Predicting children's externalizing symptoms from dyadic and triadic measures of family systems

textAccording to Family Systems Theory, the whole family system is greater than the sum of its parts. The purpose of this study is to investigate this claim by examining marital, parent-child, and triadic (mother-father-child) interactions as simultaneous predictors of children's externalizing symptoms. Longitudinal data from 108 families were used to investigate three hypotheses: 1) parents' negative responses to their toddlers' negative emotions will predict their children's later externalizing symptoms, 2) marital negativity will relate to both mothers and fathers displaying more negative patterns of emotional socialization, and 3) competitive coparenting -- assessed in triadic family interactions during toddlerhood (age 24 months) -- will predict children's later externalizing symptoms at age 7, after accounting for the effects of significant dyadic family interactions (specifically, mothers' and fathers' emotional socialization assessed at 24 months). Results demonstrated spillover from marital negativity to mothers’ negative emotion socialization. Competitive coparenting predicted children's later emotion socialization after controlling for infant temperament, family income, child gender, and dyadic predictors of children's externalizing symptoms; mothers' negative emotional socialization also remained a significant predictor. This study emphasizes the importance of examining the family holistically and has important implications for designing more effective whole-family interventions to reduce the development of children’s externalizing symptoms.Human Development and Family Science

We can work it out : mothers' and fathers' coparenting of two children

The present study has two primary goals: 1) to validate an observational coding system of coparenting in families of four (the Families of Four Rating Scales, or FoFRS) and 2) to explore aspects of coparenting that may be unique to families with two children, in particular, a new type of coparenting termed “divide and conquer,” in which each parent interacts one-on-one with one of their two children. To establish validity for the newly proposed coding system, the study examined whether mothers’ and fathers support of their partner, involvement with both children, and competency with both children relate to three different types of coparenting qualities - cooperative, competitive, and divide and conquer - in predicted ways, based on past research on families of three. The sample consists of 52 families of four, in which the whole family was video-recorded in a 25-minute home interaction, and afterwards, parents’ completed self-report measures of coparenting quality. Results largely replicated findings from studies of coparenting families of three research, providing validity for the Families of Four Rating Scales. Similar to findings for research on coparenting in families of three, higher levels of cooperative coparenting was related to both parents’ higher involvement in coparenting and mutual support of their partner, as well as fathers’ high levels of competency with both children. Only mothers’ undermining of fathers related to competitive coparenting. Divide and conquer coparenting was found to be an adaptive style of coparenting that was negatively to competitive coparenting and positively to cooperative coparenting. Furthermore, mothers’ support of fathers and mothers’ involvement with both children related to divide and conquer coparenting. Implications for family intervention and future directions for research in this area are discussed.Human Development and Family Science

Embedding Guides Where Students Learn: Do Design Choices and Librarian Behavior Make a Difference?

This study investigated whether library guides embedded in a university’s learning management system fulfill their mission to promote library resources and maintain a librarian presence in the online course environment. Specifically, the study examined whether design elements, promotional practices, or other behaviors influenced guide use. It questioned whether students located the library guides and, if so, did students find the guides helpful. Results confirmed that students who used library guides found the guides helpful. Select faculty and librarian behaviors may also influence student use of library guides. Promotion and marketing practices, however, are not the only factors encouraging students to use library guides.Publisher allows immediate open acces

An investigation into the treatment efficiency of a primary pond in the Barker Inlet Stormwater Wetland System, South Australia

Provides insight into the pollutant removal ability of a primary pond in the Barker Inlet Wetland System, one of the largest constructed wetlands in the world. Results show that storm size influences pollutant removal, however significant removal was acheived across a wide range of flow conditions.Thesis (M.Eng.Sc.) -- University of Adelaide, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2000

Effectiveness of Spinal Manipulation in the Treatment of Non-Musculoskeletal Disorders: A Systematic Review

