of coping and emotion regulation skills, planning and brainstorming, normalizing the teenлђs experience, and discussing the disclosure process. Participants also discussed the importance of providing interventions aimed at improving familial, social, and community supports for recently hospitalized adolescents. Future research might directly investigate the experiences of various populations of recently hospitalized adolescents, assessing what types of familial, clinical, academic, and social supports would best support the management of stigma and the reintegration process as discussed by the teens themselves

Abiotic and biotic mediation of grazing impacts on soil carbon in Northern Arizona

Soil, the largest terrestrial carbon reservoir, has the ability to sequester carbon, however numerous variables influence its storage potential. Livestock management practices, precipitation, plant species composition, and soil parent material may all influence the potential for carbon to be stored in the soil. There is little empirical evidence measuring these effects in arid and semi-arid environments which motivated this study to sample across the Diablo Trust in northern Arizona. Stratified random sites were selected based on the locations of fence-lines or grazing exclosures that have excluded livestock for at least 20 years. Soil samples were collected from grazed and adjacent ungrazed sides of the fences across five distinct soil series and along a precipitation gradient ranging from 230 mm – 623 mm at the surface (0-5 cm) and subsurface (20-25 cm). The sites were measured for soil texture, precipitation, plant community composition, root biomass, soil organic carbon, and soil inorganic carbon. Results from the general linear models and the structural equation model found that the abiotic factors of precipitation and soil texture were the main drivers in soil organic and inorganic carbon. Grazing did not have a significant direct effect on soil organic or inorganic carbon, although there were significantly more C4 grasses under the grazed treatments. Surprisingly, roots, especially C4 roots, had a greater effect on soil inorganic carbon than organic carbon. More research is needed to better understand the mechanisms driving this interaction, but could be crucial to understand if this drives more carbon to be released into the atmosphere in semi-arid and arid environments. Overall, the results from this study show that the abiotic factors of soil texture and precipitation were the main drivers in soil organic and inorganic carbon across this semi-arid rangeland. This may be explained through the theoretical framework provided by the state-and-transition model which incorporates both equilibrium and non-equilibrium models. Arid and semi-arid environments have more stochastic rainfall patterns compared to mesic environments, driving net primary production, which increases with timely precipitation. Along the continuum of the state-and-transition model, semi-arid rangelands fall more along the non-equilibrium systems. If the non-equilibrium model explains more of the ecological dynamics within system in this semi-arid rangeland, then predictable sequestration of carbon is complex through management and it may not be appropriate to include management practices within protocols in the voluntary carbon market. More research is needed to better understand grazing’s impact on soil carbon storage across various precipitation gradients. The research from this study shows that grazing had a minimal impact on soil carbon storage across a landscape scale and that there are biotic interactions with inorganic carbon that can no longer be ignored

A School Perspective on School-Embedded Initial Teacher Education

School-university partnerships have been developed to invigorate initial teacher education (ITE). Such partnerships potentially offer rich educational opportunities to pre-service teachers. This paper examines integrated and school-embedded approaches to ITE in the Australian context, drawing on a case study analysis of a three-year, ITE school-university-system partnership named inSITE. inSITE is explored from the perspective of the school educators directly involved in its design and delivery. Complexity science provided the theoretical framework for inSITE and signalled its principles of holism, integration and reflective practice. The factors that contributed to and inhibited school-based initial teacher education from a school’s perspective are identified. The paper concludes that, given conducive conditions, an integrated, embedded and reflective approach can address the prevailing theory-practice dualism of ITE and may offer an important third way to prepare new teachers. The challenges and opportunities for school-embedded ITE in Australia are highlighted

Factors Affecting Successful Adoption of Connectivity Devices by Hearing Aid Users

