No one noticed, no one heard: a study of disclosures of childhood abuse

ReportThis report describes the childhood experiences of abuse of 60 young men and women and how they disclosed this abuse and sought help. These young people experienced high levels and different kinds of violence, including sexual abuse and family violence. It is often asserted that young people who experience abuse do not talk about it. The face to face interviews for this study show that a majority of young people did attempt to disclose their abuse to at least one person although this information was not identified in the surveys for this study. Eighty per cent – 48 of the 60 young people we spoke to – attempted to disclose the abuse before they were 18 years old. Some of these disclosures led to protective action and some did not. Research has suggested that sexual abuse is unlikely to be disclosed – and yet 38 of the 44 young people (86 per cent) who suffered from sexual abuse did disclose during childhood; 66 per cent attempted to disclose when the abuse was happening. However, just like many high profile cases, not all of these disclosures were “heard” or acted upon. Young people generally made more than one disclosure. Of the 203 disclosures in childhood that were made, 117 disclosures (58 per cent) were acted upon by recipients. Suffering from abuse is a distressing experience. It should be no surprise that disclosures that were ignored, denied or badly handled added to the negative experiences of the young people in this study. Policy-makers and people working with children should use the evidence in this report to support better identification of abuse by adults, reduce the barriers to disclosure and to improve the experience of disclosure for young people. Practitioners should particularly consider how they can change their practice to ensure that the experiences of the young people in this report are not repeate

Assessing the impact of the New Student Support Arrangements (NSSA) on higher education institutions (BIS research paper no.12)

"The research explores the impact on the policies, planning and behaviours of universities nearly four years after the introduction of new arrangements for student support in higher education (known as NSSA). It is set within the context of continued policy focus on increasing and widening participation, rising importance of university performance indicators in student choices, and a challenging economic climate. The research uses qualitative evidence collected from over 120 staff in 15 case studies across England..." - exec. summary

Weight ~ The Reality Series: An Extension Weight Management Program for Adults

Rural U.S. residents bear a greater burden of obesity than urban residents and may have limited access to healthy foods and physical activity. Extension agents for Family and Consumer Sciences requested an adult weight management curriculum. Specialists developed Weight ~ The Reality Series (WTRS) as two curricula: Becoming Weight Wise and Becoming Body Wise. More than 7,000 Kentucky residents have participated in WTRS, with about 30% losing 5% or more of their initial body weight. Development, implementation, and evaluation of this program demonstrate the feasibility of reaching a rural audience through County Extension Offices on the topic of weight management

Agro-Pastoral Strategies and Food Production on the Achaemenid Frontier in Central Asia: A Case Study of Kyzyltepa in Southern Uzbekistan

This article discusses aspects of the agro-pastoral economy of Kyzyltepa, a late Iron Age or Achaemenid period (sixth–fourth century BC) site in the Surkhandarya region of southern Uzbekistan. The analysis integrates archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological analyses with textual references to food production and provisioning in order to examine local agro-pastoral strategies. Preliminary results suggest an economy that included both an intensive agricultural component, with summer irrigation of millet, and a wider-ranging market-oriented pastoral component that provided meat to the settlement

Building an interactive online textbook: a tool at our fingertips

BACKGROUND: Last year, we reported on the Health SciencesToolkit,which is an intensive bridging program that covers basic concepts in the disciplines of chemistry and biology, and then applies them to anatomy and physiology(Kapoor, Megaw, Harrison, Simcock & Miller 2018). We needed a resource that would lay the foundations for this diverse range of disciplines. As today's university students are often considered digital natives, we triedto source anE-book. Unable to finda commercially available text book pitched at an appropriate level, we decided to build our own, embracing Macknight's advice on creating online content to create ahealthylearning environment(2019).Here,we report on the development of a custom-made online textbook for ToolKit. PROCESS: The educational software company TopHat provided us access to online resources from which we could source and modify content. We produced a 10-chapter text book; each chapter matched a content module and explicitly linked with the learning outcomes of the subject. The modification included the insertion of links to interactive learning resources for student exploration. Each chapter concluded with a list of key words and concepts, a summary discussion, and selected multiple choice questions for knowledge consolidation and review; we were able to regulate the timing of the release of chapters.The textbook was hosted within the TopHatlearning platform and students were given access on payment of a minimal fee($11). REFLECTION: We found the development of the custom textbook a very efficient and effective process. We did not have to worry about copyright issues; or the time-consuming editing process for consistency, as the$6000 contract outlay to TopHat covered that. The resource can be edited, scaffolded and customised to future cohort needs(we can report on this process as we have also utilized this resource for an AQF-5 level diploma subject based on the ToolKit). Most importantly, the majority of students found the interactive text book useful for their understanding of the subject content, a finding supported by others (for example,Chen 2018) who have used custom-built online textbooks to create engaging digital learning environments

Moving Toward Equal Ground: Engaging the Capacity of Youth, Families, and Communities to Improve Treatment Services and Outcomes in the Juvenile Justice System