Purpose: Perform a systematic review to determine if spinal manipulation (SM) is an effective treatment for non-musculoskeletal disorders. Subjects: Four studies from peer-reviewed journals that met inclusion/exclusion criteria were reviewed. Materials & Methods: Pubmed, PEDro, Chiropractic Literature, CINAHL, Cochrane were searched between March and April 2014. In order to assess methodological quality, three raters applied the PEDro scale to included studies. Results: The initial search yielded 2,324 articles covering 45 non-musculoskeletal conditions. Four randomized control trials (RCTs), met inclusion criteria. The conditions covered included: inner ear infection, infantile colic, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Pedro scores ranged from 6-8, with a mean score of 7.25±.957, indicating fair to good methodological quality. Two studies reported significant improvement between groups for forced vital capacity, 6MWT and dyspnea scores for individuals with COPD and self-reported quality of life and symptom severity for individuals with asthma. Two studies found no statistically significant changes in physiologic or self-reported outcomes. Conclusions: Although, there were significant improvements in some outcome measures, the applicability of these results is limited by the poor methodological design of the studies, making it impossible to attribute these improvements to SM, alone. Therefore, there is no conclusive evidence that supports the use of SM as a treatment for non-musculoskeletal disorders. Clinical Relevance: It is imperative to investigate the possible benefits of SM in order to provide evidence based treatment to individuals with non-musculoskeletal conditions. This reviews illuminates the need for higher quality research when examining the effect of SM on non-musculoskeletal disorders

Mapping Fashion in the \u27City by the Sea\u27: Shopping Districts in Newport, Rhode Island

Newport, Rhode Island is internationally recognized for both its prime location on Narragansett Bay and its storied history. Nicknamed the ‘City by the Sea,’ it is famous for its world-class sailing, colonial New England architecture, Gilded Age mansions, trendy restaurants and bars, and nearby beaches. Cultural tourism is a multi-million dollar business for Rhode Island, especially for Newport, where shopping is fourth on the list of revenue generators. The relationship of an American resort city’s geographical setting, built environment, and cultural heritage to its fashion retail sector has not been explored. Acknowledging that fashion contributes to a city’s image, the authors review Newport’s history, provide a profile of Newport today, map Newport’s nine shopping districts, and analyze Newport’s fashion retail sector on the various streets, squares, wharves, and piers. Such an analysis may prove useful to retailers in other resort cities—both small independent boutique owners and national chain stores—as well as city planners and tourism boards

Kids Run the World SHP

The Boys & Girls Club services children ages 6 to 18 with programs and activities that emphasize development strategies (BGCA, n.d.). It provides role models, a safe environment, and constructive activities that focus on overall health. The club depends heavily on community engagement in the form of donors, partnerships, and volunteers (BGCA, n.d.). Our local club provided programs focusing on financial responsibility, leadership, and mental health, but lacked development of physical health practices. Kids Run the World comprised various activities to promote physical health in adolescents. This program is led by college level volunteers that worked with elementary and middle school-aged children to show them fun and safe ways to exercise. Before implementation of the program, research was completed to understand the dynamics of the local Boys & Girls Club. This research included how to be an effective role model and successes of similar programs. This is when “Kid Run the World� was established and put into action. After volunteering at the Boys & Girls Club throughout the duration of our project, we have observed increased physical activity levels and overall morale when group members and athletes are there leading activities. This was successful because of consistent attendance and positive interactions with the children. We learned we needed to have a youthful perspective and engage the kids with exercises they found familiar. Despite COVID-19, our group continues to make efforts to engage youth through our organization on campus, Kids Run the World. The Boys & Girls Club has many underserved children, and this has provided our group with a unique platform that has benefited both us and the children through increased physical activity levels and community involvement

Distinct immune signatures in directly treated and distant tumors result from TLR adjuvants and focal ablation.