Purpose or Research Questions * To investigate factors that affect the choice to purchase the HACD and the successful adoption of the device. * To evaluate patients’ views regarding use, benefit, and satisfaction with connectivity devices. Background Hearing aid connectivity devices - referred to as HACDs in this poster - are widely marketed to both consumers and professionals in the field of Audiology as devices that can be used to improve communication. However, studies have shown that sales and acceptance of assistive devices is variable (Cranmer, 1991). Becoming informed about device capabilities, and properly learning - and retaining - such information can be difficult for older adults (Hartley, 2010). While major manufacturers advertise multiple capabilities for such devices, there is limited literature regarding patients’ perceived benefit of the devices, and whether patients’ needs are met (Lesner, 2003). Methods/Proposed Methods Adult patients who had purchased a connectivity device within the past 5 years (from 5 major manufacturers), excluding patients with known cognitive impairment. All participants had followed the UNC Hearing and Communication Center (UNC-HCC) fitting protocol for HACDs. Subjects were contacted via telephone or in person in conjunction with a previously scheduled appointment. Once the subjects had given consent to participate, they verbally answered survey questions related to the HACDs. Surveys were completed by 30 (15 male, 15 female) out of 95 possible participants. The study was approved by the UNC Office of Human Research Ethics and was not funded. Results/Anticipated Results * No age effect was found in the study cohort: some older users use the device as frequently as younger users. * Outside recommendations for the device and personal research may be indicators of HACD success. * Subjects who reported using their HACDs 7 out of the last 7 days were more likely to use their device in a variety of ways compared to subjects who reported less than 7 days/week use. * Common complaints/reasons for limited use included: not liking the HACD design, poor quality of connectivity, and lack of benefit. * Overall, subjects, even those who use HACDs daily, were critical of aspects of their devices. Discussion (e.g., interpretation of results; potential contribution of anticipated results) * Additional scheduled support after the initial fitting may be essential for some users. * Identification of possible predictors of successful use of HACDs such as: personal research before device purchase, spousal support, comfort with technology, may improve fitting success. * The rise of tech savvy older adults, and increase in direct Bluetooth capability, may alter HACD fitting in the near future

Research in Pediatric Residency: National Experience of Pediatric Chief Residents

Objective To determine factors associated with increased research productivity, satisfaction, and perceived barriers to research within residency from the experience of pediatric chief residents. Methods An online cross-sectional survey was administered to academic year 2014–15 chief residents. Topics assessed included program demographic characteristics, career intentions, research productivity, satisfaction with research training and opportunities, and research barriers. Chi-square and Fisher exact tests were used for descriptive statistics. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to determine factors associated with productivity and research satisfaction. Results The response rate was 63% (165 of 261). Half (82 of 165) were productive in research. Most were satisfied with their quality of research training (55%; 90 of 165) and research opportunities (69%; 114 of 165). Chiefs reporting interest in research were 5 times more likely to be productive than those who did not (odds ratio [OR] = 5.2; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.3–11.8). Productive chiefs were more likely to report including research time in future careers (P = .003). Most (83%; 137 of 165) thought their programs were supportive of resident research, but lack of time was frequently cited as a major barrier. Those satisfied with research opportunities were less likely to find lack of training (OR = 0.3; 95% CI, 0.1–0.7) or faculty mentorship (OR = 0.2; 95% CI, 0.0–0.9) as a major barrier. Conclusions Pediatric chief resident interest in research is strongly associated with research productivity during residency, and research productivity is strongly associated with career plans including research time. By cultivating research interest through faculty mentorship, research training, and dedicated time, pediatric residency programs might help foster early research success and, potentially lead to continued engagement with research in trainees' future careers

Maximum Covering Subtrees for Phylogenetic Networks

Tree-based phylogenetic networks, which may be roughly defined as leaf-labeled networks built by adding arcs only between the original tree edges, have elegant properties for modeling evolutionary histories. We answer an open question of Francis, Semple, and Steel about the complexity of determining how far a phylogenetic network is from being tree-based, including non-binary phylogenetic networks. We show that finding a phylogenetic tree covering the maximum number of nodes in a phylogenetic network can be be computed in polynomial time via an encoding into a minimum-cost maximum flow problem