Outlines RWJF's Reclaiming Futures project, describes successful programs at ten sites, and shares lessons learned about the importance of involving families and communities in improving the juvenile justice system's drug and alcohol treatment programs

Work-related stress:The impact of COVID-19 on critical care and redeployed nurses: A mixed-methods study

Lisa Salisbury - ORCID: 0000-0002-1400-3224 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1400-3224Replaced AM with VoR 2021-07-08.Introduction: We need to understand the impact of COVID-19 on Critical Care (CCNs) and redeployed nurses and NHS organisations. Methods and analysis: This is a mixed methods study (QUANT – QUAL), underpinned by a theoretical model of occupational stress, the Job-Demand Resources Model (JD-R). Participants are critical care and redeployed nurses from Scottish and three large English units. Phase one is a cross-sectional survey in part replicating a pre-COVID-19 study and results will be compared with this data. Linear and logistic regression analysis will examine the relationship between antecedent, demographic, and professional variables on health impairment (burnout syndrome, mental health, posttraumatic stress symptoms), motivation (work engagement, commitment), and organisational outcomes (intention to remain in critical care nursing and quality of care). We will also assess the usefulness of a range of resources provided by the NHS and professional organisations. To allow in-depth exploration of individual experiences, phase two will be one-to-one semi-structured interviews with 25 CCNs and 10 redeployed nurses. The JD-R model will provide the initial coding framework to which the interview data will be mapped. The remaining content will be analysed inductively to identify and chart content that is not captured by the model. In this way the adequacy of the JD-R model is examined robustly and its expression in this context will be detailed. Ethics and dissemination: Ethics approval was granted from the University of Aberdeen CERB2020101993. We plan to disseminate findings at stakeholder events, publish in peer reviewed journals and at present at national and international conferences.https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-05132611pubpub

The yeast homologue of the microtubule-associated protein Lis1 interacts with the sumoylation machinery and a SUMO-targeted ubiquitin ligase

Microtubules and microtubule-associated proteins are fundamental for multiple cellular processes, including mitosis and intracellular motility, but the factors that control microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs) are poorly understood. Here we show that two MAPs - the CLIP-170 homologue Bik1p and the Lis1 homologue Pac1p - interact with several proteins in the sumoylation pathway. Bik1p and Pac1p interact with Smt3p, the yeast SUMO; Ubc9p, an E2; and Nfi1p, an E3. Bik1p interacts directly with SUMO in vitro, and overexpression of Smt3p and Bik1p results in its in vivo sumoylation. Modified Pac1p is observed when the SUMO protease Ulp1p is inactivated. Both ubiquitin and Smt3p copurify with Pac1p. In contrast to ubiquitination, sumoylation does not directly tag the substrate for degradation. However, SUMO-targeted ubiquitin ligases (STUbLs) can recognize a sumoylated substrate and promote its degradation via ubiquitination and the proteasome. Both Pac1p and Bik1p interact with the STUbL Nis1p-Ris1p and the protease Wss1p. Strains deleted for RIS1 or WSS1 accumulate Pac1p conjugates. This suggests a novel model in which the abundance of these MAPs may be regulated via STUbLs. Pac1p modification is also altered by Kar9p and the dynein regulator She1p. This work has implications for the regulation of dynein\u27s interaction with various cargoes, including its off-loading to the cortex. © 2012 Alonso et al

Male Circumcision and STI Acquisition in Britain: Evidence from a National Probability Sample Survey.

BACKGROUND: It is well-established that male circumcision reduces acquisition of HIV, herpes simplex virus 2, chancroid, and syphilis. However, the effect on the acquisition of non-ulcerative sexually transmitted infections (STIs) remains unclear. We examined the relationship between circumcision and biological measures of three STIs: human papillomavirus (HPV), Chlamydia trachomatis and Mycoplasma genitalium. METHODS: A probability sample survey of 15,162 men and women aged 16-74 years (including 4,060 men aged 16-44 years) was carried out in Britain between 2010 and 2012. Participants completed a computer-assisted personal interview, including a computer-assisted self-interview, which asked about experience of STI diagnoses, and circumcision. Additionally, 1,850 urine samples from sexually-experienced men aged 16-44 years were collected and tested for STIs. Multivariable logistic regression was used to calculate adjusted odds ratios (AOR) to quantify associations between circumcision and i) self-reporting any STI diagnosis and ii) presence of STIs in urine, in men aged 16-44 years, adjusting for key socio-demographic and sexual behavioural factors. RESULTS: The prevalence of circumcision in sexually-experienced men aged 16-44 years was 17.4% (95%CI 16.0-19.0). There was no association between circumcision and reporting any previous STI diagnoses, and specifically previous chlamydia or genital warts. However, circumcised men were less likely to have any HPV type (AOR 0.26, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.13-0.50) including high-risk HPV types (HPV-16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59 and/or 68) (AOR 0.14, 95% CI 0.05-0.40) detected in urine. CONCLUSIONS: Circumcised men had reduced odds of HPV detection in urine. These findings have implications for improving the precision of models of STI transmission in populations with different circumcision prevalence and in designing interventions to reduce STI acquisition