The Role of Attachment, Self-Esteem and Impulsivity on Intimate Partner Violence in Same- and Opposite-Sex Relationships

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pervasive problem that impacts individuals in both same and opposite sex relationships. As such, understanding risk factors for the perpetration of this type of violence within each population are important for intervention efforts. The present study examined the interactive effects of attachment, self-esteem, and impulsivity on men and women’s perpetration of intimate partner violence in same- and opposite- sex relationships. Participants were 417 individuals recruited from an undergraduate and community population, who completed measures of adult attachment, self-esteem, impulsivity, as well as physical and psychological aggression against intimate partners within the past 12 months. Tests of mediation, moderation, moderated mediation, and moderated moderated mediation were conducted. Results revealed that self-esteem mediated the relationship between problematic attachment and psychological aggression. In addition, (lack of) perseverance moderated the indirect effect of problematic attachment on psychological aggression through self-esteem. Finally, results revealed that among heterosexual participants, sensation seeking moderated the indirect effect of problematic attachment on psychological aggression through self-esteem. However, those findings were not significant among gay and lesbian participants. Limitations and future directions are discussed

Emotion regulation and worker well-being: Does who you act with matter?

The relationships of nurses’ emotion regulation directed at different targets at work and worker well-being were investigated in the current study. I looked at surface acting and deep acting (i.e., suppressing felt emotions and faking unfelt emotions, or actually attempting to feel the emotions that are shown). Specifically, I analyzed the data to see if surface acting and deep acting is more or less harmful for nurses depending on the interaction target. To do this, I looked at responses to a survey that indicated the degree to which nurses engaged in surface acting and deep acting with various targets as well as their reported levels of burnout, their physical symptoms, as well as turnover intentions. Overall, I found that nurses were significantly more likely to use both regulation strategies with external targets (i.e., those who are external to the workplace) than with internal organizational targets. Burnout was significantly related to both regulation strategies. Deep acting showed select differences between targets. Physical symptoms were significantly related to both regulation strategies. Surface acting with external targets had a significantly stronger relationship with physical symptoms, as did deep acting with different targets. Turnover intentions were significantly related to surface acting. Surface acting with external targets had a significantly weaker relationship with turnover intentions than surface acting with internal targets. Deep acting with fellow nurses had significantly stronger relationships with turnover intentions than the other targets. Significant unique predictors were identified with supplemental analyses

The Hidden Foster Care System: A Parallel System in Legal Limbo During A Deadly Pandemic

In 2020, Josh Gupta-Kagan’s article on the American Hidden Foster System challenged the welfare system to face its coercive practices that effectuate in a child being removed from the home without formal state intervention and court oversight.1 Families find themselves struggling to stay together as child protection workers utilize threats and safety plans to force the removal of a child from the home and into the custody of a family member.2 The children’s, the parents’, and the kinship caregivers’ lives are forever impacted by the welfare state, yet they receive insufficient benefits or protections afforded to families, caregivers, and children placed in licensed foster care under the jurisdiction of the court.3 This paper will explore what Gupta-Kagan coined the “American Hidden Foster system”4 during the COVID era, as well as some solutions to the injustices these families face while in the system. Lastly, this paper hopes to offer an approach to balance the inevitable tension that surfaces when child welfare agencies push for “under the table” removals while impoverished families desperately try to stay together

Moderating Effect of Negative Peer Group Climate on the Relation Between Men’s Locus of Control and Aggression Towards Intimate Partners

The present study sought to examine the interactive effects of an external locus of control and interaction in a negative peer group climate on men’s perpetration of physical aggression and infliction of injury towards their female intimate partners. Participants were 206 heterosexual males recruited from the metro-Atlanta community who completed self-report measures of external locus of control, involvement in a negative peer group climate, and physical aggression and infliction of injury against intimate partners during the past 12 months. Negative peer group climate was conceptualized as a peer group that displays behavior which may instigate aggressive norms, attitudes, and behaviors. Results indicated that men with an external locus of control were more likely to perpetrate physical aggression toward and inflict injury on their intimate partners if they reported high, but not low, involvement in a negative peer group climate. These results extend current research suggesting external locus of control as a risk factor for intimate partner aggression by highlighting the impact of negative peer groups. Implications and future intervention research are discussed

Cognitive Demand of Teacher-Created Mathematics Assessments

This study analyzed assessments created by middle school mathematics teachers participating in a large scale research project in the Northwestern United States. Assessments were coded using the frameworks of Webb’s Depth of Knowledge (DOK) for mathematics content (2002), and Smith and Stein’s Levels of Demand (LOD) (1998). Teachers in the study were instructed to create an assessment using 5 common-items provided by the research team and 5 of their own sourced items. Assessment items were coded using each framework and data was collected based on the DOK framework, LOD framework, and grade level. Findings indicate on average, teachers assessments were relatively balanced between procedures and conceptual understanding and balanced between recollection, application of a skill/concept, and explanation of thinking. When looking at data based on grade level, assessments tended to address higher-level thinking as grade levels progressed. However when common-items were not included in the analysis, assessments tended to address the items using procedural thinking, and less frequently required explanation of thinking for solutions