Both adjuvants and focal ablation can alter the local innate immune system and trigger a highly effective systemic response. Our goal is to determine the impact of these treatments on directly treated and distant disease and the mechanisms for the enhanced response obtained by combinatorial treatments. Methods: We combined RNA-sequencing, flow cytometry and TCR-sequencing to dissect the impact of immunotherapy and of immunotherapy combined with ablation on local and systemic immune components. Results: With administration of a toll-like receptor agonist agonist (CpG) alone or CpG combined with same-site ablation, we found dramatic differences between the local and distant tumor environments, where the directly treated tumors were skewed to high expression of F4/80, Cd11b and Tnf and the distant tumors to enhanced Cd11c, Cd3 and Ifng. When ablation was added to immunotherapy, 100% (n=20/20) of directly treated tumors and 90% (n=18/20) of distant tumors were responsive. Comparing the combined ablation-immunotherapy treatment to immunotherapy alone, we find three major mechanistic differences. First, while ablation alone enhanced intratumoral antigen cross-presentation (up to ~8% of CD45+ cells), systemic cross-presentation of tumor antigen remained low. Combining same-site ablation with CpG amplified cross-presentation in the draining lymph node (~16% of CD45+ cells) compared to the ablation-only (~0.1% of CD45+ cells) and immunotherapy-only cohorts (~10% of CD45+ cells). Macrophages and DCs process and present this antigen to CD8+ T-cells, increasing the number of unique T-cell receptor rearrangements in distant tumors. Second, type I interferon (IFN) release from tumor cells increased with the ablation-immunotherapy treatment as compared with ablation or immunotherapy alone. Type I IFN release is synergistic with toll-like receptor activation in enhancing cytokine and chemokine expression. Expression of genes associated with T-cell activation and stimulation (Eomes, Prf1 and Icos) was 27, 56 and 89-fold higher with ablation-immunotherapy treatment as compared to the no-treatment controls (and 12, 32 and 60-fold higher for immunotherapy-only treatment as compared to the no-treatment controls). Third, we found that the ablation-immunotherapy treatment polarized macrophages and dendritic cells towards a CD169 subset systemically, where CD169+ macrophages are an IFN-enhanced subpopulation associated with dead-cell antigen presentation. Conclusion: While the local and distant responses are distinct, CpG combined with ablative focal therapy drives a highly effective systemic immune response

The Australia Telescope 20GHz (AT20G) Survey: analysis of the extragalactic source sample

The Australia Telescope 20 GHz (AT20G) survey is a blind survey of the whole Southern sky at 20 GHz with follow-up observations at 4.8, 8.6, and 20 GHz carried out with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). In this paper we present an analysis of radio spectral properties in total intensity and polarisation, sizes, optical identifications, and redshifts of the sample of the 5808 extragalactic sources in the survey catalogue of confirmed sources over the whole Southern sky excluding the strip at Galactic latitude |b|<1.5deg. The sample has a flux density limit of 40 mJy. Completeness has been measured as a function of scan region and flux density. Averaging over the whole survey area the follow-up survey is 78% complete above 50mJy and 93% complete above 100mJy. 3332 sources with declination <-15deg have good quality almost simultaneous observations at 4.8, 8.6, and 20GHz. The spectral analysis shows that the sample is dominated by flat-spectrum sources. The fraction of flat-spectrum sources decreases from 81% for 20GHz flux densities S>500mJy, to 60% for S<100mJy. There is also a clear spectral steepening at higher frequencies with the median spectral index decreasing from -0.16 between 4.8 and 8.6GHz to -0.28 between 8.6 and 20GHz. Simultaneous observations in polarisation are available for all the sources at all the frequencies. 768 sources have a good quality detection of polarised flux density at 20GHz; 467 of them were also detected in polarisation at 4.8 and/or at 8.6GHz so that it has been possible to compare the spectral behaviour in total intensity and polarisation. We have found that the polarised fraction increases slightly with frequency and decreases with flux density. Cross matches and comparisons have been made with other catalogues at lower radio frequencies, and in the optical, X-ray and gamma-ray bands. Redshift estimates are available for 825 sources.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Adapting to Climate Change: The urgency and some challenges to begin

Our response to the challenge of climate change will shape our future in many different and crucial ways. Adaptation is about realizing the impacts of climate change and acting in such a way to limit negative impacts and embrace positive outcomes in order to reduce our vulnerability from the effects of climate change