Impacts of seismic line restoration on CO2, CH4, and biomass

Oil and gas exploration has resulted in over 300,000 km of linear disturbances, known as seismic lines, throughout boreal peatlands across Canada. Sites are left with altered hydrologic and topographic conditions that prevent tree re-establishment. Restoration efforts have concentrated on tree recovery through mechanical mounding to re-create microtopography and support planted tree seedlings to block sightlines and deter predator use, but little is known about the impact of seismic line disturbance or restoration on peatland carbon cycling, vegetation, or biomass. This study looked at two mounding treatments: hummock transfer (HT), which transferred naturally formed hummocks from just off the seismic line onto the line, and inline mounding (IM), in which hummocks were formed by scooping peat from on the line and placing it nearby. We compared vegetation cover and composition, above- and belowground biomass, and carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) fluxes on the treatments to untreated lines and natural reference areas in the first two years post-restoration. There were few significant differences in understory percent cover or biomass across treatments, but forb and graminoid cover increased, low shrub cover decreased, and bryophyte distribution across microforms differed on untreated seismic lines from natural reference areas. Both mounding treatments increased forb cover but reduced graminoid, shrub, and bryophyte cover from untreated and natural areas. Belowground root biomass did not significantly change between treatments, and we found that only IM significantly reduced understory biomass. The absence of trees and mid-story shrubs on all three seismic line treatments resulted in a loss of ~720 g m-2, and the loss of a yearly uptake of ~50 g C m-2 y-1. We found no significant differences in net ecosystem CO2 exchange, but untreated seismic lines were slightly more productive than natural reference areas and mounding treatments. Both restoration treatments increased ecosystem respiration, decreased net productivity by 6 – 21 g CO2 m-2 d-1, and created areas of increased CH4 emissions, including an increase in the contribution of ebullition, of up to 2000 mg CH4 m-2 d-1. Although further research on this site to assess the longer-term impacts of restoration, as well as application on other sites with varied conditions, is required to determine if these methods are effective, our study suggests that HT may provide the best option to improve the outcome of multiple ecosystem functions

Utility of Monophasic Action Potentials in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Cardiac Arrhythmias

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. 2018. Major: Biomedical Engineering. Advisor: Paul Iaizzo. 1 computer file (PDF); 165 pages.The object of this thesis was to investigate applications for monophasic action potential (MAP) recordings in the diagnosis and treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. To meet this objective, MAPs were measured in situ and in vitro, during sinus rhythm and cardiac arrhythmias. MAPs were analyzed for potential clinical applications and in novel cardiac mapping and ablation catheter concepts. MAPs are focal action potential recordings which are directly proportional to the electrical activities of cells adjacent to a contacting electrode. When sufficient force is applied between a contacting electrode and the myocardium, the cells directly beneath become mechanically depolarized; i.e. electrically inactive. As a transmembrane action potential passes through this region, a change in boundary currents between the active and inactive cells, via gap junctions, results in a waveform that is proportional to the original action potential. The Visible Heart® Apparatus provides us with the ability to study large mammalian hearts, including human, in an in vitro setting; allowing the testing of prototype catheter concepts prior to in situ or in vivo work. To validate MAPs from an in vitro working heart model a comparison study was conducted. Over the course of 2 hours in situ and 2 hours in vitro MAPs were recorded from the right atrium, left atrium, and right ventricle (endocardially and epicardially). Overall, there were no significant differences between recorded signals when compared to in situ baseline recordings. Based on these findings, systems like the Visible Heart® Apparatus can be used as a platform on which cardiac action potentials can be studied. The clinical application of MAP recordings, as they pertain to radiofrequency (RF) ablations, was also evaluated. To ensure proper lesion formation, RF ablation requires a catheter contact force (CF) of between 10-20 grams to be maintained throughout energy delivery. It was determined that MAP waveforms could only be recorded when at least 10-15 grams of CF was applied to the myocardium. In other words, the presence of MAP waveforms would indicate that sufficient CF has been applied prior to the delivery of RF energy. Additionally, MAP waveforms were found to correlate with RF lesion size. MAP amplitudes at baseline (pre-ablation) were significantly larger than amplitudes from lesions which matured to greater than 1 mm deep. MAPs were also able to distinguish between lesions between 1-2mm deep, and those deeper than 2mm. Moving forward, MAPs may be used in evaluating cardiac viability, both through recording from induced lesions, as well as in regions of scarred or ischemic myocardium

Identification of Structural Variation in Chimpanzees Using Optical Mapping and Nanopore Sequencing.

Recent efforts to comprehensively characterize great ape genetic diversity using short-read sequencing and single-nucleotide variants have led to important discoveries related to selection within species, demographic history, and lineage-specific traits. Structural variants (SVs), including deletions and inversions, comprise a larger proportion of genetic differences between and within species, making them an important yet understudied source of trait divergence. Here, we used a combination of long-read and -range sequencing approaches to characterize the structural variant landscape of two additional Pan troglodytes verus individuals, one of whom carries 13% admixture from Pan troglodytes troglodytes. We performed optical mapping of both individuals followed by nanopore sequencing of one individual. Filtering for larger variants (>10 kbp) and combined with genotyping of SVs using short-read data from the Great Ape Genome Project, we identified 425 deletions and 59 inversions, of which 88 and 36, respectively, were novel. Compared with gene expression in humans, we found a significant enrichment of chimpanzee genes with differential expression in lymphoblastoid cell lines and induced pluripotent stem cells, both within deletions and near inversion breakpoints. We examined chromatin-conformation maps from human and chimpanzee using these same cell types and observed alterations in genomic interactions at SV breakpoints. Finally, we focused on 56 genes impacted by SVs in >90% of chimpanzees and absent in humans and gorillas, which may contribute to chimpanzee-specific features. Sequencing a greater set of individuals from diverse subspecies will be critical to establish the complete landscape of genetic variation in chimpanzees